Work measurement and time study of the middle-aged health self-care program by Iranian Ministry of Health

Abstract

Objective(s): Work measurement and time study of services offer insights into human resource management and workload and is crucial for accurate human resource estimation. This study aimed to estimate the workload and time required for health care providers to train and implement a self-care program for middle-aged individuals. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Activities were observed and recorded during the study into time study checklist that was designed based on service delivery process, approved and finalized by experts from the Iranian Ministry of Health and the Medical Universities. Prior to data collection, the checklist was assessed in a pilot study. The sample size comprised 240 middle-aged participants. The health care worker completed the checklist based on the process and duration of the activities. Results: The time study and evaluation of the self-care program for middle-aged individuals were conducted in three stages: recruitment, training, and evaluation. Assuming all anticipated activities in the middle-aged self-care program, the program implementation requires 292.13 minutes per client. The average time for the recruitment phase was 24.02 minutes. The training phase, which included teaching self-care booklets, took 175.47 minutes. The evaluation phase in the first and second modes took 92.41 minutes. The total time was different in different Medical Universities (p. value<0.05) Conclusion: The average time spent on the self-care program for middle-aged individuals (292.13 minutes) exceeds the average time health-care programs for other age groups (204 minutes). The program revision and rearranging human resources of health centers are required for proper implementation of self-care program for middle-aged.

Keywords

• self-care
• middle-aged
• process timing