Improving sleep for hospital inpatients: a best practice implementation project

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience
• Evidence Implementation

Background:

• Hospitalized patients frequently experience sleep disruption, hindering recovery.
• Previous interventions often overlook context-specific implementation factors, limiting sleep improvement.
• Effective strategies require addressing both patient needs and healthcare provider workflows.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance patient sleep quality in hospitals.
• Implement a standardized patient self-report sleep assessment scale.
• Introduce a comprehensive, evidence-based nocturnal sleep guideline.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the JBI Evidence Implementation Framework across two acute care wards.
• Collected data via patient self-reports and semi-structured interviews with clinical staff.
• Employed the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) to tailor the implementation strategy.

Main Results:

• Patient-reported sleep quality remained unchanged.
• Perception of sound levels significantly decreased post-implementation.
• Low adoption of the sleep assessment scale, with nurses citing documentation burden as a barrier.
• Physicians were largely unaware of the implemented tools.

Conclusions:

• Despite low uptake of the sleep assessment scale, practice changes related to sound reduction were observed.
• Addressing documentation burden is crucial for the successful adoption of sleep improvement tools.
• Further research is needed to optimize implementation strategies for hospital sleep guidelines.