THE NURSING-CARE NEEDS OF HOSPITALIZED AIDS PATIENTS - A QUANTITATIVEASSESSMENT

To evaluate the nursing care needs of patients admitted to the hospita l for complications of AIDS, we compared the estimated nursing care re quirements of AIDS patients with non-AIDS patients at the Royal Victor ia Hospital using the Project Research in Nursing scale (PRN). Ward nu rses routinely completed a PRN evaluation for every patient at the sta rt of each 8-hour shift during 1986. The results of these evaluations were abstracted retrospectively from nursing records for all AIDS pati ents admitted during that year and for two control patients (without A IDS) who were selected after matching the hospital ward and date of ad mission with each AIDS patient. The mean daily PRN scores for AIDS and non-AIDS patients were computed and converted into daily hours of nur sing care (1 PRN unit = 5 minutes of care). During 1986, 42 AIDS patie nts were responsible for 69 admissions and 129 matched controls (129 a dmissions by 127 patients) without AIDS were identified. Mean daily nu rsing care requirements were significantly greater (p < 0.0001) for AI DS patients (15.4 hours/day) compared with non-AIDS patients (9.7 hour s/day). After stratifying patient hospitalizations according to the ne ed for critical care (admission to intensive care), AIDS patients stil l required significantly more nursing care (p < 0.05) than non-AIDS pa tients (37.3 hours/day versus 19.1 hours/day). We conclude that hospit alized AIDS patients may require significantly more nursing care than non-AIDS patients and staffing requirements should be adjusted accordi ngly.