Valoración de la carga asistencial del personal de enfermería en función de los nuevos usuarios de los servicios de pediatría

Abstract

Objective To determine the nursing workload generated by childhood immigration and by the Immigrant Healthcare Protocol (IHP) in pediatric patients in comparison with that generated by the autochthonous pediatric population. Method Children aged between 6 months and 15 years from low-income countries as well as children born in Spain and resident in their parents’ country of origin for more than 2 years who were attended between 31 May 2001 and 31 May 2002 were included. Of 136 children, 74 were selected. Autochthonous children of the same age and sex as immigrant children (n = 74) were also included. A randomized sampling technique was used. Results There were 454 consultations in the immigrant group with a median of 6 visits (minimum, 2; maximum, 15).Noteworthy was the number of consultations exclusively related to the application of the IHP (292). There were 129 consultations in the autochthonous group with a median of 2 (minimum, 0; maximum, 8). There were 614 IHP-related activities in immigrant children with a median of 8 (minimum, 2; maximum, 19) while in autochthonous children there were 101 activities with a median of 1 (minimum, 0; maximum, 6). There were 115 missed appointments in immigrants (median, 1) and 23 in autochthonous children (median, 0). Conclusions There was a marked difference between immigrant and autochthonous children in the number of consultations and activities. IHP-related consultations and activities, performed only in immigrant children, increased the overall workload. This difference is required to reduce inequalities in health between the two groups. A marked difference was also found in the number of missed appointments and in the number of activities related to rescheduling missed appointments between immigrant and autochthonous children.