1. Unit two: Strategies for Professional Practice
II Time Management
D: Traps to Avoid

2. TRAPS TO AVOID when deciding how to manage time:
Nurse fills out pre-op checklist at beginning of shift rather than assessing clients
Pt. being admitted needs VS, wgt, baseline assessment and patient orders.
The first two tasks can be delegated to Nursing Assistive Personnel so that the nurse can complete the baseline assessment of the patient, then call the physician for orders

3. TRAPS TO AVOID: continued
Responding to the squeaky wheel
perhaps the family member who has vocalized the loudest
but ignores a more pressing patient need that is more critical

4. TRAPS TO AVOID: continued
Completing tasks by default: nurse feels obligated to complete task that no one else will complete:
eg: emptying the garbage rather than asking housekeeping to do it

5. TRAPS TO AVOID Relying on Misguided Inspiration:
nurse feels inspired to document findings in the chart
avoiding taking care of a higher priority responsibility

6. TRAPS TO AVOID when setting priorities
Decide if activity is
urgent or not urgent,
important or not important
Eg: sometimes laboratory data, vital signs, I&O are ordered more frequently than the status of the patient indicates
Frequent monitoring of these assessments may make no significant difference in patient outcomes.
Nurses need to try to get these orders changed.