Comparison of Nurses’ Workload and Multiple Organ Failure of Patients Hospitalized in the COVID-19 and Non–COVID-19 Intensive Care Units

Background: Measuring nurses’ workload and related factors in intensive care units and reviewing their staffing is very important during COVID-19. This study aims to compare nurses’ workload and multiple organ failure of patients hospitalized during the COVID-19 in intensive care units and non–COVID-19 intensive care units. Materials and Methods: An observational study was conducted with 768 patients hospitalized in intensive care units and Zanjan City (Iran) intensive care units in 2021. The data were collected using the Nursing Activities Score and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment. Data analysis was performed by independent t -test, Chi-squared (χ 2 ) test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r), and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR). The statistical significance level was set at p < 0.05. Results: NAS in non–COVID-19 intensive care units 59.90% (10.03) was significantly higher than that of COVID-19 intensive care units 56.38% (6.67) ( p < 0.001). In addition, the SOFA score was higher in the non–COVID-19 intensive care units 6.98 (3.89) than in COVID-19 intensive care units 5.62 (3.98) ( p < 0.001). The Nursing Activities Score had a positive and statistically significant relationship with the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment in both units, and this relationship was higher in the COVID-19 intensive care units (r = 0.71). In addition, predictors of NAS were identified as four variables, i.e. consciousness level, SOFA, length of stay, and having an artificial airway ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: Non–COVID-19 ICUs had higher NAS and SOFA scores in the study. Further investigation is needed to identify additional workload aspects in intensive care units.