An Investigation Of Interruptions In Nursing Care PDF Download

The Emergency Department (ED) is characterized as being interruption driven (Brixey et al., 2008) and interruptions occur frequently in the ED (Ernst, Weiss, & Reitsema, 2013). Interruptions in this environment can have negative effects on an individual’s performance and can affect patient safety. The purpose of this descriptive observational study was to observe the frequency and sources of interruptions to nurses in the ED as they cared for patients.A descriptive observational study design was utilized to explore the frequency and sources of interruptions to nurses in the ED as they cared for patients. A convenience sample of 12 nurses working in the ED of a level II trauma center of a not-for-profit academic medical center located in a community setting in the northeast region of the United States was recruited for the study. The average age of the nurses was 39.9 years, average years of experience as an RN was 13.9, and average years of experience in the ED was nine. Each nurse consenting to participate in the study was observed for six hours to determine the frequency and sources of interruptions experienced as they cared for patients. Data collection was accomplished with a modified version of a data collection instrument designed specifically to record observations of an ED nurse’s activities. The instrument listed the sources that were known to contribute to interruptions as identified in other studies of ED nurses (Kosits & Jones, 2011; Brixey et al., 2005, 2008); the frequency of interruptions the nurse experienced, and the tasks interrupted. A total of 586 interruptions were observed over 72 hours of observations; each nurse experienced a mean of 48.83 (SD=20.16) interruptions over six hours or 8.14 (SD=3.36) interruptions per hour. The major source of interruptions to nurses was face-to face interactions with other nurses, accounting for 41.8% of all sources observed. Many interruptions were brief, lasting a mean time of 0.94 minutes. The task observed to be the most interrupted was documenting on the computer (58.2%).The results of this study support the interruptive nature of the ED to nurses, an issue that has been minimally studied. Interventions are needed to target the most frequent sources of interruptions (nurses, self, ED physicians, ED technicians, others, patients, family, and phone calls) in an effort to reduce them. Identifying and limiting unnecessary activities in an effort to decrease interruptions can enhance patient safety and the delivery of quality care.