I work in a small clinic. We will most likely never use computer charting. It was always written in stone, if not actually written in the policy, that doctor orders were signed of with red ink. I noticed some co-workers were signing off orders in black ink and was told we don't need to sign off with red ink any more.
Just curious what the rest of you non-computer nurses are doing?
In the dark ages, before computers, faxes, etc., it was also stressed to not write in blue ink, only black, because when charts were copied the blue ink didn't copy as well.
We are allowed to use black or blue ink to chart. However I have never seen any nurse use blue ink at my hospital. We have to sign off all orders with red ink. The last hospital I worked at we could sign off orders with black or blue ink. I think it's just a facility preference.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Everything is done in black ink.
always use black. