Is Your Work Being Timed By Task?
Nurses should be wary of efforts to reduce complex nursing skills to simplified tasks that can be measured with a stopwatch
BCNU is receiving reports that on some FHA medical units, nurses are being followed around by staff with stopwatches who are timing what they are doing. 'Time and motion' studies like this can be used to justify changes to the patient care model, which may involve replacing nurses with care aides.
Island Health did extensive time and motion studies prior to launching Care Delivery Model Redesign (CDMR). At Nanaimo Regional Hospital, the new care model as much as doubled nurses' patient loads.
If you find yourself being followed by someone with a stopwatch, here are some tips on what to do:
- Explain out loud exactly what you are doing while completing your tasks;
- Identify all assessments undertaken while in contact with patients;
- If asked what parts of the nursing care you deliver someone else could do, politely say 'none';
- Make sure your steward knows that management is timing your work.
BCNU opposes any care model changes that further intensify nurse workloads, degrade care and put patients at risk.