Sleep quality and perceived stres levels in residents

Introduction and Objective: This study aims to determine the quality of sleep and the perceived stress levels of resident physicians, receiving education for the specialty in medicine, to identify the factors that affect them and to develop suggestions accordingly. Material and Method: This study population consisted of internal medicine and surgical resident physicians working in the Dicle University Faculty of Medicine Hospital. The study was conducted with 176 resident physicians, and after informing them about the research, verbal and written informed consents were obtained from those who agreed to participate in the study. Descriptive statistics were used in the evaluation of the demographic data, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) total and sub-scale scores. In the comparison of sleep quality, stress level of the physicians with their socio-demographic and medical characteristics, independent samples t-test was used for continuous variables, and chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used for categorical data. Results: A total of 176 resident physicians was participated voluntarily in our study. The average age of the resident physicians participated in the research was 29.14±2.47. Of the participants, 73.9% was male. Of the participants, 70.5% was working in the internal medicine, and 29.5% was working in surgical units. Of the participants, 93.2% had regular on-call duty. Sleep quality of 83.3% of the physicians having an on-call duty for 8 times a month, 61.5% of those having on-call duties 0-7 times a month was found to be poor. In the comparison of these two groups, a statistically significant difference was observed (p=0.004). Of the physicians, 62.1% of those working in internal medicine and 82.7% of those working in surgical units had poor sleep quality. In the comparison of these two groups, a statistically significant difference was also found (p=0.007). And, there was a statistically significant difference between the surgical and internal units in terms of level of stress (p= 0.04). A statistically significant correlation was found between the PSQI subscales and perceived stress scale scores of the resident physicians (p<0.001). V Conclusion: When the physicians with poor sleep quality were examined, symptoms of stress were found and a significant correlation was observed between sleep quality and level of stress. Keywords: Physicians, Sleep Quality, Stress Levels