Nurse & Midwife Time Spent on Providing care at Postnatal Ward, AWH, Qatar

Introduction: Nurses and midwives have the responsibility to implement evidence-based practices to improve the quality of care to the patients. In the delivery of care nursing planning, to implement best practices is fundamental and, time is essential to reach the goal in providing care without inequalities. In the postnatal services, the combination of mother and childcare, require different approach, knowledge and practice. This special characteristic can be a challenge on organizing services in a timely manner. It is necessary to building strategies that can evaluate and reflect on the actual practices to improve changes. However, few studies, researches and surveys are showing time as a tool to organize the services. This study has as main objective to measure the nurses and midwifes time spent on patient care at postnatal ward at AWH. The specific objectives were to define the amount of time spent on carrying out N & M activities, average time spent on the care of different kind of deliveries, factors of risk (GDD, GDD, High Blood Pressure and Infections), wasted time and interruptions. Methodology: The evaluation was conducted at postnatal ward. The staff was enrolled and selected by head nurse. Criteria of inclusion: midwives & nurses that participated on the Advance Postnatal Course. For this purpose, we created an instrument of data collection: “Nurse Activities time Management”. This instrument includes patient information (mother and baby), start and finish time of patient care, interruptions and special notes. Results: we found that: 1) midwives spent different time on the patient care after normal delivery and cesarean. Cesarean Increase 2 folders time spent on vital Sign, baby care, patient discharge and admission and reduce 1 fold time spent on education; 2) patients having some risk factors as: GDM, GDD and MRSA increase 3-4 minutes time spent on blood sugar check and antibiotic administrations; 3) some babies’ procedures were doing separate at babies’ room: This procedures increase 3-5’ staff transportation of babies and waiting time, because the baby room is overcrowded during circumcision and Planning Family Education activities; 4) midwives are spending media of 3-4’ to open the Cerner computers, and; 5) Average of 12’ minutes of interruptions/wasted time in administrative activities, looking for papers, etc. Final Considerations: This study helps us to understand midwives’ time spent on the patient care, to enhance educational strategies to develop time management and midwives planning skills.