Association of nursing hours with cognitive function, balance, and dependency level of stroke patients

Abstract

Aims To examine the association of nursing hours given to patients with stroke with clinical characteristics to predict the nursing care needs. Design Twenty‐four‐hour observational study Methods Nursing hours per patient day (NHPPD) of 171 stroke patients were measured by 146 nursing personnel who worked on the day of the observation. Cognitive function, balance ability and dependency level were assessed using the Korean version of the Mini‐Mental State Examination (K‐MMSE), the Korean version of the Berg Balance Scale (K‐BBS) and the Korean version of the Modified Barthel Index (K‐MBI), respectively. Results The NHPPD were moderately correlated with K‐MMSE ( r = −.450), K‐BBS ( r = −.529) and K‐MBI ( r = −.549). The worse the cognitive function, balance ability and dependency level, the more were the nursing hours given to the patients. Therefore, these factors can be considered to be factors that predict nursing care needs for patients with stroke.

Predictors of Nursing Performance for Patient Safety among Nurses in Regional Hospitals: A Cross-sectional Study

“…33 When nursing workloads are suitable, nurses have more time and ability to protect, prevent, promote, and dedicate themselves to enhancing nursing performance to ensure patient safety. 34 In addition, this result found that an average patient-tonurse ratio with a mean score of 8:1 was higher than the standard ratio of 4:1 in medical units, 5:1 in surgical and orthopedic units, and 6:1 in gynecological units. 35 The COVID-19 outbreak situation in Thailand might be a reason for the high nursing workload, especially the patient-to-nurse ratio in regional hospitals.…”

“…This result is congruous with a previous study that identified NHPPD as a crucial determinant influencing the nurses' performance in ensuring patient safety. 34 However, NHPPD was the least potent predictor affecting NPPS. It may be that NHPPD was calculated from the number of productive hours needed based on patient acuity in the patient classification system from all nursing staff to provide care per day for each patient on a given unit.…”

“…Therefore, well-balanced nursing workloads could enhance nurses' safety performance due to their ability to learn, practice, and concentrate on ensuring patient safety. 33,34 Concerning the personal factors, patient safety knowledge was another significant predictor of NPPS. This finding is comparable to prior relevant evidence that patient safety knowledge had a significant positive effect on the prediction of the patient safety performance of nurses.…”