Nursing care complexity in a psychiatric setting: results of an observational study

patient assessment to identify patients’ general risks.  Patients’ clinical status is the primary factor to consider when measuring care complexity, as well as when assessing the required nursing workload.  This study highlights that there is a relationship between the complexity of psychiatric patient care, which was assigned a numerical value after the nursing assessment, and the occurrence of psychiatric adverse events in the recent histories of the patients.  This study provides a useful and effective tool for quantifying the complexity of psychiatric patient nursing care and evaluating the appropriateness of the nursing staff, the number of required nurses, their competence and their skill mix.