Time Required for Nurses to Carry out Indirect Nursing Activities in Surgical Departments at Tishreen University Hospital in Latakia

Abstract

Improving the level of health care services provided to the citizen is always one of the priorities of development plans, and the care provided by nurses constitutes 80% of the total health care provided to the individual and is the essence of nursing work. Nursing care management includes direct activities with the patient, indirect activities such as supporting direct care interventions, and activities related to the department such as department management, cooperation and coordination with other health elements, and various administrative work. The time required to carry out these activities determines the workload of the team and this is a concept that needs to be built upon as nursing workload is not limited to direct patient care. This research aimed to assess the total amount of time nurses need to perform indirect nursing activities in the surgical departments at Tishreen University Hospital in Latakia. Data were collected during the period from 4/1/2024 to 25/4/2024 on a sample of 385 male and female nurses representing all nursing staff working in these departments. Two instruments were used in the study: Demographic and clinical data tool, and indirect nursing activities. The research result found that the cardiac surgery department is one of the most time-consuming departments of surgery for indirect nursing activities, and nursing documentation is the most time-consuming of these activities compared to other indirect nursing activities. The recommendation of the study is the need to review the distribution of nursing staff to the department in proportion to the workload of each department, use the electronic medical records, and update the nursing and medical forms paper forms used in the hospital.