Abstract
Background: Environmental changes make hospitals a difficult place to sleep, especially in busy units such as acute medicine (AMU). Poor sleep can lead to a deterioration in stress responses, slower wound healing, delirium, acute worsening of dementia, along with many other complications. Elderly patients are particularly susceptible to these effects. In turn, these effects lead to longer hospital stays and poorer outcomes.
Objectives:
- Evaluate the factors leading to reduced sleep quality on AMU
- Put into place effective measures to improve sleep quality
- Determine if the standardised use of ‘sleep packs’ is beneficial
Method: Questionnaires about sleep quality at home and during the hospital stay were asked to patients who had been on AMU for a minimum of 24 hours. Pre-intervention assessments were evaluated and MDT decisions made to improve sleep quality. This included fixing lights, implementation of ‘sleep champions’ and trialling all patients to receive a ‘sleep pack’ on admission. The questionnaire was then repeated 4 weeks post intervention.
Results: Pre-intervention, patients had a 44% reduction in their perceived sleep quality compared to home. Noise and light were the biggest impacting factors. Post intervention, there was an overall sleep quality improvement of 20% with each factor having lower impact scores. 92% of patients who received a sleep pack recommended their use.
Conclusions/Implications: Sleep promotion interventions made a significant impact on improving perceived sleep quality on AMU. These interventions could be used elsewhere in the hospital, especially on elderly care wards, to promote patient experience and reduce secondary complications of admission.