what's on your whiteboard?

[snoopdrew]

Hello all,

First of all, let me get this out of the way... I'm Drew... not a nurse, but a technology researcher guy for healthcare. I've been asking some of my friends in nursing about their experiences, but I'd like to reach out to wider set of different opinions.

I'm curious to hear some anecdotal stories about how nurses use their whiteboard to facilitate communication. There seems to be at least one at or near the nurse call station to track patients and bed status at the hospitals I've visited.

What specific information is on YOUR whiteboard for YOUR ward? What I've seen... Room #, patient name, doc, nurse, admit date, lab/imaging order status, consults....

Do you use a plain dry eraseboard as your whiteboard? Or do you use an electronic whiteboard (giant LCD/plasma) running special software that shows patient info from the hospital's computer system?

Thanks!

-drew

[OttawaRPN]

In each room: A dry erase board that has the patient's name and DOB, site, procedure, allergies, perioperative medication requests, imaging needed during the procedure, specimen anticipated, implants that we need, blood products available, post-op destination, miscellaneous concerns, and a list of every person in the room.

This whiteboard business is new to me, I work at 3 hospitals and have yet to see one in a patient's room. But with all the above info. clearly visible to everyone who enters the room, does that not breach confidentiality issues?

[teeniebert, LPN]

I work on a subacute/rehab floor in LTC. Our white board is in a small room off the nurses' station that also contains a desk and chair for charting, the supply Pyxis, hooks for employees' coats etc., and discharged residents' charts. It's like a partial Kardex for the whole unit--it shows which residents have a fluid restriction, who's on thickened liquids or soft/pureed foods, who needs to be weighed daily, 'at risk for hot liquids' list, who needs BP taken (or not taken) on a specific extremity, who needs orthostatic BPs that day, who OT is seeing for a.m. cares, who's NPO and why/how long (procedure prep, dysphagia/aspiration risk), anyone on isolation and the type of PPE needed, and occasionally reminders about inservices/meetings/new policies.

[Daliadreamer]

We have one huge one at the nurses station. It lists the patient's last name and their nurse

We also use a color coded system; working in oncology, we have several different patient statuses:

DNR patients are red

Hospice patients are listed in purple

Isolation patients are blue with either an initial "N" for neutropenic or "I" for true isolation by the name

There is a star by each patient with a central line so the lab techs don't accidentally poke a patient by accident

We also have all the RN's on duty with their extension numbers listed

We have other commonly used numbers listed as well, such as the nursing supervisor, housekeeping, respiratory, PM admitting RN and the unit manager's extension. Name alerts of patient's are also listed here.

[steelydanfan]

There are 2 types:

One is in the pt. rooms, with the day, date, and the CNA & RN who are taking care of the pt., along with thier tele #s.

The other is inside the nurse station, with the pt. name, attendings name, the nurse and her tele#, I heartily wish the ancillary persononel would LOOK at THISs board BEFORE asking any random person in scrubs, "who is so and so's nurse."

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

This whiteboard business is new to me, I work at 3 hospitals and have yet to see one in a patient's room. But with all the above info. clearly visible to everyone who enters the room, does that not breach confidentiality issues?

This is in the OR not in the patients room.

[OttawaRPN]

This is in the OR not in the patients room.

Nope, several posts indicated they were in patient's rooms, go back and check.

[mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I]

This post is not asking for your personal "Hi my name is Nurse Nancy" whiteboards in the patient's rooms. It's the board your unit uses for the whole unit at the nursing station or on the computers.

[snoopdrew]

Hi all, thanks for your valuable feedback. I am the OP and I did ask about the whiteboard at the nurse station for the whole unit. This whiteboard is usually a large dry erase board or a large computer display.

Now that I have a good sense of what's on there, I have some follow up questions...

What are the benefits of using a whiteboard? How has it affected your job or the patient's care? Does it help the hospital make more money or save money in some way?

[hospitalptsatisfact]

Could you imagine using a computer based version of these nurse station whiteboards? I am working on this concept and find this thread very intriguing.....Dan

[lucygray]

hi..

The use of whiteboard in hospital is really a great. It create a communication channel between the patience and the hospital staff and you can also save the patience record for the future.

whiteboards for hospital rooms

[registerednutrn, BSN, RN]

We don't have white boards anymore we now have special boards in each patients room. They are plexi glass that we can write on with dry erase marker. We have special inserts behind the plexi glass creating spaces for hourly rounding and what time next pain or nausea med is due what the plan of care is and any test that are to be done( blood work X-rays ect). There is a place for the case manager to write and for respiratory. I like them for the most part because look a little more professional although they can get busy as are only 3'x2' (approx).