Sleepiness in night shift working NHS nurses
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The prevalence of self-reported sleepiness in night shift working NHS nurses.
IRAS ID
268824
Contact name
Alison Westwell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 9 days
Research summary
The work aims to answer the following research questions
1. What is the prevalence of self-reported sleepiness in night shift working (NSW) nurses at an NHS Trust using a validated screening tool? Which departments are most affected?
2. What are the consequences for safety at work and safe commuting at the end of shift
The research aims to assess the prevalence and severity of symptoms and also to identify which departments are most affected in order to target sleep education and interventions.
This is a cross-sectional study in the form of an anonymous questionnaire for nurses to self-complete.
The levels of reported end of shift sleepiness will be assessed using a standardised validated screening tool – Epworth Sleepiness Scale, which gives a validated assessment of sleepiness.
All eligible night shift nurses will be invited to participate by advertising a link on the Trust bulletin board on the intranet and the NHS Trusts social media.
Emails will also be sent to directorate leads to cascade to staff within the directorate. This invite will contain a link to an online questionnaire using “Smartsurvey”. The survey platform is GDPR compliant and stores all response data in the UK in a secure and encrypted form.
The questionnaire will capture data on demographics, job role, pattern of work and confounding factors which may cause sleepiness such as young children and medication. It will include information on commute from work and transport used.
Safety questions will focus on events such as needle stick injuries, incidents involving end of shift driving difficulty and confidence ratings rating to complex work tasks.
The questionnaire will remain open for four weeks following the initial invitation. The data will then be collected, analysed and written up for Manchester University submission by 4th September 2020.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A