Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Nurses' Health and Patient Safety

This discussion post addresses the critical issue of sleep deprivation among nurses, particularly in the context of demanding work schedules and the prevalence of 12-hour shifts. It identifies both acute effects, such as lack of concentration, headaches, and feelings of jet lag, and chronic effects, including depression, increased risk of hypertension, heart attack, stroke, obesity, and diabetes. The post emphasizes the importance of preventative measures, such as regular exercise and avoiding extra shifts to maintain focus and health. It also highlights how sleep deprivation can compromise nurses' cognitive and motor skills, potentially leading to patient harm through errors in medication administration or overlooking crucial patient information. The conclusion underscores the necessity of adequate sleep for nurses to provide attentive and effective patient care.

Running head: SLEEP DEPRIVATION
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
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In the healthcare organizations, due to the personal and professional commitments the
nurses tend to work for extra shift hours and sometimes even work at a stretch of 12 hours,
working in night shifts that affect their health condition and hamper their sleep cycle resulting
in sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is therefore defined as the situation where an
individual suffers due to lack of adequate sleep. The continuous condition of sleep
deprivation can also result in different medical issues and undiagnosed sleep disorder that
will have an adverse effect on the individual (Eanes, 2015). The condition of sleep
deprivation is very common within the healthcare organizations as the nurses work during
night shifts or 12 hours shift that have major effect on their normal sleep cycle.
Sleep loss has both acute and chronic effect on the registered nurse health condition
and they require some preventive strategies that could reduce the condition of sleep loss. The
acute effect of sleep loss in case of the registered nurse are lack of concentration, headache,
psychosis, nauseas and the feeling of jet lag. Whereas, the chronic effect of sleep loss are
more severe and have a major and long-term impact on the health of the registered nurse such
as depression, enhanced threat of hypertension, heart attack, stroke, obesity and diabetes
(Chaiard et al., 2019). The most common effect of sleeplessness in chronic sleep loss
condition is increased appetite that result in obesity and overweight in the registered nurse.
Since, the nurses has to study and complete her advanced degree, she must not work for extra
shift hours and take out sufficient time for her study as well that would therefore help her to
maintain a high level of concentration and also stay healthy with a positive motivation. The
other crucial precaution will be to exercise regularly that will assist her in maintaining a
healthy lifestyle (Thomas et al., 2017).
If the registered nurse do not sleep properly they suffer from the condition of fatigue
that will affect their communication style and skills of treating and managing the patients,
therefore affecting the overall patient health outcome. Due to lack of sleep, the concentration

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power among the nurses decreases and they tend to feel disinterested in treating the patient.
Their cognitive and motor skills are greatly affected that in turn directly affect the patient’s
health condition (Rheaume & Mullen, 2018). They tend to suffer from weakness and fatigue
and sometimes ignore the crucial information regarding the patient while monitoring them or
forget to provide medicine to the patient that result in patient harm. Hence, it is very crucial
that the registered nurse take proper sleep and handle every patient with attention.
It can be concluded that maintaining a proper sleep cycle is very crucial in the
healthcare setting, as the registered nurse have to handle different types of patient and their
health condition for which they require appropriate attention and a positive state of mind. A
complete sleep cycle of 6-8 hours will help the registered nurse to eliminate the symptoms of
sleeplessness and concentrate on their work.

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References
Chaiard, J., Deeluea, J., Suksatit, B., Songkham, W., Inta, N., & Stone, T. E. (2019). Sleep
disturbances and related factors among nurses. Nursing & health sciences.
Eanes, L. (2015). CE: the potential effects of sleep loss on a nurse's health. AJN The
American Journal of Nursing, 115(4), 34-40.
Rhéaume, A., & Mullen, J. (2018). The impact of long work hours and shift work on
cognitive errors in nurses. Journal of nursing management, 26(1), 26-32.
Thomas, C. M., McIntosh, C. E., Lamar, R. A., & Allen, R. L. (2017). Sleep deprivation in
nursing students: The negative impact for quality and safety. Journal of Nursing
Education and Practice, 7(5), 87-98.