Missed nursing care and its association with the work environment of nurses working in pediatrics

Objective: To examine the association between missed nursing care and the work environment in selected pediatric care units in the Czech Republic. Design: A descriptive cross- sectional study. Methods: Data collection was carried out from January to March 2021 using the MISSCARE Survey-Pediatric and Practice Environment Scale - Nursing Work Index instruments. The respondents were pediatric nurses (N = 138) from five care units in the Czech Republic. Results: The most frequently missed nursing care activities were assessing the activities attributes to a caregiver, promoting neuroevolutionary development, or emotional support to the child and/or family. Correlations between missed nursing care and work environment have not been confirmed. However, the relationship between the work environment and perceived staff adequacy was proved. Conclusions: Consistent with other studies, we have confirmed that pediatric nurses missed mainly independent nursing care activities, similar to adult nurses. Likewise, we have proved that the workload associated with an unexpected increase in the number or severity of patients on the care units is one of the most important reasons for the phenomenon. Despite unconfirmed associations between missed nursing care and the work environment, further research should focus on its closer examination in a larger sample of pediatric nurses.

Automated summary

The objective of this study was to examine the association between missed nursing care and the work environment in selected pediatric care units in the Czech Republic. The results showed that pediatric nurses mainly missed independent nursing care activities and the work environment was related to perceived staff adequacy. However, the association between missed nursing care and work environment was not confirmed. Further research with a larger sample of pediatric nurses is recommended to explore this issue in more detail.