Table 5.

Themes and categories of multitasking-related difficulties of nurses.

Themes	Categories
Being involved in every little task regarding patient care	Being a bridge in communication between other healthcare providers and patients
	Going beyond the role of nursing
Getting swamped by the complexity of symptoms and problems of the patients at a given time	Identifying, understanding, and managing complex patient symptoms quickly
	Having to promptly manage rapidly changing symptoms
	Delayed work because of frequent changes in the doctor’s order
	Stacking up on work while caring for delirious patients
Getting interrupted at work too often	Phone keeps ringing
	Impatience of patients and caregivers
	Having to stop work and participate in doctors' rounds