scholarly journals “How do we use the time?” – an observational study measuring the task time distribution of nurses in psychiatric care

BMC Nursing ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Glantz ◽  
Karin Örmon ◽  
Boel Sandström
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
Medication Administration ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Psychiatric Clinic ◽  
Inpatient Psychiatric Care ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Time Motion ◽  
Motion Study ◽  
Measured Time ◽  
Area Of Concern

Abstract Background The nurse’s primary task in psychiatric care should be to plan for the patient’s care in cooperation with the patient and spend the time needed to build a relationship. Psychiatric care nurses however claim that they lack the necessary time to communicate with patients. To investigate the validity of such claims, this time-motion study aimed at identifying how nurses working at inpatient psychiatric wards distribute their time between a variety of tasks during a working day. Methods During the period of December 2015 and February 2016, a total of 129 h and 23 min of structured observations of 12 nurses were carried out at six inpatient wards at one psychiatric clinic in southern Sweden. Time, frequency of tasks and number of interruptions were recorded and analysed using descriptive statistics. Results Administering drugs or medications accounted for the largest part of the measured time (17.5%) followed by indirect care (16%). Relatively little time was spent on direct care, the third largest category in the study (15.3%), while an unexpectedly high proportion of time (11.3%) was spent on ward related tasks. Nurses were also interrupted in 75% of all medication administering tasks. Conclusions Nurses working in inpatient psychiatric care spend little time in direct contact with the patients and medication administration is interrupted very often. As a result, it is difficult to establish therapeutic relationships with patients. This is an area of concern for both patient safety and nurses’ job satisfaction.

scholarly journals Nursing staff work patterns in a residential aged care home: a time–motion study

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyu Qian ◽  
Ping Yu ◽  
David Hailey
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Care ◽  
Nursing Staff ◽  
Care Home ◽  
Medication Administration ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Residential Aged Care ◽  
Work Patterns ◽  
Time Motion ◽  
Motion Study

Objective Residential aged care services are challenged by an increasing number of residents and a shortage of nursing staff. Developing strategies to overcome this challenge requires an understanding of nursing staff work patterns. The aim of the present study was to investigate the work processes followed by nursing staff and how nursing time is allocated in a residential aged care home. Methods An observational time–motion study was conducted at two aged care units for 12 morning shifts. Seven nurses were observed, one per shift. Results In all, there were 91 h of observation. The results showed that there was a common work process followed by all nurse participants. Medication administration, documentation and verbal communication were the most time-consuming activities and were conducted most frequently. No significant difference between the two units was found in any category of activities. The average duration of most activities was less than 1 min. There was no difference in time utilisation between the endorsed enrolled nurses and the personal carers in providing nursing care. Conclusion Medication administration, documentation and verbal communication were the major tasks in morning shifts in a residential aged care home. Future research can investigate how verbal communication supports nursing care. What is known about the topic? The aging population will substantially increase the demand for residential aged care services. There is a lack of research on nurses’ work patterns in residential aged care homes. What does this paper add? The present study provides a comprehensive understanding of nurses’ work patterns in a residential aged care home. There is a common work process followed by nurses in providing nursing care. Medication administration, verbal communication and documentation are the most time-consuming activities and they are frequently conducted in the same period of time. Wound care, physical review and documentation on desktop computers are arranged flexibly by the nurses. What are the implications for practitioners? When developing a task reallocation strategy to improve work efficiency, effort can be put into tasks that can be arranged more flexibly.

scholarly journals A Time Motion Study Evaluating the Impact of Geographic Cohorting of Hospitalists

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Medical Record ◽  
Electronic Medical Record ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Time Motion ◽  
Motion Study ◽  
Indirect Care ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Computer Interactions

BACKGROUND: Geographic cohorting (GCh) localizes hospitalists to a unit. Our objective was to compare the GCh and non-GCh workday. METHODS: In an academic, Midwestern hospital we observed hospitalists in GCh and non-GCh teams. Time in patient rooms was considered direct care; other locations were considered ‘indirect’ care. Geotracking identified time spent in each location and was obtained for 17 hospitalists. It was supplemented by in-person observation of four GCh and four non-GCh hospitalists for a workday each. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze associations between direct and indirect care time and team and workday characteristics. RESULTS: Geotracking yielded 10,522 direct care episodes. GCh was associated with longer durations of patient visits while increasing patient loads were associated with shorter visits. GCh, increasing patient loads, and increasing numbers of units visited were associated with increased indirect care time. In-person observations yielded 3,032 minutes of data. GCh hospitalists were observed spending 56% of the day in computer interactions vs non-GCh hospitalists (39%; P < .005). The percentage of time spent multitasking was 18% for GCh and 14% for non-GCh hospitalists (P > .05). Interruptions were pervasive, but the highest interruption rate of once every eight minutes in the afternoon was noted in the GCh group. CONCLUSION: GCh may have the potential to increase patient–hospitalist interactions but these gains may be attenuated if patient loads and the structure of cohorting are suboptimal. The hospitalist workday is cognitively intense. The interruptions noted may increase the time taken for time-intensive tasks like electronic medical record interactions.

