Nursing workload and occurrence of adverse events in intensive care: a systematic review

Abstract OBJECTIVE To identifyevidences of the influence of nursing workload on the occurrence of adverse events (AE) in adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). METHOD A systematic literature review was conducted in the databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, LILACS, SciELO, BDENF, and Cochrane from studies in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, published by 2015. The analyzed AE were infection, pressure ulcer (PU), patient falls, and medication errors. RESULTS Of 594 potential studies, eight comprised the final sample of the review. TheNursing Activities Score (NAS; 37.5%) and the Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System(TISS; 37.5%) were the instruments most frequently used for assessing nursing workload. Six studies (75.0%) identified the influence of work overload in events of infection, PU, and medicationerrors. An investigation found that the NAS was a protective factor for PU. CONCLUSION The nursing workload required by patients in the ICU influenced the occurrence of AE, and nurses must monitor this variable daily to ensure proper sizing of staff and safety of care

Microstructure and mechanical properties of microalloyed steel forgings manufactured from cross-wedge-rolled preforms

Microscopy showed that cross-rolled and still air-cooled products present microstructures with as-transformed ferrite and pearlite grains. Internal defects were not detected and did not influence the final properties of the forged parts. Microstructures of forgings showed very refined grains and it was observed that the content of acicular ferrite was inversely related to the plastic strain. (c) 2005 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.54221321