title: Patients' characteristics and healthcare providers' perceived workload in French hospital emergency wards.
abstract: The aim of this research is to understand how patients' characteristics increase healthcare providers' perceived workload. Patients' characteristics and dependency, technical and relational complexities of care seem to increase healthcare providers' workload. As workload is multidimensional, we examine which dimensions are affected by patients' characteristics. Our methodology is based on 121 patients assessed with the NASA task load index (NASA-TLX) and a questionnaire filled in by 57 health providers in 2 emergency wards in French hospital settings, to evaluate their attitudes to different patients' characteristics. Our results show that physical demand is the dimension most affected by patients' behaviour and characteristics. Next, we observe that workload increases more due to patients' behaviour than their social characteristics. We propose that a regulation mechanism be taken into account in further research, using methodology based on observations to identify how healthcare providers might adapt their activities to compensate for workload variations caused by patients.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine - Metz, Metz, France. s.schoenenberger@icl-lille.fr.
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schoenenberger
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Paris, France. Institut National des Etudes Démographiques, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moulin
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine - Metz, Metz, France.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brangier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire INTER-PSY, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilibert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010361:Patients; D010465:Perception; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*