German Intensive Care Nurses’ readiness to undertake new scope of practice - A cross-sectional study
Kawalirek Novoa, Iria (2025)
2025
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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202501171498
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202501171498
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Background: The German parliament has recently signed a nursing reform pronouncing the new “re-served tasks list for nursing professionals”. This task list has a major impact on the German develop-ment of the nursing profession and their scope of practice. The deployment of this new scope of prac-tice will mean the delegation of certain tasks and the overtaking of new ones opening the possibility to introduce new nursing roles in the current working model. At the same time the European Federa-tion of Nurses Association (EFN) developed the workforce 3+1 work model which integrates the health care assistance role and advanced nursing practice role, emerging from the pressure to develop a more flexible care system. This working model is followed by most of European countries, but despite Germany recognises this working model its implementation at intensive care unit (ICU) is vague due to the uncertainty of tasks definition of the different nursing roles.
Tasks and objectives: An analysis of the ICU German intensive care nursing workforce in regards of; their satisfaction level with their current scope of practice, their opinion if the current scope of prac-tice needs a revision, their attitudes and the preferences towards delegation of tasks and the overtak-ing of new ones and their willingness to introduce the workforce 3+1 work model in their daily rou-tines
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted. Three university hospitals from Germany were chosen to participate in this research. In total a sum of 648 participants were involved with a participation rate of 15% (n = 83). The data has been collected using an online questionnaire.
Results: Despite more than 61% (n = 51) of the ICU nurses in German hospitals expressed satisfaction with their current scope of practice, 76% (n = 63) of the respondents believed that their daily tasks should be reviewed. According to the findings, 78% (n = 65) of participants have chosen involvement and professional development over to a reduction in work or obligations. The 75% (n = 62) of re-spondents showed a positive attitude towards delegation while at the same time acquiring new re-sponsibilities and 81% (n = 67) of ICU nurses expresses to be highly motivated and preferred more autonomy and responsibilities in their daily tasks including leadership roles. The chores that generat-ed most interest among the respondents (>80%, n = 59) were tasks that require high clinical expertise skills rather than in diagnostic procedures. The respondents supported the idea to undergo further education if necessary.
Conclusions: The tendency shows that the implementation of the Workforce 3 + 1 working model would be welcomed at German ICU, the roles of health care assistant (HCA) and advance practice nurse (APN) could be included on daily basis and shift basis as part of work routine. This implies that the reassignment of tasks must be clearly defined for all roles before implementation. Additionally, the deployment of this work model and the shifting of tasks would also imply, that the “reserved task list” pronounced by the nursing reform is compiled and implemented.
Tasks and objectives: An analysis of the ICU German intensive care nursing workforce in regards of; their satisfaction level with their current scope of practice, their opinion if the current scope of prac-tice needs a revision, their attitudes and the preferences towards delegation of tasks and the overtak-ing of new ones and their willingness to introduce the workforce 3+1 work model in their daily rou-tines
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted. Three university hospitals from Germany were chosen to participate in this research. In total a sum of 648 participants were involved with a participation rate of 15% (n = 83). The data has been collected using an online questionnaire.
Results: Despite more than 61% (n = 51) of the ICU nurses in German hospitals expressed satisfaction with their current scope of practice, 76% (n = 63) of the respondents believed that their daily tasks should be reviewed. According to the findings, 78% (n = 65) of participants have chosen involvement and professional development over to a reduction in work or obligations. The 75% (n = 62) of re-spondents showed a positive attitude towards delegation while at the same time acquiring new re-sponsibilities and 81% (n = 67) of ICU nurses expresses to be highly motivated and preferred more autonomy and responsibilities in their daily tasks including leadership roles. The chores that generat-ed most interest among the respondents (>80%, n = 59) were tasks that require high clinical expertise skills rather than in diagnostic procedures. The respondents supported the idea to undergo further education if necessary.
Conclusions: The tendency shows that the implementation of the Workforce 3 + 1 working model would be welcomed at German ICU, the roles of health care assistant (HCA) and advance practice nurse (APN) could be included on daily basis and shift basis as part of work routine. This implies that the reassignment of tasks must be clearly defined for all roles before implementation. Additionally, the deployment of this work model and the shifting of tasks would also imply, that the “reserved task list” pronounced by the nursing reform is compiled and implemented.