Investigation of missed nursing care and its relationship with the professional satisfaction of the nursing staff

OBJECTIVE The investigation of the nursing staff's perceptions of the types and causes of missed nursing care, as well as the possible relationship of this phenomenon with their professional satisfaction. METHODThe The research was carried out from January to March 2022. The sample of the research was 149/280 nurses of all ranks (response rate 53%) of the staff of the "Agios Panteleimon" General Hospital of Nikea-"Agia Varvara" General Hospital of Western Attica. Data collection was performed using a questionnaire on the types and causes of missed nursing care (Miss nursing care, MISSCARE), which also included a set of questions regarding nurses'job satisfaction. Data analysis was performed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS), version 25.0. RESULTS The average value of the omitted nursing care of the participants ranged in moderate levels, while the elements of nursing care that are omitted with greater frequency, often or always, were changing the position of patients every two hours, attendance at the medical visit made for patients, oral care and hand washing. The most important reason for missed nursing care is the insufficient number of staff, while nurses are satisfied or very satisfied with their work in their current position (77%), with the fact that they are nurses (79.7%), and with the level of teamwork in their department (89.8%). At the same time, nurses who were not satisfied with their work seemed to record a higher frequency of absenteeism, while a higher level of missed nursing care characterizes those who hold a master's degree, those who have missed more than six shifts, those who intended to leave their job over the next six months and people who felt that the staffing of their department was not satisfactory at all. CONCLUSIONS The utilization of the results of the present investigations could contribute to a gradual improvement of the health services provided by the National Health System through the reduction to the minimum possible number of omissions in nursing care.