Högskolan i Skövde

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe burden of care related to monitoring patient vital signs of intensive care unit patients in a Swedish hospital. Setting: Data collected by “The Swedish Intensive Care Registry” from one general category II intensive care unit in a Swedish hospital was included in this study. Data from year 2014 to 2020 was analysed comprising a total of 3617 intensive care episodes and 29,165 work shifts. Research methodology: This is a retrospective database study. Descriptive statistics gave an overview of the dataset. To test for differences between variables related to burden of care for “Documentation of monitoring” Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test was performed using STATA. Results: “Documentation of monitoring” was reported to generate a prominent burden of care during intensive care. Nearly all patients had continuous monitoring. Comparison for burden of care related to “Documentation of monitoring” for sexes generated no statistically significant difference. Comparison for burden of care related to “Documentation of monitoring” among age groups, diagnose groups and time of day generated statistically significant differences. Conclusion: Monitoring patient vital signs was clearly present during intensive care, hence impacting intensive care nurses’ clinical practice. Further research is endorsed to improve and facilitate monitoring to keep improving patient safety.