[Nurses' time distribution: identification and analysis in a medical-surgical unit].

This study was performed to identify and analyze the distribution of nurses' work hours at a medical-surgical hospitalization unit, in view of the impact on making the nursing personnel dimensioning process effective during their work hours. Of the activities that nurses performed, 50% of the nurses' time was invested on indirect care interventions, 22% on direct care interventions, 18% on personal time activities, and 10% on associated activities. These data confirm previous reports that show a need to consider nursing personnel's personal time and associated activities in the official rightsizing methods.