Work interruptions (WIs)-breaks in the sequence of task performance of a human activity, causing a temporary pause of task continuity-are common in nurses' work environment and considered to contribute significantly to nurses' errors, delays and omissions of tasks (Getnet & Bifftu, 2017;Johnson et al., 2017;Schutijser et al., 2019). Recently, the nursing literature has demonstrated growing interest in the phenomenon of missed nursing care (MNC), defined as any omission, delay or failure to complete necessary patient care (Kalisch et al., 2009(Kalisch et al., , 2013. This concept has, on other occasions, been termed care left undone (Jones et al., 2015) or implicit care rationing (Schubert et al., 2013). Although both WIs and MNC refer to the delay or omission of tasks/care, they have been studied in parallel, and no study to date has explored their joint mechanism.Thus, the current study suggests illuminating the role of WI in MNC.Specifically, the study aims to understand those WIs that are more associated with MNC compared with those that are not.
| Background
| Missed nursing careMNC usually occurs because of time scarcity and resource shortages that lead to harmful consequences for patients, nurses and