Healthcare can be one of the highest intensity careers on the planet and requires a combination of emotional strength and split-second decision making. There is very little room for wasted time, as every second count. This is why you must maximize your productivity levels in your healthcare career to do your job better and make life easier for the patients you are looking after.
Now, productivity has developed something of a bad name. It has become synonymous with clickbait YouTubers sharing their latest productivity hack and conjures visions of overworked employees pulling all-nighters to hustle. This is a shame because the point of productivity is not to work any harder (for that will always be a battle against diminishing returns) but to work smarter.
By using the techniques below, you can create a work environment that stacks all the dice in your favor, ensuring you’re always playing to your strengths and making the most of the resources available.
Here’s how you can increase productivity in your healthcare career:
Learn to communicate better
Communication is the bedrock of productivity. Unless you can communicate effectively with your colleagues, boss, and patients, you can easily create far more work for yourself than is necessary.
While it is easy to fall into existing habits and believe that your communication skills are top-notch, there is always something to be improved upon.
It’s not like miscommunication is always your fault. A member of your team might be the source of mixed messages that, at best, confuse and slow everyone down, and at worse, risk the health of your patients. Either way, you should hone your skills by simply improving your empathy skills. Listen to what those around you are saying, observe them. They might have their own agenda or are distracted by something else. Only then can you communicate in a language that they understand – one that includes their interests.
Make use of new technology
While the arrival of COVID-19 has hugely disrupted society and thrown existing working methods into disarray, it has also highlighted the power of technology to assist you in your healthcare career. In fact, in many ways, the rise of remote communication technology has improved the healthcare industry’s productivity.
For instance, if you are conducting an annual wellness visit,you can use software to complete the visit remotely. This cuts out the waiting time between visiting patients, speeds up the completion rate, and allows you to complete other tasks while your patient fills in their forms.
Delegate responsibility
This is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to increase productivity in your healthcare career. You can’t always be the hero. While your natural instinct may be to help as many people as possible at once (and this is a wonderful quality), it can be counterproductive if you have team members alongside you, ready to take the strain.
Don’t be afraid of delegating work to your colleagues if you are overwhelmed. As long as they are not equally overwhelmed, it can drastically increase your healthcare practice’s efficiency.