Matching Nursing Assignment to Patients' Acuity Level: The Road to Nurses' Satisfaction

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Nurses experience challenges like high turnover and workload, leading to dissatisfaction.
• Equitable nursing assignment and workload balance are crucial for nurse satisfaction.
• Patient acuity scores can inform fair shift assignments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Perroca patient acuity tool (PAT) effectiveness.
• To measure nurses' satisfaction with workload and standard of care pre- and post-PAT implementation.
• To assess nurses' satisfaction with the implemented patient acuity tool.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental, one-group pre- and post-test design was employed.
• Donabedian's Structure-Process-Outcome (SPO) model guided the study.
• 64 nurses participated, completing validated satisfaction scales.

Main Results:

• Significant increases in overall nurse satisfaction, workload satisfaction, and standard of care satisfaction were observed post-PAT implementation.
• The majority of nurses reported positive perceptions of the PAT.
• The tool effectively linked patient acuity to nursing assignments.

Conclusions:

• Linking patient acuity scores to nursing shift assignments via PAT positively impacts nurse satisfaction.
• PAT provides valuable data for staffing decisions, including recruitment and quality improvement.
• The tool supports equitable workload distribution and enhances the standard of care.