Objective:

To identify the dependency levels of hospitalized patients in surgical clinical units.

Method:

It is a cross-sectional study. A total of 5,083 evaluations were performed through the User Dependency Evaluation Tool between May and October 2015, totaling 120 days of collection in two surgical hospitalization units of a university hospital in the southern region of Brazil. The User Dependency Evaluation Tool is a new Patient Classification System developed in Brazil to access the patients’ dependency levels and the demand of the nursing team.

Results:

It was evidenced that in 2,452 (48.2%) of the evaluations the patients required intermediate care, followed by 1,913 (37.6%) requiring minimal care, 652 (12.9%) requiring high dependency care and 59 (1.1%) requiring semi-intensive care. No patients were classified as requiring intensive care.

Conclusion

The results identified the degree of patient dependency in relation to nursing care, providing support to the management practice in nursing, especially for staff dimensioning in surgical units.

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