Nursing care: hours required for critical patient’s care

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the hours required for nursing care of critically ill patients and the hours available by nurses and then compare the results with the Law of professional practice and the recommendations of the Federal Council of Nursing for the design of nursing professionals. This is a documentary descriptive study that collected data on 30 records of an intensive care unit of a university hospital in June 2012. The results indicated a significant deficit of nurses in the institution and showed a non-compliance with the applicable legal recommendations. This influences directly the quality of care, the patient’s safety, the quality and working conditions of the nurses, determining the need for adjustments in the quantity of nurses in the institution studied.

Keywords

• Personnel Downsizing
• Intensive Care Units
• Nursing Care