Organizing your shift as a new grad can be intimidating. And until you’ve done it for a while, a written schedule is your best plan of action. The following are some tips on how to organize your shift to be the most productive nurse!
Organize Your Nursing Brain
Find a brain that works for you or make your own!
See my post on Organizational Brain Template for New Nurses to help get you started.
Patients Printouts
See if there is a printout for each patient.
If your hospital uses Epic, there are a couple different places you can print information out for each of your patients. You can print out things like their medical history or their current medication list and medication schedule.
Some nurses like to print these out to help organize their shift and then make their own brain on the back of each patient print out. Other nurses like to print these out and have one brain to help organize all their patients’ schedules on one piece of paper. It’s all about figuring out what works best for you.
Medication Timing
For each patient, whether you’re using a medication list printout or a brain, you’re going to have multiple medications due at different times for each patient. It is important to keep these medication times on schedule, especially if they are IV antibiotics. It is also important to keep in mind if your patient is diabetic and needing blood sugar checks and as needed insulin.
On your brain or printout, in the top corner (or somewhere easily seen), write out each of the medication due times or insulin checks and cross these off as they are done. Most hospitals allow you to give a medication in a window. Meaning either an hour, or a half hour, before or after the scheduled due time. However, if a medication was given off schedule by a previous nurse, make sure to reschedule the medication time accordingly.
Also visit Medical Abbreviations You Must Know, Nursing Fundamentals: A Guide to Diabetes, A Guide to Treating and Managing Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes and A Guide to the 10 Rights of Medication Administration for more info.
PRN Medications
Often times patients are in the hospital because they are in some sort of pain and therefore have PRN, aka as needed, medications.
Patients in pain always want to know what time their next PRN pain medication can be given. And if they don’t have this information easily accessible, they will be calling you nonstop, trust me on this one.
To help with this, at the beginning of each shift, make a plan with the patient. Do they want to be woken up to be given pain medications or do they want to call once they are already in pain? This will help you to better anticipate their needs. The last thing you want is to be in an isolation room doing a bedside procedure while being called by your other patient who needs their PRN right away.
Once you and your patient have a plan, write the times the next PRN pain medications can be given on their whiteboard AND on your brain. This way both you and your patient are on the same page. Doing so will definitely give you points for effective communication and anticipating patient needs (even before the patient). A patient who feels overall more cared for is guaranteed to lead to an easier shift!
For more information on treating a patient in pain, visit Nursing Fundamentals: A Guide to Pain and Patient Education: How to Effectively Manage Acute and Chronic Pain.
Charting
Make sure you set aside time to chart.
Most shifts you are going to be charting in between patient care but it’s a good idea to try to plan this into your schedule. For example, once you have given all the beginning of the shift medications, done you assessments, and made sure no one’s in pain, you can then set aside time to start charting.
If you have multiple different areas to chart on (ie Assessment, Lines/Drains/Airways, Pain ratings, Patient education, Outcome evaluation note), then make little boxes on your brain to help organize your charting. Then be sure to check them off once each section is complete per patient.
Check out more Charting Tips for New Nurses here!
Hourly Rounding
Last but not least, hourly rounding!
Make sure you are checking in on your patients every hour. This doesn’t mean waking them up every hour to make sure they’re okay. But it does mean popping your head in to make sure they aren’t in any pain, no new symptoms have arisen, and they have everything they need. Maybe they need a new ice pack or are a little hungry but they didn’t want to call you for such a small thing. This is why hourly rounding is so important.
If you find yourself getting nervous before your shifts, see How to Overcome Pre-Shift Anxiety for Nurses.
Also visit these posts for more new nurse info!
- Start of Shift Plan for New Nurses
- Nursing Bag Essentials for New Nurses
- Essentials of a Good Bedside Handoff Report
- What Do Night Shift Nurses Do? An Hourly Survival Guide
- I’m a Night Shift Nurse, What Should I Do with My Days Off?
- What to Expect in the First Year as a New Grad Nurse
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