Time Management Tips During Clinical

You will be required to perform assessments on your patients and after speaking to nurses of all kinds I have found that this is important in any field or degree level. You must learn time management and I  believe this can be very beneficial if you learn a routine in nursing school vs. becoming a nurse and having to learn time management as a graduate nurse.


But first, you must know how a typical day will go.

• AM care 7am-10am (Assessment, meds, nursing skills, charting) 
• Lunch 11am-12pm
• PM care 12pm-3pm (pass afternoon meds, nursing skills, charting, referrals, discharge)
• PM care 3pm-7pm (charting, patient condition changes etc.) 

Please remember some of these things won't be done in this order. Remember you must triage at all times.  Also, some things may not be included in this quick example of AM care.

1. Shift change and pass down. Take notes on all of the patients so you can decide which patients you want to choose. Quick tip: Learn your abbreviations before your first clinical this will help out a lot. Seasoned nurses are very quick at giving each other information and you won't have time to write everything out in longhand. 
2. Introduce yourself, get two identifiers from your patient, check the dry erase board ensure the patient information is accurate, make sure the patient is aware of phone numbers and the call button is in reach, do a quick check on your patients and their condition, answer quick questions, check the surrounding (oxygen, IV therapy, etc.). Do you see anything that wasn't mentioned during pass down? Remember to always triage and start with the most urgent patient.  
3. Perform head to toe assessments and new patient assessments. It is best to do the head to toe assessment when you first meet with the patient but if you are a little slow (as a student would be) you could perform this after you have looked over the patient's chart with your preceptor. 
4. Look at patient history, chief complaint, doctors notes, labs and diagnostics, referrals, vital signs, changes in patient condition, look at patient meds and take notes (print out medication sheets). 
5. Pass meds. Note at this time the UAP will be taking vital signs and getting the patients ready for breakfast.  
6. Chart and begin a care plan. 
7. Perform nursing skills. This may include wound care, inserting a Foley Cather or inserting a nasogastric tube. If a patient has any kind of tube inserted in them whether it is a PEG tube or NG tube you have to feed them their breakfast via the tube. 

The two most time-consuming things for me were performing an assessment and medication administration. 

1. Time your initial assessments. When you have a new patient you will be required to do an initial assessment that includes getting a history of you patient and performing a head to toe assessment. Invest in a stopwatch or timer of some sort. You will be required to perform a head to toe assessment in a specific amount of time. When your timer goes off you know that you have been in this patient's room too long and need to wrap things up. If you could find one that vibrates this would be a better option. Sometimes you could also get caught up into talking to your patients too long therefore, this will help you be more specific and get the information you need accurately and timely. 
2. Medication Administration.