Determination of standard times of nursing activities based on a nursing minimum dataset

D. Myny, D. Van Goubergen, V. Limère, M. Gobert, S. Verhaeghe, T. Defloor

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Aim. This paper is a report of a study conducted to determine the standard time per nursing activity and the proportion of nursing time covered by the nursing activities of the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset compared to the total time of a nurse shift, and to evaluate the correlation between hospital size and standard times of nursing activities. Background. Because of a shrinking workforce and rising workload, nursing managers need tools that help them to allocate their staff to the wards. Such tools should be based on objective time measurements. Methods. The study was performed in surgical, internal medicine and elder care wards in an acute hospital care setting. In the first phase, a two-round Delphi-procedure was used to operationalize the definitions of nursing activities. In the second phase, the standard time for each nursing activity was determined, based on data collected over a 6-month period during 2006-2007. A combination of 13,292 work sampling observations by external observers, 3000 recordings of direct time measurement by self-recording and subjective time assessments yielded times that were used to analyse the duration of the nursing activities. Results. A standard time for 102 nursing activities was established. The coverage of the Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset in the surgical, internal medicine and elder care wards was 47·5%, 46·4% and 51·0% respectively. The Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset was found to cover almost 70% of direct and indirect nursing care. Conclusion. Further research is needed to assess the impact on the standard times of nursing activities of inefficient organizational structures and different cultural interpretations of the way an activity is conducted. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)92-102
JournalJournal of Advanced Nursing
Volume66
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2010
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Determination of standard times of nursing activities based on a nursing minimum dataset'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this