Hospital and unit variables of missed nursing care in acute care hospitals: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Aims and Objectives To investigate hospital, unit and staff variables as the correlates of missed nursing care (MNC) in Czech hospitals. Background There is a considerable variability in patterns of MNC across different hospital, unit and staff characteristics. Design A cross‐sectional study was conducted. The STROBE guidelines for reporting observational studies were followed for reporting of the research study. Methods A sample of 513 nurses working in nine acute care hospitals was recruited. MNC activities were measured with the MISSCARE Survey. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and univariate logistic regression. Results Type of unit was confirmed as a significant predictor of MNC. Staff characteristics (nurses’ work position, level of education and perceived adequacy of unit staff) and hospital variables did not contribute significantly to MNC. Conclusions The study replicated the patterns of MNC across different conceptual approaches. MNC was influenced by work environment characteristics rather than individual staff variables. Relevance to clinical practice The results of this research showed that missed nursing care is influenced by work environment characteristics rather than individual staff variables.

Missed nursing care in hospital environments during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Study findings show that MNC occurred in all categories of nursing care. The patterns and reasons of MNC revealed in this study were in line with previous studies in the Czech Republic (Jarošová et al, 2021;Zeleníková et al, 2019Zeleníková et al, , 2020aZeleníková et al, , 2020b and other European studies (Bragadóttir et al, 2017;Palese et al, 2015;Bagnasco et al, 2020) based on the missed care approach and conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with our results, a Swedish comparative study (von Vogelsang et al, 2021) revealed similar levels and reasons of MNC before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…b Subscales of the PES-NWI NFQoC -"Nursing Foundations for Quality of Care", NPHA -"Nurse Participation in Hospital Affairs", SRA -"Staffing and Resource Adequacy" 2020), and therefore there is less capacity to mitigate the frequencies of MNC during the pandemic. However, the prevalence of MNC in this study was not higher in comparison with recent studies conducted in Czech acute care settings before the COVID-19 pandemic (Jarošová et al, 2021;Zeleníková et al, 2021). Study findings show that MNC occurred in all categories of nursing care.…”

“…Study design and sample, findings related to perceived adequacy of ward staff and the mean patient‐to‐nurse ratio were similar in this study and other Czech studies with data collection before the COVID 19 pandemic (Jarošová et al., 2021 ; Zeleníková et al., 2021 ). Low level of staffing combined with an unexpected rise in patient acuity on wards were the most perceived causes of MNC before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic (Gurková et al., 2021 ; Jarošová et al., 2021 ; Zeleníková et al., 2019 ). Our study was performed between the two waves of the COVID‐19 pandemic, when acute care hospitals postponed elective surgery, and significant decrease in all‐cause admissions was reported (OECD/European Union, 2020 ).…”

“…Data used in this analysis were a part of the project focusing on nurse work environment and missed nursing care (Gurková et al, 2021). The MISSCARE Survey was used to measure MNC in this project.…”

“…The study reports only the analysis focused on the Part A-on the scope and prevalence of reported MNC. Findings and discussion on the reasons of MNC (Part B of the MISSCARE Survey) arising from this project were reported elsewhere (Gurková et al, 2021).…”