What do community palliative care nurse specialists do? An activity analysis

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Workforce Analysis

Background:

• Community palliative care nurse specialists provide essential end-of-life support.
• A comprehensive service review necessitated an analysis of the nursing team's activities.
• Understanding current practice is crucial for optimizing palliative care delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a self-assessed activity analysis of community palliative care nurse specialists.
• To pragmatically analyze and measure the actual work performed by individual nurse specialists.
• To share findings and reduce professional isolation within community palliative nursing.

Main Methods:

• A self-assessed activity analysis was performed by the nursing team.
• The analysis focused on the daily tasks and time allocation of nurse specialists.
• Data collected informed a wider service review.

Main Results:

• Significant variations in practice patterns were observed among individual nurse specialists.
• Most specialists dedicated a high proportion of time to clinical duties, impacting other roles (education, research, audit).
• Many nurse specialists exceeded contracted hours and took minimal breaks, indicating potential workload issues.

Conclusions:

• The activity analysis provided valuable insights into the community palliative care nursing role.
• Findings have initiated team discussions and led to implemented changes in service delivery.
• The study's methodology proved effective for analyzing specialist nursing practice and will be repeated.