Introduction : The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship of sleep quality to fatigue and its effect on the clinical decision making of staff nurses Methods : This study correlated the effect of sleep quality and fatigue on the clinical decision making among staff nurses at the UERM Memorial Hospital using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Fatigue Assessment Scale, and Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale for sleep quality, fatigue and clinical decision making, respectively. Spearman rho coefficient was computed to determine the relationship between sleep quality and fatigue, and between sleep quality and clinical decision making. The chance of poor clinical decision making among nurses with and without fatigue were computed. Results : Twenty-eight nurses were included in the study, of which 75% had poor sleep quality, 25% suffered from fatigue and one of five had good decision making. The chance of fatigue among nurses with poor sleep quality over the chance of fatigue among nurses with a good quality of sleep is one (OR 1.0. The chance of good decision making among nurses with fatigue over the chance of good decision making among nurses without fatigue is two out of five (OR - 0.18). Spearman rho shows a moderate, significant correlation between the Fatigue Assessment Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Ouality Index scores (r - 0.547, p < 0.05) and a weak, non-significant correlation between Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores (r - 0.151, p = 0.44). Conclusion Poor sleep quality is moderately correlated with fatigue but it may not necessarily translate into poor decision making among the staff nurses in the study. Fatigue decreases the chance of good decision making by 80%.
Sleep Quality ; Fatigue ; Clinical Decision-Making