May 13, 2024
Researchers observed that a clinician, or most often a nurse or healthcare assistant, took around five minutes on average to check a patient's vital signs. While these checks are important for monitoring a patient, the research posits they can be annoying for patients and may disturb their rest and sleep, which is important for recovery. They also noted that the checks can lead to a high workload for nurses. While researchers conclude the existing practice to observe higher-risk patients more frequently, was justified, they also suggest lower priority patients could be checked less often without endangering them. This, the researchers found, would free up nurses' time to allow more frequent checks for more acute patients.