title: Dimensions of nurse work time: Progress in instrumentation.
abstract: Because the work of health care is embedded in time, understanding nursing time-allocation practices is essential for identifying nurse staffing and workflow patterns that optimize healthcare cost and quality outcomes. The interdependent nature of nursing care requires that nurses share time with other members of their work group. Shared time, also known as social or organizational time, requires careful negotiation of workflows within healthcare teams. Evaluation of negotiated workflows is contingent upon valid and reliable measures of sociological nursing time. In this study, we evaluated the psychometric properties of a newly adapted instrument for measuring sociological nursing time and describe the experience of sociological time among hospital-employed nurses. Using a cross-sectional survey design with a convenience sample of nurses (n = 359), we identified nine reliable components of sociological nursing time: insufficient time allocation; strict adherence to schedules; increased time awareness; value of quality over speed; fast and unpredictable pace changes; predictable job duties punctuated with unpredictable job demands; expectations for a fast work pace; inconsistent work-hour expectations across departments; and high expectations for punctuality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Administration and Health Care Systems Management.
authors.forename: Terry L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Nursing Administration and Health Care Systems Management Concentration, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Linda H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Yoder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017748:Time Management; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload
keywords: nursing administration; nursing time; organizational structure; time management; time structures; workflow