How do manage to leave work on time?

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I've a nurse for 3 months now and I still can't manage to give all my meds on time, and I'm not considered a slow person. Besides meds, there's always something else to do e.g. charting, place a foley, change a dressing, admit a patient, d/c a patient...The other nurses in my unit have time to chat and always leave work on time. I feel like such a looser. I don't know what I'm doing wrong...I wonder if there's any safe shortcuts I can take in order to leave work on time. How do you manage your time as a nurse? Is it safe to give meds 1 hour before its time? Any tips will be welcome.

Thanks

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Specializes in Psych.

I couldn't do it at 3 months either. It will come. At about 6 months, I could finally get out of there on time most of the time. My best tip is to make time to chart. Do not keep putting it off. Make yourself sit down and chart every time you have 5 minutes. I assume that you are grouping tasks together - try to do at much as you can when you go in that room (esp. if isolation). Don't say, oh I'll do the dressing change later. Do it with the meds.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

hello kurious rn,

you are not alone in this situation, and it has very little to do with your being a new nurse for three months. it has a lot to do with the flow of the unit you work on, and the way your unit is managed from one shift to the other. this area in hospital healthcare today is one of my pet peeves. somewhere along the line, we - as human beings - have lost track of what it means to look out for one another, and see to it that breaks are taken, meals are honored for the staff, and helping one another when we are not busy with our own patient care. sitting more than helping is not good sportsmanship! :nono: managers and charge nurses need to take note of staff who are not utilizing their "idle time" well. the managers and charge nurses should be free of taking patients themselves so they can monitor the flow of the unit better, see to it that everyone is giving their 100% during their shift to one another as well as to the patients. team effort is what is needed. there should be "no martyrs" in nursing...only team members caring about one another from the start of their shift until it is over. staying late, missing meal breaks, and poor team effort should never be tolerated! there should be a "zero" tolerance level in those areas.

good management/charge begins at the beginning of each shift...not as things get chaotic and the staff is looking for help where there is no help, breaks when there is no one to watch patients assigned to allow those breaks to take place, and meal partners to relieve one another to ensure everyone's body is replenished with nourishment mid-shift, and have an opportunity to take those breaks without interruptions. staff need to get in the habit of taking their half hour meal breaks off the unit where they can have their uninterrupted time to breathe, relax a bit while they nourish and hydrate themselves. no wonder nurses health is declining. we are not robots, but if you overuse a robot, it will even break down.

when we are at home, women have a tendency to work 'nonstop'. there are always tasks that need to be done, errands to run, kids to take care of, spouses having you do things they can do for themselves in most cases. we come to work in that same mode with the same frame of mind not taking time to take care of ourselves in our work environments. doctors don't mind because when our health declines and fails us, that's one more patient for them to make money off of. waste not...want not, so staff needs to take a step back, take a looooooooooong look at the abuse of self and one another, and do something to correct these measurses for our health's sake.

when i'm charge nurse, i ensure my staff get their lunch breaks. if they don't want to take a break, that's on them, but they should not complain that they never get a break. it won't happen on my watch. :nono: and, yes, i have nurses who have that "i can't stop now syndrome". we are all some doctor's patient. are we contributing to the decline of our own health, and that of our fellow co-workers? or, are we ready to take action to ensure we all remain as healthy as we possibly can by looking out for one another when on duty?

nurses abuse nurses! it's up to us to stop the abuse! :twocents:

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Cheerfuldoer, when I graduate, and start my first job, will you be my charge? :heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Cheerfuldoer, you rock. You have written a very insightful, helpful and inspiring post.

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i've been a rn for 34 months and i've had big problems with time management. some of my tricks are to do jobs at the same time washes with dressing changes. getting all the stuff needed toegther so less fetching. completeing tasks on one pt despite a another one asking for soemthing (i llet them know that i will be back).

and letting the shift coordiantor know if i've any liely problems so they can help or delegating. oh and doing regualr rounds on bedside charts as well and nursing notes which i sneak in when i 5-10 mins.

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Specializes in MSP, Informatics.

nicely put cheerfuldoer!

and kurious rn you will find your pace. 3 months isn't long. i wouldn't really call them shortcuts, but you will find time-savers. hang in there!

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Try to combine your tasks: give 8 and 9 meds together, if a pt calls for pain med at 0850 and has 0900 meds, take them at the same time. DO NOT be afraid to ask for help! Are you getting out late because of report? Give the facts, abnormals only and move on to the next pt. remember KISS "keep it short and simple". Do not skip lunch!! As was already said, get away from your unit for that 30 minutes and read, visit with someone or just relax. YOu will function better when you get back to your pts. Don't be hard on yourself, 3 months isn't long (to those of us reading your post) and one day it will all click! Good luck.

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Specializes in Telemetry, CCU.
Is it safe to give meds 1 hour before its time? Any tips will be welcome.

Thanks

I wouldn't get my med pass done on time if I started giving my 2200 meds at 2200. When I first started I was hesitant to start at 2100 but it makes all the difference in the world. Of course there are still nights when I don't finish until after 2300 no matter what I do, because sometimes its just that crazy. But yea, combine as many med times as you can unless it is contraindicated for some reason. Observe the experienced people on your shift manage their time, ask for tips. And never ever be afraid to ask for help, nursing is not a job that can be done by just one nurse a shift, its teamwork all the way! Oh and it does make a huge difference to have a good charge nurse. In fact, there are a few I cringe at lol.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Cheerfuldoer, when I graduate, and start my first job, will you be my charge? :heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat

I would LUV to be your charge nurse when you graduate. I'd LUV to be your preceptor, too. What I'd love even more is to build the hospital I've always wanted to build now that I know what a hospital should deliver to not only its patient population, but to those who sweat drops of blood 24/7 to make it happen...and that is the nurses, the doctors, the nurses aides, the student nurses, the unit ward secretaries, and let's not forget our housekeeping departments, and every department that contributes to the safety of those we serve. Everyone is important enough to care about. Not one of us deserves to be forgotten. Talk about change coming to America...to the world. Positive healthy caring encouraging change needs to come inside every hospital in the world, and America could be the nation to show the world how its done because we can afford it more than any other country can IF we start living right, treating each other right, and focusing on positive change as a nation. :twocents:

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