The Nursing Care Needs of Hospitalized AIDS Patients

Abstract

To evaluate the nursing care needs of patients admitted to the hospital for complications of AIDS, we compared the estimated nursing care requirements of AIDS patients with non-AIDS patients at the Royal Victoria Hospital using the Project Research in Nursing scale (PRN). Ward nurses routinely completed a PRN evaluation for every patient at the start of each 8-hour shift during 1986. The results of these evaluations were abstracted retrospectively from nursing records for all AIDS patients admitted during that year and for two control patients (without AIDS) who were selected after matching the hospital ward and date of admission with each AIDS patient. The mean daily PRN scores for AIDS and non-AIDS patients were computed and converted into daily hours of nursing care (1 PRN unit = 5 minutes of care). During 1986, 42 AIDS patients were responsible for 69 admissions and 129 matched controls (129 admissions by 127 patients) without AIDS were identified. Mean daily nursing care requirements were significantly greater (p < 0.0001) for AIDS patients (15.4 hours/day) compared with non-AIDS patients (9.7 hours/day). After stratifying patient hospitalizations according to the need for critical care (admission to intensive care), AIDS patients still required significantly more nursing care (p < 0.05) than non-AIDS patients (37.3 hours/day versus 19.1 hours/day). We conclude that hospitalized AIDS patients may require significantly more nursing care than non-AIDS patients and staffing requirements should be adjusted accordingly.