Abstract
Objective
To classify activities performed by nurses, to identify interruptions and to verify human and environmental factors associated with interruptions.
Methods
Observational study conducted with a sample comprising 25 nurses working in pediatric or adult, surgical or intensive care units of a university hospital.
Results
We observed 2,295 activities, most of them were classified as indirect patient care (38.6%) and direct patient care (22.5%). Seven hundred and nineteen (31.3%) interrupted activities were identified, with mean of 1.6 interruptions in the same activity, thus totaling 1,180 interruptions. There was greater number of interruptions during the indirect care (44.7%), and their main sources were the nursing (43.3%), and the physicians and residents (16.5%) staffs. The number of individuals in the units (staff and family/visitors), the proportion of patients under high-dependency, the number of healthcare and allied professionals influenced the number of interruptions.
Conclusion
There were interruptions in all types of activities performed by the nurses, even in those characterized as bedside interventions, which can jeopardize patient safety.
Workflow; Safety management; Patient safety; Human engineering; Observation; Pediatric nursing; Adult