title: Latent Growth Modeling of nursing care dependency of acute neurological inpatients.
abstract: Longitudinal three-time point study, addressing how neurological adult patient care dependency varies from the admission time to the 3rd day of acute hospitalization. Nursing care dependency was measured with the Care Dependency Scale (CDS) and a Latent Growth Modeling approach was used to analyse the CDS trend in 124 neurosurgical and stroke inpatients. Care dependence followed a decreasing linear trend. Results can help nurse-managers planning an appropriate amount of nursing care for acute neurological patients during their initial stage of hospitalization. Further studies are needed aimed at investigating the determinants of nursing care dependence during the entire in-hospital stay.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy - Research Unit Nursing Science, Campus Bio-Medico di Roma University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piredda
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ghezzi
authors.affiliation: Research Unit Nursing Science, Campus Bio-Medico di Roma University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: De Marinis
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Udine University, Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palese
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000451:nursing* / Q000503:physiopathology; D020521:Stroke / Q000451:nursing*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Acute care; Care Dependency Scale; Hospitalized patients; Neurosurgery