Objective: The aim of this study is to increase nurses' time for direct patient care and improve safety via a novel human factors framework for nursing worksystem improvement.
Background: Time available for direct patient care influences outcomes, yet worksystem barriers prevent nurses adequate time at the bedside.
Methods: A novel human factors framework was developed for worksystem improvement in 3 units at 2 facilities. Objectives included improving nurse efficiency as measured by time-and-motion studies, reducing missing medications and subsequent trips to medication rooms and improving medication safety.
Results: Worksystem improvement resulted in time savings of 16% to 32% per nurse per 12-hour shift. Requests for missing medications dropped from 3.2 to 1.3 per day. Nurse medication room trips were reduced by 30% and nurse-reported medication errors fell from a range of 1.2 to 0.8 and 6.3 to 4.0 per month.
Conclusions: An innovative human factors framework for nursing worksystem improvement provided practical and high priority targets for interventions that significantly improved the nursing worksystem.