For care home staff, time management plays a key role in meeting the healthcare needs of the residents. With a myriad of tasks to be completed every day, efficiently managing time can seem overwhelming for care home staff. However, effective time management isn’t an unachievable goal. Here’s a quick read on time management for care home staff – we hope you find it useful:
1. Starting early
A simple solution to effectively manage time is to show up at work early. Arriving at work early has a number of perks – you can read your handover sheets and organize your tasks prior to starting your shift.
2. Making a to-do list
As care providers are required to complete numerous tasks every day, it is important to streamline everyday task by making a to-do list/routine.
3. Communication (verbal and written)
Proper communication eliminates misunderstandings and medication error. When writing records do not use jargons, meaningless phrases, and personal opinions.
4. Robust record keeping
Every care home should have a robust system of record keeping, especially when it comes to maintaining current and old MAR sheets. For instance, care workers are must change the MAR sheet of a care home patient/resident if the medication is altered. The old MAR sheet then needs to be deposited at the office for record keeping. Care staff may have to refer to the old MAR sheet in future, and a robust record-keeping eliminates the process of wasting time searching for the old sheets. MAR sheets care homes can be one of the best solutions.
5. Listening to the patient
It’s important to listen to your patient’s requirements before you prioritize your tasks. Understanding what they would like first goes a long way in streamlining your tasks and saving time.
6. Taking breaks in between
Constant work can negatively affect your productivity and efficiency. It’s important to take a breather; spending a couple of minutes sipping tea/coffee while collecting your thoughts help you focus better and complete the tasks on time.
7. Taking note of tasks that take time
There are some tasks that you might spend much time completing. It’s helpful if you take note of such tasks and analyze them to understand how you can be efficient at completing them in less time.
8. Being flexible
Working in a care home requires you to perform unpredictable tasks which can change the priorities you set for yourself. Learning to be flexible and quickly adapting to changes is helpful in effectively managing time.
Care Home Managers: Replace Conventional MAR Sheets With eMAR And Help Your Staff
For care home staff, medication administration is one of their important and time-consuming daily tasks. With conventional MAR sheets, care providers take more time to accurately report medication. The time taken can be drastically reduced with eMAR, and also the process is less prone to human errors.
Switch to electronic MAR and save medication administration time
eMAR automates everything and its use is easy and simple. Care home managers learn more about eMAR here and know how the digital record sheet can help you reduce medication errors and quicken the medication rounds.