Time management in the profession of nurse manager – a case study

Introduction
Time management is an essential component of the management process, which can not only affect employees’ efficiency as far as their reaching professional and personal goals is concerned but also increase the performance of their organisation.

Aim of the study
The study was aimed at demonstrating the importance of the manager’s time management and presenting the effects of time man-agement on the example of a nurse manager’s work.

Material and methods
The research was based on a case study. The object of the study was a ward nurse working in the intensive care unit of one of dis-trict hospitals in Małopolska region. An interview technique was applied in the study. The authors made use of their own question-naire consisting of questions about socio-demographic data, employment history, and opinions about time management as well as a standardised SWOT analysis questionnaire, Time Consumers questionnaire, and a questionnaire entitled ‘Self-assessment of the use of working time – identifying time thieves’.

Results
The subject of the study was a 44-year-old woman working as a ward nurse in the anaesthesiology and intensive care unit. According to this nurse manager, the tasks that took up most of her time during her shifts included: supervising how the staff carried out their tasks, managing the team, and planning and carrying out nursing tasks on time. Unexpected visitors turned out to be the most seri-ous time thief. Self-assessment of time management showed that the respondent was able to manage her working time in a responsible way (score of 66).

Conclusions
Time management is an essential element of nurse managers’ work because it allows them to effectively make use of their working time. Consistency in time management is followed by an improvement in understanding, mastering, and controlling one’s tasks; it also reduces the level of stress and haste, and has a positive influence on one’s outlook on life.