Department of Hospital Administration, AIIMS, New Delhi, India

Abstract

Background: Nurses form the backbone of the health care system, and their role is vital in health care delivery in terms of promotion, prevention, treatment, care and rehabilitation. Nurse managers play a key role in the coordination of patient care and ensure quality nursing care. Apart from this, they also perform staff management, document administrative activities and supervise hospital substore activities. Efficient and effective nursing administration is essential for smooth hospital functioning and delivery of safe patient care. Methods: Study design: Observational. The estimation of time utilization by administrative nurses in different tasks was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, a questionnaire was developed for the self-reporting of various activities that were carried out by various administrative nurses. In the second phase, an activity sampling with a total of 316 hours of observations and 15,344 nursing activities was recorded across the hospital to estimate the actual time distribution and time utilization of administrative nurses. Results: Administrative nurses spent a major portion of their time in store management (28%), staff management (23%), and documentation (21%) but much less time for patient care supervision and teaching activities, i.e., 4-8% of the total time available in a day. Conclusion: The activity sampling study identified that administrative nurses spent most of their time in three major activities: store management, staff management and documentation. It may be emphasized to deliver more attention in patient care supervision and teaching.