Marga Hoogendoorn

90 ABSTRACT Background. Nursing workload is an important issue in ICU management. However, not much is known about the association between nursing workload and satisfaction of nurses with their workload. Objective. The aim of this study is to assess the association of the objective, time and activity-based nursing workload and the perceived nursing workload with the satisfaction of nurses about their workload in Intensive Care. Methods. We measured the objective nursing workload with the Nursing Activities Score and the perceived nursing workload measured with the NASA-TLX during 226 shifts in eight different Intensive Cares Units (ICUs). Nurses were asked to rate their satisfaction about the nursing workload during that shift on a scale from 0 (not satisfied at all) till 10 (maximum satisfaction). We used logistic regression models to analyze the association between both the Nursing Activities Score and the NASA-TLX with workload satisfaction (satisfied (>=6) or not (<6)) of nurses about the workload. Results. In our study we showed that a Nursing Activities Score between 73.9 - < 83.7 points per nurse leads to a significant higher chance of a nurse being satisfied about his/ her nursing workload (OR = 2.92 (1.01 – 8.45)). An increase of the overall workload with a NASA-TLX score of ³ 27 is leading to a significant higher chance of a nurse being satisfied about the nursing workload (NASA-TLX 27 - <32: OR(CI)=3.26 (1.23 – 8.64); NASA-TLX ³ 32: OR(CI) = 3.04 (1.11-7.98). Analyzing the subcategories of the NASA-TLX showed a significant higher chance of a nurse being satisfied about the workload in case of a high demand in the subcategories ‘mental demand’, ‘physical demand’ and ‘effort’. Conclusion. Our study showed that nurses are most satisfied on their objective workload when the Nursing Activity Score is around 80, and when the perceived overall workload as measured with the NASA-TLX is high (above 27). Especially a perceived high mental demand, physical demand or effort contribute to a higher chance of the nurse being satisfied. A further increase of the objective or perceived nursing workload to a very high demand or a low objective or perceived nursing workload diminish these positive associations. Managers responsible for capacity planning should take these results into consideration to avoid burn-out and bore-out of ICU nurses.