Abstract:
Objective To investigate the current status of sleep quality among nurses in tertiary hospitals in China, analyze the correlations of work stress and perceived organizational support with the risk of sleep problems, and further examine the mediating effect of perceived organizational support between work stress and sleep problems in nurses.
Methods A multi-stage cluster stratified random sampling method was employed to select nurses from tertiary hospitals in different regions across China from October 2023 to April 2024 as research subjects to investigate the current status of their sleep quality. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis was conducted to examine the linear/non-linear relationships between work stress, perceived organizational support, and the risk of sleep problems in nurses. The Bootstrap method was applied to test the mediating effect of perceived organizational support between work stress and sleep problems in nurses.
Results A total of 6634 nurses from tertiary hospitals were surveyed in this study, with 6106 valid questionnaires recovered, yielding a response rate of 92.04%. The 6106 nurses were divided into eastern (n=2107), central (n=1272), western (n=1495), southern (n=422), and northern (n=810) regions according to distribution regions. The overall Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score among nurses in China was (9.13±3.89) points, with nurses in the southern region having the poorest sleep quality. The results of the RCS model showed a significant non-linear relationship between work stress sources and sleep problems in nurses (all P < 0.001), while no non-linear relationship was observed between perceived organizational support and sleep problems (all P > 0.05). The mediating effect of perceived organizational support between work stress and sleep problems in nurses was 53.4%.
Conclusions The nurses in tertiary hospitals in China usually present poor sleep quality. Perceived organizational support plays a partial mediating role between work stress and sleep problems in nurses. Therefore, enhancing the level of organizational support can help alleviate the impact of work stress on sleep quality.