Management of Hospital Beds and the Regulatory Process in the Nurse’s View

Abstract

Bed management aims to optimize bed occupancy in hospitals. Fromthe management perspective, the nurseis the professional who is familiar with evaluating the particularities related to users’ care and the adequate distribution of beds. This paper is a descriptive study, under a mixed approach, which analyzed the regulatory process developed by the hospital’s bedmanagement of the Department of Health of Distrito Federal, Brazil, with emphasis on nurses. Lack of training, lack of policy and operational guidelines, interference in professional autonomy, and misalignment of work processes were some of the findings among the 27 nurses interviewed. It is necessary to resize nurses when considering the importance of these professionals for the organization and operation of health services. The lack of knowledge about regulation litigates for an education in service, since periodic training induces improvements. Furthermore, interference in the autonomy of nurses goes through structural issues. Therefore, there is an urgent need to rethink the actions and flows of the regulatory process, valuing the role of nurses to provide the proper access of users to public health services.