Evaluation of nursing workload in adult intensive care nursing as a teaching tool: an experience report

Abstract

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a complex sector that requires a specialized team. Among these, the nurse is the professional with the highest workload to the patient; normally measured by the Nursing Activities Score (NAS). Although it is used in clinical practice, during graduation, it is only presented to students. Thus, the participation of students in teaching projects could fill this learning gap. Therefore, the objective of this study is to report the experience lived by students during the Teaching Project "Evaluation of the workload in Nursing in adult intensive care units as a teaching tool". The participants realized the importance of including the academic in managerial activities, because during graduation do not occur frequently. We filled a knowledge gap; despite this several difficulties were found throughout the project as organization and time management. The students also found difficulties of different spheres and were not able to generate indicators, because they could not follow the data processing by the nurses of the unit; but understood how they are obtained and constructed. Despite the difficulties presented, it was possible to understand and remedy some of the limitations of the students and to recognize the managerial process involved in measuring the workload, as well as recognizing the reality of the sector and understand that the deficits during the application of the NAS may be linked to the insufficiency of human and technological resources; of previous learning or even of the knowledge of its applicability.