time management

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first off, I have worked on my own for 2 shifts now at LTC. I seem to spending all my time passing meds. We have a 5 pm and a 9pm. med pass and I need to pass on about 20 people. I need to figure out how to be more effecient. any suggestions. Oh and I have heard comments like: I should not be passing meds the whole time. thanks

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Hi!

Well, It's true you should not be passing meds the whole time. However, if you are a new nurse or new to LTC there is sometimes no way around it. It takes time to get your groove on. Being efficient takes time and experience. Give yoursef about 3 months or so to get there. Remember to gather all you need before you start your med pass. You don't want to be running back and forth to the med room/supply room.

Don't worry too much and don't let your experienced co-workers make you feel like a failure. They were in your shoes once, they just forget what it's like.

Good luck.

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With experience, comes proficiency, with proficiency, comes speed. You have only just started. Look at your watch and strive to shave x amount of minutes off each med pass per day. At home take some time to think of ways you can devise to be faster. If you have not already done so, make a brains sheet to help. If you have fingersticks to do, write them all down, come up with a starting time, then go do them one by one, and give those patients their insulin and other meds first. Anything else that takes up time, do first, or last. Whatever works for you. If going down one side of the hallway, then turning around and going down the other side makes it faster for you, then do that. Ask the other nurses what they do to make their duties go smoother. You may get some good tips that will work for you also. Don't let people interrupt your med pass with conversation or other things if at all possible. Write down on your note sheet things that can wait until you finish. Getting interrupted is one of the biggest things that lengthens the time in a med pass. Other than that, just realize that you will get faster each day that you do this.

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I second the suggestion to write down your time each day and see if you can't improve by a minute or two each day. It doesn't seem like much, on the one hand, but on the other hand, for me, it works wonders to have concrete evidence that I AM making progress. Nursing doesn't tend to allow for "easing into" a new job... from the start, there's pressure to be faster and more "efficient."

As others have noted, though, it takes time and experience to become more efficient. You WILL be faster after time and experience... like a couple of months, not a couple of shifts or even a couple of weeks. But they haven't budgeted for extended training, so you're expected to miraculously carry out the same workload as experienced nurses... which, no matter how much management wishes, just doesn't work that way.

So for the next few months, try to tune out the monotonous chorus of "you need to be faster/more efficient" and gauge your performance against yourself, not the others. Work on small goals for each day and be proud of all incremental accomplishments. You are probably be inundated with suggestions about how to improve or what you should be doing, but you can't master them all at once. Try to be okay with that.

The other nice thing about documenting all small accomplishments is if management gets impatient and calls you in for a conference to "discuss your progress" you have a list to boost your morale and to show to management that you are making progress. If they feel that progress isn't enough, it's more likely a reflection of their poor management (unable to keep good staff, etc) than of your abilities as a nurse.

Best wishes!

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Specializes in ICU, CCU,Wound Care,LTC, Hospice, MDS.
first off, I have worked on my own for 2 shifts now at LTC. I seem to spending all my time passing meds. We have a 5 pm and a 9pm. med pass and I need to pass on about 20 people. I need to figure out how to be more effecient. any suggestions. Oh and I have heard comments like: I should not be passing meds the whole time. thanks

I agree with everyone else, that you will get faster with time. But, I have to mention an experience I had a few years ago with a not so new nurse who was worried her med passes took so long. It turned out, if a resident needed to go to the bathroom, she took them. If they wanted to get undressed for bed, she helped them. Much as I like bedside nursing, I pointed out to her that she should be letting her aides do that while she moved on to the next one. ;)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

two shifts is not enough time to evaluate your time management! it takes a couple of weeks. just keep putting one foot in front of the other. you will start to notice that some patients congregate in certain areas at the same time and you will want to give them their meds at the same time to save steps. you will learn to catch other patients before they go gallivanting off to activities so you don't have to go tracking them down, saving steps again. you can only learn this through being on the job for a couple of weeks.

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Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

Take a note of those that take their meds quickly and easily.Then there are those that take their tabs one by one with a tumbler of juice for each tab!If it's possible to do the quick and easy's first do them then do the difficult ones and make a mental note of what works well for them,thickened juice,a spoonful of jam(if you are allowed to do that)etc.Don't worry it will all come together and this time next year you will be the one advising on time management!

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I agree with everyone else, that you will get faster with time. But, I have to mention an experience I had a few years ago with a not so new nurse who was worried her med passes took so long. It turned out, if a resident needed to go to the bathroom, she took them. If they wanted to get undressed for bed, she helped them. Much as I like bedside nursing, I pointed out to her that she should be letting her aides do that while she moved on to the next one. ;)

Excellent point. I've seen this too. It's important to delegate.

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Specializes in SNF.

I agree, that as you learn the residents, the way they take their meds etc, it will become easier and you will become more efficient. A couple tidbits for you that help me...

When you take meds into a room for one resident, take a blood sugar, start a breathing treatment, do a lung assessment, assess a hip incision on one of the other residents in the room. Just make your steps count.

Hope this helps! It will get easier! Good luck!

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I thank everyone of you for your suggestions and support. They are all great suggestions, and I will use them. It is already getting better there where I work and I think I have "turned the corner" so to speak. I feel as if I have transitioned from "I am not so sure this is the place for me" to "I am confident this is the place for me." I have developed a great rapport with my DON and unit managers. I found I can be candid and honest with them and they will help me to succeed at this job. It is truly a great feeling when you feel management is on your side. So thank you all for your help, it is greatly appreciated and useful. I wish each and everyone of you a safe and happy new year.

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I am so happy to hear that you are getting acclimated and even better than that, have found a good place to work with supportive supervisors. Hoping that you also have a safe and happy new year.

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