"My Patient Can't Sleep": Resident-Led Curriculum Development for Insomnia Management

Insomnia is a prevalent complaint on acute psychiatric units. When not addressed by primary treating teams, patients request sleep aids "as needed," leading to increased burden on on-call residents and decreased individualized treatment. The authors implemented a new educational curriculum and computer order set for inpatient insomnia management, and examined changes in residents' comfort level in its management and in inpatient sleep medication ordering patterns.

In this IRB-approved quality improvement project, the authors identified best practices for insomnia management, developed a new curriculum for psychiatry residents, and created a "Sleep Order set" in the electronic medical record (EMR). Residents were surveyed and EMR queried for sleep medication orders for 6 months pre- and post-intervention.

The level of comfort of the residents in ordering a variety of sleep medications increased significantly. Sleep medication orders placed by primary teams surged from 938 during the pre-intervention period to 1801 post-intervention (p < 0.001), while those placed by on-call teams fell considerably.

Education on insomnia management boosted residents' confidence in handling inpatient sleep disorders. Implementation of the new resident-developed "Sleep Order set" greatly reduced the work load of on-call residents, in terms of "as needed" sleep medication orders.