Factors affecting the length of patient's stay in emergency unitss of hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences from the viewpoint of emergency nurses

Most admission to the hospitals occur through Emergency unitts. Because of temporary staying nature of the emergency units the patients should refer to other units or discharge as soon as possible. However, several factors effect on the prolonged staying of the patients in the emergency units. Since nurses have the most relationship and contact with the patients, therefore, this study was conducted for determination of the factors affecting on the staying duration of patients in the emergency units.
This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Samples were taken of the nurses working in hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Data collected with the questionnaire that was made based on literature and interviews with nurses. Content validity method was used for validity of the questionnaire and internal correlation for assessing the reliability. Data was collected by the questionnaire and finally 200 questionnaires were returned.
Findings: The findings revealed a number of factors effecting prolonged hospital stay or discharge barriers. Over than half of the nurses believed that, medical, structural, personnel and Para-clinic factors have a high effect on the patient prolong stay. On the other hand one third of the nurses believed that patient factors have a medium effect. Hospital type is another factor which can effect on the duration of staying.
According to the nurses’ perspectives medical, structural and personnel factors cause the long duration of patients’ stay in emergency units. Hospital managers can design guidelines for decreasing length of stay.