Nursing workload in oncological intensive care in the COVID-19 pandemic: retrospective cohort.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To compare the nursing workload in an oncology intensive care unit according to the condition of COVID-19 infection. METHOD: A retrospective cohort study. The Nursing Activities Score was used to measure the workload and document analysis for data extraction. The medical records were divided into a group of patients with COVID-19 and another group of patients without the infection. RESULTS: The values of the Nursing Activities Score were not different depending on the sociodemographic variables, but the average of this score was statistically different depending on whether the patient had the diagnosis of COVID-19 or not, being higher in those who had the disease. CONCLUSION: It was proved that the nursing workload is high in the context of the oncology intensive care unit. However, COVID-19 increased this score even more, with the Nursing Activities Score being an important tool to size the team in this context.