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allied
academies
International Conference on
FAMILY MEDICINE AND FAMILY PHYSICIANS
October 16-17, 2017 | Toronto, Canada
Arch Gen Intern Med 2017 | Volume 1 Issue 3
S
hift workers, people who work outside workday hours,
are known to be at risk of decreased alertness and
productivity; hence increasing the possibility of occupational
errors occurring. Hospital environment requires health
professionals to be available at all times, which forces the
health workers to take on night shift. Thus, health care
workers are susceptible tooccupation related sleepdisorders.
The aim of this study was to evaluate and assess the quality
and duration of sleep among night shift health workers at
the eastern province hospitals. A cross-sectional study was
carried out among health workers working in 8-10 hour shifts
at eastern province hospitals. A pre-tested, structured online
questionnaire was distributed in the hospitals, with a total
of 252 responses. The online questionnaire assessed and
compared the difference between the sleep qualities of the
workers while working during the night shift and while taking
days off. While working through night shifts, the respondents
replied that they had problems falling and staying asleep (76%
and 72.2%, respectively). Also, they suffered from an overall
poor quality of sleep (59.8%) and decreased mental function
(64.9%) while awake. Interestingly, the same respondents
reported that during their days off, their occupation-related
sleep disorders improved. However, more than half of the
respondents noted that they faced difficulties falling asleep,
which demonstrates the potent effect of night shift working
on health professionals. This study concluded that sleep
disorders are prominent within night shift health workers
which affected their overall performance at work. We
thereby recommend that such health workers follow up with
sleep specialists to improve their overall quality of sleep.
e:
fatimah.a.a@hotmail.comSleep disorders and among night shifthealthworkers: A cross-sectional study in eastern province hospitals,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2016
Fatima Alsalman
Arabian Gulf University, Saudi Arabia