Missed nursing care in highly specialized hospitals: A Mexican case study

To assess the status of missed nursing care and the reasons for its occurrence in a highly specialised public hospital in Mexico.

An observational cross-sectional analysis with data collected from January to June 2019 at the National Institute of Rehabilitation Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra in Mexico City. We assessed missed care and its causes by conducting the MISSCARE survey among 116 nursing professionals selected from a population of 162 nurses. This work presents the estimated rates of missed care-overall and broken down into its four dimensions-as well as the reasons for its occurrence, namely limited labour resources, inadequate material resources and communication problems among work teams.

The overall score for missed care was 16% (95% CI: 11.84%-20.15%), with the following rates by dimension: 19.48% for basic care, 14.66% for individual needs, 6.47% for patient education and discharge planning, and 4.31% for continuous patient assessment. The main reason cited for missed care was inadequate material resources, followed by limited labour resources and communication problems among work teams.

Basic care and individual needs interventions were the most frequently omitted services, primarily because of inadequate material resources, limited labour resources and communication problems among work teams. An increase in the frequency of missed care can be expected in light of the high demand for health services, particularly as regards labour and material resources, imposed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.