THE EFFECT OF VIRTUAL HEALTHY LIFESTYLE TRAINING PROGRAM ON THE SLEEP QUALITY OF FEMALE NURSES WORKING IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND TREATMENT CENTERS OF URMIA UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES IN 2022

Considering that nurses are the main members in providing direct care to patients and various factors lead to a decrease in their sleep quality, therefore they need a healthy lifestyle to provide the best and most effective care services. Lifestyle includes various factors. So far, no study has investigated the simultaneous effect of several factors in the form of virtual training on the sleep quality of nurses, so in this research we intended to investigate the effect of three elements of these factors (sleep hygiene, techniques related to progressive muscle relaxation and check out aerobic sports). The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of virtual training three examples of lifestyle interventions on the quality of sleep of female nurses working in the educational and treatment centers of Urmia University of Medical Sciences.

The current research was a clinical trial with a pre-post-test design that was conducted with the participation of 60 nurses from Taleghani and Imam Khomeini Hospitals in Urmia. The study population were selected using convenience sampling method, and randomly divided into control and intervention groups (30 nurses in each group). Nurses in the intervention group received educational content related to sleep hygiene, techniques related to progressive muscle relaxation, and videos related to aerobic exercise for two months online. The nurses of the control group did not receive any intervention from the researcher. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality questionnaires and demographic information were completed before and after the intervention. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics by SPSS version 22 statistical software.

Before the intervention, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in the total mean score of the Pittsburgh sleep quality in the control group before and after the intervention (p>0.05), but there was a significant difference in the intervention group before and after the intervention (p=0.001). The mean score of the Pittsburgh sleep quality was the same between the two intervention and control groups before the intervention(p>0.05). However, there was a statistically significant difference between the two intervention and control groups after the intervention (p=0.001).

The findings showed that the simultaneous training of sleep hygiene, techniques related to progressive muscle relaxation, and aerobic exercises effectively increase the sleep quality of female nurses working in Taleghani Hospital and Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia. Therefore, it is recommended to use lifestyle modification training programs in hospital continuous education programs, and in future researches, the effect of other things related to lifestyle on the sleep quality of nurses should be investigated.