Professional Development Series: Time Management

November 15, 2012

First small table discussion: 5 minutes to discuss biggest challenges to time management

Challenges with Time Management

·  EPIC! In box – too much*

·  Prioritizing*

·  Email stream*

·  Complete lack of admin time

·  Balancing teaching/education vs. own education needs

·  Other docs have different technology

·  Personal life goals vs professional

·  Constant interruptions*

·  Multi-tasking

·  Breaking down large goals into smaller ones

*most frequently mentioned challenges by group


Case 1: Overwhelmed….

Bob has been an ob-gyn faculty member with UW for the last five years. His clinic is so busy he can rarely finish seeing patients before 6:00 PM and rarely gets home before 7:30. He often completes his charts at home after dinner or on weekends. He feels increasingly overwhelmed by all of the clinical demands on his time and wonders how others in his department keep up with this pace.

Table Report Notes:

Delegate, talk to colleagues for help/support, use scheduling templates, get advice from industrial engineering (eliminate white space), find new ways to chart (scribe, chief resident scribe), improve efficiency of Epic @department level -- MAs/nurses bring up front end, time management study, clarify at staff meeting, change one thing at a time, be realistic about what we can do in a day, make value judgments on time (prioritizing), look at your truth (full life analysis), determine who you can/want to say no to, consider reducing patient load.

“Write down your TOP ideas for how to respond to this case.” Comments from worksheets

Training of ancillary staff (nurses, scribe/senior resident/charting in room, team huddle admin time, NP vs. PA for appropriate appointments, good staff – delegate and don’t duplicate, get help (partner/PA), nurse screen out normal lab results, single “user ID” and password for everything, finish each “chart” before seeing the next patient, learn to say “NO”? repercussions?, delegation to “good” staff, avoid redundancy, career goal setting and mentorship, delegate all the tasks others can do, decrease volume of patient visits, schedule 10 minutes in template per hour to work inbox, Bob should delegate some of his current responsibilities, clinic scheduling, talk with colleague, smart phrases, delegation, administrative time, Cut back, increase mid-level time, identify the problem by hiring someone to do time management study, have a meeting to designate and create action plan, change one thing at a time, repeat auditing, identify issues, deal with anxiety, say no, do less, become more efficient.

Case 2: Time for teaching….

Jill is a busy and successful faculty member in the UW Ob-Gyn department. The medical student coordinator and residency program director have received complaints that she is not spending enough time teaching during her clinic and at the hospital. Jill struggles to incorporate time for teaching into an already hectic schedule.

Table Report Notes:

Ask learners what they need, give time limit, know when learners are coming, one teaching point per session, give students something to read, break up teaching moments, label teaching moments, use patient counseling/education as a way to educate learners at the same time.

“Write down your TOP ideas for how to respond to this case.” Comments from worksheets

Teach while you work, do things that allow them to learn away from you, schedule a block of time to sit down and talk with the students, use learners effectively, incorporate them into clinic, pick one topic for each visit as a learning point, say “let’s have a teaching moment” to identify it is for teaching, set up expectations about what you will be expecting from the clinic, ask for questions at the end of each clinic, use time of patient counseling/education as a time to also teach the early learner, goal setting at beginning of day and recap at end, some orientation into clinic, give students time limits, ask goals from students, time limits, control of schedule idea, know when coming when at beginning of year, one teaching point per student, set expectations at beginning of rotation.