Nursing Workload and care required by older adults in intensive care

Abstract

Objective To analyze the workload and nursing care requirements of elderly people admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) compared to adults. Method Cross-sectional study carried out in two ICUs of two hospitals (public and private) in the metropolitan region of São Paulo. The following variables were extracted from the electronic medical records of patients admitted to the units in 2019: age, gender, length of ICU stay, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS 3) and Nursing Activities Score (NAS). The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Means were compared using Student's t-test and the association between the frequencies of interventions required by the participants using Fischer's exact test. Results The study included 495 patients, 56.6% of whom were elderly with a mean age of 74.9± 9.5 years. The length of stay of the elderly in the ICU was 6.0±7.7 days. It was found that the average SAPS3 score on admission was 48.3±13.7 points and the NAS score, also on admission, was 71.0±10.4 points, being higher among older people than adults, both for severity (p<0.001) and workload (p=0.007). Conclusion Older age is associated with a greater workload for intensive care unit nurses and a greater chance of interventions, associated with greater severity on admission and longer ICU stays for this population compared to adults.