Effects of allocating nursing personnel and workload on assistance results in medical-surgical units / Efeitos da alocação de pessoal e da carga de trabalho de enfermagem nos resultados da assistência em unidades de internação médico-cirúrgicas

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

This was a quantitative, transversal, prospective study, performed with the objective of analyzing the effects of nursing personnel allocation and workload on assistance results in two medical-surgical units (MSUs), with 20 and 15 beds each, respectively named MSU-A and MSU-B at a hospital in the city of São Paulo. The methodology used was capable of comprehending 87% of the range of the care required by the patients; it was a compound of items that included a biological and psychosocial dimension of care: Patient Focused Solutions/Workload Measurement-Inpatient Methodology (PFS/WM-IM). Result indicators considered were: falling, medication errors, non-scheduled probe, catheter or drain removals, pressure ulcers (PU), urinary tract infections (UTI) and pneumonia developed during the hospital care. The data were obtained from medical reports and registers of the Commission for Hospital Infection Control, as well as the daily work schedule of the nursing personnel. After 47 consecutive days of data collection, the final sample had 387 patients - 218 in MSU-A and 169 in MSU-B. Having equal quantities of male and female patients, it had a prevalence of elderly patients with 61 years or more (38.5% in MSU-A and 36.1% in MSU-B), patients who were undergoing surgical elective treatment (62.8% in MSU-A and 56.8% in MSU-B) and those with an average number of internment days of 6.0 days (+-25.1) in MSU-A and of 4.6 days (+-7.2) in MSU-B. Most of the patients of MSU-A came from their homes (52.3%); whereas in MSU-B most of them came from emergency room facilities (47.3%), followed by those who came from home (37.3%). After the discharge, 85.3% of the patients of MSU-A and 87.6% of MSU-B returned to their homes. With respect to occurrences of adverse events (AEs), in MSU-A, 14 patients (6.4%) suffered 23 AEs (9, 3 and 2 respectively had 1, 2 and 4 events, among of them there were: 13 non-scheduled probe, catheter or drain removals, 8 medication errors, 1 PU and 1 UTI). In MSU-B, 12 patients (7.1%) suffered 13 AEs, that is, 11 patients had 1 AE and 1 had 2 AEs, in that 10 were medication errors, 2 non-scheduled removals of probes, catheters or drains and 1 PU. The patients predominantly fitted in the categories 1, 2 and 3 (low and medium complexity), allocated in units proper for the required care – the medical surgical units. There was an average of 1 nurse for each unit and each nursing assistant took care of a maximum of 5 patients. The average number of nursing hours available was higher than those recommended by PFS/WM-IM, respectively 7 and 5.8 hours in MSU-A and 6.2 and 4.9 hours in MSU-B (p<0,001). Despite the excess of nursing personnel in MSU-A and MSU-B, AEs occurred. Therefore, the results of this study oppose frequent requirements of nurses for more personnel and point to a necessity of new research to complement the herein made analysis, not only for medical-surgical units, but also for every unit in the hospital

ASSUNTO(S)

eventos adversos carga de trabalho de enfermagem nursing workload unidade de internação médico-cirúrgica adverse events medical-surgical unit

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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