A sleep expert shares her best tips for nurses
What is the ideal interval between shift rotations? Does splitting sleep work? How long is the ideal nap? What’s the difference between a power nap and a restorative nap?
On this episode of The Handoff, Dan is joined by Washington State University Professor Lois James, who is an expert on the role of sleep in performance. She and Dan speak about the ways in which the culture of nursing is often in conflict with good sleep habits. She shares some very practical fatigue countermeasures, as well as strategies that hospitals and nurse leaders can take to optimize shift lengths for their staff.
Dr. James’s other research interest is racism and implicit bias in healthcare, and she also speaks about the dangers of implicit bias in nursing, how those biases are formed and strategies for overcoming them.
Links to recommended reading:
- https://nursing.wsu.edu/
- https://dailyevergreen.com/8362/news/sleep-and-racial-bias-affect-police-officer-judgement/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290437363_The_Reverse_Racism_Effect_Are_Cops_More_Hesitant_to_Shoot_Black_Than_White_Suspects
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QW-xUh4AAAAJ&hl=en
- https://news.wsu.edu/2014/09/02/deadly-force-lab-finds-racial-disparities-in-shootings/
- https://www.trustedhealth.com/blog/sickness-sleep-nurses-nightshift
- https://www.trustedhealth.com/blog/nurse-stress-sleep-not-anymore
The full transcript for this episode can be found here:
