Knowledge and attitudes of primary care nurses about the management of patients with insomnia.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the knowledge, attitudes, and performance of primary care nurses in the management of patients with insomnia.

METHODS: Descriptive study. An online questionnaire was sent to all primary care nurses of the Majorca Primary Care Department between June-July 2014.

MEASUREMENTS: sociodemographic variables, professional characteristics, tuition, usual clinical practice in the management of patients with insomnia.

RESULTS: 138 nurses answered the questionnaire (47%). Most of them were women (92.8%), 50.42 years old (DE=8.9). The majority considered insomnia an important health problem. Only 11% had received some formative activity on insomnia in the last 5 years. Nearly half declares to ask patients about consequences of insomnia in their jobs and about habits that alter their sleep quality. 79.7% considered the possible adverse effects of insomnia drugs and take into consideration the age of patient (80.4%). The usual treatments were sleep hygiene (76%), phytotherapy (44.9%) and 22.4% cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This therapy is considered effective and applicable by nurses (63.7%) and doctors (58%). Those nurses who attended courses in the last 5 years apply CBT more frequently.

CONCLUSIONS: Nurses conduct a correct anamnesis and evaluation of patients with insomnia. However some therapies of known effectiveness, such as CBT, are still scarcely applied.