Impact of a Pharmacist-Led Intensive Care Unit Sleep Improvement Protocol on Sleep Duration and Quality

Sleep improvement protocols are recommended for use in the intensive care unit (ICU) despite questions regarding which interventions to include, whether sleep quality or duration will improve, and the role of pharmacists in their development and implementation.

To characterize the impact of a pharmacist-led, ICU sleep improvement protocol on sleep duration and quality as evaluated by a commercially available activity tracker and patient perception.

Critical care pharmacists from a 40-bed, mixed ICU at a large community hospital led the development and implementation of an interprofessional sleep improvement protocol. It included daily pharmacist medication review to reduce use of medications known to disrupt sleep or increase delirium and guideline-based recommendations on both environmental and nonpharmacological sleep-focused interventions. Sleep duration and quality were compared before (December 2018 to December 2019) and after (January to June 2019) protocol implementation in non-mechanically ventilated adults using both objective (total nocturnal sleep time [TST] measured by an activity tracker (Fitbit Charge 2) and subjective (patient-perceived sleep quality using the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire [RCSQ]) measures.

Groups before (n = 48) and after (n = 29) sleep protocol implementation were well matched. After protocol implementation, patients had a longer TST (389 ± 123 vs 310 ± 147 minutes; P = 0.02) and better RCSQ-perceived sleep quality (63 ± 18 vs 42 ± 24 mm; P = 0.0003) compared with before implementation.

A sleep protocol that incorporated novel elements led to objective and subjective improvements in ICU sleep duration and quality. Application of this study may result in increased utilization of sleep protocols and pharmacist involvement.