NFP Nurses

[ThePlannedNurse]

I am a new home visiting nurse for Nurse-Family Partnership. I have an OB background but the whole home visiting and public health nursing is new to me. I have yet to go to Denver for my training, but I am already getting patients enrolled and doing co-visits with my supervisor and other nurses. I am finding that organization in this position is much different than what I am used to.

What are some of your best tips for staying organized, especially on the road? I have large tote bags in the back of my vehicle - 1 for clinical items, 1 for travel charts and educational materials I'm brining on the visit, 1 as my office bag for when I'm going in for meetings and only need a few things, and then I have my adult and infant scales. Is there anything else I could need?

My other big question is how do you track your mileage? Ultimately mine has to go into a spreadsheet that I submit monthly, but while I'm out driving about I'd like to have a nice way to keep track. Do you just jot down in a notebook or do you have any suggestions for apps? I'm able to put free apps on my work cellphone that may be beneficial to my day-to-day.

[terfernay]

As far as staying organized while on the road: I have a portable clipboard that I bring to every home visit that has educational and community resources I commonly reference, pens, sticky notes, and my clients working chart. If I know I will do a weight check at a home visit I bring my scale but if not I leave it behind. I usually have a bag of toys that I bring along to occupy the kiddos and to do developmental screenings. And that's about it! I try to be as lean as possible because the bags get heavy and some people's homes aren't the cleanest so it's best not to bring anything you don't need. I might have other bags in my car that have other client's charts, my laptop, etc. but I don't bring that into a client's home. As far as tracking mileage I usually have a sticky note in each of my client's charts and I track my travel time, visit time, and mileage for each visit there until I'm able to enter it into the computer. I keep track of mileage using my odometer or will look up the directions using google maps and jot down the mileage if I forgot to reset my odometer. I hope this helps! I too had experience in OB before becoming a family home visitor and it was a little adjustment but I've grown to love it!