The Official College of Nursing of Córdoba warns of the “precarious situation” who are going through the Intensive Care Units (ICU) of the public hospitals in the province -Reina Sofía de Córdoba (with adult, pediatric and neonatal ICU), Valle de … the Pedroches de Pozoblanco, Infanta Margarita de Cabra and the Hospital de Montilla – and, in some cases, in private hospitals.
According to the group, the problem is mainly motivated “by an obvious nursing shortage and a high care overload, which not only has a negative impact on the working conditions of these professionals, but above all reduces the quality of care,” he points out in a note.
In this sense, according to the College of Nurses, in the public hospitals of Cordoba, on many occasions the suitable ratio for ICU which is indicated by the Ministry of Health (around 1 nurse for every 2 patients).
«The result of this lack of personnel is that they are not covering retirements, sick leave, reductions in hours, permits paternity and maternity; and nurses find it increasingly difficult to enjoy their permits, days off and vacations, days of their own affairs and excess annual hours that they accumulate,” the note states.
Faced with this whole situation, the Official College of Nursing of Córdoba shows its full support to the complaints and just demands of these nurses, and demands that the health administration “implement effective and agile personnel management policies that put an end to this loss of rights and poor working conditions,” says the president of the College, Natalia Pérez.
Queen Sofia Hospital
In the case of the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Córdoba, this situation has caused the ICU staff, not only nurses but other personnel such as TCAE and guards, “to have been holding rallies in the center’s hall for weeks to shout a silent ‘! Enough!’ and protesting the lack of personnel.
–adult ICU. Here the situation has worsened, according to the College, taking into account that it has recently opened a new module in the ICU with 8 beds. It joins the other five existing ones with another 32 beds. «40 beds in total which, following the aforementioned ratio recommended by the Ministry, would mean that the fixed and structural staff of each shift would have to have 20 stable nurses, something that is not met.
Furthermore, the Córdoba College of Nursing points out that in recent months ECMO patients (those who need an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation system) have increased, requiring some permanent care and continuous; and that, according to recommendations from the main scientific societies, they require a ratio of 1 nurse per patient.
Likewise, the College of Nursing of Córdoba denounces the high turnover rate of Nursing staff in the ICU of this hospital, where temporary contracts for one or four months that, after training in this ICU, they are not renewed in their entirety or are referred to other services; and they are replaced again with new contracts.
–Pediatric ICU. In the case of the pediatric ICU, with twelve boxes of capacity, it is usually attended by five nurses in turn, whose main problem is the care overload due to the complexity of its patients and the technologies used. Furthermore, nurses indicate that when sick leave, leave, etc. are covered. can end up in this PICU nurses without specific training neither in intensive care nor in Pediatrics.
–Neonate ICU. Their 8 incubators They are usually attended by three nurses. This unit also includes an admission module, with 8 incubators and a nurse; and an intermediate module divided into two parts, each with 7 incubators, and two nurses in total. “The ideal is for the entire Neonatal Unit to be staffed by seven nurses per shift, although the minimum number is the six mentioned, and sometimes there are only five nurses in each shift.”
Pedroches Valley Hospital
In the case of the Hospital located in Pozoblanco, although it is true that the care overload and the problems are not as serious as in the Reina Sofía, “the nurses have been demanding the implementation of 12 hour shifts -as happens in the vast majority of public ICUs in Andalusia-, in order to better reconcile work and personal life, and provide more continuous quality care to patients.
On paper, the nursing staff at this hospital is sized to the capacity of the ICU, “although this staff is often used as wildcard and is referred to other services.
Hospitals in the south of the province
-Goat Hospital. “The ICU staff has improved slightly, going from two to three nurses per shift, in any case insufficient to care for a Unit made up of 12 beds.”
-Montilla Hospital. Its ICU has six beds, but it does not in itself form an independent unit – and therefore with specific personnel assigned – but rather depends on supervision that It works for both Emergencies and the Special Unit, which integrates not only the aforementioned six ICU beds but also another 12 monitoring beds for different specialties; In addition, the nursing staff, made up mostly of temporary staff, assumes and covers other areas and treatments.
In the ICU of this hospital, the staff “does not agree to be hired by a specific critical pool system, which leads to the arrival of colleagues who They have never stepped foot in an ICU», collects the note.
Private hospitals
In the case of the three private hospitals in the province with ICU –Quirónsalud Córdoba, Red Cross and San Juan de Dios-, are governed by their own personnel management systems and collective agreements, and their ICUs are smaller. «The College of Nursing of Córdoba supports all the demands and improvements requested by nurses who work in the private sector, although according to the information and data managed by the College, the ICU of the Quirónsalud Hospital Córdoba is the one that supports greater overload assistance derived from the lack of personnel.
With a capacity of up to seven bedsalthough the average occupancy is usually three, each shift is attended by a single nurse. In the event that occupancy increases, the hospital reinforces the workforce with nurses from other areas of the hospital or through their own employment pool that they manage, through which contracts are offered that can be for hours or days.
This tight staff also causes problems, as in the case of public hospitals, for request days off permissions, etc. Similarly, and as in the case of the Hospital del Valle de los Pedroches, the nurses of the Quirónsalud ICU have been demanding the implementation of 12 hour shifts, to better reconcile and provide more continuous quality care to patients; Although this center responds that corporately Their hospitals do not consider this option.
