PDCA Cycle Time Management Medical Nursing

MEDICAL NURSING

Medical Nursing: PDCA Cycle (Time Management)

The PDCA (plan, do, check, act) cycle is a useful management tool that helps a person create an effective approach for identifying problems and devising solutions (Wu et al., 2015). It is a quality management method that could be used as a professional development mechanism if a person wants to apply it for individual management and improve a certain personality skill. This paper aims to design and implement personal improvement goals on a specific management skill that I would like to mend for which the use of the PDCA cycle has been explained. 

Plan

Healthcare is a complex system that requires continuous delivery of improvement and an assurance that the quality will be delivered without errors. The social system in which change is required is critical for positive patient outcomes, which could otherwise result in high patient risks or fatalities in serious cases. The unpredictability should be avoided at any cost in this profession, for which effective intervention for any personality improvement is mandatory. Hence, the PDCA cycle is considered an effective quality improvement (Q.I.) iterative model for bringing a change methodically. 

I would like to improve, which is a personal improvement goal, is time management in nursing. Different tasks related to patient care are prioritized and managed with time management so that administration, planning, and personal commitments are tackled simultaneously and conveniently (Ebrahimi et al., 2014). Research has proved that time management skills reduce wastage of time, prevent accumulation of stress due to work overload, better management of human resources, and greater job satisfaction. It determines job success and instills improved self-management abilities for the person who prioritized it for patient care. 

Do

The data is collected on getting my assessment done by 10 pm and getting my medical pass on time without being late. These are the daily tasks that I have to monitor for myself to know whether I have been managing time well or not, and on what days I am not able to achieve these goals. The hindrances that created trouble for me to not achieve these tasks would be enlisted to keep an eye on the areas I need to work on. 

For almost a month, I recorded my daily tasks regarding completing my assessment and getting my medication pass completed within the time limit. After analyzing the data, it was found that eleven times I completed my assessment on time while only eight times I got a medical pass on time. However, I noted that lateness in achieving a medical pass was due to other factors rather than personal ones. Still, the fact that I start my round early and then I can complete assessments on time along with getting a medical pass is valuable learning that I can take advantage of. 

Check

After the data has been collected, this is the phase of analysis where a tool is used to help analyze the data in depth. Utilizing the Pareto diagram for errors that were causing problems in my time management has been explored that day shifts of the nurse who were not releasing orders, errors from the pharmacy, issues related to co-workers, and unavailability of CAN were the chief identified issues. 

Act

After analyzing the above data, it has been revealed that the gathered information does not support the fact that I have achieved my goal. There are various instances when I cannot fulfill my tasks on time, and my time management skills are questioned. There are areas where modification is needed for which specific actions are required.

1. The collaboration of dayshift and night shift management should be improved. It is the reason that the medical pass for one patient was late as it had to be requested two hours before his next dosage, and the day shift did not request it from the night shift management. It could be declared that transition in care is weak at the hospital and causes problems for other managing people, such as my time managing skills. Evidence suggests that re-hospitalization and emergency visits could be decreased when the transition in care is strengthened (Malley & Kenner, 2016). The failure in communication between two service providers could result in inadequate patient care that would lead to less patient satisfaction and even damage the hospital’s image. Hence, the transition in care should be improved, directly impacting my time management skill. Also, for improvement in transition in care, it is recommended that staff education and training should be emphasized. A daily coordinator should be appointed to overlook communication matters between day and night shift workers to enhance coordination (Patel et al., 2019). The technology could be a great source for collaboration, for which I can play a vital role as well. I can exchange numbers with one staff member from the day shift and one from the night shift to contact them to stay updated with the patient information. I can take notes one or two hours before my visit so that I plan and manage my pass by the end of the day. This would reduce the risk of my being involved in any troubles caused by miscommunication between the two staffing shifts and being the sufferer in the end. Moreover, it would add to my efficiency. I can act as a cover-up once I have adequate information about a patient even if miscommunication in transitional care occurs. I would prove to bridge a gap and prevent any trouble resulting from poor patient time management. 

2. Pharmacists are another chief part of transitional care that help reduce errors in patient care and deliver quality medical care. Since they are experts in medical knowledge and could provide important data in error management for giving wrong medication or dosage etc., a pharmacist running late and leaving the pharmacy with ignorance of medication could cause trouble for the rest of the staff, as it had for me. My medical pass got late due to this error, but my call to the pharmacy did not solve the problem. It also appeared that communication was the major reason for such ignorance here. Patient-centered care is highly reliable for attention to certain issues, such as planning medication and keeping up with the doctor for follow-ups about the medicine needed to be given to the patient or its substitute. The facilitation of coordination for medication management between the hospital and pharmacist is one of the crucial quality improvement initiatives required (Kristeller, 2014). Again, I can play my role and be vigilant about taking care of the coordination between the pharmacist and myself. I can exchange contact numbers with him to stay informed about the medicine or, in this case, tube medication availability so that the pharmacy runner could not have left without letting the nurse release her orders. I can also prove to be a source of coordination with the effective use of technology. I can note the timing of the pharmacy and know the shift timing of the pharmacists as well so that I can keep up with the reminder that I should check with the medications needed for the patients and get my medical pass done by the end of my shift as well, and that too, on time. 

3. Managing co-worker issues also requires time management since delivering the patient the care they require on time is the core value of the medical profession. The day on which neither my medical assessment nor my medical pass was completed on time was when I faced co-worker issues. It could not be overstated here again that collaboration and coordination were again perceived to be acute matters for time management on my part. I realized that the key to better time management is event control, which I could do with the help of coordination beforehand. 

Conclusion

After a thorough analysis of my time management skills and the areas that I need to work on, I have realized that starting my rounds before time could help me gain time goals in a superior way. Also, collaboration is a core value that needs to be infused not only from my side but also for all other departments, especially to make operations of transitional care convenient. It would help achieve better patient outcomes, lesser health risks, and greater benefits for gaining opportunities to polish my time management abilities. I could also prove to be a bridge between weak communication between certain care departments so that I could cover up the errors that might be fatal in terms of patient health consequences. PDCA cycle has supported me in gaining insight into the reasons that caused obstacles in my time management, outlining the steps that I should take to prevent those errors in the future. Time-saving through technology could be a fundamental source of rectifying functions in this cycle and can improve staff productivity. Time management in the nursing profession is the epitome of tasks prioritization and their accomplishments with better scheduling, consequently showing positive results in job satisfaction and patient outcomes.