Nurses’ Work Interruptions and Responses: Multitasking During Medication Tasks and Differences by Nursing Delivery System

Aim: This study aimed to report not only the frequency and source of work interruptions but also nurses’ responses to them, focusing on multitasking during medication‐related work. It also examined the differences in work interruption according to the nursing care delivery system. Background: Work interruptions increase nurses’ workload complexities and errors, as they compromise nurses’ attention. Design: The time and motion cross‐sectional observational study method was used. Method: Data were collected between September 4 and 15, 2023, from six nurses in a functional nursing care delivery unit and five nurses working eight‐hour shifts in an integrated nursing care unit at a general hospital in South Korea. The Work Observation Method by Activity Timing program was used to record the tasks performed by nurses. Results: The number of interruptions, including multitasking per hour, was 11.21 and 9.27 for the functional nursing care delivery unit and the integrated nursing care unit, respectively. The most interrupted locations were the nurse station (41.6%) and patient rooms (35.4%) in each unit, respectively. Common sources of interruptions were other nurses and patients in both units, followed by family or caregivers in the functional nursing delivery unit and equipment malfunction in the integrated nursing care unit. Nurses responded to work interruptions during medication administration, multitasking 2.79% and 3.02% of the time they administered medication in the functional nursing care delivery unit and integrated nursing care unit, respectively. The most common task in multitasking with medication involved communicating with other professionals. Conclusions: Interruptions and multitasking disrupt medication‐related tasks in healthcare environments and require strategies to mitigate frequent work interruptions. Implications for Nursing Management: Efforts aimed at mitigating interruptions that disrupt patient safety, including preventing medication errors and developing interventions based on differences in the nursing delivery system, are needed.