This is what bugs nurses
By Michelle Gray-Bernhardt
(Part two of a two-part blog)
A wide-ranging sample of nurses from various facilities’ units participated in HMC’s survey. Their responses for the greatest time wasters fell into these broad categories:
1. Charts and documentation
These topics are interrelated. Frustrations around charts include missing or incomplete charts, the necessity of charting excess information, and/or duplicating information. It also includes the difficulty in finding necessary information.
Online documentation is the number one source of inefficiency and hybrid (half paper/half electronic) systems are singled out as particularly frustrating. Nurses also noted problems with incompatible computer systems and the crashing of glitch-prone systems, which required information technology staff intervention.
2. Finding and gathering supplies and equipment
Whether supplies or equipment, time spent searching equals time spent away from patients.
3. Patient flow
Transporting, admitting, and waiting for patients is a frequently-cited inefficiency. This includes lack of exam or treatment rooms or anomalous patients in units.
4. Physician interaction
Waiting for communication with physicians (return phone calls, post-round information, medication orders, discharge orders, etc.) creates frustration among nurses.
5. Communicating with families and patient complaints
Nurses find it challenging when families call frequently and unexpectedly, particularly when there is no clear family spokesperson. The result is that multiple family members call in with the same questions, status requests, etc.
For more information
HMC clients may check out the Nursing Obstacles and Inefficiencies Survey to see a bar chart of the results and see the nurses’ comments. They’ll also learn which nurses are doing well with time management and in maximizing patient time.
Michelle Gray-Bernhardt is an HMC knowledge manager
