title: How nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home: an observational study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article is a report of a study to examine how nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Few studies have investigated how nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home. Such information is important for nurse managers in deciding on staff deployment, and for evaluating the effects of changes in nursing practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  A work sampling study with an observational component was undertaken in 2009 with nursing staff at a nursing home.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 430 activities were recorded for Registered Nurses, 331 for Endorsed Enrolled Nurses, 5276 for Personal Carers, and 501 for Recreational Activity Officers. Registered Nurses spent 48·4% of their time on communication and 18·1% on medication management. Endorsed Enrolled Nurses spent 37·7% on communication and 29·0% on documentation tasks. Communication was the most time-consuming activity for Recreational Activity Officers and Personal Carers, except that Personal Carers in a high care house spent more time on direct care duties. Hygiene duties and resident interaction were more frequently multitasked by the nursing staff in high care than in low care house.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nursing staff value their face-to-face interaction for successful care delivery. There is need, however, to investigate the effects of this form of communication on quality of care given to residents. Differences in multi-tasked activities between high care and low care houses should be considered when deploying staff in a nursing home.
authors.affiliation: School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Esther Naliaka
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Munyisia
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hailey
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D003142:Communication; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009737:Nursing Records; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors