Olga Riklikiene

Lithuania University of Health Sciences,

Kaunas, Lithuania

E-mail: olga.riklikiene@lsmuni.lt

Balancing nurses’ workload: A case study with nurse anaesthetists and intensive care nurses

Olga Didenko

Lithuania University of Health Sciences,

Kaunas, Lithuania

E-mail: Olga.Didenko@santa.lt

Ruta Ciutiene

Kaunas University of Technology,

Kaunas, Lithuania

E-mail: ruta.ciutiene@ktu.lt

Asta Daunoriene

Kaunas University of Technology,

Kaunas, Lithuania

E-mail: asta.daunoriene@ktu.lt

Ramune Ciarniene

Kaunas University of Technology,

Kaunas, Lithuania

E-mail: ramune.ciarniene@ktu.lt

Abstract. Over the last two decades, intensive care has changed significantly. The nursing care intensity and the workload of nurses in the intensive care units have increased. In order to distribute tasks among nurse anaesthetists and intensive care nurses effectively and to balance their workload there is a need to implement nurses’ workload calculation techniques on a daily basis. The presented study aims to estimate the nurse anaesthetists and intensive care nurses’ workload by assessing nursing care intensity and patients’ severity in intensive care unit. The descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed for this study. The data was collected at a university hospital cardio-surgery intensive care unit. The total of 1147 assessments of nurses’ workload were performed. The relationship between TISS-28 components and nurses’ workload was analysed and a significant positive correlation among nurses’ workload, patients’ age and length of stay in the unit was determined. An excessive nursing workload increased by the overall nursing actions, support of cardiovascular, renal and metabolic system actions. The implementation of TISS-28 into nursing practice could help with showing the value of nursing practice and nurses’ input, also it would help calculating the nurses’ workload more accurately and  improving the distribution of nurses in the workplace.

Received: September, 2019

1st Revision: May, 2019

Accepted: June, 2020

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2020/13-2/1

JEL Classification: M00, I00

Keywords: nurses’ workload, intensive care, cardio-surgery, therapeutic intervention scoring system, Euro SCORE II