Impact of Continuous Vigilance Monitoring on Nursing Workflow

Abstract

Increasing nursing time in patient care is beneficial in improving patient outcomes, but this is proving increasingly difficult with the nursing shortage, budgetary constraints, and higher patient acuity. Nursing workflow was evaluated after the implementation of a continuous vigilance monitoring system to determine if the system enhanced patient-centric nursing care. Work sampling observations were conducted at 3 hospitals for 6 categories of nursing activities (direct and indirect nursing, documentation, administrative, housekeeping, and miscellaneous) at baseline and at 3 and 9 months. Statistically significant increases in direct (3 months) and indirect nursing care (3 and 9 months) were found, with variability between sites. Statistically significant increases at 3 and 9 months for documentation of patient care activities and decreases in administrative activities were the most consistent findings for all sites. Continuous vigilance monitoring enhanced patient-centric care with increases in direct and indirect nursing care and documentation of those activities.