BACKGROUND: The Belgian Nursing Minimum Data Set (B-NMDS) is a nationwide registration of 23 nursing activities. It was developed for the measurement of nursing care in acute hospitals. It is used to support healthcare management & policy decision making such as hospital financing and nurse staffing decisions. OBJECTIVE: To develop a measure of the intensity of nursing care based on information that is available in the B-NMDS. DESIGN-SETTING-PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective analysis of the B-NMDS from all Belgian acute hospitals (n=115) for the year 2003. The sample included 690,258 inpatient days for 298,691 patients that were recorded from 1637 acute care nursing units. METHODS: The 23 nursing activities were synthesized into one new latent variable by PRINQUAL analysis. This variable was evaluated as a measure of nursing care intensity using key characteristics of the San Joaquin patient classification system, which was designed to measure the intensity of nursing care. RESULTS: The main NMDS component from the PRINQUAL analysis accounted for 26.8% of the variance. The distribution of inpatient days over all four San Joaquin categories is: 11.1% (self-care); 40.4% (average care); 30.8% (above average care); 17.7% (intensive care). In 97.5% of the nursing units the intensity of nursing care score of the B-NMDS (main NMDS component) followed the ordinality of the San Joaquin classification system. Furthermore, the San Joaquin categories alone explained more variability--70.2% in the intensity of nursing care measure (main NMDS component) than did other determinants, such as department type, age, diagnostic-related groups (DRG) and severity of illness, hospital type and hospital size together. CONCLUSION: The B-NMDS is an instrument that produces a measure of the intensity of nursing care in acute hospitals.
BACKGROUND: The Belgian Nursing Minimum Data Set (B-NMDS) is a nationwide registration of 23 nursing activities. It was developed for the measurement of nursing care in acute hospitals. It is used to support healthcare management & policy decision making such as hospital financing and nurse staffing decisions. OBJECTIVE: To develop a measure of the intensity of nursing care based on information that is available in the B-NMDS. DESIGN-SETTING-PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective analysis of the B-NMDS from all Belgian acute hospitals (n=115) for the year 2003. The sample included 690,258 inpatient days for 298,691 patients that were recorded from 1637 acute care nursing units. METHODS: The 23 nursing activities were synthesized into one new latent variable by PRINQUAL analysis. This variable was evaluated as a measure of nursing care intensity using key characteristics of the San Joaquin patient classification system, which was designed to measure the intensity of nursing care. RESULTS: The main NMDS component from the PRINQUAL analysis accounted for 26.8% of the variance. The distribution of inpatient days over all four San Joaquin categories is: 11.1% (self-care); 40.4% (average care); 30.8% (above average care); 17.7% (intensive care). In 97.5% of the nursing units the intensity of nursing care score of the B-NMDS (main NMDS component) followed the ordinality of the San Joaquin classification system. Furthermore, the San Joaquin categories alone explained more variability--70.2% in the intensity of nursing care measure (main NMDS component) than did other determinants, such as department type, age, diagnostic-related groups (DRG) and severity of illness, hospital type and hospital size together. CONCLUSION: The B-NMDS is an instrument that produces a measure of the intensity of nursing care in acute hospitals.
Authors: Koen Van den Heede; Emmanuel Lesaffre; Luwis Diya; Arthur Vleugels; Sean P Clarke; Linda H Aiken; Walter Sermeus Journal: Int J Nurs Stud Date: 2009-02-07 Impact factor: 5.837
Authors: Koen Van den Heede; Walter Sermeus; Luwis Diya; Sean P Clarke; Emmanuel Lesaffre; Arthur Vleugels; Linda H Aiken Journal: Int J Nurs Stud Date: 2008-07-25 Impact factor: 5.837
Authors: Catharina J van Oostveen; Dirk T Ubbink; Judith G Huis in het Veld; Piet J Bakker; Hester Vermeulen Journal: PLoS One Date: 2014-05-30 Impact factor: 3.240