How long does it take you to complete these tasks?

Nurses General Nursing

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I usually stay to the student section, but really needed feedback from more people and experienced nurses for this one. I was recently given a timed assessment. I had difficulty completed this in the allotted time. My husband asked me if the amount of time they gave us was even reasonable. Not being an experienced nurse I am not sure so with that I am wondering if you could give me a ballpark idea of how long it would take you to complete the following skills. I am listing all the possible skills in our simulation versus describing the simulation as I do not want any accusations of sharing too much information from the test if other students might be reading. If you could list the time that it takes you to perform each skill I would greatly appreciate it.

  1. Preop checklist
  2. Preop assessment
  3. Postop assessment
  4. Calling report/receiving report from the OR
  5. Inserting a Foley Catheter
  6. Starting IV, hanging fluids to gravity, and starting drip rate (we were allowed to just verbalize the intended drip rate)
  7. Starting a blood transfusion
  8. DC foley
  9. Convert IV to saline lock
  10. Sterile dressing change
  11. Trach suctioning

I think those were all the choices. Thanks for your feedback (and admins if you feel this should stay to the student section please message me so I know for future reference).

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

  1. Preop checklist: From an established patient to the gurney I would say around 10 minutes at most, depending on if all the consents are signed, labs are available.
  2. Preop assessment: Not really sure we did these on the acute care floor.
  3. Postop assessment: Five-ten minutes pending no obvious complications for the initial assessment.
  4. Calling report/receiving report from the OR: Five minutes
  5. Inserting a Foley Catheter: Depends, but I would say average 30 minutes to gather supplies, find a partner, get in and get it done. (We had to have a second RN in the room at my hospital for sterile technique observance)
  6. Starting IV, hanging fluids to gravity, and starting drip rate (we were allowed to just verbalize the intended drip rate): We didn't start IVs at my hospital so waiting for IV team is a big factor here. Priming, hanging, and programming I would say no more than 10 minutes.
  7. Starting a blood transfusion: Up to 30 minutes depending on if I have to run to blood bank and get it, cross check there, cross check on the floor, priming, setting, initial vital signs.
  8. DC foley: Less than 5
  9. Convert IV to saline lock: Less than 2 minutes
  10. Sterile dressing change: These depend a lot on how many dressings, complications of the cleaning/wound care, but on average I would say around 30 minutes though I have done changes that can take near an hour.
  11. Trach suctioning: I did not do this a lot so I am not sure. I did see RT suction trachs and it was usually 15 minutes or so.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Preop checklist- About one minute. A lot of it is automated in the computer

Preop assessment- 5 minutes

Postop assessment- 5 minutes-15 minutes if I need help turning and such

Calling report/receiving report from the OR- 5 minutes if they answer

Inserting a Foley Catheter- 15 minutes. More if it's a women with a lot of excessive tissue or a man with a large prostate

Starting IV, hanging fluids to gravity, and starting drip rate (we were allowed to just verbalize the intended drip rate- I rarely start IVs and I haven't calculated a drip rate since nursing school. Maybe 15 minutes including gathering supplies

Starting a blood transfusion- 15 minutes including contacting blood bank, getting tubing ready and primed with saline, pre-vitals, checking for pre-med orders, and double verifying with another RN. Not including time waiting for blood to arrive, administering pre-meds if ordered, and hunting down another RN.

DC foley- 3-5 minutes not counting bladder training if ordered

Convert IV to saline lock-30 seconds

Sterile dressing change- this varies dramatically on what you're doing the dressing on. I've had quick 5 minute ones and ones that approach an hour

Trach suctioning- again, varies dramatically. If suction is already set up and not counting cleaning the cannula and the secretions aren't really thick- maybe 5-10 minutes? If the above situations are reversed you can be looking at more like a half hour

I'm looking forward to reading what others say. Even outside the project context this could be an interesting discussion.

