Always end up staying late (nurse) - I'm not sure what I'm dong wrong

[Louisesp82]

I am a mental health nurse, and always end up staying way after my shift has finished in order to get everything done.
Collegues seem to get everything finished to a high standard and leave on time.
I feel that I do not stop during the shift, but aferwards wonder what I have achived..the time seems to go so quickly. When I am no longer nurse in chage, I feel I can then complete documentation I have been unable to do in my shift.
Even when I am documenting, that time seems to go quickly and end up staying for quite a while afterwards. People tell me I need to go home and its embarrasing, but I don't like to go until I feel I have done what I need to do. However, I have been known to again contact the unit if I have remembered any extra information on the way home.
I have to write things down during a shift, to help me not forget.
I'm not sure how I can manage this, has anybody else experienced this too?

My friends in the same boat. She won’t change though. She stays late free of charge, refuses to shorten patient appointments or take more comprehensive notes during same, sees drop ins when others refuse, basically does every nice thing she can to help others. It gets her nowhere except late home and exhausted.

Can you shadow a colleague and see how she manages her caseload for the day/morning or just pay close attention from across the room as to how long each appointment lasts? It could be they are five mins shorter than yours and she uses that time to write up notes.

I don't mean this to come across as rude at all, but are you perhaps either peri-menopausal or menapausal ?

The scenario you describe sounds like the kind of forgetfulness and general mental fatigue caused by menopause.

My sincerest apologies if this is not the case, but I thought it was worth asking you to perhaps consider this ?

Hello, thank you both for your comments :)
I didn't think that came off as rude, I am in my late 30s and have been this way for quite some time (pretty much the 6 years I ahve been nursing!) so it wouldn't be that..I do wonder if there is a deeper reason for this though
I will try to shadow ir take more notice of what the other nurse next time I am on shift with another nurse, that is a great suggestion :)
I am remembering when I had a (brief!) stint as a disability assessor (please don't judge me, I did it to try to make a positive difference :)) and my visiting times were way over the 45 minutes I was allocated..although the two times I was shadowed to try to overcome this, both visits ran to time..as they would do on those occasions!

It’s hard to give less than your best. I totally understand why you want to give your patients as long as possible to help them as much as you can but the system prevents you from doing this through no fault of your own. Do you have ipads or laptops in your health board or are you taking pen and paper notes? It would be quicker if you could type them up instead of write at the time? If you write and then type it’s double the work? My pal doesn’t have IT so she’s doing paper notes. The clicking of the laptop keys may also be upsetting for some patients I presume too, so even if you could you may not be able to for everyone. Just a thought.

It’s hard but you’re going to have to give less than 100% to this job and remember that you have to get through your caseload in the allotted time.

Have you seen the other nurses notes? Are they similar to your or are your notes more comprehensive? It could be you put down too much?

Thank you Elieza for your message :)
I work on a ward, and just joy down notes of anything important as I'm going on, and notes are typed onto a computer at the end of a shift..I do tend to do what a patient asks of me if I can..it would be helpful if I delegated a little more, but I sometimes think that I could do what the patients ask in the time I find someone else to explain it to..I dont think that would take too much time more than usual..I just dint know what happens to the time, I can struggle to finish even when on a 12 or 14 hour day 😂