2001 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 32-43
The purposes of the study are: ①to examine the accuracy of the tool called "Nursing Needs Check" developed by the government, ②to discuss appropriate methods for reliable application of the tool, and ③to investigate the causes for disagreement among three different roles of nurses.
Two hospital wards practicing term nursing were selected from 20 hospitals appointed by the government for the study. The two wards were from different hospitals. In each ward, three different roles of nurses, the head nurse, the team leader, and the nurse who took care of patients, checked each patient's nursing needs using the tool.
The agreement rate of each item for each patient among three different roles of nurses was compared. The lowest agreement rate item is "anxiety (36%)," following by "condition (51.6%)," "washing hair (55.9%)," "blood pressure check (61.3%)," "transfer method (65.2%)," "nursing needs (65.4%)," "rest (65.6%)," and "getting up (70.6%)."
There are eight reasons for the low agreement rate.
1) The nurses did not understand the concept of the tool and the nurses' ability of assessment varies. 2) The nurses judged patient's condition using their own standard. 3) The patients' condition varies during the shift, which makes difficult to determine the condition at the specific time of the day. 4) The nurses had a hard time to determine whether they should answer by the order or actual patient's condition. 5) Some items occur very rate that makes nurses difficulty to judge correctly. 6) The nurses' record was not appropriate. 7) The different time period to determine the condition that makes complicated. 8) The expressions of choices are not appropriate.
