ORIGINAL RESEARCH How nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home: an observational study Esther Naliaka Munyisia, Ping Yu & David Hailey Accepted for publication: 22 January 2011 Correspondence to P. Yu: email: ping@uow.edu.au Esther Naliaka Munyisia MHinfo Doctoral Candidate School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia Ping Yu PhD Senior Lecturer and Director Health Informatics Research Lab School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia David Hailey PhD Research Fellow School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia MUNYISIA E.N., YU P. & HAILEY D. (2011) MUNYISIA E.N., YU P. & HAILEY D. (2011) How nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home: an observational study. Journal of Advanced Nursing 67(9), 1908–1917. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05633.x Abstract Aim. This article is a report of a study to examine how nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home. Background. Few studies have investigated how nursing staff spend their time on activities in a nursing home. Such information is important for nurse managers in deciding on staff deployment, and for evaluating the effects of changes in nursing practice. Method. A work sampling study with an observational component was undertaken in 2009 with nursing staff at a nursing home. Results. A total of 430 activities were recorded for Registered Nurses, 331 for Endorsed Enrolled Nurses, 5276 for Personal Carers, and 501 for Recreational Activity Officers. Registered Nurses spent 48Æ4% of their time on communication and 18Æ1% on medication management. Endorsed Enrolled Nurses spent 37Æ7% on communication and 29Æ0% on documentation tasks. Communication was the most time-consuming activity for Recreational Activity Officers and Personal Carers, except that Personal Carers in a high care house spent more time on direct care duties. Hygiene duties and resident interaction were more frequently multitasked by the nursing staff in high care than in low care house. Conclusion. Nursing staff value their face-to-face interaction for successful care delivery. There is need, however, to investigate the effects of this form of commu- nication on quality of care given to residents. Differences in multi-tasked activities between high care and low care houses should be considered when deploying staff in a nursing home. Keywords: activity, nurse, nursing home, observation, work sampling Introduction To date, few studies have investigated how nursing staff spend their work time on activities in a nursing home. With the increasing number of physically and cognitively impaired older adults in nursing homes (de Meijer et al. 2009), and the shortages of nursing staff in these settings (Hussein & Manthorpe 2006), nursing managers need this information 1908 Ó 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING