Table 2

Rates of task-switching and multitasking per hour by work group and primary task type

Work group	Task type	All tasks	Task-switches			Multitasks
Work group	Task type	N	N	Rate	95% CI	N	Rate	95% CI
ED doctors	Direct care	992	204	3.4*	3.0 to 3.9	419	7.0	6.3 to 7.7
	Administrative	102	20	4.2	2.3 to 7.6	11	2.3	1.2 to 4.6
	Answering pager	20	2	8.2	1.8 to 38.0	3	12.3	3.6 to 42.2
	Combined medication tasks	447	56	5.3*	3.5 to 8.2	81	7.7	5.5 to 10.8
	Documentation	651	409	12.1*	8.9 to 16.5	314	9.3	7.3 to 11.9
	In transit	549	41	6.2*	3.8 to 9.9	64	9.6	6.7 to 13.7
	Indirect care	1928	397	7.2*	5.3 to 9.8	673	12.2	9.8 to 15.1
	Professional communication	3100	122	2.4*	1.7 to 3.4	335	6.6	5.2 to 8.4
	Social activities	528	10	0.8	0.4 to 1.8	31	2.6	1.6 to 4.1
	Supervisor/education	53	8	2.3*	1.0 to 5.3	11	3.1	1.6 to 6.2
	All tasks	8370	1269	6.0*	5.7 to 6.4	1942	9.2	8.8 to 9.6
Ward doctors	Direct care	1459	82	1.2*	1.0 to 1.5	1035	14.9	14.0 to 15.8
	Administrative tasks	70	1	0.3*	<0.1 to 2.2	14	3.5	1.9 to 6.3
	Answering pager	256	8	2.4*	0.9 to 6.1	75	22.3	16.6 to 30.0
	Combined medication tasks	1996	46	1.7*	1.0 to 3.0	369	13.7	11.5 to 16.4
	Documentation	1746	164	3.0*	1.9 to 4.9	659	12.2	10.4 to 14.3
	In transit	2579	90	3.1*	1.9 to 5.2	460	15.9	13.4 to 18.9
	Indirect care	3356	247	3.1*	1.9 to 4.9	1709	21.1	18.4 to 24.2
	Professional communication	5747	114	0.9*	0.5 to 1.5	1616	12.8	11.1 to 14.7
	Social activities	416	12	0.3*	0.1 to 0.6	70	1.6	1.2 to 2.2
	Supervisor/education	158	31	1.1*	0.6 to 2.0	161	5.6	4.5 to 7.0
	All tasks	17 783	795	2.2*	2.1 to 2.4	6168	17.3	16.9 to 17.8
Ward nurses	Direct care	4503	103	1.0*	0.8 to 1.2	801	7.4	6.9 to 8.0
	Ward related activities	412	18	1.3*	0.6 to 2.6	105	7.5	5.7 to 9.9
	Combined medication tasks	6462	244	3.1*	2.0 to 4.7	1097	13.9	11.8 to 16.3
	Documentation	1174	150	4.9*	3.1 to 7.6	356	11.6	9.5 to 14.0
	In transit	4006	54	1.8*	1.1 to 3.1	304	10.4	8.5 to 12.7
	Indirect care	4404	152	2.6*	1.6 to 4.0	826	14.0	11.8 to 16.5
	Professional communication	6796	55	0.6*	0.4 to 1.0	615	6.7	5.6 to 8.0
	Social	360	6	0.1*	0.0 to 0.3	16	0.3	0.2 to 0.5
	Supervision	485	16	1.1*	0.5 to 2.2	349	23.1	19.0 to 28.1
	Other	207	2	0.6*	0.1 to 3.0	19	5.7	3.4 to 9.6
	All tasks	28 809	800	1.8*	1.7 to 2.0	4482	14.1	13.8 to 14.5

*Significantly different to multitasking rates for the same task type at the 0.05 level.
ED, emergency department.