Workload

Nursing documentation is a critical component of professional practice, ensuring continuity of care, enhancing patient safety, and serving as a legal record of nursing activities. However, workload pressures often compromise the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of documentation. This study investigated the perceived impact of workload on ef ective nursing documentation among nurses in a tertiary healthcare institution in Benin City. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. Using a stratified random sampling technique, 246 questionnaires were distributed to nurses working in various departments ofthe University of Benin Teaching Hospital. Out of these, 239 were properly completed and valid for analysis, representing a response rate of 97.1%. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0, employing descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents (89%) demonstrated good knowledge of nursing documentation. However, workload was perceived to have a high impact on documentation practices, with a grand mean of 3.1. Key factors identified included high patientto-nurse ratios, time pressure during shifts, emergency situations, multitasking, and lack of support staf . Challenges faced by nurses included inadequate staf ing, lack of training, absence of electronic health records, unavailability of documentation tools, and frequent interruptions. Hypothesis testing showed a significant relationship between knowledge of nursing documentation and perceived impact of workload (χ² = 6.785, p= 0.041). The study concludes that while nurses possess good knowledge of documentation, workload and systemic challenges
remain major barriers to ef ective practice. This highlights the need for organizational interventions to bridge the knowledge–practice gap. It is recommended that hospital management strengthen staf ing, provide adequate documentation tools, adopt electronic health records, and implement regular in-service training programs. Supportive supervision and clear institutional policies should also be established to enhance ef ective nursing documentation and improve patient care outcomes