The nursing care recording system. A preliminary study of a system for assessment of nursing care demands in the ICU.
A new system, Nursing Care Recording (NCR), for the recording of nursing care in a general ICU is presented. NCR classifies ICU patients according to their need for intensive nursing care. Comparing the NCR with the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS), a correlation coefficient of 0.60 was found. The main difference between the two systems was related to recording procedures allowing changes in nursing intensity within a 24-h period, reflecting patient improvement due to therapy, which was detected by NCR but not by TISS. NCR can be used to estimate nursing capacity during different shifts and may be useful in the assessment of the total nursing staff necessary for a given ICU. It is suggested that NCR will allow detection of changes in the nursing care work load, whether this change is due to new activities in the unit or to alterations in the individual patient care.
Hjortsø
E
E
Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Herlev Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Herlev, Denmark.
Buch
T
T
Ryding
J
J
Lundstrøm
K
K
Bartram
P
P
Dragsted
L
L
Qvist
J
J
D000328:Adult; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007902:Length of Stay; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000451:nursing; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D009737:Nursing Records; D013997:Time Factors