News: Nurses spending more time on indirect patient care

Three hours a day. That’s how much time, out of a 12-hour shift, nurses say they spend on indirect patient care tasks such as documenting orders and coordinating care with other departments, according to a new study from Jackson Healthcare and Care Logistics. The survey collected information from more than 400 nursing professionals whose most time consuming non-clinical care tasks included:

• Documenting information in multiple locations
• Completing logs, checklists and collecting data  
• Documenting for regulatory purposes  
• Traveling to equipment, supply and dirty utility rooms
• Entering and reviewing orders