title: Development and validation of a time and motion tool to measure cardiology acute care nurse practitioner activities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acute care nurse practitioners (ACNPs) provide advanced nursing care to patients and families who are experiencing a complex acute, critical or chronic health condition. A clear understanding of ACNP activities may facilitate the deployment of ACNP roles in health care teams. Time and motion studies represent the gold standard to measure clinician work time.
  
  
  METHODS
  A time and motion tool to measure cardiology ACNP activities was developed and pilot-tested in two organizations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The researcher produced a valid and reliable tool. The inter-observer agreement was 0.94 following the pilot study. A training guide and a training schedule were produced to support the use of the time and motion tool. Each activity was defined to facilitate the coding of ACNP activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A validated tool can contribute to our knowledge of ACNP activities and role components, and identify the ACNPs' contributions to patient care and the functioning of the health care team.
authors.affiliation: Université d Québec en Outaouais, Québec, Canada. kelley.kilpatrick@uqo.ca
authors.forename: Kelley
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kilpatrick
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D015588:Observer Variation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013996:Time and Motion Studies