Community Nursing: A Time and Motion Study of Community Nurses' Work and Workload.

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Public Health
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Community nursing is vital for delivering healthcare outside traditional hospital settings.
• Understanding the daily activities of community nurses is crucial for optimizing service delivery and workload management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore and categorize the activities undertaken by community nurses in both clinic settings and during home visits.
• To analyze the time allocation for various nursing tasks to provide insights into the community nurse role.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional, observational study utilizing a time and motion technique.
• Data were collected during the 2020 lockdown period.
• Observations covered six categories: Administration, Communication, Direct care, Documentation, Indirect care, and Other, encompassing 35 specific activities.

Main Results:

• A total of 810 complete timings were analyzed.
• Community nurses allocated the majority of their time (86.5%) to Direct care, Communication, Documentation, and Other activities.
• Patient education was observed to occur more frequently during home visits compared to clinic-based activities.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a detailed understanding of the types, frequency, and time spent on community nursing activities.
• Identifying and addressing inefficiencies in practices like documentation and travel time can potentially alleviate community nurse workload.
• Insights gained can inform strategies for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of community nursing services.