. Ritu Rani; . Suresh K. Sharma; . Manoj K. Gupta
Volume 13, Issue 2 , February 2023, , Pages 1-9
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The safety of patients remain at risk due to a higher workload and lowernurse‑to‑patient ratio. However, in India, most hospitals still adhere to long‑known nurse ...
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BACKGROUND: The safety of patients remain at risk due to a higher workload and lowernurse‑to‑patient ratio. However, in India, most hospitals still adhere to long‑known nurse staffingnorms set by their statutory or accreditation bodies. Therefore, the present study was undertakento recommend a standard workload‑based estimation of nursing manpower requirement in the ICUof a tertiary care teaching hospital.MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a descriptive, observational, time and motion study wasconducted in the medicine ICU of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Data collection was done by usingdemographic and clinical profile sheet of patients, NPDS‑H dependency assessment scale, time andactivities record sheet, and WHO WISN tool. The nurses’ activities were observed by nonparticipatory andnon‑concealment technique. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and the WHO WISN tool.RESULTS: The bed occupancy rate and the average length of stay in the medicine ICU were 93.23%and 7.18 days respectively. Distribution of dependency level of the medical ICU patients was veryhigh (41.67%), low‑high (33.33%), and medium‑high (25.0%) dependency level. Considering availableresources and workload in tertiary care hospitals in India, the study recommended a nurse‑to‑patientratio of 1:1.2 in each shift for the medicine ICU of a tertiary care hospital.CONCLUSION: The study suggested minimum nurse-to-patient ratio in medical ICU should be1:1.2 with provision of power to ICU incharge nurse to allocate nurses according to the workload indifferent shifts. Also, nurse staffing norms in hospitals need to be estimated or selected with seriousconsideration of health care demands when employing nurse staffing norms.