Implementing an Integrative Insomnia Toolkit for Psychiatric Providers

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase the knowledge of psychiatric healthcare providers of integrative insomnia treatments, increase their confidence in recommending them in practice, identify barriers to recommending integrative treatments, and evaluate the efficacy of the educational intervention. Background: Insomnia is a prevalent condition especially in the psychiatric population. Treatment typically involves pharmacological management that frequently involves adverse effects and/or dependency and tolerance. Many integrative interventions are evidence-based for insomnia but are rarely recommended by providers. Integrative interventions have the benefit of typically having fewer adverse effects and are relatively safe. Psychiatric providers may benefit from increased knowledge on integrative interventions for insomnia. Methods: This quality improvement project was a pretest-posttest quantitative design with an asynchronous educational presentation and a digital resource titled “Integrative Insomnia Toolkit for Psychiatric Providers.” The content included an overview of several evidence-based integrative interventions for insomnia and local resources for pertinent interventions. Results: Eight nurse practitioners and two physician assistants completed all components of the intervention. Posttest results showed an improvement in beliefs in efficacy of integrative treatments in insomnia and an increased likelihood of recommending integrative treatments. Additionally, most participants found the educational module helpful in increasing knowledge and were very motivated to recommend integrative therapies. Conclusions: This project suggests that an asynchronous educational module and Toolkit may be helpful in increasing knowledge of integrative treatment options and increasing likelihood to recommend them in practice to patients with insomnia in a psychiatric clinic.