Time Management in Nursing and Other Strategies of Effective Work

Introduction

The American Nurses Association defines nursing as ‘‘the protection, promotion and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities and populations”. Time management in nursing is crucial for Registered Nurses who are part of the nursing team including licensed vocational nurse, and a certified nursing assistant, as they play a vital part in the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health, providing lifelong holistic care and enhancing quality of life. Registered Nurses play a principle role in the nursing process of continuity of care using the nursing process of assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Defining Nursing and Roles

It is within nurses’ scope of practice as providers of care to utilize critical thinking, skills, professional competence and evidence-based knowledge. To be successful in my role as a care giver I anticipate utilizing taught skills to individualize care for the diverse population of my assigned patients. It is also imperative that in providing care I consider patients different cultures, beliefs and values as these have diverse influence on perceptions of health and illness. Expression of pain, approaches to health promotion and beliefs about causes of diseases are all viewed differently depending on the culture.

Other skills that I plan to utilize for this role include listening, therapeutic touch keeping in mind limits and cultural implications as well as properly engaging with patients without making judgments and assumptions. Meaningful engagements with patients have been proved to provide opportunities for patients to reveal information and cues that facilitate critical thinking and judgements.

By being my best as a provider of care intend to uphold Mercy Health core values of compassion that promises to accompany those that we serve with mercy and tenderness recognizing that “being with” is an important as “doing for” Another role I anticipate as a new nurse is to manage assigned patients care. Care management would involve set activities intended to improve patient care and reduce need for medical services by coordinating care, helping patients manage health conditions more effectively.

Importance of Time Management in Nursing

Nursing profession is marred with unpredictability and urgency and for my success in the field time management is of paramount importance. Achieving time management in the field of nursing comes with numerous benefits including increased efficiency, less stress, great productivity as well as opens opportunities for professional improvement. Time management takes a great deal of mastery to achieve but I plan on using strategies such as prioritizing, organizing, making lists of my daily goals, communicating to my fellow work mates and exercising my delegation powers. Nurses need to meet the expectations of patients, peers, managers, along with completing the nursing activities in a given shift. Contingencies also arise in the schedule which need to be identified as high, medium and low priority and should be best fit in the shift by the nurses (Cleary & Horsfall, 2011). As I edge closer to graduate, I understand that flexibility and being realistic are characters that I need to develop as they would help me navigate time management. RN care managers had considerable autonomy and a range of strategies for accomplishing their goals based on their patient populations and health care environments.

I understand that as a registered nurse I will be tasked many time consuming with different duties as part of patient care. To maximize productivity and ensure I do not burn out and end up risking the safety of my patients I understand that delegation is a vital tool to help me spend time in the most productive ways possible. While this tool is at my disposal, I know that as a registered nurse I will be accountable for the duties delegated. By delegating I carry out the core value of service which aims at providing the highest quality in every dimension of our ministry.

Keys to Success for Registered Nurses

Like any other profession nursing requires prolonged training and formal qualification. Nurses as part of health care professionals are obligated to adhere to their profession’s standards of ethical and professional conduct in all interactions, including those that occur on social media sites (Gagnon 2015). Patient confidentiality is a sacred trust that nurses are tasked with providing to their patients and when breach of the same occurs, it can have ever lasting dent to the profession. As digital technologies and social media continue to expand, health care providers must adapt their professional communication to meet the expectations and needs of consumers (Gagnon2015).

As a member of the profession I plan to uphold patient confidentiality by respecting and protecting my patient’s information. Other ways than I plan to implement as a member of the profession is taking time to listen to patients, being a team player and helping co-workers when able, being accountable for my actions as well as attending in service trainings to keep my nursing knowledge up to date. By implementing these, I will be upholding mercy health core value of integrity which stresses on acting ethically and modelling right relationships in all our individual and organizational encounters.

Conclusion

Registered nurses are the backbone of health care and this comes with lots of responsibilities. In depth understanding of the responsibilities is imperative to succeed and avoid burnout which eventually would lead to unsatisfied disgruntled nurses. I believe prioritization and flexibility are two key characteristics that nurses ought to develop for success in the field. Health care is an evolving world with new technologies being developed thus continued seeking of knowledge cannot go unmentioned.

References

1. Gagnon, K., & Sabus, C. (2015). Professionalism in a Digital Age: Opportunities and Considerations for Using Social Media in Health Care. Physical Therapy, 95(3), 406–414.
2. Nayak, S. G. (2018). Time Management in Nursing -- Hour of need. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 11(3), 1997–200.
3. Swan, B. A., Haas, S., & Jessie, A. T. (2019). Care Coordination: Roles of Registered Nurses Across the Care Continuum. Nursing Economic$, 37(6), 317–323.
4. Sanford, K. D. (2020). Always a Nurse: A Profession for a Lifetime. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 44(1), 4–11.