Time management for healthcare workers

Time management for healthcare workers

Instant culture.  Today's culture is filled with technological innovations that make processes faster and make communication easier.  Food is now instant - processed to be prepared simply by adding hot water, coffee three-in-one, ready to eat home-cooked meals packaged in tetra packs or cans, fast food restaurants have replaced bed and breakfast facilities.  What used to take a whole day of doing laundry from soaping, scrubbing, rinsing, bleaching and starching, hanging and drying is now completed in one hour by a washing machine and drier.  This frees up women to pursue more loftier goals and careers.

Instant communications.  Unfortunately, with this "instant" culture, even our relationships become instant as well.  Interactions become superficial.  People often run off to do a gazillion things with so limited time.  What happened to the time that machines like washing machines saved for us?  We need to create new machines that make other work for us in an instant.

From the time when Morse code and telegraphs were the main means of communication, we went on to telephone lines and cellphones until now we have wireless web-based communication, complete with video conferencing.  Social media enables communities to interact globally at real time. It is now easier for overseas Filipino workers to communicate with their loved ones in the Philippines.

Does anybody send handwritten letters through the post office anymore?

How does this instant culture and technology impact the way we interact with each other?  A lot of material on social media show families and friends sitting at a table with noses stuck up in front of their mobile phones looking through social media.  This defeats the purpose of bringing loved ones close together when we can't even sit down and talk face to face.

Healthcare workers.  How do handheld mobile phones with internet access and social media apps affect how healthcare workers interact with patients in the clinics, in the wards and in the treatment rooms?  During the last tweetchat about barriers to physician-patient communication, time management was one of the identified barriers.  Healthcare workers are always on the run, always in a hurry, with no time to sit and really listen to patients.  I googled and found that there are a number of materials online that give tips on time management for physicians.

So how come with all the technological advance that make processes faster, and improve communication, time management is still a barrier to efficient interaction with patients?

What activities consume the time of healthcare workers?

How would healthcare workers more efficiently manage their time?

How can technology help healthcare workers manage their time more efficiently to provide more time for patient interaction?