Missed Nursing Care: The Impact on Patients, Nurses and Organisations

The rationing of healthcare, necessitated by limited resources and infinite need, is a global reality and a concern for healthcare providers and the public. The related, but less widely understood and less visible concepts of missed nursing care, nursing care left undone, and implicit rationing of nursing care are increasingly discussed in the nursing literature. These concepts are described and explained in this chapter. Various instruments are used to measure and explain the reasons for this incomplete nursing care, and results point to low nurse staffing levels and high workload, poor teamwork in unsupportive environments and work intensification in the health services.