How do you teach prioritization?

[dabearrn]

I don't feel that I am doing a very good job at all of teaching prioritization.. Matter of fact I really do not have much of a plan for the topic at all. I do fine when talking about procedures, but in theory and critical thinking I don't do well at all.

How do some of your teach it? Primarily in the med-surg areas.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[noreenl]

your not the only one!!! i feel that it is one of my weakest skills and sometimes it can get me behind in some crucial decisions. i"m making things harder for myself i KNOW, but I'm working on it!

[AggieQT]

I don’t know if this is what you are asking or not. This is how I was taught prioritization in school by one of my most favorite professors. Until it was explained in this way, I didn’t get quite get it either.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

First, ask yourself is it a physical or psychosocial need? Physical need goes before psychosocial every time (for NCLEX anyways) And yes, PAIN is considered psychosocial in the NCLEX God’s eyes. After you eliminate any psychosocial answers, then ABCDE the physical needs. Of course airway comes before circulation and so on.

Then ALWAYS STOP and ask yourself, if I can only do ONE thing for my patient, and ONE THING ONLY and then I have to walk away and go home, what would have the biggest impact on my patient’s survival/wellbeing?

I carried those theories into practice and so far it has REALLY helped me as an emergency room RN. Side note: I plan to teach in the very near future and hope what I just typed isn’t rubbish in the real world of teaching. Good luck!

[JaneyW]

We use Maslow at our school. I do that lecture and I think it really helps the students understand their patient's needs. I hope this helps!

[noreenl]

I wasn't talking about the patients' needs. I was talking about MY LACK OF PRIORITIZATION SKILLS!! LOL!

I am considering doing RN to MSN online and I am a fairly new clinical supervisor for my agency of school nurse staffing in NYC. I find that sometimes the clock says it's time to go home and i feel like I have left something important undone. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to give me any! I really want to move on to become a Nurse Educator (MSN) and proiritizing is a mandatory skill set! Thanks in advance!

[JaneyW]

Well, Noreen, I'm a list maker. I also keep a calendar that I refer to often. I like to look at months as a whole so I have a 'big picture' of what I need to do short and long term. If I have a list with what needs to get done by when, I can cross things off and that helps me. If something doesn't necessarily have a deadline, I will give it one. This will help me with priorities as well. It takes time put into the organizing and not just the doing. I hope this helps!

[iteachob, MSN, RN]

I don’t know if this is what you are asking or not. This is how I was taught prioritization in school by one of my most favorite professors. Until it was explained in this way, I didn’t get quite get it either.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

First, ask yourself is it a physical or psychosocial need? Physical need goes before psychosocial every time (for NCLEX anyways) And yes, PAIN is considered psychosocial in the NCLEX God’s eyes. After you eliminate any psychosocial answers, then ABCDE the physical needs. Of course airway comes before circulation and so on.

Then ALWAYS STOP and ask yourself, if I can only do ONE thing for my patient, and ONE THING ONLY and then I have to walk away and go home, what would have the biggest impact on my patient’s survival/wellbeing?

I carried those theories into practice and so far it has REALLY helped me as an emergency room RN. Side note: I plan to teach in the very near future and hope what I just typed isn’t rubbish in the real world of teaching. Good luck!

This is a very good way to prioritize. Your professor must have taught for Kaplan at one time or another, because this is the Kaplan way (i.e. it's not rubbish).

[MomBSN]

I wasn't talking about the patients' needs. I was talking about MY LACK OF PRIORITIZATION SKILLS!! LOL!

I am considering doing RN to MSN online and I am a fairly new clinical supervisor for my agency of school nurse staffing in NYC. I find that sometimes the clock says it's time to go home and i feel like I have left something important undone. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to give me any! I really want to move on to become a Nurse Educator (MSN) and proiritizing is a mandatory skill set! Thanks in advance!

In terms of yourself this is what i do for "decluttering my life/work/achieving goals/etc"

1. Start with what is absolutely due right now and finish it

2. Next work on the ONE thing you loathe the most and finish it

3. Do things that can be completed quickly

4. Now, figure out if your "to do list" has other time sensitive issues, life and death, "the world will end if i don't get this done", etc.

5. should you have anything that is due now, life and death or world ending things on your list...get those done now.

6. the remaining items organized according to due dates and priority.

7. stop now and go home knowing that you are on track :)

[Nigel Wynne]

Hi,

Within the Faculty of Health at Birmingham City University, UK, We use online simulations to teach prioritization, problem finding, problem solving and decision skills within our health care courses. A few years back we developed a software platform that we call the Virtual Case Creator. This enables us to design open ended simulations of practice within which students can reheorifice their decision making skills. We have over 30 of these simulations todate ranging from PICU to Primary Care, Acute Medice Adult to Acute med/surg child, mental health to midwifery, perio care to speech and language therapy etc.... You can find more information from our website http://vccweb.health.bcu.ac.uk/ and I think their is a video demo uder resources. Our simulations are also being used to educate learners within the NHS and HE sectors.

Let me know if you want any further information.

Nigel