Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Workforce and Task Sharing For Nurses in the Japanese Intensive Care Unit -Cross Sectional Postal Survey

Takeshi Unoki
* ORCID logo ,
Yusuke Kawai
ORCID logo ,
Miya Hamamoto
ORCID logo ,
Mitsuhiro Tamoto
,
Takeharu Miyamoto
,
Hideaki Sakuramoto
,
Yumi Ito
ORCID logo ,
Etsuko Moro
,
Junko Tatsuno
,
Osamu Nishida
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 7 July 2021 / Approved: 8 July 2021 / Online: 8 July 2021 (13:34:14 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Unoki, T.; Kawai, Y.; Hamamoto, M.; Tamoto, M.; Miyamoto, T.; Sakuramoto, H.; Ito, Y.; Moro, E.; Tatsuno, J.; Nishida, O. Workforce and Task Sharing of Nurses in the Japanese Intensive Care Unit-Cross-Sectional Postal Survey. Healthcare 2021, 9, 1017. Unoki, T.; Kawai, Y.; Hamamoto, M.; Tamoto, M.; Miyamoto, T.; Sakuramoto, H.; Ito, Y.; Moro, E.; Tatsuno, J.; Nishida, O. Workforce and Task Sharing of Nurses in the Japanese Intensive Care Unit-Cross-Sectional Postal Survey. Healthcare 2021, 9, 1017.

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to estimate the number of nurses who independently care for pa-tients with severe respiratory failure receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) or veno-venous ex-tracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO). Additionally, the study analyzed the actual role of nurses in the treatment of patients with MV and VV-ECMO. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using postal surveys. The study included 725 Japanese intensive care units (ICUs). Descriptive statistics were conducted. Results: Among the 725 ICUs, we obtained 302 re-sponses (41.7%) and analyzed 282 responses. The median number of nurses per bed was 3.25. The median proportion of nurses who independently cared for patients with MV was 60% [IQR: 42.3-77.3]. The median proportion of nurses who independently cared for patients with VV-ECMO was 46.9 (35.7-63.3%) in the ICU experiencing VV-ECMO use. Concerning task-sharing, 33.8% of ICUs and nurses did not facilitate weaning from MV. Nurses always ti-trated sedatives in 44.5% of ICUs. Conclusion: Nurse staffing might be inadequate in all ICUs, es-pecially for severe respiratory failure. The proportion of competent nurses for caring for severe respiratory failure in ICUs should be considered when determining the work force of nurses.

Keywords

Intensive Care Units; Workforce; Mechanical Ventilation; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Immunology and Allergy

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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