ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Increasing nursing time in patient care is beneficial in improving patient outcomes, but this is proving increasingly difficult with the nursing shortage, budgetary constraints, and higher patient acuity. OBJECTIVE: Nursing workflow was evaluated after the implementation of a continuous vigilance monitoring system to determine if the system enhanced patient-centric nursing care. METHODS: Work sampling observations were conducted at 3 hospitals for 6 categories of nursing activities (direct and indirect nursing, documentation, administrative, housekeeping, and miscellaneous) at baseline and at 3 and 9 months. RESULTS: Statistically significant increases in direct (3 months) and indirect nursing care (3 and 9 months) were found, with variability between sites. Statistically significant increases at 3 and 9 months for documentation of patient care activities and decreases in administrative activities were the most consistent findings for all sites. CONCLUSION: Continuous vigilance monitoring enhanced patient-centric care with increases in direct and indirect nursing care and documentation of those activities.
