Operational research of workload using time and motion of health workers in Kerala

Public health employs women workforce in larger numbers. The success of health depends on those workers. There is a different aspect of job allocation in delivering services. Studies show health workers specifically nurses are burdened with workload. The present paper is a study on time and motion of two activities health workers. Methodology: Time and motion of two of the daily activities of the public health nurses to understand the workload. Findings: The mean of the time spent on walking from the sub-centre to the field was about 13 minutes while, mean time spent on walking within a field area was about 4 minutes. The overall mean time spent on service delivery was little above 2 minutes. In case of immunization, the mean time spent on registration was less than a minute, while the time spent for immunization was about a minute. However, they had to wait for longer duration for the beneficiaries to arrive. Conclusion: For an efficient service delivery there should be a good connectivity for the nurses to reach the field in lesser duration. For better immunization services, the system needs to focus on health promotion to attract the beneficiaries.