Treatment program effect and nursing patient classification as determinants of psychiatric nurse staffing

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Title Treatment program effect and nursing patient classification as determinants of psychiatric nurse staffing
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Nursing
Department Nursing
Author Evans, Dale Helen Frost
Date 1985-12
Description The influence of treatment programs of specialized psychiatric units of the need for nurse staffing was the problem area explored in this study. The major research question asked whether the treatment program of an inpatient psychiatric unit accounted for more variance in the need for nurse staffing than was attributable to a nursing patient classification system which measures patients' need for nursing care. The study was an extension of a larger research project completed for the Veterans Administration (VA). Six test hospitals in the VA system were used as the sample. The six test hospitals contained 30 impatient units with a variety of treatment programs. A nursing patient classification instrument developed as an outcome of the VA study was used to reclassify all 898 original study patients according to their need for nursing care. The direct care hours given to each category of patient were obtained by worksampling in the original study. The direct care hours were used to analyze the effect of treatment program in hierarchical regression analysis. The treatment program accounted for approximately 1% of the variance in direct care give to patients. The nursing patient classification instrument together with shift accounted for 17% of the variance in direct care. This finding was consistent with the original VA study in that other variable thought to influence the need for nurse staffing, such as amount of socialization groups or chronicity of patients, contributed 1% less to the variance in direct care. The nursing patient classification instrument is a valid indicator of the amount of nursing care required by patients in a wide variety of VA hospitals. A valid nursing patient classification instrument is particularly useful in determining staffing patterns and budget. Other applications of the data produced by a nursing patient classification instrument are in the areas of quality assurance and costing of nursing care services. With the advent of prospective payment systems for hospitals, it is crucial to the nursings' professional and economic survival to unbundle the costs of patients for nursing care from the daily hospital room rate. The outcomes of the VA study and this study will add to the knowledge base of the profession in the area of nursing patient classification and support the use of new nursing patient classification system, the MESA Psychiatric Patient Classification System (MEPP).
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Manpower
Subject MESH Nursing Service, Hospital; Psychiatric Nursing; Patient Care Management; Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; Nursing Staff, Hospital; Clinical Protocols
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name PhD
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Treatment program effect and nursing patient classification as determinants of psychiatric nurse staffing". Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.
Rights Management © Dale Helen Frost Evans.
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,261,011 bytes
Identifier undthes,3868
Source Original University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library (no longer available)
Master File Extent 1,261,163 bytes
ARK ark:/87278/s64f1shv
Setname ir_etd
ID 190900
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s64f1shv
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