Exploring care left undone in paediatric nursing

Objectives To investigate the association between nursing care left undone in paediatrics and factors related to nursing staff characteristics and work environment. Methods The data of the present study were extracted from our RN4CAST@IT-Ped database, a cross-sectional observational study, which included 13 hospitals belonging to the Italian Association of Paediatric Hospitals. Through convenience sampling, nurses and paediatric nurses providing direct care in routine paediatric wards were enrolled in the study. Data were analysed aggregated by clinical care area, through descriptive and inferential statistics methods using IBM  SPSS  22.0 software. Results We collected data from 399 pediatric nurses working in surgical wards, 1208 in medical wards, and 631 in critical care units. Some of the investigated factors have shown an association with the risk of omitting essential nursing activities, like healthcare judged of poor quality, patient safety judged as poor, and nurses’ intention-to-leave the job. For every nursing activity under investigation we found some significant statistical associations. Conclusions Our results are consistent with the international literature showing that nurses miss some activities more frequently. Understanding the associations underpinning care left undone, could be a starting point for the implementation of patient-centred care and the improvement of the quality and safety of care in paediatric settings, as well as the work environment.