Patient Safety Incidents and Nursing Workload

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Nursing workload is a critical factor influencing patient care quality and safety.
• Understanding the relationship between workload and adverse events is essential for hospital management.
• Previous studies have explored this link, but specific findings vary across different healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the association between nursing team workload and patient safety incidents in a public hospital in Chile.
• To analyze the correlation between workload metrics and specific types of nursing-related adverse events.
• To provide data-driven insights for optimizing nursing staffing and improving patient outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A quantitative, analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted using medical record reviews.
• Nursing workload was assessed using the Therapeutic Interventions Scoring System (TISS-28) in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and nurse/patient and nursing assistant/patient ratios in other units.
• Statistical analyses included descriptive univariate and multivariate methods, principal component analysis, and Pearson correlation.

Main Results:

• Analysis of 879 clinical records revealed an overall incident rate of 71.1%.
• A strong positive correlation was observed between nursing workload and the rate of patient falls (r = 0.8770).
• No significant correlation was found between workload and rates of medication errors, mechanical containment incidents, or self-removal of invasive devices.

Conclusions:

• Nursing workload was high across most hospital units, with the exception of the intermediate care unit.
• The rate of patient falls was the only safety incident significantly associated with nursing workload.
• These findings highlight the specific vulnerability of patient falls to high nursing workload and suggest targeted interventions.