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Background: New graduate role transition for nurses and teachers is stressful. Poor adaptation may manifest as insomnia, which has implications for the new professionals, their employers, and the public served. This study examines factors that impact new graduate sleep, with the aim of identifying perceived helps and hindrances to sleep-during-transition. Methods: Targeted content analysis of transcripts from a larger longitudinal mixed methods study comparing new graduate sleep during their first year of practice. Study participants (N = 21) answered questions in the final interview regarding the most positive and negative impact(s) on sleep during the transition year. Transcripts were analyzed and compared based on the new graduate sleep typology (i.e., Got Better, Got Worse, Stayed Varied) which emerged from the parent study. Findings: Most participants, regardless of sleep type, identified a person/group as most positively impacting sleep. They identified work thoughts, stress/anxiety, people, work hours/sleep schedules, and environmental factors as negatively impacting sleep. Work thoughts and stress/anxiety were mentioned together and most frequently by participants in all three sleep types. Conclusion/Applications to Practice: This study provided insight into new graduate nurse and teacher sleep during transition. Support persons and/or groups may be essential regardless of sleep type. Thought management/stress mitigation strategies and good sleep hygiene may also improve the sleep experiences of these new professionals. Occupational health nurses can support sleep-during-transition among new nurses and teachers by acting as sleep advocates. They may also identify a need for medical intervention and/or sleep specialists and should promote fatigue risk mitigating policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sleep health disturbances can increase risks for workplace injury, error, and poor worker health. Essential workers have reported sleep disturbances since the COVID-19 pandemic onset, which may jeopardize their health and safety. The aims of this project were to assess sleep health among Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) workers, examine potential differences between worker types, and describe the self-perceived impact of COVID-19 on workers' workload and sleep. Methods: Through an academic–practice partnership, this needs assessment used a cross-sectional design that collected self-report data during fall 2020 from CCRC workers. Guided by the Workplace Health Model, survey questions included work characteristics, sleep health, and COVID-19 impact on sleep and workload. Findings: Ninety-four respondents completed the survey across multiple departments. Respondents (n = 34, 36.2%) reported sleeping below recommended hours on workdays. The majority scored above the population mean on Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement (PROMIS) measures of sleep disturbance (n = 52, 55.3%), sleep-related impairment (n = 49, 52.1%), and fatigue (n = 49, 52.1%). Differences in workday total sleep time and fatigue were noted among shift workers versus nonshift workers, with shift workers reporting less sleep and more fatigue. Shorter sleep duration was noted among respondents working shifts 10 or more hours compared with those working 8 hours. Pandemic-related workload increase was reported by 22.3% (n = 21) of respondents, with 17% (n = 16) noting more than one type of workload change. Since COVID-19 onset, 36.2% (n = 34) reported no sleep changes and 35.1% (n = 33) reported sleeping less. A medium, positive relationship was found between increased changes in work due to COVID-19 and increased difficulties sleeping (r =.41, n = 73, p =.000). Conclusion/Application to Practice: Proper sleep health is essential to workplace safety and worker health. By assessing sleep health during a crisis, occupational health nurses can identify opportunities to support worker health and safety, through sleep education, monitoring for sleepiness and fatigue, ensuring countermeasures are available (e.g., caffeine), and assessing for opportunities to change organizational policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Prescribing patient care providers regularly experience insufficient sleep, putting them at increased risk of committing occupational injuries, accidents, and errors and developing chronic health conditions. OBJECTIVE: Identify antecedents to short sleep (≤6-hours sleep in 24-hour period) in the understudied population of hospital-based Advanced Practice Providers (APPs). METHODS: Using an ethnographic research design, data included APP and key stakeholder interviews, hospital observations, and relevant documents. Interview data were analyzed using modified constant comparative method. RESULTS: Nine APPs were interviewed, revealing four themes: Social/Family Obligations and Value of Connectivity, Community Value of Sleep, Organizational Value of Sleep, and Individual Biology and How the Body Values Sleep. APP decisions to prioritize sleep are based on an interplay of societal, professional, organizational, and personal values. Triangulated data verified results, except regarding how APP sleep deficit can lead to mood disturbances and the lack sleep consideration in patient care error reporting. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate the importance of consistency in messaging, action, and policy when promoting occupational sleep health among healthcare workers. Implications include instituting worker sleep education, leadership modeling healthy sleep habits, and inclusion of sleep in root cause analyses. Additional consideration includes evaluating the influence of nursing culture on nurse practitioners' sleep habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme chronotype and circadian disrupting work hours may increase nurse disease risks. This national, cross-sectional study of nurses (N = 527) had three hypotheses. When chronotype and shift times are incongruent, nurses will experience increased likelihood of (1) obesity, (2) cardiovascular disease/risk factors, and (3) obesity or cardiovascular disease/risk factors when theoretically linked variables exist. Chronotype mismatched nurses' (n = 206) average sleep (6.1 hours, SD = 1.2) fell below 7–9 hours/24-hours sleep recommendations. Proportion of male nurses was significantly higher chronotype mismatched (12.3%) than matched (6.3%). Analyses found no direct relationship between chronotype match/mismatch with outcome variables. Exploratory interaction analysis demonstrated nurses with mismatched chronotype and above average sleep quality had an estimated 3.51 times the adjusted odds (95% CI 1.52,8.17; p =.003) of being obese. Although mechanism is unclear, this suggests sleep quality may be intricately associated with obesity. Further research is needed to inform nurses on health risks from disrupted sleep, chronotypes, and shift work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increased prevalence of chronic disease and health care costs, more individuals are treated in the home, which has augmented the demand for more Home Healthcare Workers (HHCWs) in the field. HHCWs face multiple hazards with injury rates being more than double the national average; however, current studies on HHCWs have provided limited understanding of their occupational safety & health experiences and exposures. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and risk of exposures through perceptions of HHCWs. The results of this study provide an initial picture of the different risks that HHCWs face daily. These findings show that studies involving HHCWs occupational safety need to be job-specific, and the proposed interventions will also likely need to be tailored by HHCWs type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To identify occupational exposures for home health-care nurses and aides. Background Home health-care workers' occupational injury rates in the USA are higher than the national average, yet research on causative exposures and hazards is limited. Methods Participants were interviewed about annual frequency of occupational exposures and hazards. Exposure and hazard means were compared between home health-care nurses and aides using a Wilcoxon two-sample test. Results A majority of the sample was over 40 years old and obese, potentially increasing injury risks. Home health-care nurses performed more clinical tasks, increasing exposure to blood-borne pathogens. Home health-care aides performed more physical tasks with risk for occupational musculoskeletal injuries. They also dispensed oral medications and anti-cancer medications, and were exposed to drug residue at a frequency comparable to home health-care nurses. Both groups were exposed to occupational second-hand smoke. Conclusions Establishing employee safety-related policies, promoting healthy lifestyle among staff, and making engineered tools readily available to staff can assist in decreasing exposures and hazards. Implications for nursing management Implications for nursing management include implementation of health-promotion programmes, strategies to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke, ensuring access to and education on assistive and safety devices, and education for all staff on protection against drug residue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]