Emergency Room Physicians in Puerto Rico: Relationship between Sleep Deprivation and Performance
Keywords:
emergency room physicians, sleep deprivation, performanceAbstract
Emergency room medical professionals often work night shifts which puts them at risk of sleep deprivation. The latter occurs when an adult fails to get enough sleep, seven to eight hours, to feel alert and rested (American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2008). The objectives of the research were to monitor the levels of sleep deprivation in emergency room physicians and to determine the relationship between sleep deprivation and performance. Through a non-experimental-cross-sectional design, using an electronic questionnaire, 32 emergency room physicians in Puerto Rico were surveyed. After being called to a night shift, the participants indicated being irritated (50%, n = 16) and being less empathic with the patients (40%, n = 13). The results are consistent with previous research (i.e., Al-Maddah et al., 2015), in which medical professionals reported having sleep deprivation and have seen an impact on their work performance.
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