How nurses spend their time-shift and the strategies adopted to maximize it: a scoping review. Introduction. Investigating how nurses spend their time during the shifts has become important mainly recently, due
to the nursing shortage. Aim. The aims of the study were to map and summarise, (a) how nurses use their timeshift in different care settings, and (b) the time-shift management strategies implemented. Method. A scoping review according to the Arksey and O'Malley framework,
integrated by Levac and colleagues and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-analysis
extension-Scoping reviews guideline was conducted in
2021. Results. Thirty-one studies were included (30 primary studies, one secondary), published from 1987 to 2021,
mainly conducted in USA, UK and Sweden. Most of them
were based on quantitative designs (23/30). In critical and
psychiatric settings, the nursing time is dedicated almost equally in direct and indirect care; in the medical, surgical, and oncological units, the direct care activities occupy around the 30% of the nursing time-shift, whereas
the indirect care activities increase. In long-term settings
the indirect care reaches the 60% of nursing time while
in home care around one third of time is spent in direct
care. Nurses enact different time-management strategies
during the shift. Conclusion. Nurses spend limited time
at the bedside, as perceived also in the Italian nursing
practice; making more visible to patients and their caregivers the value of the indirect care performed by nurses is necessary.
