How many hours do you spend....

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

This is a poll to get a general idea of how much of nursing is at the bedside and how much is spent doing paperwork.

Paperwork indicates documentation, work on the computer, and

secretarial work.

Please indicate your specialty as one of choices below.

A) LTC/rehab

B) administration

C) acute care

D) ER/trauma

E) critical care/ICU

F) tele/stepdown

G) OR

H) preop/PACU

I) clinic/doctor's office

J) school nurse

K) education

L) other - please specify

[SierraBravo]

Acute care - 60-70% with patients, the rest computer work.

[Libby1987]

Other: home health

60% patient care including communication to coordinate and collaborate their care (I consider that case mgmt, not clerical.)

I don't work shifts and clock out which means the patients are not shorted but I may be working OT.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

School nurse

Some days 80/20, some days 20/80. Most days, 80/80

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

LTC, I would say my time spent at the bedside is 80% or more. But where I currently work we practice some rather old-fashioned team nursing where the LPNs pass all the meds and do all the treatments, while the RNs focus on paperwork and on supervising.

Also, I think the more experienced you become, the faster you get at charting, enabling you to spend more time at the bedside.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I guess I should answer my own poll. When I work ER and I would say 70-75% patient care. When I work acute care, I would say about 60% patient care.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I'm sorry I should have included home health, public health, pediatrics and postpartum/l&d as specialties.

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

Private duty pediatric home care. 75% patient care/25% documentation.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

specilistHome Health Performance Improvement Compliance Specialist:

100% paperwork responding to Medicare denials + Insurance company audits along with releasing Medical Records for legal: attorneys and Social Security & non-legal requests: patient, DME and insurance companies, etc.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

As a school nurse, I feel that even my 'administrative tasks' are clinical. Writing policy, researching best practice, and surveys, while typically considered administrative, are how I care for my population.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

• Acute physical rehabilitation at a freestanding rehab hospital

I would estimate I spend about three hours of each shift (25 percent) on patient care and the remaining nine hours (75 percent) on clerical tasks and paperwork.