The effect of progressive relaxation exercises on sleep quality and fatigue severity applied to nurses working in the intensive care units

This study was conducted to determine the effect of progressive relaxation exercises applied to nurses working in intensive care units on sleep quality and fatigue severity. The randomized controlled experimental type study was conducted between September 9, 2020 and April 12, 2021 with a total of 60 nurses, 30 of which were interventions and 30 controls. Volunteer nurses who did not have a psychiatric diagnosis, who had a Pittsburgh sleep quality index score of 5 and above, a fatigue severity scale score of 4 and above, were included in the study.Ethics committee approval, institutional permission, and verbal and written informed consent were obtained from the nurses participating in the study. The data of the study were collected using the personal presentation form, the Fatigue Severity Scale (FAQ) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The nurses in the intervention group were given progressive relaxation exercise for 45 minutes, three days a week for one month, and no intervention was made on the nurses in the control group. Shapiro Wilk normality test, Fisher chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, Two-Way Analysis of Variance, Bonferroni correction were used to evaluate the data. In the study, it was determined that the pittsburgh sleep quality index score of the nurses in the intervention group decreased from 9.33±2.84 to 4.53±1.68 at the end of the 4th week, and their fatigue severity scores decreased significantly from 5.32±0.85 to 3.37±1.02 (p<0.05). As a result, it was determined that PGE applied to nurses working in the ICU increased sleep quality and decreased the severity of fatigue. In line with these results, it is recommended to use PGE application for nurses who have sleep problems. Keywords: Nurse, Progressive Relaxation, Sleep, Intensive Care, Fatigue