Protocol for a pilot hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation study to improve help-seeking for sleep disorders in the future healthcare workforce: The Sleep Check Before Shift Work trial
Date
2025
Authors
Dunbar, C.
Sansom, K.
Lovato, N.
Vakulin, A.
Loffler, K.A.
Nguyen, K.
Fitton, J.
Rajaratnam, S.M.W.
Sletten, T.L.
Micic, G.
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Journal article
Citation
Sleep Advances, 2025; 6(2):zpaf020-1-zpaf020-11
Statement of Responsibility
Claire Dunbar, Kelly Sansom, Nicole Lovato, Andrew Vakulin, Kelly A Loffler, Katrina Nguyen, Josh Fitton, Shantha M W Rajaratnam, Tracey L Sletten, Gorica Micic, Sally A Ferguson, Sian E Wanstall, Brandon W J Brown, Gillian Harvey, Robert Adams, Amy C Reynolds
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Abstract
Sleep disorders are prevalent in shift workers but are commonly undiagnosed and unmanaged. This poses considerable safety, productivity, and health risks. There is limited education or early intervention to encourage awareness of, and treatment for, sleep disorders in young adults who will transition into careers requiring shift work. This study aims to investigate (a) the clinical effectiveness of simulated shift work exposure and cognitive performance feedback for prompting help-seeking for sleep problems, and (b) the feasibility and acceptability of implementing this intervention for future healthcare workers. A hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation trial will be conducted from June 2024 to December 2025 with prospective healthcare workers currently enrolled in a medicine, paramedicine, or nursing degree. Ninety adults (18–39 years) who self-report sleep disturbances will be recruited and complete a combination of structured clinical interviews, screening questionnaires, remote monitoring technology, and overnight polysomnography (PSG). Participants will be randomized across three conditions, with varying exposure to a simulated transition to night shift without sleep, and cognitive performance feedback. All individuals will attend a diagnostic appointment with a sleep psychologist or sleep physician and discuss help-seeking pathways for their sleep. The primary outcomes will be help-seeking from a health professional for sleep (yes/no), time to help-seeking (days), and road safety-related events over 12 months. Process evaluation will explore the feasibility and acceptability of this approach from the participants’ perspective.
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© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Sleep Research Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.