Environmental stressors perceived by patients in the surgical intensive care unit and sleep states

The study was conducted in a descriptive and cross-sectional manner in order to determine perceived environmental stressors and sleep states of patients in surgical intensivecare. Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine General Surgery Intensive Care Unit; 114 patients who were hospitalized in the surgical intensive care unit, who met the research criteria and accepted the participation were included. "Personal information form", "Intensive Care Unit Environmental Stressors Scale (İCUESS)", "Richard Campbell Sleep Questionnare (RCSQ)" were used for data collection. Correlation (Spearman's rho) analysis was used to determine the level of relationship between scales. As a result of there search, it was seen that the average age of the patients was 52.38 ± 15.28 and 62.3% (n: 71) were male. In terms of educational status, it was determined that 44.7% (n: 51) of the patients were primary school graduates and 83.3% (n: 95) were married. While the stressor most perceived by the patients was found to be 'pain', 'waking up frequently' affected the sleep quality the most. It was determined that the mean RCSQ scores of those with ICU experience were significantly lower than those who did not experience ICU, and this difference was statistically significant (p <0.05). Inaddition, it was determined that the mean RCSQ scores of patients without sleep problems were higher than the arithmetic mean of those with sleep problems, and the difference between them was statistically significant (p> 0.05). It was found that the mean İCUESS scores of patients with sleep problems were higher than those without sleep problems and there was a statistically significant difference between them (p <0.05). When the two scales were compared, it was seen that as the mean scores of environmental stressors increased, the mean scores of the sleep scale decreased. In conclusion, the study found that the average sleep score of patients hospitalized in surgical intensive care was at a moderate level (43.36 ± 24.99) and their environmental stressor levels were below average (82.28 ± 23.62), and that the most perceived stressor was pain (3, 25 ± 0.99).Keywords: Surgery, Intensive Care Unit, Sleep, Environmental Stressors. In addition, it was concluded that there is a weak correlation between the scales.