The Clinical Severity of Patients in Intensive Care Units Determines Nurse Assignments

Abstract

Introduction: Intensive care units are highly complex services designed to maintain the vital functions of patients who require specialized care and assistance, so it is necessary to allocate an adequate number of nursing professionals, according to the clinical conditions, to provide a response and continuity of care. In Colombia there is no legislation that quantitatively establishes this ratio, so it is usually determined by the installed capacity and not by the complexity of nursing interventions; therefore, this study becomes an asset to promote public policies for personnel allocation. Objective: To determine the nurse-patient ratio according to clinical severity in two intensive care units in the Colombian Caribbean. Materials and Methods: This is a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in two intensive care units (Sincelejo and Barranquilla), for which the TISS-28 (Simplified Therapeutic Intervention Score System) instrument was used for a three-month period. A total of 15 nursing professionals and 469 patients participated. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad del Norte. Results: According to the severity of patient conditions, grade III was prevalent, that is, requiring intensive monitoring, with a time for nursing interventions ranging from 201.5–413.4 min (3.3 h – 6.89 h), and the need for a nurse-patient ratio of 1:2. Conclusions: There is a shortage of nursing professionals in the participating units to meet care needs.