Nursing resource utilisation in hospitalised cancer patients: Implications for psychosocially informed supportive care

This retrospective observational study analysed administrative data from 7448 hospitalised oncology admissions. Nursing cost was used strictly as a proxy indicator of nursing resource utilisation and was further normalised by length of stay to derive nursing resource utilisation per inpatient day. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise patient characteristics and utilisation patterns. Differences in nursing resource utilisation across discharge outcome categories were examined using non-parametric methods. The median length of hospital stay was 5.0 days (IQR: 3.0–9.0). The mean nursing cost per admission was 496.03 (SD 2502.83), with a median of 156.06 (IQR: 78.00–339.10). When normalised per inpatient day, the mean nursing resource utilisation was 39.91 (SD 28.26), with a median of 29.10 (IQR: 26.00–43.23), displaying a markedly right-skewed distribution. Nursing resource utilisation per inpatient day differed significantly by discharge outcome (p < 0.001), with higher utilisation observed among patients experiencing adverse outcomes, including death and ineffective treatment, compared with those discharged with improvement or cure. Nursing resource utilisation among hospitalised oncology patients is heterogeneous and closely linked to inpatient care trajectories. These findings highlight the importance of recognising nursing resource use as an indicator of care distribution and psychosocial care visibility, rather than economic burden, within inpatient oncology services.