Nursing Workload in Patients With Myocardial Ischemia After Non-cardiac Surgery

Introduction: Nursing workload (NWL) in the intensive care unit ( ICU) is an essential parameter of patient safety. However, little attention has been dedicated to measuring NWL in ICU about patients surgically treated with myocardial ischemia (MI). Methods: The objectives of this study are to describe and examine the NWL by applying the Nursing Activities Score in patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery and developed MI in the ICU. The statistical significance was set at 0.05. The statistical program SPSS 22.0 was used for the analysis. Results: The mean age was 69.1 years, whereas 32.4% of the patients had MI. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia were the main comorbidities. On the first day in ICU, the NWL was similar in all patients (p = 0.947). In the following days, the NWL was significantly higher in patients with MI (p < 0.001). The NWL was considerably higher in patients with MI who died. Conclusions: The present results are essential for planning and using nursing resources according to the care needs of postoperative patients with MI.