Documentation and Nurses’ Time Caring for Patients

The nursing shortage is growing to dangerous levels and is impacting public safety. The health system is anticipated to need 1.1 million additional nurses by 2022. One-third of the nursing workforce will retire in the next 10 to 15 years. Research has shown that having more nurses to care for patients decreases patient complications and even death.¹  Required nursing documentation has risen exponentially, with charting taking more nursing time than direct patient care. Unnecessary documentation is dangerous. Incentivizing hospitals to reduce charting waste will save lives and help nurses stay at the bedside.

After being away from direct patient care for 10 years, I returned to the intensive care unit as a bedside nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of required documentation fields. The research supports my observation. In 2017, a time-motion study found that 33% of the nurses’ shift was spent interacting...