The relationship between sleep quality and stress coping strategies among emergency nurses in hospitals affiliated to the Birjand University of Medical Sciences

Sleep disturbances are one of the most important problems of nurses working in emergency departments. In numerous previous studies, the negative effect of stress on فاث sleep quality has been confirmed. Because reducing the severity of stress in nurses' workplaces, especially in the short term, may not be easily feasible, it is important to consider coping strategies with stress and its relationship to sleep disorders.

In this cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study, 250 nurses from the emergency departments of BUMS located in South Khorasan province participated. Data were collected through the Demographic Information Questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Data were entered into SPSS software V 19. Independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the data. P values lower than 0.05 were considered significant.

The mean score of nurses' sleep quality was 11.85 ± 6.44. There was a fair, inverse and significant relationship between problem-oriented strategy score and sleep quality (p = 0.001, r = 0.376) and a weak, direct and significant relationship between sleep quality score and emotion-oriented strategy. (P = 0.003, r = 0.20). Also, the relationship between sleep quality and avoidance strategy was not significant (p = 0.10, r = 0.114). Female nurses reported lower sleep quality than male nurses (P = 0.001). Also, in nurses with a job tenure of more than two years in the emergency departments, sleep quality was significantly lower than nurses with lower job experience in the emergency departments  (P = 0.003).

In programs designed to increase the quality of sleep of nurses working in emergency departments, teaching problem-solving strategies to deal with stress can be considered as an important component.