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  Background and Objective: ­ With the development of human societies,­ the needs for different types of health services are increasing. Because of limitations and shortage of national resources, the awareness of health administrators about appropriate allocation of resources leads to efficient use of assets. The aim of this study was to measure the workload and efficacy of nursing staff in internal ward.

  Material and Methods: ­ This descriptive and cross sectional study was conducted on, via census sampling, all nursing activities performed by 10 nurses for 94 patients in Panje-Azar Hospital of Gorgan. ­To determine the efficacy, we asked the subjects to fill out a researcher made, validated questionnaire and measured the time of their presence in the ward. Data analysis was performed by analysis variance, using SPSS-16 software.

  Results: Of ­­total time of presence,­ ­20.3% is spent for documentary activities whereas only 0.49% for patient education. Overall, the spent time for direct and indirect nursing activities is 46.46% and 53.54%, respectively. The efficacy of nursing staff is 62%, ­the highest (66.6­ %) for morning shift and the lowest for night shift (58.34­ %). There is no significant difference, using analysis variance, in efficacy rates of work shifts­ (morning, evening and night).

  Conclusion : In spit of efficacy of over 50 percent in different shifts, the educational programs related to time management, human resource development and electronic nursing are necessary to increase the efficacy.

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Introduction: Workload is one of the most important occupational factors of anxiety. The present study aimed to investigate workload and its associated factors among nurses working in teaching hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran.
Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2017. A total of 340 nurses from the hospitals were selected using the stratified random sampling method, and finally 312 individuals were recruited in this study. The data collection instrument included the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index. The data were also analyzed through descriptive indices as well as t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression. SPSS Software, Version 16, was used to analyze the data at a significance level of 0.05 (α=0.05).
Results: The mean score of workload was 73.47±21.81. The mean scores of the effort rate (79.09±21.81) and frustration and failure level (59.51±30.76) also received the highest and the lowest values, respectively. Moreover, statistically significant relationships were observed between level of education (p=0.03), employment relationships (p=0.001), number of patients under the nurses’ monitoring per work shift, and the mean score assigned to workload among nurses (p=0.04, r=0.117).
Conclusion: The workload among nurses examined in this study was reported at a high level. Therefore, managers should implement programs such as motivational incentives and welfare services to moderate the workload in nursing.