Restructuring the Nursing Staff and its Influence on Care Hours

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to calculate and compare the nursing staff at the medicalsurgical clinical units of a philanthropic hospital in current and projected situations, and to investigate how much time the nursing team delivers patient care in the current and projected situations. Gaidzinski's method was used to calculate the nursing staff, and the equation proposed by the Hospital Quality Commitment (HQC) to estimate care hours.The findings showed an increase of 33% in the staff, with a 68.4% increase in the number of nurses and 15.6% in the number of technicians / nursing auxiliaries. According to the projected situation, the care hours varied from 5.7 to 7.2. The number of nursing and the mean care time provided to the patients were inadequate according to the clientele's care needs. This could impair the quality of care. Reestructuración del cuadro de personal de enfermería y su impacto sobre las horas de asistenciaEste estudio descriptivo tuvo por objetivo dimensionar y comparar el cuadro de personal de enfermería de las unidades de clínica médico-quirúrgica de un hospital filantrópico, en las situaciones actuales y proyectadas, e investigar el tiempo de asistencia utilizado en los pacientes por el equipo de enfermería en las dos situaciones. Para dimensionar se utilizó el método propuesto por Gaidzinski, y, para el cálculo de las horas de asistencia, la ecuación propuesta por el Compromiso con la Calidad Hospitalaria (CCH). Lo encontrado colocó en evidencia la necesidad de aumentar en 33% el cuadro de personal, con aumento de 68,4% de enfermeros y de 15,6% en el número de técnicos/auxiliares de enfermería. En la situación proyectada, las horas de asistencia variaron de 5,7 a 7,2. El cuantitativo de enfermería y el tiempo promedio utilizado con los pacientes se revelaron inadecuados para atender las necesidades de la clientela, lo que puede comprometer la calidad de la asistencia. Descriptores: Personal de Enfermería; Administración de Personal; Carga de Trabajo.

Grau de dependência de pacientes em unidade de internação cirúrgica

“…In contrast, the concentration of patient evaluations in semi-intensive and intermediate 494 (90.5%) care categories differs from other studies that found a predominance of patients classified in the minimum care category (18)(19)(20)(21) in previous research in the same institution, and in hospitals with similar characteristics to the present study.…”

Nursing care: hours required for critical patient’s care

“…It is also highlighted that the insufficient number of nurses in a hospital makes these professionals have multi tasks to attend in several units at the same time, and develop multiple functions, which brings to them difficulties and restrictions in order to establish more consistent links with patients and with the working group of the inpatient unit, hindering the development of a more cohesive and integrative work, resulting in a nursing care with a better quality (16,20) .…”

“…showing that nurses are the most affected professionals by diseases caused by stress and lower quality of personal life and work, being such diseases (diabetes, hypertension, infections and other diseases caused by physiological imbalance) more prevalent in nursing professionals in sectors such as ICU and emergency rooms (9,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) .…”