Time Management on Placement
My name is Pooja, and I’ve just finished my final year of Physician Associate at Newcastle University. I’m passionate about widening participation to healthcare especially amongst non-traditional applicants and people from disadvantaged backgrounds!
Most healthcare courses have a considerable placement or practice component. This is usually alongside assignments, keeping a portfolio and revising for exams – and of course, you still have a life and social commitments and hobbies to enjoy. For me, placement was a trial by fire. Rambling through the first few weeks – actually, months – of placement before I got into my rhythm.
Don’t make a timetable
Most of my placements were from 9 am to 5 pm, so I thought it would be easy to plan my day. I would allocate some time to eat, some time to revise, some time to wind down and then go to bed. But this was unrealistic. Some days on placement were quieter than others. Some days there would be a beneficial learning opportunity out of hours. Some days I just felt exhausted and needed to run myself a bath and chill. Instead, I listened to my body and realised that I could utilise my time better. Instead, I would make a weekly to-do list of SMART goals to make me task-oriented.
Be efficient
At the beginning of each placement, I would tell my supervisor that I will be revising for exams in my downtime. I might mention that I would be more productive in the library instead of watching a doctor do paperwork. Most of the time, my supervisors were happy with this, especially when they had a lot of work to get through that I could not help with.
Utilise the MDT
We are a multi-disciplinary team. We have got to start using it. Everyone else on that ward has so much more experience, knowledge, and skills that they are just waiting to pass on to the next generation of healthcare professionals (that’s us!). I found that nurses knew so much about cannula placement and drug side effects, and physiotherapists and occupational therapists could identify early signs of patient deterioration before getting specific symptoms. Ward clerks know the ward inside out; everything coming into or out of the ward passes them first. Healthcare assistants know the patients so much better than the medical team do.
Placements are a unique opportunity to get a solid understanding of the day-to-day realities of life as a healthcare professional in a safe and supervised environment. You can only learn so much from textbooks and YouTube, so making the most from any time on placement is so important!