Care needs and workload required by institutionalised psychiatric patients

OBJECTIVES: This descriptive study used a quantitative approach to assess the nursing care needs of patients with mental disorders, the mean number of care hours these patients were provided and the workload these patients require nursing team. METHODS: The research was conducted in a public neuropsychiatric hospital located in south eastern Brazil in 2010 and included 105 patients as subjects. A patient classification tool was applied to characterise care profiles. Statistical analysis was performed using principal component analysis and analysis of variance. RESULTS: Patients were predominantly in the low care category (73.3%). The mean care hours ranged from 0.57 to 0.88 for nurses and 1.97 to 3.16 for nursing assistants, and the workload ranged from 119.6 to 183 hours . CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that the care needs of most patients were at a low level of dependency and that most patients did not need to be institutionalised. Furthermore, it was found that the care hours provided by the nursing staff were not sufficient to meet the care needs of the patients.