Effect of bar-code-assisted medication administration on nurses’ activities in an intensive care unit: A time–motion study

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (11) ◽  
pp. 1026-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nilanjana Dwibedi ◽  
Sujit S. Sansgiry ◽  
Craig P. Frost ◽  
Anandaroop Dasgupta ◽  
Sheeba M. Jacob ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Medication Administration ◽  
Bar Code ◽  
Time Motion ◽  
Motion Study

Comparison of Time spent between an electronic and a paper-based laboratory information system by laboratorians at a polyclinic in Greater Accra, Ghana: A time-motion study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Boakye
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Laboratory Information System ◽  
Time Motion ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Motion Study ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Significant Negative Impact ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Motion Studies

The acceptance of electronic laboratory information system (LIS) is gradually increasing in developing countries. However, the issue of time effectiveness due to computerization is less clear as there is fewer accessible information. One of the key issues for laboratorians is their indecision with LISs’ would-be effect of time on their work. A polyclinic in Ghana was in the process of implementing electronic LIS. Several of the laboratorians did not have knowledge and skill in computing and there were disagreeing views on the time effectiveness of the LIS after implementation. The management of the polyclinic laboratory was concerned to assess time advantageousness of recording data when using the electronic LIS compared with paper-based LIS. <div><br></div><div>Five randomly selected laboratorians were provided two sheets of paper with tables to document the time they spent for both paper-based and electronic LIS. Data were collected for a total of 230 records,115 electronic LIS and 115 paper-based LIS. The t-test (mean-comparison test) was computed to compare the means of both electronic and paperbased LIS times. </div><div><br></div><div>There was a statistical significant difference in the time spent between electronic and paper-based LIS. The time spent between paper-based and electronic LIS was 0.41 minutes (95% CI 0.15 to 0.66) longer than in electronic LIS. </div><div><br></div><div>LIS can be adopted in polyclinics without having significant negative impact on time spent between electronic and paper-based LIS. More time–motion studies that include laboratorians are however necessary in order to get a more complete picture of time spent between electronic and paper-based LIS. </div>

Scope of Nursing Practice on a Surgical Ward: A Time‐Motion Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxanne Müller ◽  
Christine Cohen ◽  
Philippe Delmas ◽  
Jérôme Pasquier ◽  
Marine Baillif ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Practice ◽  
Time Motion ◽  
Motion Study ◽  
Surgical Ward

scholarly journals Telepsychiatry adoption across hospitals in the United States: a cross-sectional study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhong Li ◽  
Sayward E. Harrison ◽  
Xiaoming Li ◽  
Peiyin Hung
Keyword(s):  
Continuity Of Care ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
American Hospital ◽  
American Hospital Association ◽  
Inpatient Psychiatric Care

Abstract Background Access to psychiatric care is critical for patients discharged from hospital psychiatric units to ensure continuity of care. When face-to-face follow-up is unavailable or undesirable, telepsychiatry becomes a promising alternative. This study aimed to investigate hospital- and county-level characteristics associated with telepsychiatry adoption. Methods Cross-sectional national data of 3475 acute care hospitals were derived from the 2017 American Hospital Association Annual Survey. Generalized linear regression models were used to identify characteristics associated with telepsychiatry adoption. Results About one-sixth (548 [15.8%]) of hospitals reported having telepsychiatry with a wide variation across states. Rural noncore hospitals were less likely to adopt telepsychiatry (8.3%) than hospitals in rural micropolitan (13.6%) and urban counties (19.4%). Hospitals with both outpatient and inpatient psychiatric care services (marginal difference [95% CI]: 16.0% [12.1% to 19.9%]) and hospitals only with outpatient psychiatric services (6.5% [3.7% to 9.4%]) were more likely to have telepsychiatry than hospitals with neither psychiatric services. Federal hospitals (48.9% [32.5 to 65.3%]), system-affiliated hospitals (3.9% [1.2% to 6.6%]), hospitals with larger bed size (Quartile IV vs. I: 6.2% [0.7% to 11.6%]), and hospitals with greater ratio of Medicaid inpatient days to total inpatient days (Quartile IV vs. I: 4.9% [0.3% to 9.4%]) were more likely to have telepsychiatry than their counterparts. Private non-profit hospitals (− 6.9% [− 11.7% to − 2.0%]) and hospitals in counties designated as whole mental health professional shortage areas (− 6.6% [− 12.7% to − 0.5%]) were less likely to have telepsychiatry. Conclusions Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, telepsychiatry adoption in US hospitals was low with substantial variations by urban and rural status and by state in 2017. This raises concerns about access to psychiatric services and continuity of care for patients discharged from hospitals.

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