Improving sleep for inpatients on surgical wards

The aim of this project is to design an intervention to improve how patients on surgical wards sleep while they are in hospital.

To improve outcomes for patients we want to understand what stands in the way of high-quality sleep on surgical wards. To do this we will design a survey that collects the views of ward staff from hospitals across the UK. We will be asking them about:

• Their views about patients’ sleep quality on wards
• What the sleeping environment is like on wards
• Current strategies they use to improve patient sleep (if applicable)
• Barriers that stop patients improving their sleep on wards
• Their suggestions for improving how patients sleep

We will review published studies to identify key sleep issues experienced by inpatients as well as what stands in the way of good quality sleep, from their perspective. Our study team will review existing interventions to see if they could be adapted for implementation on surgical wards.

We will use the survey results and additional data we gather to design an intervention. We will ask the staff we surveyed to provide us with feedback about the intervention we design. We will also gain feedback from a patient and public involvement group. Once this is completed, we would like to test its effectiveness during a follow-on study.