Nurse staffing, quality of nursing care and nurse job outcomes in intensive care units.

AIM: To examine the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse-rated quality of nursing care and job outcomes. BACKGROUND: Nurse staffing has been reported to influence patient and nurse outcomes. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study with a survey conducted August-October 2007. METHODS: The survey included 1365 nurses from 65 intensive care units in 22 hospitals in Korea. Staffing was measured using two indicators: the number of patients per nurse measured at the unit level and perception of staffing adequacy at the nurse level. Quality of care and job dissatisfaction were measured with a four-point scale and burnout measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to determine the relationships between staffing and quality of care and job outcomes. RESULTS: The average patient-to-nurse ratio was 2.8 patients per nurse. A fifth of nurses perceived that there were enough nurses to provide quality care, one third were dissatisfied, half were highly burnt out and a quarter planned to leave in the next year. Nurses were more likely to rate quality of care as high when they cared for two or fewer patients (odds ratio, 3.26; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-9.31) or 2.0-2.5 patients (odds ratio, 2.44; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-4.52), compared with having more than three patients. Perceived adequate staffing was related to a threefold increase (odds ratio, 2.97; 95% confidence interval, 2.22-3.97) in the odds of nurses' rating high quality and decreases in the odds of dissatisfaction (odds ratio, 0.30; 95% confidence interval, 0.23-0.40), burnout (odds ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.34-0.73) and plan to leave (odds ratio, 0.40; 95% confidence interval, 0.28-0.56). CONCLUSIONS: Nurse staffing was associated with quality of care and job outcomes in the context of Korean intensive care units. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Adequate staffing must be assured to achieve better quality of care and job outcomes.

Evaluation of the completeness of the nursing process for patients having gastrectomy using electronic nursing records.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate recording completeness of the nursing process. We compared nursing statements documented at the time when the Electronic Nursing Record (ENR) system, based on the ICNP, was implemented in 2004 with those documented in 2007. The ENRs for 35 gastrectomy patients in each year were selected for evaluation. The selected data were 11,822 nursing statements in 2004 and 27,870 in 2007. The results indicated a significant increase in the completeness of the nursing process in 2007. In addition, the number of nursing diagnosis increased by 5.1 times. The most contributing factor for this increase is assumed to be nurse education.

[Development of a resource-based relative value scale and its conversion factor for advanced nursing practices in the national health insurance].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) and its conversion factor for advanced nursing practices carried out by critical care nurse practitioners (CCNP) in intensive care units. METHODS: The methodology was developed by calculating CCNP's RBRVS for 32 advanced nursing services based on CCNP's workload and time spent in the context of national health insurance. A cost analysis was performed to estimate the conversion factor of CCNP's RBRVS. The share of CCNP's contribution to fee-for-service in intensive care units was also analyzed. RESULTS: Calculation of the RBRVS of 32 advanced nursing practices showed a range of points from 100.0 to 1,181.4 and an average of 296.1 points. The relevant conversion factor for advanced nursing practices in CCNP were estimated at 37.3-48.4 won. The contribution rate of CCNP's advanced nursing practices in the relative value scale of the national health insurance was estimated at 0.1-31.3%. CONCLUSION: Measuring the economic value of advanced nursing services will be a basis for esta-blishing a reimbursement system for CCNP's practices and thus encourage a social demand for advanced nurse practitioners.