Meeting the people their work helps, or writing about it, helped nurses work more.

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   90 nurses at a public hospital in Italy took part, picked at random from 249 who had volunteered. About two in three were women, and the average age was 41.

2. 02

   What they did

   Everyone spent a six-day shift assembling surgical kits for health workers in a former war zone. One group met three of the health workers who would use the kits, and some worked beside them. Another group wrote about how the work would help, and was asked to recruit colleagues.

3. 03

   What happened

   Both extra groups worked longer, made more kits and got more of them right than the group that got only the information. On average, the meeting group made 255 kits against 123, and the writing group made 228 against 123.

What the study found

1. HelpedGoals

   Nurses who wrote about how the project would help worked longer and made more kits.

   • Action: List the benefits of finishingtested

   Small randomised trial of 90 nurses at a public hospital in Italy · vs the group that got only the information · behaviour was recorded

2. HelpedGoals

   Nurses who met the people their work helped worked longer and made more kits.

   • Action: Work alongside someone (body doubling)tested
   • Rule: Meet the people your work helpstested

   Small randomised trial of 90 nurses at a public hospital in Italy · vs the group that got only the information · behaviour was recorded

3. HelpedFocus

   Both extra groups had fewer kits with mistakes than the group that got only the information.

   • Action: List the benefits of finishingtested
   • Action: Work alongside someone (body doubling)tested
   • Rule: Meet the people your work helpstested

   Small randomised trial of 90 nurses at a public hospital in Italy · vs the group that got only the information · behaviour was recorded

Source