The Path to Time Management: Time to Hit the Road!

The Path to Time Management: Time to Hit the Road!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this continuing education activity, the pharmacy technician should be able to
1. Describe how an individual technicians' time management impacts the whole pharmacy’s efficiency
2. List three time management techniques that could improve a technician's function
3. Recognize time management techniques to apply in specific settings and situations

1. Barbara and Linda are great multitaskers. They are able to work and talk while getting everything done effectively. While ringing out a customer, Barbara continues her conversation with Linda. What should Barbara have done instead?
a. Paused the conversation, because it makes the customer feel unimportant
b. Done nothing different—in situations like this, she never makes errors
c. Asked someone else to ring the customer so she can go on her 15 minute break

2. Lilly makes it to work within the 7 minute grace period every day. Technically she is on time, but she’s not ready and at her station at her 7:30 shift time. How does this disturb workflow when she takes advantage of the grace period every day?
a. It doesn’t disturb workflow because she is not late. The grace period is in effect so that she doesn’t have to be in right when her shift starts.
b. Exploiting the grace period means the other technicians who arrive before the official start time have to cover her station until she comes in.
c. Employers know how often employees are late and why, and communicate problems like traffic congestion to local governments, so the effect on the workplace is positive.

3. You’re heading to work and you know it takes exactly 11 minutes to travel there. Your shift starts at 9 am. What time do you leave?
a. I leave by 8:40 am at the latest so that I have time to park and walk in.
b. I leave at 8:49 am because I know it takes 11 minutes to get there.
c. I leave at 9:00 am because I know they can handle me being a little late.

4. You are entering in an insurance card that you haven’t seen before. You’ve been struggling with it for five minutes and can’t figure it out. You are unsure of how to proceed, but the pharmacist is busy. What do you do?
a. Politely interrupt the pharmacist to ask your question
b. Ask a more senior technician if they have seen it before
c. Go to a different station to avoid this insurance card

5. Laura is a new pharmacy technician. The customers will ask her where to find an OTC or grocery item frequently, but she doesn’t know yet. She asks you how she can become more familiar with where everything is. What do you say?
a. Suggest that she ask the manager for front store training so that she can become more familiar with the store
b. Tell Laura that it takes time to learn the store, and to keep asking the other techs and pharmacists
c. Tell Laura she that she should identify this problem’s quadrant and decide whether to ask or act

6. You are working in the pharmacy and a huge order arrives. You know you have to finish putting away the order before your shift ends, but prescriptions and patients keep popping up. What do you do?
a. Prioritize the customers and prescriptions that are here now and do as much of the order as possible
b. The other technicians are busy too, but leave it for them because you’ve had to put the order away on three recent days
c. Multitask by putting the order away as you ring customers and retrieve and count controlled substances

7. The phone is ringing! When you answer it, a provider is on the line. She’s very frustrated because she’s been on hold for 10 minutes, and she “doesn’t have the time for this kind of thing” and “needs an answer ASAP.” She has a clinical question about a medication you fill very frequently. What is the most appropriate response?
a. ACT—you’ve been a tech for four years; you’ve seen this medication dozens of times. You know enough to answer the provider’s question.
b. ASK—you’re in the middle of something else right now. Ask another tech to handle this provider.
c. ASK—the pharmacist should take the call, since it involves a clinical question and you may not know all the details.

8. The phone is ringing! When you answer it, a provider is on the line. She’s very frustrated because she’s been on hold for 10 minutes, and she “doesn’t have the time for this kind of thing” and “needs an answer ASAP.” She has a clinical question about a medication you fill very frequently. What quadrant of workplace activity best describes this situation?
a. Quadrant 1: important and urgent
b. Quadrant 2: important but not urgent
c. Quadrant 4: not important and not urgent

9. Flu season is coming. Martha, an experienced pharmacy technician, knows that the store serves a very elderly population. She decides to ask the pharmacist to order more high potency flu vaccines, in anticipation of a higher customer demand. This best describes which time management technique?
a. Good organization
b. Planning ahead
c. Multitasking effectively

10. You’ve just transferred pharmacies, and you’re trying to figure out the lay of the land. It’s really hard to find things in your new pharmacy. Some meds are ordered by brand name, some by generic. Topicals, inhalers, and DME are all combined on the same shelf. When you bring this up to other techs, they sympathize but say you’ll figure it out eventually, like they had to. Which time management technique would best solve this issue?
a. Acting instead of asking
b. Multitasking effectively
c. Good organization