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Table 3 Number, proportion and average task times in year 1 and year 3 by task type

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

Task

Period

Number of tasks

Total time spent on task

(hrs)

Mean

task length

(seconds)

Number of tasks

per hour

Percentage of total time

95% Confidence intervals

Direct care

Year 1

1009

22.4

80

9.2

20.4

18.3%

22.4%

 

Year 3

958

20.2

76

11.8

24.8

22.7%

26.9%

Indirect care

Year 1

1098

14.2

47

10.0

13.0

11.6%

14.3%

 

Year 3

1059

13.1

45

13.0

16.1

14.3%

18.0%

Medication tasks

Year 1

1808

20.9

42*

16.5

19.0

18.1%

19.9%

 

Year 3

1296

17.0

47*

15.9

20.9

18.7%

23.0%

Documentation

Year 1

416

10.7

92*

3.8

9.7

7.7%

11.7%

 

Year 3

342

6.0

63*

4.2

7.3

6.4%

8.2%

Professional

Year 1

1612

26.3

59*

14.7

24.0

20.7%

27.2%

communication

Year 3

1688

15.6

33*

20.7

19.2

17.1%

21.3%

Ward activities

Year 1

72

2.9

144*

0.7

2.6

1.7%

3.6%

 

Year 3

143

3.2

80*

1.8

3.9

2.6%

5.2%

In transit

Year 1

1251

8.1

23

11.4

7.4

6.7%

8.0%

 

Year 3

584

3.8

23

7.2

4.6

2.9%

6.4%

Supervision

Year 1

116

2.6

80

1.1

2.3

1.7%

3.0%

 

Year 3

94

2.6

101

1.2

3.2

2.5%

4.0%

Social

Year 1

90

13.3

531

0.8

12.1

8.5%

15.7%

 

Year 3

85

8.5

360

1.0

10.4

7.0%

13.9%

Other

Year 1

78

0.7

30

0.7

0.6

0.5%

0.8%

 

Year 3

31

0.7

84

0.4

0.9

0%

2.0%

  1. *Indicates significant change in year 1 and year 3 average task length times (P < 0.05)