time management and productivity

nutella, MSN, RN · Feb 16, 2016

Hi there, I have been working in home health nursing for years. I love what i do, but i find myself not being able to manage my time therefore i'm less productive. Suggestions are welcomed. organizational tips, getting ready for the day, scheduling the patients, documentation, how is your car set up in regards to supplies, forms etc. what works for you. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

You write that you have been working in home care for years but it just now becomes in issue? Why?

Are you a case manager?

Self discipline is very important and being super organized.

When I worked home care CM I usually tried to schedule at least 2 patients before hitting the office because the office was the place where I would get held up. I did palliative and hospice homecare with some visits being more time intense. So I scheduled something 8 am, something 9 am, after that office to re-group and all the other visits after. I did not give much choice of visit time as they are supposed to be home bound.

I also documented in the house and after each visit in the car to finish up the note because that way all my work was done at the end of the day - with re-certs/ certs/admission I sometimes had to document in the afternoon - in that case I would schedule my last visit for 2 pm to have some time for it.

Hands free phone thing to make and receive calls while driving from one location to the next saved me a lot of time. All phone numbers for offices and facilities in my phone for easy access - especially all the coumadin clinics.

I had binders with all kind of infos handy including teaching sheets, forms, and so on.

Try to find out where you are losing time - perhaps the productivity is too high or you are driving long distances and lose time that way. If your patients can't stop talking or make the visit long set appropriate boundaries, if the office is sucking time try to avoid hanging out there...

lma_rn · Feb 19, 2016

Thank you for your reaponse, I'm a independent contractor/ Perdiem. What you suggested helps, and I've done that before. My reasons for asking was for any new suggestions. I'm always trying to learn from others regardless. New techniques are always appreciated .

toomuchbaloney · Feb 19, 2016

I believe that one of the most important things that we can do to improve our productivity is to practice POS documentation as recommended above.

Good luck.

Farawyn · Feb 25, 2016

Try to do as much documentation inside the house as possible.

4boysmama · Feb 29, 2016

A follow up question for those of you suggesting documenting in the home...how do you deal with chatty family who want to talk as long as you are there in the home? I'm hospice, we use homecare homebase, and th amount of documentation on the deice is pretty ridiculous - and I find it difficult to pay attention to the documentation without being rude to pt/family when I'm in the home. I usually do it all in my care after the visit before going on to next house.

Farawyn · Feb 29, 2016

A follow up question for those of you suggesting documenting in the home...how do you deal with chatty family who want to talk as long as you are there in the home? I'm hospice, we use homecare homebase, and th amount of documentation on the deice is pretty ridiculous - and I find it difficult to pay attention to the documentation without being rude to pt/family when I'm in the home. I usually do it all in my care after the visit before going on to next house.

I usually say when I walk in, "Do you have a spot that I can set up my computer? I will be here for X amount of time and we are going to blah blah blah, yadda yadda, but, unfortunately this also includes LOTS of paperwork."

Or some such thing like that.

Libby1987 · Mar 1, 2016

A follow up question for those of you suggesting documenting in the home...how do you deal with chatty family who want to talk as long as you are there in the home? I'm hospice, we use homecare homebase, and th amount of documentation on the deice is pretty ridiculous - and I find it difficult to pay attention to the documentation without being rude to pt/family when I'm in the home. I usually do it all in my care after the visit before going on to next house.

In my experience they are understanding and will set you up, but it helps if they received undivided attention for a short while first.