Propagation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus due to the overloading of medical nurses in intensive care units

Morbidity and mortality due to nosocomial infections are on the increase. The effectiveness of infection control has become an important indicator of the quality of hospital work, as well as contributing towards cost reduction. The aim of this three-year prospective study was to investigate the daily workload of medical nurses to see if there was a correlation with the spread of infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) using a Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS). Although this SICU pays great attention to continuing education, the incidence of MRSA is still high. By means of the TISS, it was estimated that nurses in the SICU are overloaded by an average of 57%. Infections with MRSA occurred during periods when nurses were, on average, overloaded by more than 25%. During the study period, 47 new cases of MRSA infection were detected. These results suggest that adequate human resource management, particularly with respect to nursing care staff in SICUs, could contribute towards infection control.