Table 1. Daily Activity of CEAAs and Definition of Task Shift Contents.

From: Current Status of Clinical Engineer Anesthesia Assistants and Their Effect on Labor Task Shifting in Japan: A Prospective Observational Study in a Single Institute

Category Descriptions Included as task shift work
Duty as a clinical engineer Equipment maintenance and management unrelated to anesthesia care (e.g., syringe pump maintenance in the general ward), conference between CEs, CHDF priming, PMX circuit assembly, ventilator maintenance, blood gas analysis assistance, respiratory settings in the ICU No
Conferences Pre-anesthesia conferences, joint conferences with other departments, on behalf of anesthesiologists Yes
Equipment maintenance Equipment maintenance and management related to anesthesia practice (e.g., transesophageal echocardiography and fiberoptic bronchoscopy) Yes
Anesthesia preparation Preparation of airway devices (e.g., endotracheal tubes, laryngoscope, or video laryngoscopes), assembly of pressure lines, preparation of CV catheters, pre-use anesthesia machine checking, setting of monitors, preparation of anesthetic drugs Yes
Documents Filling case summary for submission to JSA, storage of intraoperative images (TEE, etc.) Yes
Anesthesia assistance Anesthesia management in the presence of attending anesthesiologists (e.g., completing the electronic anesthetic record, preparing a drug, and adjusting sonography settings) troubleshooting of biomedical equipment during anesthesia Yes
Sole anesthesia monitoring Sole monitoring in the absence of an anesthesiologist when the vital signs are stable during surgery Yes
Others Handing out arterial blood sampling and reporting the results, teaching residents and students Yes
Table 2. Results of Anesthesiologists' Working Hours.

From: Current Status of Clinical Engineer Anesthesia Assistants and Their Effect on Labor Task Shifting in Japan: A Prospective Observational Study in a Single Institute

Average Total over 19 days
Day shift duties
Number of anesthesiologists (/day) 10.5 ± 1.7
Active time 10.1 ± 1.9 2005.8
Anesthesia time 8.5 ± 1.1 1704.0
Overtime duty after night shift
Number of anesthesiologists (/day) 1.5 ± 1.0
Active time 5.8 ± 2.5 163.9
Anesthesia time 3.9 ± 2.1 111.2
Total
Active time - 2169.7
Anesthesia time - 1815.2
Table 3. Detailed Task-Shifted Time by CEAAs.

From: Current Status of Clinical Engineer Anesthesia Assistants and Their Effect on Labor Task Shifting in Japan: A Prospective Observational Study in a Single Institute

Number of records Actual hours Percentage Task shift time (h)
Duties as a clinical engineer 121 178.9 13.5 0
Conferences 123 50.9 3.9 3.8
Equipment maintenance 31 54.0 4.1 39.2
Anesthesia preparation 331 146.6 11.1 87.3
Documents 30 11.6 0.9 6.3
Anesthesia assistance 270 716.4 54.2 261.9
Sole anesthesia monitoring 322 145.7 11.0 145.7
Others 21 16.6 1.3 2.6
Total time 1320.7 546.8
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