Interruptions and multitasking in nursing care.

Beatrice J. Kalisch; Michelle Aebersold

Study

Interruptions and multitasking in nursing care.

March 3, 2010

Kalisch BJ, Aebersold M. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2010;36(3):126-132.

View more articles from the same authors.

This study observed nurses for 4-hour periods and found that interruptions and multitasking were common. Although nurses managed these discontinuities well, the potential for errors is present and should be a target for prevention strategies.

PubMed citation

Available at

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Overcoming barriers to patient safety.

July 5, 2006

Nurse and nurse assistant perceptions of missed nursing care: what does it tell us about teamwork?

November 25, 2009

Errors of omission: missed nursing care.

May 28, 2014

Improving nursing unit teamwork.

January 4, 2006

The impact of teamwork on missed nursing care.

October 27, 2010

Nurse staffing levels and patient-reported missed nursing care.

October 14, 2015

Development and psychometric testing of a tool to measure missed nursing care.

June 3, 2009

An intervention to enhance nursing staff teamwork and engagement.

February 21, 2007

What does nursing teamwork look like? A qualitative study.

May 6, 2009

Do staffing levels predict missed nursing care?

June 29, 2011

Patient-reported missed nursing care correlated with adverse events.

October 30, 2013

Patient perceptions of missed nursing care.

April 4, 2012

Missed nursing care: a concept analysis.

July 8, 2009

Targeted communication intervention using nursing crew resource management principles.

March 25, 2015

Effective followership: a standardized algorithm to resolve clinical conflicts and improve teamwork.

August 12, 2015

A model framework for patient safety training in chiropractic: a literature synthesis.

September 9, 2009

Health care serial murder: a patient safety orphan.

March 31, 2010

Surgeon's narcissism, hostility, stress, bullying, meaning in life and work environment: a two-centered analysis.

September 27, 2023

Causes of use errors in ventilation devices--systematic review.

November 10, 2021

Emergency department communication links and patterns.

January 30, 2008

Implementing a perioperative handoff tool to improve postprocedural patient transfers.

March 7, 2012

The challenges of electronic health records and diabetes electronic prescribing: implications for safety net care for diverse populations.

February 22, 2017

Patient and caregiver factors in ambulatory incident reports: a mixed-methods analysis.

November 24, 2021

"What's psychology got to do with it?" Applying psychological theory to understanding failures in modern healthcare settings.

January 20, 2016

Prevalence and characteristics of physicians prone to malpractice claims.

February 3, 2016

Risk and pharmacoeconomic analyses of the injectable medication process in the paediatric and neonatal intensive care units.

May 12, 2010

Implementing standardized operating room briefings and debriefings at a large regional medical center.

August 5, 2009

Pediatric emergency department discharge prescriptions requiring pharmacy clarification.

August 5, 2015

Prevalence of preventable medication-related hospitalizations in Australia: an opportunity to reduce harm.

May 2, 2012

The occurrence of wrong-site surgery self-reported by candidates for certification by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery.

March 29, 2012

Medication errors and adverse drug events in an intensive care unit: direct observation approach for detection.

January 31, 2006

Safety culture in healthcare: a review of concepts, dimensions, measures and progress.

April 13, 2011

Use of standard risk screening and assessment forms to prevent harm to older people in Australian hospitals: a mixed methods study.

September 13, 2017

New problems and iatrogenic events among older adults in the first 30 days of post-acute rehabilitation.

November 24, 2021

SECUre: a multicentre survey of the safety of emergency care in UK emergency departments.

November 24, 2021

Understanding liability risk from using health care artificial intelligence tools.

January 31, 2024

Preventing retained surgical items.

August 3, 2022

Blood and blood products transfusion errors: what can we do to improve patient safety.

May 10, 2023

Relationship between quality of care and negligence litigation in nursing homes.

April 13, 2011

Who pays for medical errors? An analysis of adverse event costs, the medical liability system, and incentives for patient safety improvement.

February 6, 2008

Help your patient "get" what you just said: a health literacy guide.

June 13, 2012

Improving reconciliation following medical injury: a qualitative study of responses to patient safety incidents in New Zealand.

October 4, 2017

Changes in practice among physicians with malpractice claims.

