Contribution of nocturnal nursing intervention to sleep disruption among intensive care units patients

ABSTRACT

Patient care nursing activities in the night shift in the intensive care units are the causes of sleep deprivation among critically ill patients, Sleep disturbance has long-term effects on health outcome. The present study aimed to determine the frequency and types of nursing interventions that lead to sleep disruption among critically ill patients in different intensive care units during night shift. The design is a retrospective descriptive research. This study was conducted in four critical care units the open heart surgery [OHS] intensive care unit at Mansoura Main University Hospital, the medical intensive care unit of the specialized medical hospital at Mansoura University the coronary care unit and general intensive care units of Mansoura International Hospital of the Ministry of Health Sample The sample consisted of 80 adult patients of both sexes admitted to the four intensive care units, 20 patients from each unit. Patients were included if they stayed for at least 4 consecutive nights in a critical care unit. A tool consisting of two parts was used. Part I included the demographic data of the patients, while part II was an activity checklist that included nurse interventions between 8.00 PM and 7.00 AM. Data represented the nursing interventions leading to sleeping disruption during 240 nights. The mean number of sleep disturbing nursing interventions per night was 28.91 +/- 12.11. Interventions were most frequent at 8.00 PM and midnight and least frequent at 3.00 AM. Only 34 uninterrupted periods of two or more hours were available for sleep [14.66% of the studied nights]. Measuring vital signs and assessing intake/output were the most frequent type of nursing interventions. Significant differences were found between the four studied units concerning number, type and frequency of nursing interventions. Nocturnal nursing interventions leave patients few uninterrupted periods for sleep. Efforts should be made to expand these periods by clustering nursing intervention without affecting patients' health outcome: