Planning Nursing Workforce in Primary Health Care in Brazil

Purpose: to propose standard references for duration of nursing interventions / activities at Primary Care Units (PCU) and to calculate nursing workforce. 

Methods: It was conducted a methodological research field, multicenter with a quantitative approach and purposive sampling in 27 PCUs, in 12 states in all 5 geographical regions. The work sampling technic was applied. The standard references were calculated based on interventions / activities proposed by Workload Indicators Staffing Need. 

Results: 32.613 observations were conducted, and 15% was sample retest, 27.846 observations were regular. Furthermore, 9.198 (33%) were observations of nurses and 18.648 (67%) were observations of nurse assistants. Nurses, in Brazil, spend their working time as following: 59.1% in interventions (30.5% direct care and 28.7% indirect care), 7% in unit-related activity, 13.2% in personal activity, 3% standby time, 14.7% absence and 3% was not observed. Nurse assistants, in Brazil, spend their working time as following: 40.7% in interventions (24.7% in direct care and indirect care in 16%), 13.7% unit-related activity, 15.8% in personal activity, 15.6% standby time, 11.7% absence and 2.5% was not observed. The current productivity and potential productivity of nurses, in Brazil, were 66% and 84% respectively; and of Nurse Assistants were 55% of actual productivity and 83% of potential productivity

Conclusion:

These results can support an eventual redesign of some practices and process optimization of nursing workforce in order to better meet the needs of users.