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Can Real Time Location System Technology (RTLS) Provide Useful Estimates of Time Use by Nursing Personnel?
Author(s) -
Jones Terry L.,
Schlegel Cara
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
research in nursing and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1098-240X
pISSN - 0160-6891
DOI - 10.1002/nur.21578
Subject(s) - real time locating system , nursing , medicine , computer science , real time computing
Accurate, precise, unbiased, reliable, and cost‐effective estimates of nursing time use are needed to insure safe staffing levels. Direct observation of nurses is costly, and conventional surrogate measures have limitations. To test the potential of electronic capture of time and motion through real time location systems (RTLS), a pilot study was conducted to assess efficacy (method agreement) of RTLS time use; inter‐rater reliability of RTLS time‐use estimates; and associated costs. Method agreement was high (mean absolute difference = 28 seconds); inter‐rater reliability was high (ICC = 0.81–0.95; mean absolute difference = 2 seconds); and costs for obtaining RTLS time‐use estimates on a single nursing unit exceeded $25,000. Continued experimentation with RTLS to obtain time‐use estimates for nursing staff is warranted. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.