What makes a good nurse great?

Above all, safe practice.  That means forgetting nothing, remembering and doing all the steps of every procedure, protocol, and care plan.

Empathy.  Conveying that sense of sincere caring, being sensitive to emotional states and needs, and taking the time to sit with patients, listen to them, or simply be with them.

Skill.  Performing highly skilled procedures -- starting IVs, cleaning wounds, suctioning traches, catheter care, sterile procedure, and so much more.  Especially those ICU and OR nurses!

What makes all of this possible?  Time management.  This means remembering to do everything and doing it on time.  It means knowing how much time is available and budgeting it.

How do nurses learn time management?  Until now, they did it the hard way:  by doing their job for so many years that after a while their gut tells them when something is urgent or late.  But now there is a tool that manages the memory part of time management -- making sure nothing is forgotten and everything happens on time.  We still rely on that gut feeling, but at last we're getting some help with it.

The benefits of effective time management:

• Improved safety
• Less stress
• Happier patients
• And go home on time!

Fewer overtime hours, because there were no surprises ("oh my gosh, my shift is over and I still haven't charted!")...  ("oh my gosh, I'm halfway home and I just remembered something I should have said at shift report!")...