Nursing Journal: An Account of Time Management - Essay Example

Nursing Journal: An Account of Time Management After being placed in the clinical area, as I have been enriched with many experiences, the responsibility has increased in a proportionate manner. Now, I am not a newcomer, I am well into the practice; this is about 6 weeks down the line I have been placed clinically. It is no longer the role of a passive observer that a new trainee nurse performs; it is rather a very active and hectic schedule of day to day clinical ward flurry of activities. Time passes like speedboat, and in the ward, any newcomer such as me will feel like confused and at a loss about what to do and what not to do. There are multiple activities with the pressing demand of time, and when I reflect on these events, it seems they could have been catered better with a more effective time management. I had been assigned to this patient who had an anterior cruciate ligament construction in the left knee, and these postoperative patients have multiple requirements. This patient was diabetic and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The tasks can be divided into making the bed, recording vital signs and charting them, positioning the patient, feeding her, examining generally and in the operative site, recording the findings in the chart, administering medications, performing common bedside tests, informing the supervisor, and looking out for any complications and reporting them. This seems to be a long list, and I found it is extremely insufficient time within the shift to accomplish all tasks in a proficient and efficient manner. As a result, everything was getting disorganized. I decided to talk to my mentor and seek her advice. She told me that I was not being able to manage time very effectively. Inexperience is indeed a factor, but if the principles of time management are applied to my work, this would ease matters a lot. She talked to me about the importance of time management and also gave me some tips of time management as applicable to our work. The basic concepts of time management begins in the mind, the simple rule is to spend times on things that matter. It starts with being aware about the key goals in work and being aware about things that are urgent and things that are important. I understood that she is advising me to prioritize my tasks. I decided to apply her principles in work. This happened very soon, where I could optimize my actions on the basis of priority. My patient was shouting in the ward since she had pain, and she wanted me to give an analgesic injection. At the same point in time, she was having a scheduled injection of antibiotics on an 8-hourly dose. The patient's shouting sounded urgent, the pain must have been intolerable, and I assumed a cool composure and decided to attend the injection of the antibiotic first. The antibiotic dose needed to be administered in the right time since it has relationship with concentration of the drug in blood that will kill the bacteria. If it was not injected in the right time, this might cause infection in the postoperative joint, and the whole surgery may be baffled in terms of outcome. I, therefore, prioritized the antibiotic injection against a painkiller shot. I finished the antibiotic and then went ahead to prepare for the pain killer injection. While reflecting on this, I found that I did the right thing, but I was feeling ashamed that I could not suppress my irritation with the patient. This is because I failed to convince myself that as a nurse, I must be clear and confident enough about my different roles and must be able to differentiate those roles on the basis of priority in the ward that applies differently to the same patient in different situations, and that should be guided by importance that can have far-reaching implications in care, never by apparent urgency. I concluded that it is all about being able to attach importance to the activities in different roles in order of gravity is the essence of time management. From the next day onwards, I made a schedule for my work in the ward. I decided that I will make the bed and position the patient at the same time, one by one. After that, I will record vital signs and chart them. Depending on the timings of medications and depending on the seriousness of the indication from the master list, I would prepare a schedule for administration of medications for this patient and would strictly follow the order that I had created. When I applied this principle in work, it was immediately evident that it was not very easy to accomplish this unless I have great dexterity in performing my work. The work needs to be done first time right. While giving an intravenous injection, I failed to prick the vein in the first time, and I had to try twice to enter the vein. This caused loss of time so that I could not administer the insulin injection to this patient in the appropriate time. I also found that I am wasting a lot of time in making the bed; in fact, I am person difficult to satisfy. For less important works like making a bed, I must convince myself about stopping when it is good enough. A little bit of more thought process in deciding my schedule is necessary, but I think that will need more experience, expertise, and practice, therefore, more duration in the ward placement. My mental framework must be trained to act depending on fast decisions in the ward. This experience has trained me about the importance of time management in the nursing placement, and in fact, I can conclude by saying that good work needs involvement and time management in equal proportions. In my future practice, this experience would come into great help, and I strongly expect that I would be able to perform my tasks in a very organized manner. Read More