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Background: According to the perception of nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU), surgical patients need more nursing care, thus requiring higher nursing workloads for these patients than those admitted as clinical patients. However, some study results on the relationship between the type of admission and the nursing workload are considered contradictory. Aims and objectives: To identify if the type of admission (clinical, emergency surgery or elective surgery) is a predictive factor of the nursing workload required by patients on the first day or throughout their stay in the ICU. Design: This was a quantitative cross‐sectional study comprised of a retrospective analysis of clinical records of critical patients. Methods: Data were collected from 1 May 2015 to 30 September 2015 in a hospital located in São Paulo, Brazil. Nursing workload was measured using the Nursing Activities Score. The type of admission and the demographic and clinical variables of the patients were investigated. Multiple linear regression was used to identify nursing workload predictive factors, with 5% significance level. Results: In the analysed sample (n = 211; mean age of 60·3 ± 18·7 years), there was a prevalence of male gender (56·9%). A statistically significant difference (p = 0·025) was found between the type of admission and the nursing workload required for patients on the first ICU day. The Simplified Acute Physiologic Score (p = 0·009) was a predictor of nursing workload on the first day in the ICU, and the Logistic Organ Dysfunction System (p = 0·026) and mortality (p < 0·001) were predictors throughout the ICU stay. Conclusions: The type of admission was not a predictive factor of the nursing workload required by critical patients. Relevance to clinical practice: Identifying the predictive factors of nursing workload favours the appropriate staffing of the critical unit by nurses. However, nurses should not consider the type of admission in predicting the nursing workload required by patients in the ICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of a child's clinical condition; maternal characteristics such as dental anxiety and dental visit pattern; socioeconomic conditions; and maternal perception of the child's oral health-related quality of life ( OHRQoL) on a child's use of dental care services. Methods A cross-sectional study of 608 mother-child dyads was conducted during the Children's Immunization Campaign in Pelotas, Brazil. Mothers answered a questionnaire regarding their use of dental services, dental anxiety (Dental Anxiety Scale), socioeconomic status, and perception of their children's OHRQoL (the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale). Clinical examination of the children was performed to assess dental caries (dmf-t). Associations between the above-mentioned factors and child use of dental services were assessed using Poisson regression models (prevalence ratio [ PR]; 95% CI; P ≤ 0.05). Results The majority of children (79.3%) had never had a dental appointment and of the children who had visited a dentist, 55 (43.65%) presented with untreated dental caries at the time of examination. More than half the mothers (60.2%) did not visit a dentist regularly. In the final model, low schooling level of mothers ( PR, 0.64) and irregular visits to a dentist by the mother ( PR, 0.48) were factors because of which a child did not have a dental appointment. Children who had experienced pain ( PR, 1.56), those who had poor OHRQoL ( PR, 1.49), and older children ( PR, 2.14) visited a dentist with higher frequency. Conclusions Use of dental care services by preschool children was low, and treatment was neglected even among children who had visited a dentist. Children of mothers with low schooling level who do not visit a dentist regularly were at greater risk of not receiving dental care. Maternal perception of their child's oral health motivated visits to the dentist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]