“That’s not my job” – words no one wants to hear in the workplace. They inspire frustration, slow down progress, and worst of all, aren’t the words of a team player. Most professional settings encourage employees to go the extra mile, because team players can help cover gaps. But could taking on additional tasks be hurting your care team and your productivity?
A recent study, Exploring Top of License Practice for Registered Nurses: A Time Motion Study, reviewed prior research as well as their own results to explore how nurses spend the bulk of their time.
During a four-hour observation, nurses spent the majority of their time:
- Charting in EHR – 31.63 minutes on average
- Communicating with patients – 29.99 minutes on average
- Communicating with other nurses – 26.68 minutes on average
- Reviewing information in EHR – 21.51 minutes on average
- Medication administration – 15.70 minutes on average
- Fetching medication – 8.15 minutes on average
Nurses also spent an average of nearly 14 minutes during each observed period on non-nursing, delegable tasks. The study also found that while nurses spent roughly 26% of their time in patient rooms, they were only spending 12.5% of that time actually communicating with patients. Presumably, the rest of their time was lost on administrative work.
An effective care team strategy recognizes that nurses are indispensable not because they can take on a large number of broad tasks, but because they have unique training and expertise that are critical for patient care. A true team player is someone who knows exactly what their job is and does not hesitate to do it. By expanding your care team to support experts doing their assigned tasks, every task is completed with care, urgency, and competency.
A well-developed team is empowered to say “That’s not my job,” because whatever the task, it is someone’s job.
That’s true top of license strategy, where every team member is doing the work they are most qualified to do. Oncologists aren’t taking blood pressure, nurses aren’t wasting time on documentation. By adding allied health team members like medical assistants, clinical administrators, medical receptionists, and more, your team is at its strongest. And a strong team has the highest level of patient access with more patient throughput, more one-on-one time for providers and patients, and better patient satisfaction scores.
Stop paying nursing prices for allied health work and let every member of your care team become empowered to say, “That’s not my job.”
Reference
Exploring Top of License Practice for Registered Nurses: A Time Motion Study. Jacalyn S. Buck, PhD, RN, NEA-BC. https://www.sigmarepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3083&context=inrc.
