Efficiency

[daisygirl5]

Hello fellow nursing students! I'm in my 3rd clinical rotation in an accelerated program. I feel like I am definitely getting better at applying theory to practice but feel my organization and efficiency skills are weak. I'm normally not a very organized person to begin with. Is there hope for me that this takes time and practice? I'm ok with getting tasks completed but getting all the documentation done in time is challenging...

Thanks!

[Tarabara]

Not to worry you but organization and time management are definitely skills you need as a nurse. You'll of course get better and faster at tasks with experience which will help, but I would work on being able to group things together and trying to plan ahead to organize your time better. Just as an exampe, if you know your patient has labs that need to be drawn at a certain time and they need their IV changed that day, you can wait to change the IV at the time of labs so that you can do them both at once (and save the patient from an extra poke). Or if you know lunch trays come at noon and therefore you'll be doing finger sticks/giving insulin around that time, dont start a dressing change at 1145. Thats why I write down everything! At first I kept telling myself "oh i'll remember that" but then I kept forgetting things and feeling unorganized so now I write down everything. Keep working on it, you'll get better :)

[daisygirl5]

Thanks!