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Survival Tips for Every Nurse

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Scrubs Magazine

Scrubs Magazine is the lifestyle website for and about nurses. Here you’ll find weekly giveaways, “best of” lists, and both the lighter side and the serious side of nursing with cartoons, scrubs style DOs and DON’Ts, beauty, health and wellness. Scrubsmag.com also features revealing stories from nurse bloggers ranging from a newly minted nurse to a seasoned RN to a misunderstood male nurse. Follow us on Twitter and join our conversation on Facebook.

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Cluster Your Care

I got this piece of advice from a former mentor and preceptor. I never really caught on to this concept until a couple of years into my career. This is a trait every nurse learns the hard way. We somehow always become so task-oriented that we forget the overall picture. I remember watching a young (less experienced) nurse walk in and out of her patient’s room so many times that I stopped counting after 15. She walked in to assess, then back out for some supplies. Walked back in to check vital signs and walked out to get more equipment. Then there was a dressing change, walked back for more supplies. Then linens for a bath, in and out, back and forth. This revolving door episode went on for about 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes she THEN started her assessment. 20 minutes of her day just went poof – with nothing accomplished.

I was told later by a fellow co-worker that I had performed the same circus act when I first started. Whether I caught on to it by accident, on purpose or pure luck it was the concept of ‘thinking ahead’ or ‘planning ahead’. Some called it learning the art of anticipation.

Cluster you care. Do as much as possible during one ‘trip’ to minimize the number of ‘trips’. You’d be amazed what will happen with ‘your time’. (You know, that very thing you’re looking for in my first tip)

I still use and abuse these two concepts to this very day. In fact I ‘stopped’ in my tracks just this weekend to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.

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