Rationing nursing care in the selected hospitals in Slovakia

Abstract

Background: Rationing of nursing care is defined as failure to provide all necessary nursing activities due to lack of resources (personnel, time, material). Nurses are forced to limit, minimize or omit some nursing activities, thus increasing the risk of negative outcomes in patients.

Aim: To determine the level of prevalence of allocated nursing care in selected health care facilities in Slovakia.

Sample and methodology: The research sample consisted of 94 nurses from hospitals in Kežmarok, Levoča and Poprad. Data collection was performed using the PIRNCA (Perceived Implicit Rationing of Nursing Care) questionnaire. Descriptive and inductive statistics were used to evaluate the empirical part.

Results: The highest scores within the individual items of the PIRNCA questionnaire were achieved by the nurses in the item I could not have an important interview with another member of the multidisciplinary team regarding patient care. In contrast, the lowest scores were achieved in the Cannot Perform Routine Patient Skin Care item and in the Could Not Perform Wound Treatment (including dressing) as prescribed by a physician / ward standard. In our study, we confirmed statistically significant differences between the care provided and the job classification of nurses and a statistically significant relationship between the care provided and the overall satisfaction of nurses.

Conclusion: The most common factors that contribute to the emergence of nursing care are the lack of nurses and support staff, inefficient delegation of care tasks and increasing workload, leading to the phenomenon of implicitly assigned care. More attention needs to be paid to this phenomenon and the state of quality and safety of healthcare provided needs to be examined in order to develop effective measures to address this problem.