Unfinished nursing care in four central European countries.

Renáta Zeleníková,Elena Gurková,Evridiki Papastavrou,Darja Jarošová,Ilona Plevová,Izabella Uchmanowicz,Katarína Žiaková,Adriano Friganovic

doi:10.1111/jonm.12896

Abstract

AimThe main aim of the research was to describe and compare unfinished nursing care in selected European countries.BackgroundThe high prevalence of unfinished nursing care reported in recently published studies, as well as its connection to negative effects on nurse and patient outcomes, has made unfinished care an important phenomenon and a quality indicator for nursing activities.MethodsA cross‐sectional descriptive study was undertaken. Unfinished nursing care was measured using the Perceived Implicit Rationing of Nursing Care questionnaire (PIRNCA). The sample included 1,353 nurses from four European countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia).ResultsThe percentage of nurses leaving one or more nursing activities unfinished ranged from 95.2% (Slovakia) to 97.8% (Czech Republic). Mean item scores on the 31 items of the PIRNCA in the total sample ranged from 1.13 to 1.92. Unfinished care was significantly associated with the type of hospital and quality of care.ConclusionThe research results confirmed the prevalence of unfinished nursing care in the countries surveyed.Implications for Nursing ManagementThe results are a useful tool for enabling nurse managers to look deeper into nurse staffing and other organizational issues that may influence patient safety and quality of care.

Highlights

The number of scientific papers related to unfinished nursing care has increased significantly over the last decade, with several extensive reviews concluding that unfinished nursing care is a problem worldwide (Jones, Hamilton, & Murry, 2015; Papastavrou, Andreou, & Efstathiou, 2014b)
The conceptual framework of unfinished nursing care described by Jones et al (2015) and Jones, Willis, Amorim-Lopes, Drach-Zahavy, RANCARE Consortium COST, (2019) was chosen
The target population was nurses from acute care departments employed in acute care hospitals in the public or private sector in Central European countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia)

Summary

Introduction

The number of scientific papers related to unfinished nursing care has increased significantly over the last decade, with several extensive reviews concluding that unfinished nursing care is a problem worldwide (Jones, Hamilton, & Murry, 2015; Papastavrou, Andreou, & Efstathiou, 2014b). The conceptual framework of unfinished nursing care described by Jones et al (2015) and Jones, Willis, Amorim-Lopes, Drach-Zahavy, RANCARE Consortium COST, (2019) was chosen. Unfinished care in this conceptual model is a component of the process of care between organizational system structures and outcomes/ effects. The results of the RN4CAST study involving 12 European countries (Belgium, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) indicate that all these countries have had to deal with the problem of nursing care quality, patient safety, job satisfaction and burnout (Aiken et al, 2012). According to Ausserhofer et al (2014), unfinished nursing care might play an important role in nurse outcomes

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