7-2 Final Project
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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BUS 210
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Medicine
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by ColonelDonkey3482
7-2 Final Project Submission: Article Analysis
The
purpose of the study
is to assess how scribes affect how emergency department staff
members use their time. The study aims to understand how the presence of scribes influences the
time allocation of ED providers during their clinical shifts. The
research question
in this study
is,
"How do scribes affect the time management of ED providers, specifically in terms of time
spent on tasks such as documentation, patient interaction, and communication with team
members?” With less time spent on documentation tasks, the presence of scribes in the ED will
help healthcare providers manage their time more effectively, potentially reducing the
administrative burden. The underlying. The
hypothesis
of the study is that the presence of
scribes will lead to a reduction in the time spent on documentation tasks during the clinical shift.
The study anticipates that scribes will assist in documenting patient history and examinations,
thereby allowing providers to spend less time on clerical tasks. The
design of the study
is a
prospective observational study. It involves collecting data by directly observing attending ED
providers during their clinical shifts in an ED setting. The study compares the time allocation of
providers during shifts with scribes to those without scribes, aiming to quantify the impact of
scribes on provider time management. The data collected is analyzed to draw conclusions about
the effect of scribes on various aspects of provider time utilization. The
method of data
collection
in the study involves
direct observation by research assistants (RAs). The RAs
observed attending providers during their shifts, categorizing, and recording the provider's
activities. They also collected self-reported data on after-hours documentation times from the ED
providers.
The data collection
method is appropriate
for addressing the research question and
objectives of the study, which involve assessing how the presence of scribes impacts the time
allocation of ED providers during clinical shifts. By directly observing ED provider activities
and collecting self-reported documentation times, the study can gather detailed information on
how time is spent. Using self-reported data for after-hours documentation times is a
weakness of
the data collection
method used in this study. The possibility of recall bias or inaccurate
reported times is now present. The study's sample size was small (24 shifts with scribes and 24
shifts without scribes), and it was carried out in a single academic ED. This small sample size
might not accurately reflect the range of provider experiences across different ED settings.
The
type of data
collected is quantitative data.
This data includes numerical values that depict the
amount of time emergency room staff spends on various activities, such as interacting with the
electronic health record, spending time with patients in bed, and staff meetings. For the purposes
of the study's goals and analysis, it quantifies how time is distributed during clinical shifts. The
method of data analysis
used in the study involves various statistical tests, including two-
sample t-tests and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, to compare the quantitative data collected from
shifts with scribes and shifts without scribes. “All tests were two-sided, and p-values < 0.05 were
considered statistically significant “(Heaton et al, 2018).
The tests are used to see if there are
statistically significant variations in how time is divided up when scribes are present. The
data
analysis
method is
appropriateness
for this study because it aligns with the study's objectives,
which involve comparing and quantifying the impact of scribes on provider time management.
By using statistical tests, the study can determine whether the observed differences are
significant or could have occurred by chance. The
Advantages of the Data Analysis Method
which is
the use of statistical tests adds rigor to the analysis and allows for the quantification of
differences. This enhances the reliability of the study's conclusions. Also, statistical tests provide
an objective way to compare the data from shifts with and without scribes, reducing the potential
for bias. The
Disadvantages of the Data Analysis Method
main one is assumptions, some
statistical tests, such as t-tests, rely on assumptions about data distribution, which may not
always hold true. In such cases, the results can be less dependable and limited to Quantitative
Data.
Weaknesses of the Data Analysis Method,
The study's sample size is relatively small, 24
shifts with scribes and 24 shifts without scribes which can limit the generalizability of the
findings and the power of statistical tests and the study was conducted in a single academic ED,
which may limit the generalizability of the results to other healthcare settings with different
patient populations and workflows.
The key demographics are the
attending ED providers on a
24 8-hour control shifts both with and without scribes and the research assistants observing and
organizing the providers activity. After-hours documentation times were self-reported by ED
providers.
Statistically significant
results indicate that the observed differences in time
allocation were unlikely to have occurred by random chance. In this study, the presence of
scribes was found to have statistically significant impacts on provider time management in
certain aspects, such as documentation time. The study has several
differences in the groups
with scribes and without scribes. Scribes significantly decreased total documentation time both
on shift and post-shift. Scribes did not significantly decrease the time spent reviewing medical
records or placing orders. Scribes did not have a significant impact on provider time spent at the
patient's bedside or time spent discussing patient care with team members. These differences
suggest that the presence of scribes influenced how providers allocated their time during clinical
shifts, particularly regarding documentation time.
Limitations of the study
includes a small
sample of 24 8-hour shifts with scribes and 24 8-hour shifts without scribes. This limited sample
size may not fully represent the diversity of ED providers, and the findings may not be
generalizable to all ED settings. The small sample size can also limit the power of statistical
analyses and may not detect subtle effects or interactions.
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