April 3, 2019

Association of overlapping surgery with perioperative outcomes.

March 6, 2019

Malpractice reform—opportunities for leadership by health care institutions and liability insurers.

April 14, 2010

Managing the risks of concurrent surgeries.

March 30, 2016

The fate of pediatric prescriptions in community pharmacies.

June 3, 2015

E-prescribing: a focused review and new approach to addressing safety in pharmacies and primary care.

October 31, 2012

e-Prescribing: characterisation of patient safety hazards in community pharmacies using a sociotechnical systems approach.

July 31, 2013

Retail pharmacy staff perceptions of design strengths and weaknesses of electronic prescribing.

August 1, 2012

Why we need a single definition of disruptive behavior.

June 27, 2018

"Saying sorry": some strategies for effective apology within the workplace.

January 23, 2019

Swimming against the tide: primary care physicians' views on deprescribing in everyday practice.

August 23, 2017

The evolving story of overlapping surgery.

July 19, 2017

Exploring information chaos in community pharmacy handoffs.

March 5, 2014

The role of medical liability reform in federal health care reform.

July 1, 2009

A survey of the impact of disruptive behaviors and communication defects on patient safety.

August 13, 2008

Pharmacist staffing, technology use, and implementation of medication safety practices in rural hospitals.

October 25, 2006

Invited article: Managing disruptive physician behavior: impact on staff relationships and patient care.

May 7, 2008

Impact and implications of disruptive behavior in the perioperative arena.

July 12, 2006

Disruptive behavior and clinical outcomes: perceptions of nurses and physicians.

April 21, 2005

Patient safety and medical malpractice: a case study.

March 6, 2005

Hospitalization due to adverse drug events in older adults with cancer: a retrospective analysis.

August 2, 2023

Can communication-and-resolution programs achieve their potential? Five key questions.

December 19, 2018

Error reduction in pediatric chemotherapy: computerized order entry and failure modes and effects analysis.

May 10, 2006

Patients' experiences with communication-and-resolution programs after medical injury.

October 18, 2017

The sterile cockpit: an effective approach to reducing medication errors?

April 2, 2014

Painting a picture of nurse presenteeism: a multi-country integrative review.

July 22, 2020

Apology laws and malpractice liability: what have we learned?

July 8, 2020

A critical review: moral injury in nurses in the aftermath of a patient safety incident.

April 22, 2020

Adverse effects of computers during bedside rounds in a critical care unit.

August 1, 2018

A scoping review of distributed cognition in acute care clinical decision-making.

June 7, 2023

Cognitive tests predict real-world errors: the relationship between drug name confusion rates in laboratory-based memory and perception tests and corresponding error rates in large pharmacy chains.

June 8, 2016

Near-miss events are really missed! Reflections on incident reporting in a department of pediatric surgery.

May 9, 2012

Experience of hospital-initiated medication changes in older people with multimorbidity: a multicentre mixed-methods study embedded in the OPtimising thERapy to prevent Avoidable hospital admissions in Multimorbid older people (OPERAM) trial.

December 7, 2022

Assessment of perioperative outcomes among surgeons who operated the night before.

June 8, 2022

Medical malpractice liability in the age of electronic health records.

December 1, 2010

Administrative compensation for medical injuries: lessons from three foreign systems.

August 3, 2011

Prejudice in perceptions of physicians?: The influence of race and gender on evaluations of medical errors.

August 8, 2018

Using an inpatient portal to engage families in pediatric hospital care.

June 29, 2016

Receptionist input to quality and safety in repeat prescribing in UK general practice: ethnographic case study.

November 16, 2011

'Poking the skunk': ethical and medico-legal concerns in research about patients' experiences of medical injury.

July 17, 2019

A quality improvement initiative to reduce safety events among adolescents hospitalized after a suicide attempt.

May 15, 2019

The medical liability climate and prospects for reform.

November 19, 2014

Hospital patient safety grades may misrepresent hospital performance.

February 12, 2014

Perioperative COVID-19 defense: an evidence-based approach for optimization of infection control and operating room management.

April 22, 2020

Benefits of reporting and analyzing nursing students' near-miss medication incidents.

March 9, 2022

Missed diagnosis of critical congenital heart disease.

