Effectiveness of the "sleep enhancement' nursing intervention in hospitalized mental health patients

Aim To determine the effectiveness of the sleep enhancement' nursing intervention (Nursing Interventions Classification) in patients hospitalized with mental illness and having a disturbed sleep pattern and to identify the possible effect of psycho-active medications on this disturbed sleep pattern. Design A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest type study without control group. Method The study was conducted in all patients admitted to the mental health inpatient unit of University Hospital of Spain from 1 March 200731 May 2008. The effectiveness of the sleep enhancement' nursing intervention was measured using the Oviedo Sleep Questionnaire score and Nursing Outcome Classification sleep scores at admission and discharge. Psycho-active medication was considered an intervening variable and data were analysed by multivariate analysis of variance for repeated measures. Results The study included 291 patients. Consumption of psycho-active medications did not change between admission and discharge and was not statistically significantly different in the multivariate analysis of variance. Oviedo Sleep Questionnaire and Nursing Outcome Classification sleep scores at admission and discharge demonstrated significant sleep improvement after the nursing intervention. Conclusion This nursing intervention could be implemented in patients admitted to a mental health inpatient unit with disturbed sleep pattern, regardless of their consumption of psycho-active medications.