The Effects of the Sleep Quality of 112 Emergency Health Workers in Kayseri, Turkey on Their Professional Life

Vesile SENOL; Ferhan SOYUER; Gulsum Nihal GULESER; Mahmut ARGUN; Levent AVSAROGULLARI

doi:10.5505/1304.7361.2014.60437

Vesile SENOL¹, Ferhan SOYUER¹, Gulsum Nihal GULESER², Mahmut ARGUN³, Levent AVSAROGULLARI⁴

¹Department of First and Emergency Aid Technician, Vocational School of Health, Erciyes University, Kayseri
²Department of Surgial Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Erciyes University, Kayseri
³Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Kayseri
⁴Department of Emergency Medicine, Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Kayseri

Keywords: 112 Emergency Health Workers; professional life; sleep quality

Abstract

Objectives

Sleep adequacy is one of the major determinants of a successful professional life. The aim of this study is to determine the sleep quality of emergency health workers and analyze its effects on their professional and social lives.

Methods

The study was carried out on 121 voluntary emergency health workers in 112 Emergency Aid Stations in Kayseri, Turkey, in 2011. The data was collected through the Socio-Demographics Form and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and analyzed via SPSS 18.00. The statistical analysis involved percentage and frequency distributions, mean±standard deviations, a chi-square test, correlations, and logistic regression analysis.

Results

The mean score of the participants according to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was 4.14±3.09, and 28.9% of participants had poor sleep quality. Being single and being a woman accounted for 11% (p=0.009, 95% CI: 0.111–0.726) and 7% (p=0.003, 95% CI: 0.065–0.564) of poor sleep quality respectively. There was a positive correlation between sleep quality scores and negative effects on professional and social life activities. Negative effects on professional activities included increased loss of attention and concentration (40.0%, p=0,016), increased failure to take emergency actions (57.9%, p=0.001), reduced motivation (46.2%, p=0.004), reduced performance (41.4%, p=0.024), and low work efficiency (48.1%, p=0.008). Poor sleep quality generally negatively affected the daily life of the workers (51.6%, p=0.004), restricted their social life activities (45.7%, p=0.034), and caused them to experience communication difficulties (34.7%, p=0.229).

Conclusions

One third of the emergency health workers had poor sleep quality and experienced high levels of sleep deficiency. Being a woman and being single were the most important factors in low sleep quality. Poor sleep quality continuously affected daily life and professional life negatively by leading to a serious level of fatigue, loss of attention-concentration, and low levels of motivation, performance and efficiency.