[Proposal for a model for calculating the size of nursing staff in home care]

Home care brings up issues related to the number of daily hours and days of nursing service from users of these services. This study was carried out in order to identify the criteria adopted by managers and nurses for calculating the nursing staff needed in home care services. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed according to the method of content analysis. Three categories were identified: patient's eligibility, time spent in care, and professional competency profile. The steps considered were: identification of daily average work load, choice of the proportion of professional categories, nursing workers' daily journey, and identification of the technical safety index for covering planned and unplanned absences. From these variables a model for calculating nursing personnel needed in home care is proposed in order to speed up the decision making process.