Relationship between Sleep Quality and Job Stress in Health Care Staff of Educational Hospitals affiliated with Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences

Background:Job stress is considered one of the common disorders in societies. There are several factors involved in creating job stress. Shift work can be considered one of these factors which affects sleep quality among the staff. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of job stress on sleep quality of the healthcare personnel of the educational hospitals affiliated with Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. Methods:This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2012-2011. All the health care providers working in Shahid Sadoghi University of Medical Sciences were included in the study by Census method.  Data collection tools consisted of the demographic information, HSE job stress questionnaires and Pittsburgh sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Descriptive statistics, Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests, Pearson correlation, and SPSS software version 21 were used for data analysis. The significance level of the test was 5%. Results: The results suggested that there was no significant relationship between job stress and shift work (p = 0.08), but there was a positive and significant relationship between the job stress score and sleep quality (r=0.17 p=0.001). Conclusion:The results of this study showed that the employees' sleep quality affect their job stress, reduce their productivity and cause some problems for them; therefore, managers must heed the results of this research and schedule the shifts in such a way as to reduce job stress. They can also hold training sessions and workshops to regulate sleep patterns and manage stress in due course of time.