Work

An exploration of after‐hours workloads of trainee medical officers in a South Australian tertiary hospital

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: In Australia, after-hours medical care is primarily delivered by a small number of Trainee Medical Officers (TMOs), but little is known about their workloads. With increasing care demands on hospitals, this needs to be understood to improve health service delivery, resource allocation and patient and TMO safety. AIM: The aim of the study was to describe and quantify after-hours workloads of TMOs in a South Australian tertiary hospital. METHODS: An observational time-and-motion study was undertaken to capture work activities, multitasking and interruptions. The proportion of the total observation time TMOs spent on tasks, multitasking and interruptions was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: During the observation period of 120.65 h, 3454 tasks were recorded. TMOs spent most of their time (72%) on indirect care, direct care and professional communication, mainly reviewing patient notes, performing a procedure or having discussions with other staff members. Time spent by TMOs on education or supervision activities was very low (less than 27 min of total observation time) and multitasking time was small (9 h out of 120 h observed). Interruption rates were also low (one per hour). CONCLUSION: This study shows that TMOs are mostly spending their time on night shifts in three task areas - time on indirect care, direct care and professional communication. During night shifts, TMOs spent limited supervision/education and social activity tasks, were less interrupted and undertook less multitasking than TMOs undertaking day shifts. This study can inform decisions about workloads to ensure the safety of patients and TMOs and improve health service delivery.

Source: Internal Medicine Journal

DOI: 10.1111/imj.70259