Caregiver Burden Among Families of Paediatric Patients With Tuberculosis: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Nursing workloads in the Emergency Department (ED) have reached critical levels, representing a persistent challenge that undermines effective workforce management (Pourmand et al. ). ED nurses perform patient care within an environment characterised by unpredictable patient surges, high acuity of care, and frequent task interruptions (Alomari et al. ). Under these conditions, a significant proportion of ED nurses report experiencing a moderate to severe mental workload (Hao et al. ). This excessive burden stems from chronic overcrowding, the constant presence of family caregivers, rapid patient turnover, and consistently high patient‐to‐nurse ratios (Hetherington et al. ). Specifically, the ED is frequently saturated with critically ill patients requiring immediate and complex interventions, forcing nurses to simultaneously manage clinical exigencies and the non‐clinical demands of caregivers. Furthermore, high‐risk emergency interventions, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation, occur at unpredictable intervals, leading to a severe concentration of workloads during specific periods (Park et al. ). This structural overcrowding in the ED contributes to a cycle of treatment delays, staffing shortages, and cumulative nurse burnout (Pearce et al. ). Despite the recognition of these challenges, the internal structure and temporal distribution of ED nursing workloads remain insufficiently elucidated. Nursing workloads in the ED fluctuate significantly depending on outpatient clinic hours, patient acuity, and individual nurse competencies (Clopton and Hyrkäs ; Saaiman et al. ). A defining characteristic of ED nursing is the necessity for repeated assessments and care adjustments as patients' clinical statuses evolve rapidly following initial treatment (Udod et al. ). Importantly, nursing demands are frequently concentrated in specific shifts rather than being evenly distributed throughout the day (Peta and Bradford ). Excessive workloads during peak periods hinder timely care readjustment and disrupt workflow efficiency, underscoring the importance of temporal variability in ED nursing practice. However, most existing nursing workload assessment tools fail to capture this variability as they rely primarily on patient‐centered metrics such as the volume of nursing interventions per patient (Iordache et al. ) or on daily mean workload levels derived from subjective questionnaires (Kaya and İşler Dalgıç ).