Rationing of Nursing Care on Example of Selected Health Care Facility

Katarzyna Tomaszewska, Bożena Majchrowicz and Dorota Ratusznik
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Katarzyna Tomaszewska: Department of Nursing, Institute of Health Protection, The Bronisław Markiewicz State Higher School of Technology and Economics, 37-500 Jarosław, Poland
Bożena Majchrowicz: Department of Nursing, Institute of Social and Health Sciences, East European State Higher School, 37-700 Przemyśl, Poland
Dorota Ratusznik: Department of Nursing, Higher School of Health Sciences, Colegium Masoviense, 96-300 Żyrardów, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-11

Abstract: Contemporary health determinants require nurses to develop new competencies and skills while performing complex tasks in all forms of health care. The problem of rationing of care is present all over the world and usually occurs when available resources are too low to provide adequate care to all patients. The most common reasons for loss of care are shortages of nurses, use of modern treatment methods, increased demand for care by a large number of patients, and greater knowledge of patients about their rights. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 295 nurses employed in hospital wards. The survey was conducted from September to December 2020 using the standardized BERNCA (The Basel Extent of Rationing of Nursing Care) questionnaire to measure the level of rationing of nursing care. The research was hampered by the sanitation regime associated with the SARS CoV-2 pandemic. Nursing care rationing is dependent on seniority and place of work. The mean total BERNCA score of the degree of rationing of nursing care was 2.58 ± 0.96 on a scale of 0 to 4 (where 0 means “no need for it” and 4 means “often”. The median score was 2.69. The higher frequency of rationing nursing care was characteristic of those working on surgical wards. The mean score obtained by them was 2.72 ± 0.86, with the median equal to 2.88. In the case of nurses employed in non-surgical wards, the scores were 2.08 ± 1.07 and 2.28, respectively. Rationing of nursing care is dependent on seniority and work location, with a higher degree of rationing of care occurring in surgical units.

Keywords: rationing of nursing care; nurse; patient; BERNCA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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