title: Nursing Activities Score and workload in the intensive care unit of a university hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The nursing workload consists of the time spent by the nursing staff to perform the activities for which they are responsible, whether directly or indirectly related to patient care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nursing workload in an adult intensive care unit at a university hospital using the Nursing Activities Score (NAS) instrument.
  
  
  METHODS
  A longitudinal, prospective study that involved the patients admitted to the intensive care unit of a university hospital between March and December 2008. The data were collected daily to calculate the NAS, the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II), the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS-28) of patients until they left the adult intensive care unit or after 90 days of hospitalization. The level of significance was set at 5%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 437 patients were evaluated, which resulted in an NAS of 74.4%. The type of admission, length of stay in the intensive care unit and the patients' condition when leaving the intensive care unit and hospital were variables associated with differences in the nursing workload. There was a moderate correlation between the mean NAS and APACHE II severity score (r=0.329), the mean organic dysfunction SOFA score (r=0.506) and the mean TISS-28 score (r=0.600).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed a high nursing workload in this study. These results can assist in planning the size of the staff required. The workload was influenced by clinical characteristics, including an increased workload required for emergency surgical patients and patients who died.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Juliana Aparecida Morini
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Altafin
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Clínica Médica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Cintia Magalhães Carvalho
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Grion
authors.affiliation: Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Adulto, Hospital Universitário, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Marcos Toshyiuki
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Tanita
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Clínica Médica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Josiane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Festti
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Clínica Médica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Lucienne Tibery Queiroz
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Caio Fabrício Fonseca
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Veiga
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kamiji
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Álan Roger Gomes
authors.initials: ÁR
authors.lastname: Barbosa
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Caio Cesar Takeshi
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Aline Bobato
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Lara
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Cesar Castello Branco
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: Programa de Iniciação Científica, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Djavani
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blum
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Estatística, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brasil.
authors.forename: Tiemi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuo
mesh_terms: D018806:APACHE; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007902:Length of Stay; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult