Workflow for Intensive Care Unit Nurses: A Time and Motion Study

Abstract

This time and motion study aimed to explore the nursing workflow of intensive care unit (ICU) registered nurses in mainland China. We identified 107 kinds of nursing activity (six categories and 20 subcategories), observed 30 nurses for a total period of 580.8 hr, and analyzed 5,588 nursing activities. The nurses spent most of their time in direct nursing care (51.27% of the total working time), nursing documentation (17.91%), and communication (17.61%). Direct nursing care was the most time-consuming activity between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m. and the least time-consuming between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m. and 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. Although nursing records were kept by an information system, documentation still required a large percentage of the nurses’ working time. It was found that the time-consumption for each nursing activity varied during the day among the studied Chinese ICUs. Hence, nursing managers should arrange shift dynamics based on nurses’ actual workflow and load.