Sleeping soundly? Sleep and the low dependency hospital patient

Carter, Diana Elizabeth (1984) Sleeping soundly? Sleep and the low dependency hospital patient. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The research was undertaken following the award of a Scottish Home and Health Department Nursing Research Training Fellowship (1981-1983). The purpose of the study was to explore the nature of interactions that night nurses have with low dependency patients - particularly those patients who are experiencing difficulty in obtaining what for them is a normal night's sleep. The study was based on the assumption that the amount of contact patients have with nurses is largely dependent on patients' level of dependency on nursing staff for direct care; patients who are capable of a high degree of self-care - but who may nevertheless experience problems in relation to sleep during hospitalization - may not receive the nursing care appropriate to assisting them overcome such problems and thereby obtain sufficient sleep to satisfy their individual requirements. Fifty low dependency medical in-patients were interviewed to obtain details of their usual (at home) sleep patterns, and subsequently interviewed again on three consecutive mornings regarding their previous night's sleep in hospital. Over three quarters of the sample showed an overall sleep deficit when the total amount of sleep obtained in hospital over the three nights of their inclusion in the study was compared with the amount each would normally have expected to have obtained at home over the same period. During the same three nights to which the interviews pertained, observation of these patients' waking and sleeping patterns in conjunction with the nurse-patient interactions that occurred provided an insight into the nature of interactions that night nurses have with low dependency patients. It also facilitated measurement of the length of time any of these patients were awake during the night without any interactions taking place. Many patients who experienced initial difficulty in getting to sleep and/or wakened during the night and found it difficult to get back to sleep again had no verbal contact with the nurses. Interactions that did occur were mainly task-orientated and relatively brief.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: hospital patients, sleep, nursing.
• Subjects: R Medicine > RT Nursing
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: Jarvis, Miss A.H.B
• Date of Award: 1984
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1984-71621
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 May 2019 14:04
• Last Modified: 24 Oct 2022 14:04
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.71621
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/71621