Depressive Symptoms and Missed Nursing Care among Clinical Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Purpose: This study aimed to compare missed nursing care between nurses with and without depressive symptoms. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with shift-working nurses at a general hospital in South Korea. Data from 184 nurses were analyzed using the independent t-test, the x² test and the Fisher’s exact test. Results: The most frequently missed nursing care items reported by hospital nurses were, in descending order, monitoring intake/output, assessing the effectiveness of medications, bathing and skin care, washing hands. The order of missed nursing care items was similar between groups with and without depressive symptoms, but there were statistically significant differences between the two groups in the mean scores for vital signs, bedside glucose monitoring, turning patients every 2 hours, providing emotional support to patients, skin/wound care, patient discharge planning, response to the call light, and pro re nata (PRN) medication requests acted on. Conclusion: Nurses’ mental health needs to be monitored and managed more closely, as it is correlated to missed nursing care. Health institutions and nursing departments should support nurses through strategies that can quickly detect and manage nurses’ depressive symptoms. Systematic resources incorporating social support among nurse colleagues could also be used as strategies to reduce depressive symptoms and missed nursing care.