Trauma nursing care: a workload model

Abstract

The current rationalisation of health care in the Western Cape may result in a decrease in the number of patients attending the Trauma Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH), one of the two large tertiary care hospitals in the Western Cape. This in turn may result in cuts in staff allocations to this unit. The nursing staff need to be proactive in preventing potential cuts which may compromise the services that they offer. Current statistics collected by nursing managers in the trauma unit at GSH provide an indication of the volume of work handled, but do not necessarily capture the intensity of that work. The purpose of this research project will determine the extent to which nursing care required by patients attending the trauma unit at GSH has increased and to establish appropriate staff workload scheduling.

The existing classification systems available for assessing patient acuity levels are no longer suitable as they use patient numbers to describe workload.

By using a classification system specifically developed for the use by nurse managers in high care units (trauma units), the appropriate staffing norms based on the acuity level of patients can be determined. Finally, this research project will determine a suitable model for measuring the intensity of workload specific to a trauma unit environment for the effective and efficient allocation of staff.