Observational studyInternal medicine journal2026
An exploration of after-hours workloads of trainee medical officers in a South Australian tertiary hospital.
Observational study in Internal medicine journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn Australia, after-hours medical care is primarily delivered by a small number of Trainee Medical Officers (TMOs), but little is known about their workloads. With increasing care demands on hospitals, this needs to be understood to improve health service delivery, resource allocation and patient and TMO safety.
aimThe aim of the study was to describe and quantify after-hours workloads of TMOs in a South Australian tertiary hospital.
methodsAn observational time-and-motion study was undertaken to capture work activities, multitasking and interruptions. The proportion of the total observation time TMOs spent on tasks, multitasking and interruptions was analyzed using descriptive statistics.
resultsDuring the observation period of 120.65 h, 3454 tasks were recorded. TMOs spent most of their time (72%) on indirect care, direct care and professional communication, mainly reviewing patient notes, performing a procedure or having discussions with other staff members. Time spent by TMOs on education or supervision activities was very low (less than 27 min of total observation time) and multitasking time was small (9 h out of 120 h observed). Interruption rates were also low (one per hour).
conclusionThis study shows that TMOs are mostly spending their time on night shifts in three task areas - time on indirect care, direct care and professional communication. During night shifts, TMOs spent limited supervision/education and social activity tasks, were less interrupted and undertook less multitasking than TMOs undertaking day shifts. This study can inform decisions about workloads to ensure the safety of patients and TMOs and improve health service delivery.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.