Original article

Activities of accident and emergency consultants—a time and motion study

Ruth Brown

King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to: Dr Brown, Consultant in Accident and Emergency Medicine (e-mail: ruth.m.brown{at}kcl.ac.uk)

The work of an accident and emergency (A&E) consultant is not clearly defined. There is difficulty in fixing a job plan due to the unpredictable workload. This study shows the daily activities of nine consultants in A&E over a one month period. The results suggest that A&E consultants vary tremendously in the content of their working day, although a large proportion of hours is spent on administrative duties in all cases. Predictable variations occur between a single handed clinical director who spends 60% of his time in management and the consultant in a multiconsultant department who spends 74% of his time in clinical care and teaching. None of the consultants studied spent more than 48% of their time in clinical contact. A&E remains a specialty with no consistency between activities of consultants, and where opportunities exist to pursue special interest. Training must ensure adequate attention to management and methods of support for new consultants in their management role must be found.

Keywords: consultants' workload

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Pring, D W, Young, R A, Feaster, H, Tang, T (2007). An audit of compliance with motor traffic regulations and use of green warning lights by consultants recalled to hospital to attend emergencies. Emerg. Med. J. 24: 244-247 [Abstract] [Full Text]