Factors affecting nurses' workload according to cheltenham patient classification scale in pediatric intensive care units of Adana provincial center public hospitals

Intensive care units are complex units that require nurses to have a lot of workload, ability to make quick decisions and intervene. One of the most important job stresses expressed by nurses is overwork. This study was planned to determine the workload of nurses working in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the factors affecting it. The study was performed cross-sectionally between 1 November 2016 and 30 November 2016 in Children Intensive Care Units of Adana Numune Training and Research Hospital, Adana Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital and Cukurova University Medical Faculty Balcalı Hospital. Data were collected by nurses filled in with "Nurse's Descriptive Features and Workload Form", "Workload Scale", "Cheltenham Patient Classification Scale, Intensive Care Nurse Activities Form". Statistical analyzes were performed using the package program SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20). Ethical approval and official permission were obtained from the institutions to conduct the research. The average age of the nurses participating in the survey was 30.90 ± 5.97. 72.6% of the nurses have undergraduate degrees and 54.8% have 5 years or less of professional experience. 60% of the nurses look after to average 2 patients daily. 47.9% of the nurses described the workload as over and 43.8% as very much. According to the nurses, at the beginning of the factors that increase the work load is doing non-duty work (32.4%). Of the patients, 2.2% were in Type 1 class, 8.8% were in Type 2 class, 22.2% were in Type 3 class and 66.6% were in Type 4 class. It was determined that of nurses 35.4% have time for Category 1, 24.9% for Category 2, 18.3% for Category 3, 6.5% for Category 4, 14.5% for Category 5, and 0.1% for Category 6. According to this study, it was determined that the nurses in proportion as 60.4% (Category 1 and 2) allocated time to direct nursing practices and the nurses allocated more than half of their working time directly to their patients. It may be suggested that it may be increased the activities due to reducing the workload of nurses, had balanced number of patients taken care of and considering care needs of patients.