Officially off orientation tomorrow

Nurses New Nurse

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So tomorrow is my first day officially off of orientation. I'm a new LPN (licensed less than a month ago) working on a rehab floor at a SNF. I feel confident in my ability to perform skills (IV's, GT, trach care, etc) and assessments, but I'm incredibly worried about my time management ability, especially with the med pass. Because it's a post acute floor, I still have as many skilled tasks and assessments to perform as I would in an actual rehab hospital, but because it is in a SNF, I have anywhere from 15-20 pts, most of whom are on an endless number of meds. I have 8's 9's 10's 12's 1's and 2's to give out, and then i have vitals and focused assessments and treatments to tackle too. Friday was the first day that I got all the meds done by 2pm, and was out of work within 30 minutes of my scheduled shift time, but another nurse was getting all my vitals for me, and did a couple of treatments for me as well. I'm not sure I would have been able to pull it off without her help. Any advice on how to fine tune an efficient plan of attack to get everything done well, and on time?

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Can you do the meds together? Like the 8's and 9's meds at one time, the 12's and 1's or the 1's and 2's at one time? We have 1hr and 59 mins to get out meds done. I'm still sometimes late, especially if something happens!

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Yes, I can and I do. We have a compliance window of and hour before and an hour after, but I feel like there's so many meds by the time I finish the 8's 9's 10's, even combining what I can, I barely finish with enough time to get my finger sticks and insulins in before they have their lunch. A couple days last week i was so late I was rushing to give insulins to pts in the dining room as the trays were being passed. I keep hearing that speeding up is a matter of time and practice, but I'm impatient and pretty sure I'm already moving as fast as I safely can.

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team nursing is the key, dont afraid to ask for help....and make sure to help back....of course if its allowed in your unit..

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Thanks! I'm going in now, I'll let you guys know how it goes!

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