How to chart I&Os

[RNstudent13renee]

I work as an aide in a hospital, and here the aides will chart Intakes/output for all of their patients. What I'm wondering is when to chart them. To me it makes sense to chart the output or intake when it happens, like if a pt urinates and I measure it chart it as they went at that time and so many mLs at that time. Same with intake. But some of the other aides will chart all of the mLs and counts at one time in the chart at the end of the shift - so say they leave at 1500, in the chart it shows that the patient went 3 times and there was 650 mLs total. But wouldn't you want to chart each time differently to see how much they went each time? Could someone explain the logic? :)

[Nolli]

I&O is important because it can give us an idea of fluid status and kidney function. Kidneys should produce no less than 30 mL/hr. If you have less than that the alarm bells should be going off.

If you do a urine output/hours in shift you can get the mL/hr. So you will always need totals, but a breakdown gives you a more detailed picture of what is going on. If there was a problem I'd like to think I could see the urine output as low and take action on it preferably before end of shift.

Utimately I chart it when they do it. Since we use EMRs it automatically charts totals. But if it were on paper and it had a section to do individual notations such as "100mL juice 9 am" or "150 mL void 12 pm" as well as shift totals I prefer to track it over time. It gives us the best picture of what is going on and can be considered "normal" for that person.

[loriangel14, RN]

You only need a shift total, you don't need to know how much it was each time.

[RunBabyRN]

We chart them as they happen, then add up the shift totals and document those as well.

[krisiepoo]

quite honestly it depends on how busy the floor is. I like to do it as it happens, but when 100 things are happening at once, if I chart at the end of the shift, that will give the info I need in the end anyways

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Follow the organization's P&P rather than 'crowdsourcing' your co-workers. If this issue is not directly addressed, ask your supervisor how s/he wants it to be done.

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

The few times I saw them charted (all ICU patients) it was done every 2 hours. I didn't have a patient in any other clinical we had to do I&O's on :/

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

I chart them as they happen. Our EMRs total up everything at the end of a 12 hour shift anyway.

[Compassion_x]

I think it depends on the patient, and the policy. Ideally you should chart I&Os when they happen. But that doesn't always happen. The important thing is to at least remember amounts, and roughly time, if it matters. Where I work the aids would get in trouble if they did all the charting at once.

[ICULINDA]

Depends on the unit,the order,policy,etc. I work ICU we chart I/Os every hour. We don't have a PCT to do this for us. So I chart every hour the ins and outs. When I was a PCT I did them as it was happening so I was able to tell the nurse if urine decreased or stopped etc better to catch it as it happens than wait if you can

[november17, ASN, RN]

Could someone explain the logic? :)

time management