System Development for Measuring Nursing Workload Based on the Real-Time Location Information

Background: There are no objective measurement methods that provide empirical data on nursing workload. Aim: This study aimed to develop a system to measure nursing workload using beacons and a smartphone based on the real-time location information. Methods: This was a study of the technological development of a system for measuring nursing workload using beacons and smartphones. The validation of the system developed was performed by assessing the recognition rate of beacons by multiple walk-through tests and determining the optimal number of beacons and smartphones for a higher recognition rate of beacons. Results: The system consisted of four components: data-generation devices, nurse devices, servers, and databases. The location information generated from beacons is stored in nurses' smartphones. Then, these data were then transmitted from the smartphone to the server and stored in a server database. As a result of system validation, the optimal recognition rate of the beacon through the smartphone was determined as 97.5% and 96.2% with 12 beacons and 15 beacons, respectively, in one smartphone. The higher the number of beacons and smartphones employed in the system developed, the lower the recognition rates were. Conclusions and Implications for Nursing: The system developed in this study for measuring nursing workload is highly accurate in providing nurses' real-time location information. Thus, this system could be utilized to measure the nursing workload objectively because it provides the real-time location information, moving path, and distance of nurses during work.