title: [Patient profile and nursing workload at the nephrology unit].
abstract: Chronic kidney failure (CKF), which is frequently silent, can lead to considerable changes in the lives of patients. Depending on the stage, hospitalization and hours of nursing care are required to ensure medical and surgical treatment. The aim of this descriptive and quantitative study is to measure nursing workload at a nephrology unit based on daily application of the Nursing Activities Score (NAS) for 47 consecutive days. Patients were mostly young male adults in the chronic stage of the disease or admitted for kidney transplant. A total of 833 observations were obtained from 62 patients. The resulting NAS workload upon admission was 52%, corresponding to 12.5 hours of care per patient for 24 hours, which is similar to the workload found in intensive care units. This profile allows calculation of nursing work hours required for each patient and is a valuable tool for nursing managers when determining the number of staff members required to ensure assistance. Other studies should be conducted for clinical validation.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil.
authors.forename: Priscilla Branco
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Trepichio
authors.forename: Edinêis de Brito
authors.initials: Ede B
authors.lastname: Guirardello
authors.forename: Erika Christiane Marocco
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Duran
authors.forename: Ana Paula
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: de Brito
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D005260:Female; D006757:Hospital Units; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000451:nursing*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000451:nursing; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009398:Nephrology; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*