You look up from giving change of shift report to bid your coworkers goodbye as they file into the elevator; you’re on overtime…again. If you are struggling with clocking out late every day, you’re not alone. One reddit user stated “I’m sick of staying 1-2 hours after my shift all the time.” Aside from factors that are outside of your control like short staffing, there are a few actionable measures you can take to help you manage your time better so you can clock out on time. Keep reading to learn about 10 steps you can take today to manage your time more efficiently and end your shift with confidence. 

Use a nurse report sheet. 

Nurse report sheets are truly underrated. How many times have you heard your coworker desperately searching around because they’ve “lost their brain”? It’s because our nurse report sheets actually help keep us organized and up to date on the most important information to know for the day. 

Use a nurse report sheet to keep you on track throughout your shift and check your must-do items off your list as you go. Check your nurse report sheet an hour or so before change of shift so you can finalize any last minute things. You will feel put together going into report. For a free full tutorial, click the button below to read my in depth article about how to use a nurse report sheet. 

Arrive a few minutes early.

Arrive a few minutes early and get a feel for how the floor is going. Prepare yourself mentally as opposed to arriving at the last minute in a hurry. If you feel stressed when you get to work it might be because you are not allowing yourself ample time to acclimate to the environment. See if the nurses are running around trying to get things done, or if they are sitting in the nurse’s station chit chatting to determine how things have been going on the previous shift. Instead of dropping yourself into an unknown situation, try to get to work a few minutes early so you can leisurely put your lunch away, use the bathroom, and then prep on your patients for a few minutes. USign this strategy will help you not crash into the situation blind. 

Introduce yourself to your patients.

Introduce yourself to your patients and inform them that they are one of X other patients in your assignment. Reassure them you will be coming back to check on them at intervals during the shift. This is best done in the middle of change of shift report or immediately after. Get in there and introduce yourself to your patients and their families. Lay out the expectations for the day. Taking charge can really set the tone for the rest of the shift. Relay to your patients that you are here for them but allow them to have realistic expectations of you. 

Cluster your care.

 If you have a vitals check due around 0400 and an antibiotic due at 0500, maybe meet somewhere in the middle around 0430 and do both. Cluster your care so that you don’t have to keep going back in the room over and over. These minutes saved can really add up. Before you go into a patient’s room, think about what you might need and try to grab everything you will need. You do not want to be that nurse poking your head out of the door begging someone to grab you a flush or a chuck pad. Are you planning on doing peri care? Then tell your CNA or buddy to meet you in the room in 5, and then grab the pain med, the linens, and the mepilex you will probably have to change out. You will get better at this over time so keep practicing clustering care and it will become second nature to you eventually.

Delegate appropriately. 

Delegate some tasks so you can prioritize pertinent patient care and charting. This obviously pertains to you only if you have a certified nursing assistant or patient care technician, resource nurse, helpful charge nurse, or break nurse. If you do, then you should be taking advantage of these invaluable resources. If you have a patient that is total care and needs to be cleaned up but then your other patient calls with new, radiating chest pain, which patient should you see first? This sounds like a test question, but the answer should be glaringly obvious! Delegate peri-care for your total care patient and you manage your more urgent and critical patient who might be having cardiac issues.

Prioritize care.

 If you have no one to delegate to or no nurse buddy to lean on then you will need to take a look at everything that needs to be done. Determine how to act on the tasks that absolutely need to be completed versus those tasks that can possibly be put off for a bit. For example, administering your Vanco for your septic patient on time versus grabbing a 5th jello for another patient. 

Chart early.

Try to get your charting done within the first 2 hours of your shift so that you only have to add updates to it throughout; if possible finish your charting in realtime at the bedside so you don’t have to keep coming back into the room to double check things, which can disturb the patient. 

I have found that if I push through and get my charting done as early in the shift it makes the rest of the shift much less stressful. It opens up the rest of my time to focus more on my patients. The last couple hours of my time can be spent on updating what is already there. I am not finishing up my notes when the oncoming shift trickles in expecting report. I feel more confident and less stressed going into change of shift report. 

Find somewhere to focus.

Find a corner of the floor away from your other coworkers who you might be tempted to catch up with. Stay away from your colleagues if you have talkative tendencies until you finish charting. This will help you not be put in a situation where you are trying to finish your documentation at the last minute. Being off on your own will help you focus and gather your thoughts.

Grab your rolling computer and plug it in somewhere away from the nurses station. Grab a chair, sit down, and do some power charting. Review and update your nurse report sheet. Check out your patients’ histories and make a few notes about their overall plan of care. When you go to report off to the oncoming nurse, you will be fully prepared to guide them through what is going on and what needs to be done. 

Take a look at the acuity of your facility. 

Is short staffing a chronic issue for everyone at your job. Are your colleagues having to cut corners in patient care in order to clock out on time themselves? If this is the case, then you might need to evaluate how satisfied you are in your current role. Do you see yourself as one of your senior staff members in a few years? Nurses that do not like the common practices that occur where they work are likely going to be unable to change the culture of the unit; rather they will adapt those practices themselves at some point. 

So if you are not satisfied with your employment situation, then get out there and find a job in your career that is satisfying and fulfilling. Do this for yourself instead of feeling stressed and filled with dread every time you get in your car to drive to work. If you need help writing a resume and finding a job there are many ways to streamline this process. 

Try at least one of these tips out today and reclaim your time

I hope that you were able to learn a few tips you can try out today to reclaim your time at work. It’s frustrating not being done and on your way home at the end of your long shift. Don’t get stuck at work charting late anymore. Be more intentional about getting your charting done and filtering out extra tasks that should be delegated or can be delayed in lieu of better managing your patients’ plans of care. Good luck!