title: Declining sleep quality among nurses: a population-based four-year longitudinal study on the transition from nursing education to working life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Several studies have established impaired sleep is a common problem among nurses. Overworked, fatigued and stressed nurses are at a higher risk of making mistakes that threaten patient safety as well as their own health. The aim of the present study was to longitudinally monitor the development of sleep quality in nurses, starting from the last semester at the university, with three subsequent annual follow-ups once the nurses had entered working life.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nationwide, longitudinal questionnaire study of nursing students and newly qualified nurses in Sweden. The results imply a continuous decline in sleep quality among nurses during the three years of follow-up, starting from their last semester of nursing education and continuing for three years into their working life. The most pronounced short-term decline in sleep quality seems to occur in the transition between student life and working life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This finding is important since it may affect the quality of care and the health of nurses negatively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. dan.hasson@ki.se
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hasson
authors.forename: Petter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gustavsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses; D009729:Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012306:Risk; D012890:Sleep; D013338:Students, Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D014937:Work; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance