Comparing nursing workload for critically ill adults with and without COVID-19 : Retrospective cohort study

© 2023 British Association of Critical Care Nurses..

BACKGROUND: Intensive care environments already required complex work, and, furthermore, the recent COVID-19 pandemic increased health care demands, disorganized work teams and limited resources. Nonetheless, the real workload of nursing workers in the care for critical patients during this period was seldom investigated.

AIM: To compare the workload of nursing workers, estimated using the Nursing Activities Score (NAS), in patients with and without COVID-19 who had been hospitalized in an adult intensive care unit (ICU).

STUDY DESIGN: This study was developed in the ICU of a public university hospital in the south of Brazil. The workload of nursing workers was estimated using the NAS, which was developed through a retrospective cohort using reports of the assistance registered in electronic records, including the first 10 days of hospitalization of all patients admitted into the ICU in 2020 and 2021, who had at least one NAS evaluation; then, the workload was compared between patients with and without COVID-19. Generalized estimating equations models were used. The project was approved by the research ethics committee of the institution where the study took place.

RESULTS: The follow-up of 3485 patients resulted in 20 506 days of observation during the first 10 days of ICU hospitalization. The mean NAS score for the entire patient/day sample was 85.6 ± 18.1%, with 87.8 ± 17.8% in the COVID-19 group and 82.6 ± 18.2% in the non-COVID-19 group (p < .001). The use of mechanical ventilation, noradrenaline, sedation and neuromuscular blocking drugs, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and haemodialysis increased the value of NAS for patients with or without COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS: The workload of nursing professionals was higher for COVID-19 patients than for patients who did not present the disease in the first 10 days of ICU hospitalization.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study presents the impact of COVID-19 on the ICU nursing workload in Brazil. The high workload found can support management decisions regarding quantity and quality of workforce composition.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:29

Enthalten in:

Nursing in critical care - 29(2024), 2 vom: 26. März, Seite 397-406

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Batassini, Érica [VerfasserIn]
Beghetto, Mariur Gomes [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19
Intensive care units
Journal Article
Nursing
Personnel downsizing
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Workload

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 07.03.2024

Date Revised 28.03.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1111/nicc.12977

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM361882688