The nursing workforce in critical care units in university and private hospitals in turkey [Türkiye’deki üniversite ve özel hastanelerdeki yoğun bakım ünitelerinde hemşire iş gücü]

Objective: the purpose of this study was to assess the present status of the nursing workforce in turkish university and private hospital intensive care units. material and methods: this study was a descriptive survey. a total of 1416 nursing staff members in the intensive care units of 144 turkish hospitals participated in this study. data were collected by mail and analyzed using descriptive statistics. results: in this study,89.4% of nursing staff members were nurses; 66% had a bachelor’s degree and 0.5% had a master’s degree. of the participants,48.6% had not received any critical care-related training,68.9% had been in the workforce between 0.1 to 5 years,and 30.2% had worked in the intensive care unit for 1 year or less. according to calculations based on data provided by the icus that responded to the relevant questions,the average turnover rate was 31.3% in the frst year and 100% over the 5 years preceding the survey. the nurse-to-patient ratio was 1:4 in university hospitals and 1:2 in private hospitals. daily working hours varied from unit to unit,with 89.6% of participants working for more than 8 hours per day. conclusion: the fndings indicate that the quality and quantity of nursing staff in turkish university and private hospital intensive care units fall short of the minimum national or international standards. © 2014 aves ibrahim kara. all rights reserved.