Learning Objective #1: examine sleep quality of nurses

Learning Objective #2: identify predictors of sleep quality of nurses

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Getting enough sleep is important to our health and well-being. In addition, the quality of sleep also has effect on alertness and job performance of nurses. There has been little known about the sleep quality of Thai nurses working in a unit. Thus, the purposes of this study were to identify the level of sleep quality, relating variables, and predictors of sleep quality of professional nurses in Thailand.

Three hundred and seventy-eight staff nurses, working in the selected tertiary hospital, were selected in the study. Variables selected to study were personal factor (age, sleeping pill use), working factors (rotation shifts), fatigue sleepiness, and quality of sleep. Study instruments were personal factors, work factors, Epworth Sleepiness Score, Fatigue Scale, and Quality of Sleep Scale. Those scales were tested for the content validity and internal reliability. The reliability with Chronbach's alpha of Epworth Sleepiness Score, Fatigue Scale, and Quality of Sleep Scale were .88, .95, and 82 respectively. All data were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation, t-test, and stepwise regression.

The major findings were as follows:

1. The mean scores of sleep quality of professional nurses were good (mean = 112.45, SD = 16.11),a good level = ranging scores from 91-120).

2.Rotation shifts were not related to sleep quality.

3.Age was positively related to sleep quality (r= .199) but fatigue, sleeping pill use, and sleepiness were negatively related to fatigue (r = -.530, .-277, and -.131, respectively).

4.The predictors of quality of sleep were fatigue, sleeping pill use, and age. Those accounted for 33.6 % of variance.