The Failure

Starting with a study in fourteen collaborating top clinical hospitals and standing empty-handed after a long preliminary phase, even before the first patient has entered: that can safely be called a failure.

Her study into the time use of doctors and nurses in determining the care demand of patients ended in a fiasco. Even though an existing consortium was approached, each hospital had arranged staff support and was there commitment from management. Apart from the AMC, only one hospital was eventually started, but even that project succumbed to increasing motivational problems among doctors and nurses.

The lessons

However, apart from frustration, the study plan has yielded a trio of learning points. Anyone who conducts research into the time use of employees in times of crisis, raises the suspicion of preparing an austerity plan and can therefore count on resistance. Moreover, although the question examined was interesting for middle management, but not for departmental managers. The willingness to (very) scarce time and energy was therefore minimal. In, maybe an open door, but still a pitfall: potential participating centers must be involved in the project application from the start and make binding commitments. Also at the work level where the study will take place.

By author: Catherine van Oostveen, nursing scientist and nurse at the AMC Amsterdam

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