| In health care, one of the most significant costs to hospitals is nursing cost. Although patients enter the hospital for different reasons and require different amounts of time and level of skill/expertise from nurses while hospitalized, the majority of hospitals charge their patients - regardless of diagnosis or individual nursing level need based on daily "room and board" charges. The issue of "one size fits all" nature of room and board charging system has been long criticized. A research gap in the literature exists as to how to best understand the nature and intensity of nursing care. The purpose of this study is to develop a nursing care observational tool (NCOT) to capture time spent in nursing activities. This paper describes the process of the tool development, pilot test and data collection at a local hospital. The paper concludes with suggestions for using the tool in other specific healthcare context. |
Updated 03/19/2014