Employment of nurses in non-nursing departments and evaluation of causes

Background: Nursing staff is insufficient in Turkey and in the world. Nurses are employed in non-nursing departments due to insufficient staff and increased demand in such departments. This has a negative influence on patient care and nurse administrators have difficulty in establishing permanent nursing staff. There are no data about nurses in non-nursing departments in hospitals in Turkey.Purpose: This is a descriptive study and was performed to determine the profile, distribution and positions of nurses in non-nursing departments of both public and university hospitals and the causes of appointment of nurses in those departments by nurse administrators.Method: The study included nurses at 25 government hospitals (public and university hospitals) with more than 30 beds in the province of Izmir. Data were collected from hospital records and with a questionnaire, composed of seven questions about appointment of nurses in non-nursing departments and its causes. Numerical values and percentages were used to evaluate obtained data.Results: Of all the nurses, 3.37% were working in outpatient clinics. This varied with hospitals, ranging from 0.9% to 32.1%. Overall, 5.37% of all nurses were working in non-nursing departments. This varied between hospitals, ranging from 1.2% to 21.4%. Of all nurses in outpatient clinics and non-clinic services, 33.3% were responsible for collecting data about patient vital signs and helping patients to get prepared for medical examinations and procedures and 27.2% of the nurses in non-nursing departments were working as a secretary. Nurse administrators appointed 29% of the nurses in out-patient clinics due to insufficient staff and 27 % of nurses in non-nursing departments since they had education and certificates in subjects other than nursing.Conclusion: The nurses were employed in non-nursing departments, which is against the regulations, has a negative effect on patient care and decrease the number of nursing staff. Nurse administrators were offered recommendations about effective and legal employment of nurses.Key Words: Nurse, employment, nurse employment, non-nursing duties.