Nurses spend over 275,000 hours a week on paperwork in Scotland, warns RCN
Published: 21 April 2013
Nurses are being prevented from caring for their patients because they are drowning in a sea of paperwork, an ICM survey for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned today (21 April).
The increasing burden of admin work on nurses means they spend an estimated 279,000 hours a week in Scotland on non-essential paperwork and clerical tasks.
Almost 800 nurses in Scotland responded to the survey and nine out of ten (89%) said the amount of non-essential paperwork such as filing, photocopying and ordering supplies had increased in the last two years, with over half (56 per cent) saying it had increased dramatically.
In addition, 86% of nurses surveyed said that having to complete non-essential paperwork prevented them from providing direct patient care.
RCN Scotland Director Theresa Fyffe said: “Some paperwork is essential and nurses have to complete it for patient safety and quality assurance purposes. However, patients expect nurses to be caring for them, not ticking boxes. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Alex Neil MSP has recognised the burden of paperwork on senior charge nurses and how it affects their ability to oversee patient care and lead nursing teams on our hospital wards. This is a step in the right direction and we hope that his actions will suit his words and he will make sure paperwork does not get in the way of senior charge nurses being able to do their job effectively.
“Our survey shows, however, that well over a third of the nurses surveyed (38%) said their workplace does not have a ward clerk or administrative assistant to help with clerical duties – and the vast majority of those (82%) thought that if they did, they would be able to spend more time providing direct patient care.”
IT solutions are often touted as the answer to over-burdensome paperwork, but our survey found that if technology is not used properly, it can actually increase nurses’ workloads. Worryingly, almost seven out of ten nurses (70%) said the use of IT has increased the amount of time they spend on paperwork and administration and a quarter (25%) said that IT is not appropriate for the job they need to do.
Theresa added: “What we need is joined-up IT, with systems that can speak to each other and support nurses and other professionals to work more effectively together, for the benefit of patients. This will become more and more important with the integration of health and social care, with health boards and local authorities needing to work together effectively to deliver high quality care for patients – and not to be swamped by unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the world’s largest professional organisation and trade union for nursing staff, with members in the NHS, independent and voluntary sectors. RCN Scotland promotes patient and nursing interests by campaigning on issues that affect our members, shaping national health policies, representing members on practice and employment issues and providing members with learning and development opportunities. With around 39,000 members in Scotland, we are the voice of nursing.
Survey of 8,262 RCN members was carried out by ICM on behalf of the Royal College of Nursing between 20 March and 2 April 2013. A total of 792 RCN members in Scotland responded.