Nursing care dependency level assessment (Quantifying/calculating the level of dependency)

Abstract

Name of the Client- Age- Diagnosis- Date- UHID No- MRD No- Total nursing care dependency level score- Percentage of dependency (NCDL Percentage) = NCDL score ×10. Specific remarks- Grading: More than 50% – Monitoring and supervision required 30%–50% – Hospitalization and moderate support required Less than 30% – Intensive care and total support required. TOOL DESCRIPTION Nurses generally plan the nursing care based on the client needs and dependency level. There are several ways to assess the client's dependency for the nursing care requirements. The NCDL assessment tool is a simple attempt to quantify the NCDL. This tool is constructed upon the ability of the client/patient in achieving some important self-care activities. It measures the complete dependency, partial dependency, and/or complete independency of the client in meeting those needs. The scores are assigned accordingly. METHOD OF QUANTIFICATION AND CALCULATION OF PERCENTAGE There are 10 items and each item has three levels of self-care achievement, as mentioned above. Complete dependency has a score of 0, partial dependency has a score of 0.5, and complete independency has a score of 1. The maximum score one can get is 10 and the least minimum score can be 0. The total score is multiplied by 10 to get the percentage. Thus, the percentage can range from 0 to 100. GRADING More than 50% – Monitoring and supervision required 30%–50% – Hospitalization and moderate support required Less than 30% – Intensive care and total support required. SCOPE/APPLICABILITY/USAGE This tool may be used in any kind of setting from primary health care to tertiary care by the nurses or any other health-care professionals. This can be used for making clinical decisions such as admission/discharge, human resource planning, tranfering clients to different wards based on the dependency and educating client and family, etc. This tool has the scope to assess clients with physical and psychosocial problems across the lifespan, where the functioning is affected. Permission to use: Its a free to use tool. People/ professionals can use it with permission and due acknowledgement of author. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.