One of the first things I do at every internship, rotation or whatever is optimize my workflow. To do great work you need a good workspace and a workflow that assists you in delivering high quality work.
All day long I hear doctors complaining about the circumstances they have to work under because the computer doesn’t work and it is all so complicated.
But whining doesn’t help and actually it’s not that difficult to tune up your workflow, just start with these three tips.
1. Pimp the computer:
The last rotation I did – believe it or not, it’s the truth:
When I asked my colleague he said, yeah, that thing doesn’t really work, so we don’t use it.
That made me think: “Hello? Anybody home? McFly?? Think!”
First step: Call IT! Tell them: Please install this program, so we can work.
Many times PCs get slow because of all the junk that is stored there. Unnecessary programs or old files or articles. Delete them. Whoever stores important files in public PCs shouldn’t complain when he loses them.
2. Where is everything?
After countless rotations and internships I have stopped asking WHY the central venous catheters are on the one side of the ward and the arterial lines are on the other side.
Just know where they are. When you get a free minute look into all the closets to know where all the stuff is you need to do the procedures you will be doing.
If you stay longer than four weeks you can start a debate whether it is smart to spread the things necessary for one procedure around the whole ward.
3. Pimp the phone:
Sometimes it feels like I’m on the phone all day long. Many times the phone calls only have the goal to find out who is responsible for XYZ, and to find out her telephone number…
When you get another free minute find out the telephone numbers and put them into your phone book. Do that once and you will save so much time later on.
So whenever somebody complains about how difficult work life is in your institution:Instead reassuring him that it is all so terrible, try to go to the core of that information and ask yourself what you can do to make your workflow more effective. You won’t regret it.
Question: What is your number one time killer at work? Leave a comment below