[MedicalLPN]

With me on an ideal night after I get report I start at one end of my section and begin doing my assessments, charting as I go, now if I get an admission or two during that first hour of my shift (which happens frequently) then I make notes of the assessment then chart them later. Sometimes though when you get slammed with admissions or when you have a patient going bad or a comfort care die right off the start I wind up having a couple assessments left to do by the time 2100 meds need to be passed, as a general rule of thumb I NEVER give any meds to a patient without assessing them first, so I get their meds ready go in, assess and administer or hold meds depending on what the assessment yields. As others have stated assessments are the highest priority because patients can and will circle the drain quickly and often times there's only a couple subtle things about their assessment to tip you off to it. Performing an initial assessment half way through the shift is really too late. It used to take me FOREVER to complete a thorough assessment but it's kinda like giving a bed bath you get faster and more efficiant at it the more you do it.