NURSES IN LABOR, DELIVERY AND POSTPARTUM CARE: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Objective: To identify the contributions of the technologies used to measure the number of nurses in hospital labor, delivery and postpartum care. Material and Method: Integrative review using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) to classify the level of evidence in the Cinhal, Lilacs, PubMed and Scopus databases. With the application of the search strategies, 425 articles were initially retrieved and only 5 of them dealt with technologies to assess nurse staffing in hospital labor, delivery and postpartum care. Results: Two articles were classified as containing moderate evidence, and they describe that nurses are poorly distributed and cannot participate in training and updating skills; simple tools can be used to determine the appropriate staffing at necessary and safe levels, making the actions of nurses more efficient during childbirth. Conclusion: The contributions of technologies, related to nurse staffing, cannot be demonstrated effectively due to the limited number of studies identified. Nevertheless, the articles included in this review emphasize the importance of an adequate number of nurses to ensure safe and quality care during childbirth.