Fact · Dictation for work and study
50.4percent of morning shift (self-reported)
Nurses and midwives reported spending 50.4 percent of morning shifts on documentation, far above the 28.1 percent that observers measured.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“The mean self-reported time for clinical documentation was 50.4% on morning shifts, 40.7% on afternoon shifts and 37.9% on night duty.”
Is nursing and midwifery clinical documentation a burden? An empirical study of perception versus reality, Amanda L. Cooper et al., Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2021, Results.
Open the original (DOI 10.1111/jocn.15718)- What it measures
- The same study compared a self-report survey with direct observation.
- What it does not show
- One hospital. The authors conclude that documentation still takes a significant share of time even though staff overestimated it.