Time management of nurses in the neurology clinics of Dokuz Eylul University Hospial

ABSTRACT TİME MANAGEMENT OF NURSES İN THE NEUROLOGY CLINICS OF DOKUZ EYLÜL UNİVERSTY HOSPITAL. Aim: To determine the time spent for direct care, indirect care, unit related activities and personal activities by the nurses, working in the Dokuz Eylül Universty Neurology Clinics, during the morning shifts on the week days and either morning or night shifts on the weekends with work sampling method. Methods: A sampling matrix, covering the morning shifts (08-20) for ten weeks was used. Nursing activities were observed for different 15 minutes (lasting) time blocks, which were cho'osen from random numbers table, and recorded on the work sampling data collection forms. On the night shifts, contunious observation method was used. Total number of the nursing activities, observed in this study is 10.297. Result: Nurses spent 11.3 minutes for direct care for a random patients on the weekday morning shifts. This is 17 minutes on the weekend morning shifts and 14.4 minutes on the weekend night shifts. According to our findings on the weekday morning shifts nurses 43% (312. 5 min) of their time in direct care, 41.3 % (296.5 min) in indirect care, 5.9 % (40.5 min) in unit related activities and 9.8% (70.5 min) in personal activities. On the weekend morning shifts they spent 51.0% (364 min) of their time in direct care, 38.5% (281 min) in indirect care, 2.5% (17.4 min) in unit related activities and 8.0 % (57.6 min) in personal activities. On the night shifts, nurses spent 56.4% (390.1 min) of their time in direct care, 35.8%» (254.5 min) in indirect care, 3.0%(34.5 min) in unit related activities and 4.8% (40.9 min) in personal activities. Key words: Direct nursing care activities, indirect nursing care activities, work sampling, time management.