How Is Registered Nursing Time Used? A Multicentre Observational Study of Nursing Activities, Scope of Practice, and Opportunities for Workforce Redesign in Medical-Surgical Wards in Italy

Background/Objectives: Nursing workforce shortages and increasing care complexity have intensified the need to understand how registered nurses allocate their working time and whether nursing expertise is used where it adds the greatest clinical value. This study empirically measured the distribution, frequency, and duration of observed nursing activities and examined differences across participating hospitals and medical-surgical units in Italy.