Table 3

Factors significantly associated with the use of a task-switching strategy over a multitasking strategy when triggered

Fixed effect	ED doctors				Ward doctors				Ward nurses
Fixed effect	Number of tasks	OR	95% CI	p Value	Number of tasks	OR	95% CI	p Value	Number of tasks	OR	95% CI	p Value
*Primary task*
Task type				<0.001*				<0.001*				<0.001*
Direct care (ref)	623	1			1117	1			904	1
Administrative/ward related	31	0.83	0.32 to 2.15	0.70	15	0.57	0.06 to 5.01	0.61	123	1.03	0.57 to 1.86	0.93
Answering pager	5	1.05	0.17 to 6.63	0.96	83	0.91	0.37 to 2.22	0.84		NA
Combined medication tasks	137	0.94	0.58 to 1.50	0.78	415	1.17	0.72 to 1.91	0.53	1341	1.52	1.14 to 2.03	0.005
Documentation	723	1.55	1.10 to 2.19	0.01	823	1.52	1.02 to 2.27	0.04	506	1.72	1.20 to 2.45	0.003
In transit	105	0.56	0.33 to 0.94	0.03	550	1.47	0.96 to 2.26	0.08	358	1.28	0.87 to 1.89	0.22
Indirect care	1070	0.84	0.62 to 1.13	0.24	1956	0.87	0.60 to 1.25	0.45	978	1.02	0.76 to 1.38	0.89
Professional communication	457	0.70	0.49 to 1.00	0.05	1730	0.83	0.55 to 1.25	0.37	670	0.59	0.40 to 0.86	0.01
Social activities	41	0.47	0.20 to 1.10	0.08	82	0.64	0.27 to 1.48	0.29	22	1.62	0.45 to 5.74	0.46
Supervisor/education	19	0.86	0.27 to 2.78	0.80	192	0.85	0.47 to 1.54	0.59	365	0.37	0.20 to 0.67	0.001
Other		NA				NA			21	0.49	0.10 to 2.33	0.37
Tool involved†
Permanent record	1108	NS			3096	NS			1770	1.36	1.09 to 1.69	0.01
Phone	123	0.55	0.32 to 0.97	0.04	370	NS			113	NS
Nothing	1465	0.65	0.51 to 0.83	0.001	1917	0.72	0.57 to 0.91	0.01	2877	NS
Task duration		NS				1.25	1.16 to 1.34	<0.0001		NS
*Secondary task*
Task type				<0.001*				<0.001*				<0.001*
Direct care (ref)	105	1			156	1			435	1
Administrative/ward related	20	0.59	0.17 to 2.04	0.40	19	0.28	0.03 to 2.27	0.23	41	0.71	0.25 to 2.01	0.51
Answering pager	12	2.07	0.51 to 8.40	0.31	214	18.44	9.13 to 37.28	<0.0001		NA
Combined medication tasks	216	0.23	0.12 to 0.45	<0.0001	1017	0.17	0.08 to 0.34	<0.0001	572	0.50	0.32 to 0.78	0.002
Documentation	151	0.15	0.06 to 0.36	<0.0001	1191	0.17	0.08 to 0.34	<0.0001	221	0.19	0.09 to 0.40	<0.0001
In transit	167	0.58	0.29 to 1.17	0.13	199	0.27	0.11 to 0.66	0.004	113	0.48	0.19 to 1.22	0.12
Indirect care	497	0.70	0.37 to 1.32	0.27	678	0.15	0.07 to 0.31	<0.0001	253	0.46	0.25 to 0.85	0.01
Professional communication	1761	0.56	0.30 to 1.04	0.07	3230	0.65	0.35 to 1.20	0.17	3329	0.85	0.59 to 1.22	0.38
Social activities	261	0.53	0.27 to 1.04	0.07	193	0.31	0.14 to 0.69	0.00	54	0.40	0.15 to 1.05	0.06
Supervisor/education	21	0.28	0.07 to 1.07	0.06	66	0.19	0.06 to 0.59	0.004	259	0.09	0.04 to 0.25	<0.0001
Other		NA				NA			11	2.79	0.67 to 11.55	0.16
Task duration		1.20	1.10 to 1.30	<0.0001		1.20	1.11 to 1.30	<0.0001		1.66	1.52 to 1.81	<0.0001
Person involved†
Patient	216	0.34	0.20 to 0.56	<0.0001	1335	0.21	0.13 to 0.32	<0.0001	1045	0.47	0.35 to 0.64	<0.0001
Doctor	1152	1.54	1.19 to 1.99	0.001	4938	0.58	0.46 to 0.71	<0.0001	337	NS
Nurse	697	1.37	1.04 to 1.81	0.02	880	NS			3758	0.54	0.44 to 0.66	<0.0001
No one	813	NS			742	0.58	0.38 to 0.90	0.01	271	0.46	0.26 to 0.82	0.01
Tool involved†
Permanent record	48	3.54	1.42 to 8.84	0.01	2664	NS			917	0.72	0.55 to 0.95	0.02
Computer	187	0.48	0.28 to 0.83	0.01	-	NS			218	NS
Phone	332	4.09	2.60 to 6.46	<0.0001	513	1.54	1.10 to 2.15	0.01	118	2.03	1.28 to 3.22	0.003
Nothing	2306	2.01	1.40 to 2.89	0.0002	2556	1.77	1.38 to 2.28	<0.0001	3935	NS
*Temporal factors*
Previous strategy‡
Multitask (ref)	1862	1			5974	NS			4125	1.00
Task-switch	1219	1.92	1.60 to 2.31	<0.0001	762				740	1.81	1.47 to 2.22	<0.0001
Time of day								0.01*
<09:00	1031	NS			402	2.09	1.13 to 3.86	0.02	1264	NS
09:00–11:59	598				2997	1.57	0.94 to 2.63	0.08	1580
12:00–13:59	574				1109	1.50	0.87 to 2.57	0.14	799
14:00–16:59	878				2143	2.04	1.22 to 3.40	0.01	1193
≥17:00 (ref)	130				312	1			452
Day of the week												0.04*
Monday	655	NS			1214	NS			951	1.15	0.83 to 1.58	0.41
Tuesday	333				1232				1595	0.76	0.57 to 1.02	0.07
Wednesday (ref)	802				1557				982	1		.
Thursday	791				1398				1137	0.87	0.66 to 1.16	0.35
Friday	630				1562				623	1.20	0.83 to 1.72	0.33

*p Value for global test for all categories together.
†Reference category is the complement; for example, reference category for ‘patient’ is ‘not-patient’.
‡First task in each session classed as missing.
ED, emergency department;NA, variable not available; NS, variable not significant in multivariate model.