An ICM survey for the RCN has revealed the increasing burden of administrative work on nursing staff means they spend an estimated 2.5 million working hours a week on non-essential paperwork and clerical tasks.
The majority of the 6,000 nurses surveyed said the amount of non-essential paperwork had increased in the last two years and more than three quarters said having to complete non-essential paperwork prevented them from providing direct patient care.
The RCN said this survey showed a culture of "ticking boxes" had developed. "Some paperwork is essential and nurses will continue to do this, but patients want their nurses by their bedside," said RCN chief executive and general secretary Peter Carter.
Technology was also highlighted as an issue with survey findings showing that technology, when not used properly, can actually increase the workload of nursing staff – a particular problem for those working in the community, such as district nurses.
Carter added: "We need a smart, efficient and IT-savvy NHS, not a halfway house that actually impedes the work of staff and takes them away from patients."
The NHS confederation, a membership body for all organisations that commission and provide NHS services, said the RCN survey findings are "consistent with the picture" that has emerged during the first phase of its work on "tackling the burden of bureaucracy in the NHS".
Chief executive Mike Farrar said: "More than four out of 10 NHS clinicians, managers and board members have told us they spend between one and three hours of their working day personally collecting and recording information.
"Three-quarters told us certain information collected for regulators or for national requirements is irrelevant."
Farrar added: "It is clear we need to do more to free staff from the shackles of unnecessary form filling and create more time to spend on patient care. We need a smarter system of information use, not a bigger one. And we need to embrace technology that helps rather than hinders staff, moving away from the paper-based archaic NHS."
