Studying nursing activities in inpatient units: a road to sustainability for hospitals

BACKGROUND: Since the United Nations has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, sustainability has been increasingly considered. Working time is an important resource (time is money), as well as the nurses inside hospitals. So, nursing activities must be studied and analyzed well. Consequently, the resulting information gives hospital managers a clear picture of the current status—the basics of developing plans for sustainability and keeping pace with developed countries. AIM: This study was designed to study nursing activities performed in inpatient units and to determine which types of nursing activities are the most frequent and time-consuming, how much time each category of nursing personnel spends in different activities, and how units divide their time between patient care and other activities. METHOD: A work sampling method was used on 36 nurses in six units for three successive years, using two tools: a demographic data sheet and guidelines for the level of activities and area of activities. RESULTS: There were 5,184 observations per year. According to area of activities, personal, and patient activities were the most time-consuming and frequent. According to the level of activities, unclassified and nursing activities were the most time-consuming among the intensive care, medical, and surgical units under study (44.1%, 41.6%, and 55.2%, respectively, and 28.2%, 34.8%, and 28.3%, respectively). The work of technical and diploma nurses was similar. CONCLUSION: Personal, unclassified, and patient activities consumed a large portion of nursing hours during the morning shift. Meanwhile, unit and personnel activities have consumed a minimal portion of hours. No significant differences in work were observed between technical and diploma nurses. RECOMMENDATIONS: Nursing managers and leaders should take a step to improve sustainability in their hospitals through study the nursing activities to gather data to develop plans for the future and rearrange the entire nursing staff in hospital units according to the needs of each shift.