Prioritization of Care

Prioritization of Care
Name
University Introduction
The working environment for the nursing practice has been cited as the most demanding of the work settings. Nurses are held responsible for the provision of patient care in nursing homes, hospitals, and ambulatory care centers. The primary objective in the nursing practice is to keep the interests of the patient first. As such, nurses are obliged to undertake activities that improve the welfare of the patients in different healthy institutions. However, challenges in the working environment for the nursing environment have interfered with the efficiency of nurses in their efforts to offer the best services to the patients. One of the common challenges in the working environment for the nursing practice is on time management. Many nurses especially the newly employed nurses find it hard to manage their time effectively. This essay analyzes time management as a common challenge in the nursing practice, how proper prioritization can help the new nurses in managing time more efficiently, the role of the nurses in helping the interdisciplinary group address priority patient needs, and suggestions for managing time at work to improve patient outcomes.
Time Management in Nursing Practice
Introduction of the Common Challenge
Time management has been found to be a major challenge in the nursing practice (Castledine, 2011, p. 331). Many nurses especially the newly employed have not been able to allocate time effectively to the different responsibilities they are expected to undertake when providing patient care in health institutions. The problem of time management has came about because many of the nurses are not able to prioritize issues in their course of work. The nurses incapable of prioritizing issues are time wasters and they have contributed significantly to compromised patient care in the health institutions. Prioritization is one of the significant elements in time management. Newly elected nurses are not able to identify priority-setting traps and establish measures to avoid them. In addition, they are faced by the challenge of understanding the methods that can be applied in priorities and apply the techniques in the clinical setting. Moreover, the nurses are incapable of applying the principles of prioritization to group patients.
Key issues related to Patient Care
According to Kelly, (2011), the nurses have significant role to play in helping the interdisciplinary group to address the issues of priority in provision of patient care. In addition, the nurses have to identify the time wasters and establish mechanisms of how to avoid them. Many nurses expect the leadership and directives in patient care to come from their leaders and the interdisciplinary groups. They take themselves as subjects to implement orders from the seniors even when problems arise in the provision of patient care. Since the nurses are in direct contact with the patient, they should be ab...