RESUMEN
Objective To measure the nursing time that the geriatric patients need daily in a large general hospital in Anhui province,thus to understand the direct and indirect nursing items and time.Methods Timing and recording nursing operations to meet the conditions of the geriatric patients for 7 consecutive days by field recording method were done.Results The average time of each nursing procedures was calculated.Direct nursing time was 146.10 min,accounting for 84.70％ of the total nursing time,including primary care (42.81％) and respiratory/drain management proportion (15.86％); Indirect nursing time was 26.39 min,accounting for 15.30％ of the total nursing time.The actual number of nurse needed was 158,the suitable bed protection ratio was 1 ∶ 0.68.Conclusions Direct nursing time of geriatric patients needed was longer than that of indirect nursing time.To increase direct nursing hours and reduce the indirect nursing time can satisfy the need of elderly patients.In addition,the current nursing staffing cannot satisfy the clinical needs of the elderly,thus,nursing resources allocation should be reasonable arranged as soon as possible.