EXPERIENCES OF HANDLING INTERRUPTIONS BY NURSES DURING SHIFTS IN MEDICAL WARDS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Aim: This study explored the interruption handling strategies of nurses during shifts in an acute hospital in Singapore. Background: Interruptions are inevitable in the workplace. While they interfere with nurses’ cognitive processes, potentially increasing likelihood of errors, they are also necessary for patient safety. However, there is a lack of research on nurses’ interruption handling strategies in the Singaporean context, despite cultural factors significantly influencing the handling of interruptions. As such, this study is designed to investigate the handling of interruptions by nurses working in Singapore during their shifts. Methods: Purposive sampling was employed. Data saturation was reached at the 11th participant and 3 more interviews were conducted to confirm saturation. The participants were Registered Nurses from an acute hospital in Singapore, working in acute medical wards or geriatric wards. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted from December 2018 to January 2019. The data was then analysed using content analysis. Findings: Three themes emerged from the content analysis: (1) assessing interruptions, (2) managing interruptions, and (3) preventing interruptions. Conclusions: This study explored the experiences of nurses when handling interruptions during shifts and how they work within cultural boundaries to facilitate the management of interruptions. Behavioural strategies of how nurses monitor and prevent interruptions are also discussed. Direction of future studies include exploring how different Asian subcultures handle interruptions, the characteristics of predictable interruptions and the use of technology to better support nurses in interruption handling. Implications: Managerial staff should improve work environments to better support nursing surveillance by correcting issues regarding limited resources. Organisations could explore improving protocols to ease recovery from interruptions. Since interruptions are inevitable, educational programs could be developed to educate and empower nurses to handle interruptions.