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

  1. Preop checklist: 5 minutes if everything is signed and in order. 10 minutes if I have to hunt for things.
  2. Preop assessment: Im assuming this would just be your initial baseline head to toe. About 5-10 minutes.
  3. Postop assessment: Depends on the surgery, but about the same time as the initial assessment took, provided there are no complications requiring immediate intervention. 5-10 minutes.
  4. Calling report/receiving report from the OR: 3-5 minutes.
  5. Inserting a Foley Catheter: 5-8 minutes from the time I open the sterile supplies. An additional 10-15 minutes to gather equipment, get help, position, prep and hold. Total about 20 minutes.
  6. Starting IV, hanging fluids to gravity, and starting drip rate (we were allowed to just verbalize the intended drip rate): Depends entirely on the quality of the veins. If it only takes one attempt, 5 minutes to start the IV, 3 minutes to spike the bag and prime the tubing, 2 minutes to get it set up on the pump. About 10 minutes total. But if the IV takes multiple attempts than easily upwards of 20-30 minutes.
  7. Starting a blood transfusion: Once the blood is received- 5 minutes to find an RN to verify and sign the paperwork. 5 minutes to prime the tubing and set up the pump. 3 minutes to take vitals.
  8. DC foley: 1-2 minutes. Up to 5 depending on how long it takes to remove the dressing securing the foley.
  9. Convert IV to saline lock: Less than a minute.
  10. Sterile dressing change: Depends on the type of dressing change. Open abdominal wound requiring packing? 30 minutes easily. Wound vac? 30+. Simple wet to dry? Probably 15.
  11. Trach suctioning: I can be set up to suction in less than a minute (sterile gloves and catheter hooked to suction) provided suction is already set up. The actual suctioning takes about 3 minutes on average. More if saline lavage is needed or there are a lot of secretions or if the patient requires a lot of pre-oxygenation and recovery time. 10 minutes at most.

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Thank you three for replying. This was very helpful to me and I appreciate it.

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Preop checklist- Sorry I don't typically work with surgical patients, so I'm not really familiar with this documentation!

Preop assessment- Again, don't really get surgical patients. My assessments usually take 10-15 minutes, but my patients usually have a lot going on. Documenting takes a lot longer (new computer system ugh!)

Postop assessment- See above.

Calling report/receiving report from the OR- 5-10 minutes I'd say. I usually give longer reports than I receive.

Inserting a Foley Catheter- 5 minutes unless it's a difficult cath.

Starting IV, hanging fluids to gravity, and starting drip rate 10 minutes unless they have wonderful veins.

Starting a blood transfusion- From getting the order to actually holding the blood in your hands it can take 30 minutes or more. Once I have it getting it checked, verified, and documented takes about 2-3 minutes. Hanging it takes a minute we don't prime with NS, just blood tubing.

DC foley- 30 seconds

Convert IV to saline lock-15 seconds

Sterile dressing change- There's a great deal of variability on this one!

Trach suctioning- A minute or two.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I don't think that these types of questions are realistic. If I have an obese elderly confused patient I am not going to get a catheter in her very quickly.I have done sterile dressing changes that took over an hour.If you are inexperienced/student you are going to take much longer. Of course you get quicker with experience.What's the point of making someone feel inadequate by setting unrealistic time parameters?

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
I don't think that these types of questions are realistic. If I have an obese elderly confused patient I am not going to get a catheter in her very quickly.I have done sterile dressing changes that took over an hour.If you are inexperienced/student you are going to take much longer. Of course you get quicker with experience.What's the point of making someone feel inadequate by setting unrealistic time parameters?

^^^ Exactly!

It can take me a long time to get an IV in someone depending on their vascular status. Some people are much easier to get an IV in than others.

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I don't think that these types of questions are realistic. If I have an obese elderly confused patient I am not going to get a catheter in her very quickly.I have done sterile dressing changes that took over an hour.If you are inexperienced/student you are going to take much longer. Of course you get quicker with experience.What's the point of making someone feel inadequate by setting unrealistic time parameters?

Thank you. I also don't think it is realistic that we are given timed skills test and really struggling with failing because I am not fast enough. It adds an incredible amount of stress trying to complete these skills being timed and to be honest I have seriously considered switching schools. It just means waiting and starting over.

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We were never timed in our skills in NS. This seems pretty unfair. We were just validated on if we had sterile technique, knew what we were doing and if we were being safe. Like a couple PPs have said, every patient is different as far as inserting Foley's and IVs. Even very experienced nurses can have a hard time doing these tasks. Where I work, we have 3 tries on Foley's and/or IVs...if we can't get it, we have to call the supervisor or urology for Foley's and the PICC team for IVs.

Goodness! I'm glad my school wasn't as tough as yours on skills! Holy cow!

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

I can see where timing might be helpful. It doesn't sound like the OP is performing these skills on a real patient. It sounds like they are being done in a lab using mannequins. If that's the case, you can eliminate all the extra time that a difficult patient might cause. Spending 20 minutes inserting a foley in a plastic urethra might indicate that the student is not ready to perform the skill in practice. But OP didn't specify the situation or how much time was being allotted, so it's difficult to know whether the timing serves a real purpose.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Tele, educator, FNP.

Also if you have never seen the paperwork before, how are you supposed to fill it out of you have more questions? I think most of these times posted are accurate for a nurse whose been around in the same floor for a few years. No way can a student complete then in those times listed. Imo

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

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