| Registered nurses (RNs), who constitute the largest occupation in health care industry, play a critical important role to deliver the treatment to patients. However, previous studies reported that RNs suffered from burnout and heavy workload.;The telemetry unit is known for all sorts of telemetry equipment and continuous monitoring. Lack of studies about the telemetry unit, we first developed the understanding of telemetry nurses' work and tasks in a real hospital setting and characterized them into types of physical and cognitive work. Then a model was proposed to measure the physical, cognitive workload and intensity of identified tasks. Entropy is utilized as a feasible method to assess the integrated physical and cognitive workload. The study was conducted in the telemetry unit at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, Buffalo, NY. RNs were recruited to participate in interview, questionnaire and observation sections. A list of routine tasks is generated based on the interview results. High workload tasks are identified and questionnaire results are validated by shadowing RNs.;Key words: Registered Nurses, Workload, The Telemetry Unit, Intensity, Integration and Entropy... |
