Sunday Prep for Directors of Nursing: Why Consistency is the Key to Success

Here we are again — it’s Sunday, and I’m doing what I always do: preparing for Monday as a Director of Nursing (DON).

Consistency is the key to your success as a DON. In long-term care nursing leadership, when you create structure and stick with it, the day-to-day becomes easier to manage — even though it’s still heavy.

So here’s what I have to look forward to tomorrow:

• 7 new admissions → reviewing every chart against the admission checklist to make sure it’s complete.

• 2 hospital transfers → completing QI tools to see if these transfers could have been prevented.

• Morning clinical → hours of review with my managers (and yes, tantrums included 😅) that somehow still leave us feeling like we’ve gotten nowhere.

• Plans of care (POC) follow-up → reaching out to staff whose documentation isn’t finished and making sure they come back in to complete it.

• Medication concerns for new admissions → handling pharmacy delays and the complaints when residents don’t have what they need because of late delivery times.

  
  

The role of a DON is not easy, and no — we won’t finish all of this in eight hours. But here’s the key: consistency and delegation. Appoint a trusted person to complete what remains and follow up Tuesday to ensure everything is closed out.

That’s what makes the difference. The more consistent you are with your processes, the less the chaos controls you.

If you’re finding it hard to build that routine and you feel like you’re running in circles, join my DON Training Program.

I’ll walk you step by step through creating systems and structure that make the role manageable, so you can thrive instead of just survive.

👉Bilquis Ali RN FACDONA, CDONA (@bilquisbali) | Stan

As always, lead with love ❤️

YourFavNurseLeader, Bilquis Ali