Abstract

Nurse staffing levels are increasingly challenged while pressures on healthcare systems are rising. There is a clear need to optimise efficiency in healthcare delivery in order to deliver safe, effective and quality health care. To understand how nurses working shifts spend their time and explore opportunities to improve efficiency in care delivery. A time-motion study was conducted on three acute care wards in a district general hospital in West Wales; 13 nurses were observed over 14 shifts, each activity undertaken was recorded in real time. In all, 109 hours were observed. Approximately half of nurses' time is spent delivering direct patient care, with medications administration taking the majority of time. A number of recommendations are made involving processes and workforce modelling with the aim of improving efficiency and safety. Further research would be required to assess the impact of their introduction.

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