Investigation And Analysis Of Nursing Workload And Allocation Of Nursing Human Resources In ICU

Intensive Care Unit（ICU）is a special ward, there are many patients with criticaldiseases and multiple organs dysfunction or failure, and various kinds of advancedequipments and monitoring instruments. The patients in ICU are mostly interdisciplinarywith complicated, changeable conditions. Thus, nurses in ICU are needed professional skills,quick response and many qualities. As there are no accompanying cares in ICU, so thenurses in ICU should not only finish the heavy treatment and rescue work, but also assumeall the life care of patients. It means the workload of nursing staff in ICU is more overloadthan the common ward. Many researchers have studied the nursing workload and nursinghuman resources in common ward, but the study about nursing workload in ICU was rare byspecial care workload questionnaire of ICU. Investigation and analysis of the factors relatedwith nursing workload in ICU is very important, because this study can help us scientificallyallocate the nursing human resource in ICU.Objective：In order to study the nursing workload status in ICU now, related factors, compositionof nursing human resource and existing problems through investigating the different nursingworkloads of different disease severities, coma degree, various prognosis, different treatment,different periods of hospitalization and investigating ICU nurse composition, includingtechnical titles, education levels, work years. The evidences can help managers allocatenursing resource scientifically, improve nursing efficiency and optimize the care quality.Methods:This study had taken prospective study method, collected the materials of the200patients accepted in ICU of a hospital from January2011to December2011, and hadstatistic nursing workload of every responsible nurse. The general material form (patient andnurse), APACHEII score system, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scale and Rush MedicusTool-Patient Classification System (RMT-PCS) were used.The descriptive statistical analysis was component this paper. Statistic contents is asfollows.1. The relevant analysis between the disease severities of patients in ICU and nursing workload.2. The relevant analysis between the coma degree of patients in ICU and nursingworkload.3. The relevant analysis between the prognosis of patients in ICU and nursingworkload.4. The relevant analysis between the different therapies of patients in ICU and nursingworkload.5. The relevant analysis between the period of hospitalization of patients in ICU andnursing workload.6. The relevant analysis between the different periods, different titles of the nurses andnursing workload in ICU.Results：Following results are received after the research on200cases of nursing objects ofpatients in ICU: there are statistical significances among the nursing objects in ICU withdisease severities, different coma degree, patients’ outcomes, different therapies of patients,different periods of hospitalization（p<0.01）, there are statistical significances among thenursing objects in ICU with different technical titles and different divisions of nurses in ICU（p<0.01）.1. The severity degree of patients in ICU is related to nursing workload. Nursingworkloads are significantly different between different APACHEⅡ score groups（p<0.01）. Inthe group with APACHEⅡ score between61to71, nursing workload is the highest.2. The coma degree of patients in ICU is related to nursing workload. There aresignificant differences of nursing workload among different GCS score groups（p<0.01）.When GCS score is3, the most daily nursing workload and total nursing workload areneeded.3. The different prognosis in ICU is related to nursing workload. There are significantdifferences of nursing workload between the dead patients group and other groups（p<0.01）.4. The treatment options of patients in ICU is related to nursing workload. There aresignificant differences of nursing workload between surgical treatment and non-surgicaltreatment（p<0.01）.5. The different periods of hospitalization of patients in ICU is related to nursingworkload. There are significant differences of nursing workload between the first day in hospitalization and second day,discharge the day（p<0.01）.6. The different titles of the nurses in ICU is related to nursing workload. Senior nurses’workloads significantly higher than other level nurses（p<0.01）.7. The different divisions of the nurse in ICU is related to nursing workload. The percapita nursing workload in eve divisions is higher than day shift and after night（p<0.01）.Conclusions:1. The different disease severities, different coma degree, patients’ prognosis, differenttherapies of patients and different periods of hospitalization have influences on nursingworkload of patients in ICU. The higher the critical degree is, the greater the nursingworkload is; The heavier the coma degree is, the greater the nursing workload is; The deathsrequire the nursing workload is higher than other outcomes way; The nursing workload ofpatients with surgical treatment is significantly higher than patients’ with non-surgicaltreatment; The first day in hospitalization require nursing workload is higher than other timein hospitalization.2. Nursing workload of senior nurses was significantly higher than the other levelsnurse.3. Nursing workload in hospitalization during16:00-1:00is significantly higher thanother periods’.