Assessment of Nursing Workload Using Nursing Activities Score in Surgical Clinics During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly, healthcare needs of the population increased dramatically throughout the province, and we had limited human resources, using the workforce efficiently became a crucial factor in our hospital. In this study, we evaluated the nurse workforce of surg...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Association of Nurse Managers
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Sağlık ve Hemşirelik Yönetimi Dergisi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jag.journalagent.com/z4/download_fulltext.asp?pdir=shyd&un=SHYD-32656 |
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| Summary: | Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly, healthcare needs of the population increased dramatically throughout the province, and we had limited human resources, using the workforce efficiently became a crucial factor in our hospital. In this study, we evaluated the nurse workforce of surgical clinics in the second year of the pandemic.
Method: A prospective observational study was conducted at the university hospital between17-23 of September 2021. The data were collected by using the Nurse Observation Form for the descriptive information of the patients, the Nursing Activity Scale (NAS) to measure nursing activities, and the weekly nurse work list for the patient-to-nurse ratio. The forms were filled once a day for seven days during the day shift.
Results: The study included 226 patients in surgical clinics. The mean age of the patients was 48.3 (SD=18.3) years, and most of the patients (65%) were women. The average length of stay in hospital was 11.6 (SD=21.8) days, and 57.5% of patients had comorbidities. More than half of the patients were in the postoperative period. In the inpatient units included in the study, nurse/patient ratio was changing between 1/5–6 to 1/13-14 in the morning and evening shifts. The one-week average NAS score of the patients hospitalized in surgical clinics was 21.8 (Min: 9.8, Max: 64.3) for brain surgery units and 21.4 (Min: 12.9, Max: 54.4) for urology units. These NAS scores indicated that more nurses are needed in these clinics than the number of nurses currently in service.
Conclusion: Our findings showed that more nurses are needed in some services to allocate sufficient time to nursing activities. In this study, NAS was used to predict the workload of the next shift at the patient-nurse level and, thus, assess the patient-to-nurse staff ratios. |
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| ISSN: | 2149-018X |