October 22, 2008

The medical emergency team and rapid response system: finding, treating, and preventing hypoglycemia.

October 4, 2006

Antibiotic timing and errors in diagnosing pneumonia.

March 5, 2008

Advising patients about patient safety: current initiatives risk shifting responsibility.

September 7, 2005

Clinician responses to disruptive intraoperative behaviour: patterns and norms identified from a multinational survey.

March 6, 2024

Automated detection of look-alike/sound-alike medication errors.

April 12, 2017

The effect of health information technology on quality in U.S. hospitals.

April 28, 2010

Shifting indirect patient care duties to after hours in the era of work hours restrictions.

May 11, 2011

Lost in translation: medication labeling for immigrant families.

December 21, 2016

Hospital infection prevention: how much can we prevent and how hard should we try?

March 6, 2019

How do community pharmacies recover from e-prescription errors?

January 7, 2015

E-prescribing errors in community pharmacies: exploring consequences and contributing factors.

April 16, 2014

Health care safety during the pandemic and beyond--building a system that ensures resilience.

February 23, 2022

Related Resources

Patient Safety Innovations

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

May 31, 2023

Annual Perspective

Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality

April 26, 2023

Interview

In Conversation with... Susan McGrath, PhD and George Blike, MD about Surveillance Monitoring

April 26, 2023

Perspective

Surveillance Monitoring to Improve Patient Safety in Acute Hospital Care Units

April 26, 2023

Patient Safety Primers

Nursing and Patient Safety

April 21, 2021

Nurse burnout predicts self-reported medication administration errors in acute care hospitals.

January 20, 2021

Do falls and other safety issues occur more often during handovers when nurses are away from patients? Findings from a retrospective study design.

November 11, 2020

Does a unit shift report "blackout" period improve patient safety?

April 10, 2019

Medication administration and interruptions in nursing homes: a qualitative observational study.

July 11, 2018

The impact of interruptions on medication errors in hospitals: an observational study of nurses.

January 24, 2018

Impact of interruptions, distractions, and cognitive load on procedure failures and medication administration errors.

July 19, 2017

Effectiveness of a 'Do not interrupt' bundled intervention to reduce interruptions during medication administration: a cluster randomised controlled feasibility study.

March 15, 2017

Separate medication preparation rooms reduce interruptions and medication errors in the hospital setting: a prospective observational study.

February 15, 2017

Data-driven implementation of alarm reduction interventions in a cardiovascular surgical ICU.

February 8, 2017

Medication double-checking procedures in clinical practice: a cross-sectional survey of oncology nurses' experiences.

September 7, 2016

Delayed recognition of deterioration of patients in general wards is mostly caused by human related monitoring failures: a root cause analysis of unplanned ICU admissions.

September 7, 2016

Why do we still page each other? Examining the frequency, types and senders of pages in academic medical services.

February 3, 2016

The effect of a safe zone on nurse interruptions, distractions, and medication administration errors.

April 1, 2015

Work-arounds observed by fourth-year nursing students.

November 19, 2014

Bedside shift reports: what does the evidence say?

September 24, 2014

Predictors of unit-level medication administration accuracy: microsystem impacts on medication safety.

August 27, 2014

Outcomes of a quality improvement project for educating nurses on medication administration and errors in nursing homes.

July 16, 2014

Quiet please! Drug round tabards: are they effective and accepted? A mixed method study.

July 9, 2014

How studying human factors improves patient safety.

April 16, 2014

The sterile cockpit: an effective approach to reducing medication errors?

April 2, 2014

Interruptions in clinical nursing practice.

November 6, 2013

Evaluation of a problem-specific SBAR tool to improve after-hours nurse-physician phone communication: a randomized trial.

October 30, 2013

Are interventions to reduce interruptions and errors during medication administration effective?: a systematic review.

September 11, 2013

Nurses discuss bedside handover and using written handover sheets.

February 13, 2013

Reducing interruptions to improve medication safety.

November 21, 2012

See More About The Topic

General Hospitals

Nurses

Nurse Managers

Quality and Safety Professionals

Nurse Care

Interruptions and multitasking in nursing care.

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

Nursing and Patient Safety

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Interruptions and multitasking in nursing care.

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

Nursing and Patient Safety

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site