Quality of life and quality of sleep in health professionals working in critical areas

Abstract

Introduction: Emergency rooms and intensive care units in hospitals are physically and mentally stressful for health personnel and can negatively affect them. Objectives: To evaluate and to compare the quality of life and quality of sleep of emergency room and intensive care unit personnel. Methods: This is an analytical cross-sectional study conducted with 117 civil servants, including physicians, nurses, and licensed practical nurses. Sociodemographic questionnaires, the World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument-Abbreviated version, the Pittsburgh Quality Sleep Index and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale questionnaire were used. Results: The quality of sleep in women was worse than in men. Physicians scored lower in the psychological domain of quality of life than nurses. When the group of physicians was stratified between clinicians and surgeons, clinicians scored better in the physical domain and worse in the social relations and overall quality of life domains. Conclusions: The results showed that the psychological domain in nurses was less impaired than in physicians. Women also had poorer quality of sleep and were more likely to suffer from sleep disorders than men.