Topic Three - Time Management

Situation
This week I've had to take responsibility of the ward. I'm now the (unofficial) physio in charge and my supervisor is now acting as my PTA.

Task
I have to prioritise each patient we have to see during the day around other medical tests that may be going on or the estimated time of the patients discharge. Also keeping in mind not all things go as planned!

Action
This task consists of me getting to the ward early, printing off the ward lists, reading new patient notes and updated patient notes and analysing who I think needs to be seen first. This responsibility also includes liaising with all other health professionals and doing handovers to other ward physios.

Result
As I have been watching and helping my supervisor do this task since week one, I didn't think it would have been too difficult. I organised to see all the morning discharge patients first then spread the rest the time between new day one post op patients and older patients. I also had to keep in mind the new Day of Surgery Admission patients coming up to the ward during the afternoon. Well my plan looked good on paper but as 'they ' say not all things go as planned. Two of my morning discharge patients were great and safe to discharge as I reviewed their exercises, mobility and ordered them equipment for home. There was a minor bump in my well planned day when a new day one post op patient hadn't had any observations done yet so I had to run around and collect all the data before treatment. Time was caught up however with easy patients or patients who were feeling too ill to mobilise. To summarise I was able to fit in all the patients I wanted to see throughout the day even though it didn't match up directly to my original plans.

Evaluation
Initially I was a bit hesitant to diverge from my original plan I'd set up in the morning thinking that I might not get to all my patients by 4:30 but I easily adjusted to the situation and performed my job of senior ward physio very well. Next time I plan to check with the nurses earlier to see which obs they have done or even request them to do certain obs earlier than others just so I don't waste too much time running around looking for machines or calling pathology for results.

Strategies
Liaise with the nurses and other health professionals!
Be able to adjust easily and 'go with the flow'
During times where you can't see anyone catch up on writing notes!
Delegate jobs to the PTA to patients that just need exercise or mobility reviews.
Don't try rush things, spend time with the patient if they need it because you can always catch up time elsewhere.
It is not essential to spend 20mins for morning tea!