title: Occurrence and Duration of Interruptions During Nurses' Work in Surgical Wards: Findings From a Multicenter Observational Study.
abstract: This was an observational multicenter study of 50 registered nurses, randomly selected, on 5 surgical wards in 5 Italian hospitals. There were on average 5.6 interruptions per hour. Interruptions occurred more frequently during the afternoon shift (n = 1061; 52.8%), were caused mainly by the staff members (n = 978; 48.7%) during medication administration (n = 1075; 53.5%), and were managed directly by the nurses (n = 1639; 81.6%). The average duration of an interruption was 32.7 seconds (95% confidence interval, 30.7-34.7).
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Trieste University, Trieste, Italy (Dr Dante); GIPI Research Group (Group Investigating Interruptions in Italian Nursing Practice), Udine and Trieste University, Italy (Mss Andrigo, Barone, Bonamico, Nait, Toci and Mr De Chiara); and Nursing Science, Udine University, Udine, Italy (Ms Palese).
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dante
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Andrigo
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barone
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bonamico
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Chiara
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nait
authors.forename: Ergyseda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Toci
authors.forename: Alvisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palese
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009726:Nurses; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D062209:Patient Handoff / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital