Background Different concepts have been used to date (e.g. non‐nursing tasks, organizational work) to define tasks performed by clinical nurses other than nursing care. However, the true essence of nursing work is still poorly understood mostly because nurses are lacking an appropriate lexicon to describe their practice. Aims To describe non‐nursing tasks as experienced by nurses, exploring antecedents and consequences as perceived in daily practice. Methods A descriptive qualitative study from 2015 to 2016. A purposeful sample of nurses was approached. Semi‐structured interviews were used, and content analysis was performed on audio‐recorded and verbatim‐transcribed interviews. Findings A total of 22 nurses participated, the majority of whom were female (16; 72.7%) and their average age was 42.6 years. The concept of ‘Non‐nursing tasks’ is limited in describing what nurses experience in daily practice; the concept of ‘Being out of the nursing role’ emerged as being fully descriptive of the nurses’ experience and this can occur in two dimensions: outside and inside the role of other healthcare professions. The first dimension includes administrative work separating nurses from patients. The second dimension was reported to happen in proximity to patients but in three different directions towards professions requiring: (a) less education (e.g. healthcare assistants), (b) the same amount of education at university level (e.g. physiotherapists), and (c) higher education at university level as compared to nurses, thus performing activities expected by physicians. Antecedents of ‘Being out of the nursing role’ have been identified at the organizational, individual and educational levels; their consequences have been reported at the patient, professional and organizational levels. Conclusion Nurses play various non‐nursing roles, below, above and in the horizontal levels, both inside and outside other healthcare professionals’ role, mainly as a result of their felt moral obligation to offer the best to their patients, the organization's demand to nurses and the imprinting of nursing education. Implications for nursing/health policy Strategies at the nursing professional and policy levels are needed aimed at (a) supporting nurses in optimizing their professional identity, (b) sharing their sense of moral obligation towards patients with other healthcare professionals, and (c) implementing models of care based on interprofessional cooperation.

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Aim The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence and reasons for non‐nursing tasks as perceived by nurses. Background Four types of non‐nursing tasks have been identified to date: (a) auxiliary; (b) administrative, (c) expected by allied health care professionals; and (d) medical. However, no studies on a large scale have been performed with the aim of identifying the prevalence of all of these non‐nursing tasks, and factors promoting or hindering their occurrence, given that they represent a clear waste of nurses' time. Methods A cross‐sectional study in 2017, following The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies. All active nurses registered in an Italian provincial Nursing Board (=1331) willing to participate were involved. A questionnaire survey exploring the nature of the nursing tasks performed in daily practice and the underlying reasons was administered via paper/pencil and e‐mail. Results A total of 733 nurses participated of which 94.5% performed at least one type of non‐nursing task, mainly administrative and auxiliary. Auxiliary tasks are less likely among nurses working in a community (odds ratio [OR] 0.43, 95% CI 0.29–0.63, p < .01) or in a residential (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.23–0.72, p < .01) setting, in critical (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.16–0.54, p < .01) or surgical (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.19–0.75, p < .01) hospital settings, and when they deal with unexpected clinical events (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.44–0.77, p < .01). Greater adequacy of nursing resources decreases the occurrence of auxiliary tasks (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97–0.99, p < .01), whereas the need to compensate for a lack of resources (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.07–1.93, p < .01) increases it. Conclusions Around one‐third of shift time is devoted to non‐nursing tasks; working in a hospital, in medical units, with lack of resources and with patients with predictable clinical conditions might increase the occurrence of auxiliary tasks. Implications for nursing management Strategies to increase the time available for nursing care should consider the type of tasks performed by nurses, their antecedents and the value added to care in terms of patient' benefits.