Time pressure causing nurses to leave care undone is common, with 86 percent of nurses reporting leaving one or more activities of care undone per shift because of a lack of time, according to research published in BMJ Quality and Safety.
Researchers performed the study with a group of nearly 3,000 nurses in 46 hospitals across England. The purpose of the study was to determine mechanisms by which lower levels of nurse staffing might be detrimental to patient safety.
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The activities nurses most often neglected because of time pressure included comforting or talking to patients (66 percent), educating patients (52 percent) and developing or updating nursing care plans (47 percent).
Effects of time pressure and skipping care activities seemed to have an effect on patient safety, with an average of 7.8 activities per nurse left undone per shift on units 'failing' on patient safety, compared with 2.4 activities for units with 'excellent' patient safety, according to the article.
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