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How EverCare nurse practitioners spend their time
R L Kane1, S Flood, G Keckhafer
1University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Objectives:
To describe how nurse practitioners (NPs) employed by EverCare, a Medicare HMO serving exclusively nursing home residents, spend their working days.
Design:
A descriptive study based on structured self-reports.
Setting:
Nursing homes.
Participants:
Seventeen NPs employed by EverCare in five sites.
Measurements:
Self-reports of time spent over a 2-week period and specific reports of how time was spent on selected cases.
Results:
NPs spend about 35% of their working day on direct patient care and another 26% in indirect care activities. Of the latter, 46% of the time was spent interacting with nursing home staff, 26% with family, and 15% with the physicians. The mean time spent on a given patient per day was 42 minutes (median 30); of this time 20 minutes was direct care (median 15).
Conclusions:
NPs' activities are varied. Much of their time is spent communicating with vital parties, an important function that supports the physicians' primary care role and should enhance families' satisfaction with care.