{
  "abstract": "Background Safe and effective care is paramount within the nursing role (Royal College of Nursing. Staffing for safe and effective care: state of the nation’s nursing labour market. 2022). The hospice inpatient unit (IPU) team were experiencing difficulties in assessing, measuring and communicating the level of patient complexities on the ward. This impacted safe staffing decisions and patient flow through the unit. It was therefore decided that a process was required to address these issues.Aim To develop an effective tool which can measure the level of patient complexity on nursing needs required by the patients on the inpatient unit and influence safe staffing and patient flow decisions.Method A review was conducted of tools already in use internationally along with literature reviews of tool development and implementation. A questionnaire was sent out to the nursing and medical staff to review what they felt acuity meant and how they felt acuity impacted their patient care and their own wellbeing. A tool was developed based on the results of the questionnaire, symptom management and linked to hospice policies and risk assessments. The tool was implemented for three months. There was a review of the tool and a further questionnaire was sent out to staff to review the impact of the tool.Results Results are currently being analysed, however, it is evident that the acuity tool has been well received by staff. Through verbal feedback, a review of the scoring system is likely to ensure that all high level intervention patients are captured appropriately.Conclusion The tool is being used for patient allocation and to facilitate discussions within the multidisciplinary team. It is recognized amongst the wider multidisciplinary team, aiding decision making. A study will now be conducted to gather data on average time spent completing the individual tasks to enable acuity levels to be linked to safe staffing which is evidence based. The potential to use the tool hospice-wide needs to be explored.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Ashgate Hospice, Chesterfield, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Laura Boden"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P-79 Developing a tool for the assessment of inpatient acuity",
  "uid": "f8622288-4827-5d55-968a-d66ea163db3e"
}