Teach your nurses about time management Enhance productivity by helping nurses stay focused, organized There never

seem to be enough hours in the day for nurses. The ability to manage time and stay organized amid hectic schedules is crucial to staying stress-free and focused in the workplace, which will ultimately result in improved patient outcomes. One thing we dont focus on when orienting people is time management skills, says Penny Morgan Overgaard, RN, BA, FAHCEP, program coordinator at !hoeni" #hildrens $ospital. %e need to teach people to think about the reasons theyre having continuous overtime or arent able to get their work done. & '(() study published in The Journal of Psychology e"amined the effect of time management training on self-reported procrastinators. *n the intervention study, )+ employees attended a one-and-a-half-day time management training seminar. One month after attending the seminar, trainees reported a significant decrease in avoidance behavior and worry and an increase in their ability to manage time. !erhaps the most critical reasoning behind teaching time management in nursing is because we have patients lives in our hands, says ane!! Anderson, RN, M"N, NEA# BC, director of education at *ntermountain $ealthcare in ,alt -ake #ity, who teaches a time management course at her institution. *f were not organized and on time with things, we can create ma.or problems. Time management is crucial/ it doesnt always happen because were in the business of a lot of emergencies and distractions, but its essential to learn good time management. Time management education$ "im%!e strategies Time management training can go beyond lectures and involve fun, easy-to-implement methods. One strategy &nderson has found to be e"tremely useful for relaying the message of time managementis is called 0onkeys on 1our 2ack. 3irst, she asks students what takes up most of their time. 3or every time-consuming element, she puts a raw egg in their hands. ,he keeps adding eggs as they list additional time-takers in their lives. &nderson then asks the students what they would do if a coworker asked them to do an additional task. *f they feel they can take on that responsibility, &nderson puts a stuffed monkey on their back. ,he continues adding monkeys until the learner drops the eggs, says &nderson. *ts the most amazing visual of what it means when you have 4monkeys on your back and are .uggling things in your life, she says. *t gets across the message of learning to

balance and seeing what you can take on and what you cant. *ts been e"tremely effective, and we always end up having a good discussion afterwards. &nother method of teaching students to recognize time management issues is to have them fill out a matri" in which they rank statements from 5 6strongly agree7 to 8 6strongly disagree7. ,tatements can include9

* spend much of my time on important activities that demand my immediate attention * feel * waste a lot of my time * feel *m always putting out fires and working in crisis mode

*t lets people see how theyre spending most of their time, says &nderson. The following are additional time management tips to teach your students9

Remove distractions& &rrange your environment so you can get things done and concentrate, says &nderson. Ta'e bite#si(e %ieces& 2reak big, overwhelming tasks into smaller ones, says &nderson. :ont try to accomplish everything at once. & bit at a time gets you through it. )se %atient in%ut& -istening to a patients input can help your nurses .uggle tasks efficiently, says Overgaard. 3or e"ample, if you tell a patient its time for his bath and he says, 4* want to finish my coffee, you can fall behind the time schedule. Teach students to be able to switch things around and reprioritize. *on+t %ost%one the big stu,,& Teach learners to .ust do it and get it over with, says &nderson. Try to teach them to avoid postponing important matters.

One of the biggest hurdles to time management is getting the commitment from your learners to improve and work toward organization and prioritizing, says &nderson. !eople always say, 4* want to learn better time management, but its ;about< having them make the commitment to come and learn about it, &nderson says. Often, its because they dont have the time. 2ut if you try and make it fun, you can draw people in and make it helpful. Re,erence -ende!ien, .& 6'(()7. !rocrastination at work and time management training. The Journal of Psychology 5)+9 ='5>=)=. Source: Adapted from The ,taff ?ducator, November 2008, !Pro, "nc#