Filling out a comprehensive assessment for a nursing home resident takes five hours on average, and nurses’ workloads can make it difficult to carve out this time, according to survey results from the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination.
More than 1,400 nurses responded to the survey, AANAC stated when releasing the findings Wednesday.
Completing Care Area Assessments takes an average of 193 minutes, according to the survey. The OBRA Comprehensive Assessment takes an average of 74 minutes, while 41 minutes are spent on care planning.
The survey questioned Minimum Data Set coordinators/nurse assessment coordinators about how much time they spend on a variety of work duties. Nearly half their work hours are spent doing activities other than assessment or care planning, the results showed.
“For a nurse assessment coordinator, the tension between the time needed to accurately assess a resident is often in conflict with other responsibilities and time spent in meetings,” said AANAC President and CEO Diane Carter, RN, MSN, RAC-CT, C-NE.
Committee participation and meetings take up 18 hours a week, on average, the survey found.
Carter encouraged nursing home managers to use the survey results to ensure that scheduling allows enough time for proper assessments and care planning.
Click here to see the survey results.
