Prevalence and reasons for non-nursing tasks as perceived by nurses: Findings from a large cross-sectional study.

AIM: The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence and reasons for non-nursing tasks as perceived by nurses. BACKGROUND: Four types of non-nursing tasks have been identified to date: (a) auxiliary; (b) administrative, (c) expected by allied health care professionals; and (d) medical. However, no studies on a large scale have been performed with the aim of identifying the prevalence of all of these non-nursing tasks, and factors promoting or hindering their occurrence, given that they represent a clear waste of nurses' time. METHODS: A cross-sectional study in 2017, following The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies. All active nurses registered in an Italian provincial Nursing Board (=1331) willing to participate were involved. A questionnaire survey exploring the nature of the nursing tasks performed in daily practice and the underlying reasons was administered via paper/pencil and e-mail. RESULTS: A total of 733 nurses participated of which 94.5% performed at least one type of non-nursing task, mainly administrative and auxiliary. Auxiliary tasks are less likely among nurses working in a community (odds ratio [OR] 0.43, 95% CI 0.29-0.63, p < .01) or in a residential (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.23-0.72, p < .01) setting, in critical (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.16-0.54, p < .01) or surgical (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.19-0.75, p < .01) hospital settings, and when they deal with unexpected clinical events (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.44-0.77, p < .01). Greater adequacy of nursing resources decreases the occurrence of auxiliary tasks (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99, p < .01), whereas the need to compensate for a lack of resources (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.07-1.93, p < .01) increases it. CONCLUSIONS: Around one-third of shift time is devoted to non-nursing tasks; working in a hospital, in medical units, with lack of resources and with patients with predictable clinical conditions might increase the occurrence of auxiliary tasks. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Strategies to increase the time available for nursing care should consider the type of tasks performed by nurses, their antecedents and the value added to care in terms of patient' benefits.

Non-nursing tasks as experienced by nursing students: Findings from a phenomenological interpretative study.

BACKGROUND: During their clinical learning experience, students are exposed to the nursing profession as a powerful structural reality, experiencing the so-called professional socialisation, a process recognised as the basis of professional identity. Inside this process, students progressively acknowledge their professional identity as being composed of several competencies and, among these, also non-nursing tasks. OBJECTIVES: To explore non-nursing tasks in the context of nursing students' clinical learning experiences. DESIGN: An interpretative phenomenological study design was performed and carried out in 2016. The COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative (COREQ) research principles were used in reporting study methods and findings. SETTING: Two Italian Bachelor of Nursing degree programmes located in Northern Italy. PARTICIPANTS: Students attending their nursing programmes who a) had successfully passed one or more theoretical examinations; b) had one or more clinical learning experiences in varied contexts (e.g. hospital, community); c) were attending the 1st, 2nd or 3rd year, and d) were willing to participate, were interviewed with an open-ended, face-to-face, audio-recorded interview. METHODS: A thematic analysis was performed. RESULTS: Participating students (n = 18) were between 20 and 25 years old and were attending the 1st to the 3rd (and final) academic year. Non-nursing tasks were experienced by them according to three main themes: a) "Being out of the scope of the learning experience," b) "Being forced by external and internal forces," and c) "Dealing with mixed outcomes by looking for a compromise." All students have reported learning to perform non-nursing tasks by shadowing clinical nurses and also practising these tasks by themselves. Internal and external forces prompted students to perform non-nursing tasks, which were recognised as having positive, negative, and neutral effects on themselves and on their learning outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Non-nursing tasks are acquired since the beginning of the clinical experience, thus shaping the nursing students' professional identity. At the undergraduate nursing level, strategies should be implemented to prevent the phenomena that a) threaten the acquisition of more complex nursing competences expected by patients and society, and b) shape future generations to be flexible and to perform different tasks, included those below their role.