Impact of continuous vigilance monitoring on nursing workflow.
BACKGROUND
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.


OBJECTIVE
Nursing workflow was evaluated after the implementation of a continuous vigilance monitoring system to determine if the system enhanced patient-centric nursing care.


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
Continuous vigilance monitoring enhanced patient-centric care with increases in direct and indirect nursing care and documentation of those activities.
Herdman
T Heather
TH
Hoana Medical, Inc., 828 Fort St Mall, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
Burgess
Lawrence P A
LP
Ebright
Patricia R
PR
Paulson
Shirley S
SS
Powell-Cope
Gail
G
Hancock
Holly
H
Wada
Edward
E
Cadman
Edwin C
EC
D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D009726:Nurses; D005791:Patient Care / Q000592:standards*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012449:Safety; D013997:Time Factors