Interruptions are multi-dimensional events that occur at varying frequencies and durations in different social contexts and task environments. Given that interruptions are believed to be pervasive in the nursing work environment and patient care requires a great amount of cognitive resources, it is important to describe nurses responses to interruptions in the direct care work environment. Of major concern is the potential link between interruption and errors. Until types of interruptions and responses are described, it is not possible to study this potential link. The purpose of this study was to examine nurses responses to and management of interruptions during patient care and to explore contextual factors that influence nurse decision-making when interrupted. The findings indicate that nurses are interrupted frequently during their work. Nurses acted immediately on 95% of interruptions with either a task switch (47.9%) or by multitasking (46.7%). Characteristics (task type, source, and initiation method), of the first interruption during a task were associated with the nurses responses. Likewise, characteristics of the interrupted task were associated with the nurses response to the first interruption. A large proportion (26%) of interruptions occurred during medication administration (a time when errors may result in the most harm to patients) when current evidence and protocols call for limiting interruptions. This finding may be clinically meaningful in development of practice interventions related to interruption handling strategies. Other findings regarding data collection strategies to study this phenomenon will guide future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03222015-191156 |
| Date | 06 April 2015 |
| Creators | Reed, Clinta Ché |
| Contributors | Ann Minnick, Mary Dietrich, Lorraine Mion, Jason Slagle |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03222015-191156/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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