The Examination of Time Management Skills of Healthcare Professions

Abstract

Effective and at the same time efficient time management is a key area of management at which healthcare professionals must be proficient. Today, having the ability to manage and use the time effectively and efficiently is highly important. Taking into consideration that healthcare service is a process and the effectiveness of this process mostly depends on good use of time, it can be said that healthcare personnel assuming the responsibility for health care services should be proficient in time management. The aim of this study was to examine the adequacy of time management skills of healthcare personnel working in public institutions providing health care services. All healthcare personnel working in Tosya State Hospital and who agreed to participate in the study were included in the sample group. Personal Information Form and Time Management Inventory (TMI) were applied to participants to collect data. Four main theme were viewed, Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Study Group, Difference between the Work Experience of Participants and Time Management Inventory Scores, Difference between the Work Experience of Participants and Time Traps Sub-Dimension Scores, Difference between the Age of Participants and Time Traps Sub-Dimension Scores. Women obtained better scores in methods of effective time management than men, personnel working only during the day received higher scores than personnel working in shifts, mean scores increased with experience in the field, healthcare personnel used time more efficiently with increasing age, and married participants obtained higher scores than single participants.

Keywords: Time management, Effective use of time, Time traps, Healthcare personnel