Nursing care complexity in a psychiatric setting: results of an observational study

Abstract

For nurses working in mental health service settings, it is a priority to perform patient assessments to identify patients' general and behavioural risks and nursing care complexity using objective criteria, to meet the demand for care and to improve the quality of service by reducing health threat conditions to the patients' selves or to others (adverse events). This study highlights that there is a relationship between the complexity of psychiatric patient care, which was assigned a numerical value after the nursing assessment, and the occurrence of psychiatric adverse events in the recent histories of the patients. The results suggest that nursing supervision should be enhanced for patients with high care complexity scores.

Facilitating knowledge of mental health nurses to undertake physical health interventions: a pre-test/post-test evaluation

“…Petrucci et al . () researched the use of a global assessment that included physical health needs evaluation. Petrucci and colleagues also discussed how implementing assessments for mental health nursing has to take into account the complexity of care provision and the interrelationship between physical and mental health.…”

“…However, one of the barriers to successful implementation is how to include such an framework on an already packed menu of assessments the practising mental health nurse has to use. Petrucci et al (2014) researched the use of a global assessment that included physical health needs evaluation. Petrucci and colleagues also discussed how implementing assessments for mental health nursing has to take into account the complexity of care provision and the interrelationship between physical and mental health.…”

Assessment of nursing workload in adult psychiatric inpatient units: A scoping review

“…The third study is a cross‐sectional study (Petrucci et al., ) carried out in Italy to evaluate the existence of a relationship between the complexity of psychiatric patient care and the occurrence of psychiatric adverse events in recent histories of patients. The authors defined the concept of nursing care complexity as being related to disease severity and the level of nurses’ skills and knowledge (referring to studies by Brennan & Daly and Lancia et al., ) and assumed that patients’ clinical status was the main factor to consider when measuring care complexity as well as nursing workload (with reference to Rosenberg, ); that is, the provided care quantification (nursing workload) must be carried out according to an objective patient evaluation, identifying both their health status and their needs.…”

“…The definition of nursing care activity includes a temporal dimension (intensity of nursing care) and a professional dimension (skills combination). Nursing care intensity depends on the work volume (number of provided interventions), while the skill combination depends on patient care complexity and is defined by the type of care activities (delegated or nondelegated) that are required (regarding the study by Lancia et al., ; Petrucci et al., ). This study provides a tool that allows the quantification of the complexity of psychiatric patients’ nursing care and, consequently, the number of nurses and competences required.…”

“…The third study is a cross-sectional study (Petrucci et al, 2014) carried out in Italy to evaluate the existence of a relationship between the complexity of psychiatric patient care and the occurrence of psychiatric adverse events in recent histories of patients. Lancia et al, 2011;Petrucci et al, 2014). This study provides a tool that allows the quantification of the complexity of psychiatric patients' nursing care and, consequently, the number of nurses and competences required.…”