Healthy People 2020 List: A Case Study

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Most nurses, often do not receive optimal amounts of sleep and these feelings of tiredness, lack of motivation, and exhaustion negatively impacts the physical and cognitive functioning in nurses’ care towards their patients. Sleep deprivation, sleepiness, and fatigue are growing problems and may be particularly problematic for shiftworkers, individuals whose work occurs outside of the normal 9-5 work schedule (National Sleep Foundation, 2009). This particular problem continues to affect many nurses in the United States and it’s an issue that needs to be addressed from the Healthy People 2020 list. The following information provided in this paper allows the reader to focus on the importance of sleep health and how it benefits nurses’ patient …show more content…
Most people like myself chose to be shiftworkers because of personal preference and because it allows arrangements around family and childcare. I related this subject of matter to myself because as a nursing student with the overload of excessive studying, I do not provide my body with sufficient amounts of sleep. “According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) not getting enough sleep can hinder your decision-making process and slow your reaction times. That means sleep deprived nursing students who have to make a snap decision about a patient, compute fast medication math, assess vitals, or even react to a patient stumbling, won’t be operating at peak performance. That puts your, your colleagues, and your patients in a dangerous position” (Rogers, N.d., p. 1). This is a serious health burden for all nursing students as well as shiftworkers. Short durations and poor quality sleep results in sleepiness and fatigue, and it can have a negative impact on nurses’ health and can endanger patient safety (Ruggiero et al., 2012). This can be very concerning as a nurse because it is our job to provide optimal care for all of our patients but in order for nurses to provide optimal care for others we need to first apply it to ourselves. I find sufficient sleep to be problematic for nursing student as well as for their futures of being a potential night nurse. With the concern of sleep health in shift workers, nurses must be aware of the importance of sleep and its affects on their care towards their