Impact of COVID‐19 on acute isolation bed capacity and nursing workforce requirements: A retrospective review

Fan, Esther Monica Peijin; Nguyen, Ngoc Hoang Long; Ang, Shin Yuh; Aloweni, Fazila; Goh, Hui Qi Ivy; Quek, Li Ting; Ayre, Tracy Carol; Pourghaderi, Ahmad Reza; Lam, Shao Wei; Ong, Eng Hock Marcus

AIM: To understand the impact of COVID‐19 on isolation bed capacity requirements, nursing workforce requirements and nurse:patient ratios. BACKGROUND: COVID‐19 created an increased demand for isolation beds and nursing workforce globally. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of bed capacity, bed occupancy and nursing workforce data from the isolation units of a tertiary hospital in Singapore from 23 January 2020 to 31 May 2020. R v4.0.1 and Tidyverse 1.3.0 library were used for data cleaning and plotly 4.9.2.1 library for data visualization. RESULTS: In January to March 2020, isolation bed capacity was low (=<203 beds). A sharp increase in bed capacity was seen from 195 to 487 beds during 25 March to 29 April 2020, after which it plateaued. Bed occupancy remained lower than bed capacity throughout January to May 2020. After 16 April 2020, we experienced a shortage of 1.1 to 70.2 nurses in isolation wards. Due to low occupancy rates, nurse:patient ratio remained acceptable (minimum nurse:patient ratio = 0.26). CONCLUSION: COVID‐19 caused drastic changes in isolation bed capacity and nursing workforce requirements. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Building a model to predict nursing workforce requirements during pandemic surges may be helpful for planning and adequate staffing.