Abstract
The workflow in a stroke unit can be very high, and this is especially noticeable during evening and night shifts, where staffing is reduced but the patient's need for frequent and intensive care is not. The specialised and standardised settings in a stroke regime are constant and demanding for healthcare providers who, therefore, must work efficiently. Patient admissions, acute situations and routine tasks are major contributors to the burden of work during evening and night shifts for junior doctors on call. Thus, it is important to reduce the number of potentially avoidable tasks done by these junior doctors during night shifts so they have more time to perform tasks of high priority. The aim of this project was to reduce the potentially avoidable tasks occurring at night for the on-call junior doctor to only one per shift. We investigated the types of tasks that frequently occur for the on-call junior doctor during the night shift and improved our daily morning and evening rounds to reduce the number of tasks during the night shift. Using the plan-do-study-act method, we made improvements through education, knowledge sharing, checklists and feedback, and we reduced the number of potentially avoidable tasks for on-call junior doctors from a median of 11 to a median of 3 per week, demonstrating that the workload for the on-call junior doctor during the night shift can be reduced through a systematic approach to improving the work routines of doctors and nurses.
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Artikelnummer | e001482 |
Tidsskrift | BMJ Open Quality |
Vol/bind | 10 |
Udgave nummer | 3 |
DOI | |
Status | Udgivet - 2021 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:Contributors DT: investigation, project leadership, data collection and analysis, project progression and analysis, drafting of the paper and final approval of the version to be published. MBJ: project analysis and final approval of the version to be published Funding DT is funded by the hospital leadership for a fellowship programme due to this quality improvement project.
Publisher Copyright:
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