As a patient’s first point of contact, nurses are expected to uphold and portray certain skills and attributes. The role a nurse plays in any community be it small or large can never be underlooked. Reasons why people expect nurses to show a sense of kindness, compassion, empathy, emotional intelligence, etc.

According to Simon Roach, as a nurse, you should exhibit skills such as compassion, competence, confidence, conscience, and commitment. Sadly, some nurses are not able to practice these skills as they themselves get overwhelmed and suffer from perpetual burnout.

In this article, you will learn how to improve your time as a nurse in order to deliver quality healthcare to your patients while improving your relationship with your colleagues.

1. Set Achievable Goals 

It takes setting goals to achieve the smallest of tasks. Goals help you trigger new behaviors, guide your focus, and help you sustain momentum in life. If you intend to succeed in whatever field, you must not just set goals but set achievable goals. Thus, as a nurse, setting goals you can achieve can play a great role in your career.

Setting short-term and long-term achievable goals helps you improve productivity. Both working nurses and student nurses should be able to come out with tasks for the day. Writing down your daily tasks saves you a whole lot of trouble and time.

2. Delegate the Right Way

As a nurse, there’s no need to try to chase rainbows alone when you have colleagues to help you when you’re wasted. Healthcare is a team effort and you must not try to do everything on your own. As a nurse, you don’t have all the time to be familiar with and be good at everything. And that’s okay. No one expects you to.

Delegating tasks to other healthcare professionals in your unit prevents you from being mediocre while helping you to improve and make good use of your time. There is no need to wait to be worn out before bringing in other nurses to assist.

Now, for you to delegate some work to colleagues doesn’t mean giving them the dirty work to finish. Remember that the goal is to manage your time without poor delivery. A good nursing assistant will always come in handy but don’t push your limit. 

Delegating the right way also requires you to communicate right, a skill every nurse is supposed to acquire and develop. This will save you more time and show that you’re a team player.

3. Prioritize Your Work

As a nurse, it is important that you are able to block your day. But how do you do that? There are a few questions you should be able to answer to achieve this:

• What will I do first and why?
• Which is more important to start with and why?
• What will happen if I don’t do it now. What’s the worst-case scenario?
• What does the patient need most?

If you’re able to answer these questions, then you understand the goal of prioritization. It takes critical thinking to be able to manage your time and to determine what must be achieved and what can be pushed forward.

Prioritization doesn’t mean that you must do everything you set out to do in a day. However, when prioritizing your day as a  nurse, you can’t ignore the fact that there are certain duties that must be accomplished. The goal isn’t for you to reduce your work but for you to know what you must do and do them. 

You know better that patient care is a 24-hour job.

4. Take Your Full Lunch Break

Taking short breaks when necessary help you to re-energize. Then imagine what maximizing your lunch break could do for you. It sounds easy to eat but strangely enough, people don’t take this exercise very seriously.

It is true that your role as a nurse is to take care of patients around the clock. But how can you do that when you’re not at your best? As a nurse, it is essential that you don’t skip your lunch break. A lunch break is an opportunity for you to recharge so as to put you in the right spot to take care of the patients you care so much about. 

If you’re reading this, it’s time for you to put an end to your unhealthy habit of skipping lunch.

5. Take Advantage of Your Time Off 

Who doesn’t like a day or week to gain momentum? Like in every other profession, workers need time off to refresh themselves. So too does a nurse. So, why don’t you take advantage of your time off?

Taking time off helps you to build yourself mentally. Give yourself the opportunity to return to work with a clear head. Don’t fall under the demanding trick of your job. The absence of time to reset yourself mentally can lead to worse outcomes than you can imagine.

Being in the best form benefits you and your patients.

Wrapping Up

The job of a nurse requires them to be available all the time. This busy nature of theirs doesn’t allow them to have much time on their sleeves. However, there’s hardly a problem without a solution. 

Effective time management is a skill that is developed – it doesn’t just happen. As a nurse, you must endeavor to find the tools and resources you need to become successful at managing your time. 

These tips should help you improve your time as a nurse, be at your best, and provide the best possible care to patients.

If you need more tips like this, do well to read our blog for more insightful content aimed at making you become a top performer in your healthcare career.

Featured Image Credits: Medical-Locums Group

Tags: Healthcare, Nurse, Nursing, Time management

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