Introduction: Poor sleep quality is a critical occupational health problem for health
care providers, particularly nurses especially during COVID-19 pandemic, that not
only affects their physical and mental health, but also affects patient’s safety and job
performance. Aim of Work: To measure the prevalence of poor sleep quality among
Egyptian nurses during the pandemic of COVID 19 and to determine different factors
affecting sleep quality. Materials and Methods: This web-based cross-sectional survey
was conducted to assess sleep quality and its determinants among Egyptian nurses,
during the period from September 2020 to February 2021 using self–administered
validated Arabic version of Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). Results: The current
study involved 351 Egyptian nurses, recruited from 15 Egyptian governorates. Most of
them were less than 30 years old (73.2%); 75.5% were females and 56.1% were married.
About 17% of nurses were working in isolation hospitals, 82.1% were night shifters,
and (31.9%) had COVID-19 infection. Assessment of sleep quality, revealed that 83.5%
had poor sleep quality (PSQI score>5), the most affected domain was sleep latency
(1.72±0.86), whereas the least affected one was sleep medications use (0.35±0.79).
Poor sleep quality was associated with young age, smokers, work experience less than
10 years, previous COVID-19 infection, working in isolation hospitals, night shifts,
private work and long working hours. Conclusion and Recommendations: The current
study showed that there was high prevalence of poor sleep quality among the studied
nurses during COVID-19 pandemic. Presence of chronic diseases, night shifts, private
work and long working hours/week were significant predictors of poor sleep quality
among participants which indicated the need for well-organized work schedules for
76 Omar DI et al.
Introduction
Sleep disorders are becoming a
major global public health concern that
affects millions of people (Dong et al.,
2020). Compared with non–health care
providers, medical field workers on the
front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic
have more sleep disturbances and more
inferior sleep quality (San Martin et al.,
2020).
Nurses are especially vulnerable
to sleep disturbances because they are
exposed to various situations that can
disrupt sleep quality, such as work
schedules (Dong et al., 2017, Ahmed
and Hamed, 2020). Nurses, who are the
most overworked professional group in
an organization, are now compelled to
work according to irregular schedules
due to health care organizations’ efforts
to provide high-quality, cost-effective
care with minimal staffing (Stanojevic
et al., 2016).
These erratic schedules cause poor
sleep quality among nursing staff,
resulting in physical and mental health
issues that impact their professional
performance and, as a result, may
jeopardize patient safety (Saleh et al.,
2014).
Regarding poor sleep quality
prevalence among nurses, the average
Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI)
total score was greater than five in
87.8% of the night shift workgroup,
compared to 56.7 % in the morning
shift group (p |
