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Table 2 Time spent by nurses with other health professionals and patients

From: How much time do nurses have for patients? a longitudinal study quantifying hospital nurses' patterns of task time distribution and interactions with health professionals

With whom

Period

Number of tasks

Mean task length

(seconds)

Percentage*

(%)

95% Confidence intervals

Alone

Year 1

2630

41.37#

27.52

24.45

30.59

 

Year 3

2288

50.48#

39.38

34.90

43.87

Patient

Year1

2394

61.01

36.95

34.55

39.34

 

Year 3

1666

62.77

35.66

33.29

38.03

Relative

Year 1

401

59.69

6.05

5.27

6.84

 

Year 3

282

57.45

5.52

4.71

6.34

Nurse

Year 1

2665

80.64#

54.36

49.05

59.67

 

Year 3

2229

53.87#

40.95

36.93

44.97

Doctor

Year 1

327

44.19

3.66

3.26

4.05

 

Year 3

240

43.37

3.55

2.96

4.14

Allied Health

Year1

83

55.67

1.17

0.88

1.46

 

Year 3

67

34.48

0.79

0.60

0.98

Pharmacy

Year 1

31

46.23

0.36

0.20

0.52

 

Year 3

35

40.49

0.48

0.37

0.60

Health professional^

Year 1

2976

76.57#

57.64

52.30

62.98

 

Year 3

2518

52.34#

44.94

40.88

49.00

Other

Year1

416

51.87

5.46

4.82

6.10

 

Year 3

290

38.52

3.81

3.18

4.44

  1. *Percentage of observed task time. The categories of with who are not mutually exclusive (with the exception of 'alone'). ^Health professional includes nurses, doctors, allied health professional including pharmacists. # indicates a statistically significant change in year 1 and year 3 average task lengths(P < 0.05).