On my first placement (musculo outpatient), one of the challenges that I faced was to manage my time effectively. One time I met the patient at the waiting area and apologized that I was 15 minutes late. She’s usually cheery but that time I was met with a serious face. She then told me that I have been late for 3 consecutive sessions already. I did not realize that because of the volume of patients I usually have on that particular day and also she never brought it up to me. The latter, most especially, was not a good excuse at all. In the end it was entirely my fault. I should taken note of the time for every patient that I see. Also, I could have organized my time more effectively by making sure that I have enough time in between patients to allow my time to prepare for the next one. Since we (physio students) had the liberty of setting the date and time of the next appointment in that placement, I should have recognized that opportunity to leave some time gaps in between sessions to avoid inconvenience especially on the patient’s part. I was lucky that the patient brought it up to me and was extremely understanding. If that wasn’t so, the patient could have been really upset and even stopped going to the physio sessions.
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2 comments:
Often we will be late to see a patient because we have spent extra time with a previous patient wishing to provide them with our optimal service. We have to be effecient with assessments and treatments so we can keep appointments. I understand how it is frustrating to be on time but be waitning. To be good with our time management early will assist our professional image.
I find it quite difficult to manage my time as well. It’s good advice to make sure you adequately space apart the appointments for the day, to allow time to prepare for the next patient and tie up any loose ends. Also, I guess if you do have an appointment back to back, it’s a matter of finishing with the patient 10 or so minutes prior to the next patient’s appointment to assist in time management. I’m about to start my musculo placement, so I’ll be trying to do this, and as Mat said, the earlier we start doing this, it will put us in good stead for next year and assist in our professional image.
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