RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The surge in older demographics has inevitably resulted in a heightened demand for health care, and a shortage of nursing staff is impending. Consequently, there is a growing demand for the development of nursing robots to assist patients with urinary and bowel elimination. However, no study has examined nurses' opinions of smart devices that provide integrated nursing for patients' urinary and bowel elimination needs. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of the Smart Excretion Care System tethered to electronic medical records in a tertiary hospital and community care setting and discuss the anticipated reductions in the burden of nursing care. METHODS: Focus group interviews were conducted using the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines. The interviews were conducted in March 2021 and involved 67 nurses who had worked at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital for more than 1 year and had experience in assisting patients with excretion care. Data were collected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. RESULTS: A total of four themes relevant to the Smart Excretion Care System were found: (1) expected reductions in the burden of nursing care, (2) applicable indications (by departments and diseases), (3) preferred features/functions, and (4) expected benefits of using the Smart Excretion Care System in clinical facilities. Nurses from comprehensive nursing care wards had the highest burden when it came to excretion care. It was a common opinion that the Smart Excretion Care System would be very useful in intensive care units and should be applied first to patients with stroke or dementia. CONCLUSIONS: Excretion care is one of the most burdensome tasks for nurses, increasing their workload. The development of the Smart Excretion Care System as a digital health intervention could help improve nurses' work efficiency, reduce their burden, and extend to caregivers and guardians.
RESUMO
Background: Inpatients commonly experience problems with elimination due to incontinence, urinary retentions, and complications with indwelling catheters. Although elimination care (EC) is an important nursing area, few studies explore the burden of EC on nurses. Aim: To identify the burden on EC by analyzing nurses' opinions using sequential explanatory mixed method. Methods: This research was conducted using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design. A total of 59 nurses at a tertiary hospital in South Korea participated in the study from January 1 to March 31, 2022. For quantitative analysis, information about number of delays of work due to EC, required time for serving bedpan or diaper changes, percentage of EC per shift, and percentage of patients who need EC was collected through a survey. For qualitative analysis, focus group interviews were conducted to identify factors that put a burden on EC. Important themes were derived by analyzing nurses' opinions on EC. Results: For nurses in intensive care units, general wards, and integrated nursing care wards, the number of work delays due to EC was 3.6 ± 1.5, 2.3 ± 1.2, and 4.8 ± 2.4 (p<0.01), respectively. The mean percentage of EC work out of total nursing tasks per shift was 36.2 ± 19.0, 29.3 ± 14.4, and 43.8 ± 14.1 (p=0.02), respectively. The mean percentage of patients requiring EC out of patients a nurse cares was 85.4 ± 16.6, 41.3 ± 26.1, and 58.8 ± 21.9 (p<0.01), respectively. Following qualitative analysis, four themes related to nurses' EC burden were derived: physical burden, frequent care needs, delay of other jobs due to EC, and complications. Among them, frequent care needs were found to be the primary factor requiring consideration to reduce nurses' burden. Conclusion: This research found that EC is one of the most burdensome tasks that nurses want to avoid. To alleviate their burden, effective EC protocol or smart medical devices assisting with EC should be developed.