Nursing Workload Prediction for Upcoming Shifts: A Retrospective Observational Exploratory Study in the Postoperative and Intensive Care Unit

Table 2

Nursing activities scores per patient per shift (night, day, and evening) described by sex, ward, type of admission, and type of surgery.

Categories and variables	NAS^†-night shift			NAS^†-day shift			NAS^†-evening shift
	n^‡ (%)	Median (Q1–Q3^§)		n^‡ (%)	Median (Q1–Q3^§)		n^‡ (%)	Median (Q1–Q3^§)
NAS^† per patient per shift	1204	55.7 (26.1–73.1)		2521	19.6 (8.7–49.1)		2191	21.6 (9.6–58.3)
Sex
Male	673 (55.9)	58.1 (30.9–78.0)		1276 (50.6)	22.7 (8.8–61.8)		1074 (49.0)	27.1 (10.7–68.8)
Female	531 (44.1)	51.4 (20.8–68.6)	<0.001^¶	1245 (49.4)	17.9 (8.6–37.2)	<0.001^¶	1117 (51.0)	18.6 (8.9–44.7)	<0.001^¶
Ward
Medical	606 (50.3)	60.1 (41.6–80.7)		859 (34.1)	40.7 (15.1–74.2)		610 (27.8)	59.3 (23.3–86.2)
Surgical	598 (49.7)	46.3 (14.6–65.6)	<0.001^¶	1662 (65.9)	15.7 (7.3–30.6)	<0.001^¶	1581 (72.2)	16.6 (8.4–36.3)	<0.001^¶
Type of admission
Emergency	1123 (93.3)	55.5 (26.2–74.1)		1535 (60.9)	28.9 (9.9–68.3)		1561 (71.2)	27.5 (10.9–67.9)
Elective	81 (6.7)	56.0 (10.6–67.1)	0.313^¶	986 (39.1)	14.3 (7.5–25.1)	<0.001^¶	630 (28.8)	14.6 (7.0–30.0)	<0.001^¶
Surgical
Gastrosurgical	263 (43.9)	58.2 (19.4–70.7)		564 (33.9)	14.9 (7.2–48.3)		540 (34.2)	17.7 (8.4–57.7)
Orthopedic	229 (38.3)	25.1 (9.6–51.9)		940 (56.6)	15.3 (7.4–24.8)		903 (57.1)	15.3 (8.6–27.4)
Nonoperated	106 (17.8)	56.2 (36.6–83.9)	<0.001^††	158 (9.5)	31.8 (7.2–69.6)	<0.001^††	138 (8.7)	42.3 (8.2–81.3)	<0.001^††

^† = NAS-nursing activities score, ^‡ = n-number of NAS per shift, ^§ = Q1–Q3-interpercentile range, ^¶ = Mann–Whitney U, ^†† = Kruskal–Wallis test. value <0.05 indicates statistical significance.