Workload of nurses: observational study of indirect care activities/interventions.

OBJECTIVE: Observe the workflow of nurses in hospitalization units identifying indirect care activities/interventions; measure the frequency and average time spent in performing them; and to verify the associations between average time of the activities interventions grouped into categories and per hospitalization unit.

METHOD: Observational exploratory study using the timed technique. It was conducted in medical, surgical and specialized clinic units of a teaching hospital in the northwest of São Paulo Brazil, with 16 attending nurses as participants.

RESULTS: 90 hours of observation were performed, of which 58% (52 hours and 10 minutes) were related to indirect care activities of the patients. The most frequent activities/interventions were: "Communication" - 1,852 (44.1%), mean 34.6 (SD = 54); "Walking" - 1,023 (24.3%), mean 22 (SD = 49.2); and "Documentation" - 663 (15.8%), mean 82.7 (SD = 144.4).

CONCLUSION: These findings favor a redesign of the work process and foster the need to update and refine the current workload measurement instruments.