Return to Med-Surg, new way of charting slowing me WAY down

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Hi all,

It's been years since I was a new nurse on a med-surg floor, but I've just returned. When the education nurse described my floor to me she said, "these are the sickest patients in our hospital, not in an ICU bed." That being said, I felt right at home and after a few shifts started remembering routines. Equipment is different, but I feel I'm getting that down pretty quickly. Even the way medications are poured from the omni-cell, administered at the bedside using the scanner is very safe. I do have to stop and look up medications, double check my practice with skills, etc...

My problem is the computer programs. I can use a computer, obviously I'm using one now. If I do something wrong, I get hung up and time starts ticking. I can loose 20 minutes just trying to figure out where I went wrong. We use Med-Tech, I'm not sure if that's a program many hospitals use. It's an excel program. Or, if each hospital has it's own program. We chart to exception, which is nice. And I know that this particular issue will only be resolved with repetition. The problem is, my preceptor and I share our computer that we roll around with us when we go into the patient's rooms. There's no time for repetition, I have to hurry. And when I screw up I'm so busy trying to correct what I've done, I get flustered and retain nothing.

I'm thinking of coming in on my day off, just to fiddle around with the excel program. Still, if I'm not actually passing meds there may not be a way to create the scenarios where I can practice the repetition of pulling the meds, what happens when I forget to pull a Colace, then have to go back, accidentally pull a PRN Bisacodyl instead, try and return the Bisacodyl ( I don't have the MAR, it's with my preceptor ), etc... My preceptor needs that computer and that computer is what is slowing me way down.

Any advice, pep talk? I like computers, I can eventually figure most things out if given enough time. Time is not something I have a great deal of. My preceptor is very nice, this is nothing she's doing wrong.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Hi all,

It's been years since I was a new nurse on a med-surg floor, but I've just returned. When the education nurse described my floor to me she said, "these are the sickest patients in our hospital, not in an ICU bed." That being said, I felt right at home and after a few shifts started remembering routines. Equipment is different, but I feel I'm getting that down pretty quickly. Even the way medications are poured from the omni-cell, administered at the bedside using the scanner is very safe. I do have to stop and look up medications, double check my practice with skills, etc...

My problem is the computer programs. I can use a computer, obviously I'm using one now. If I do something wrong, I get hung up and time starts ticking. I can loose 20 minutes just trying to figure out where I went wrong. We use Med-Tech, I'm not sure if that's a program many hospitals use. It's an excel program. Or, if each hospital has it's own program. We chart to exception, which is nice. And I know that this particular issue will only be resolved with repetition. The problem is, my preceptor and I share our computer that we roll around with us when we go into the patient's rooms. There's no time for repetition, I have to hurry. And when I screw up I'm so busy trying to correct what I've done, I get flustered and retain nothing.

I'm thinking of coming in on my day off, just to fiddle around with the excel program. Still, if I'm not actually passing meds there may not be a way to create the scenarios where I can practice the repetition of pulling the meds, what happens when I forget to pull a Colace, then have to go back, accidentally pull a PRN Bisacodyl instead, try and return the Bisacodyl ( I don't have the MAR, it's with my preceptor ), etc... My preceptor needs that computer and that computer is what is slowing me way down.

Any advice, pep talk? I like computers, I can eventually figure most things out if given enough time. Time is not something I have a great deal of. My preceptor is very nice, this is nothing she's doing wrong.

Ask your preceptor if it's possible for you to spend a day with the computer while she does the patient care. I did that with one of my orientees, and it only took one day for her to catch on the the charting and start teaching me things I didn't know!

Terrific idea! Thanks!

Specializes in Critical Care.

I have heard Med-tech is terrible and slow, so its not you!

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