HJBR Mar/Apr 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  MAR / APR 2021 11 Elizabeth B. LeJeune, ACNP-BC, MSN Pulmonary/Sleep Specialist Ochsner Medical Complex – The Grove Elizabeth B. LeJeune, ACNP-BC, MSN, works at Ochsner Medical Complex – The Grove. She has been an acute-care nurse practitioner for 20 years, including 15 in the pulmonary/ sleep specialty. She orders sleep studies and manages disease processes for patients, which may include sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia. She treats underlying sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea with management of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices. She also helps patients develop healthy sleep habits by improving sleep hygiene, sleep scheduling and stimulus control. LeJeune earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. She earned a master’s degree in nursing, adult acute nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist from the University of South Alabama in Mobile. LeJeune is licensed by the State of Louisiana Board of Nursing as an advanced practice nurse. She is also certified nationally by ANCC as an acute care nurse practitioner and by AANP as an adult nurse practitioner. Further analysis showed several demo- graphics were more likely to experience severe worsening of sleep quality: those in quarantine, those in the 31-45 age group, those who experienced reduced physical activity and those who experienced adverse impact on livelihood. Women were also more likely to report poor sleep quality. The second study sought to reproduce the results among U.S. residents. Researchers garnered 971 responses from those recruited for pay through crowdsourcing tool Ama- zon Mechanical Turk. It examined, among other things, sleep duration, quality and tim- ing of sleep and sleeping pill consumption. The second study also confirmed what healthcare providers suspected — those in our own industry are vulnerable to poor sleep as well. In the first study, 478 respon- dents reported they were healthcare pro- fessionals, and 54 reported such in the sec- ond. Their sleep patterns following COVID largely reflected those of the survey group. While sleep duration increased to a lesser degree in healthcare respondents, research- ers said it was possibly because the pan- demic had less impact on their livelihoods. Researchers noted that in both studies, healthcare workers were not asked to report whether they had direct contact with COVID patients. The authors cite other recent stud- ies showing that healthcare workers who did have contact with COVID patients were most affected by the crisis. From our own experience, patients in the healthcare profession regularly express worries of whether they or their family members at home would become ill. Some isolated themselves from their fam- ily members during peak COVID infection rates, leading to more stress. The overtime and seeing otherwise young and healthy patients dying could be overwhelming. Like many other patients, healthcare workers struggled with changes in their daily rou- tines and adjusting to better sleep hygiene. LONG-TERM RISKS There is no question sleep disrup- tion deserves physicians’ attention. Left untreated, sleep disorders can damage patients’ overall health. Long-term effects have been associated with an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depres- sion, heart attack and stroke. Sleep disrup- tion has been linked with bowel, prostate and breast cancers. Without sufficient sleep, symptoms of depression, seizures, high blood pressure and migraines worsen. Immunity is com- promised, increasing the likelihood of ill- ness and infection. A 2013 study reported that men who slept too little had sperm counts 29% lower than those who regularly get a full and restful night’s sleep. Sleep is also key to metabolism and the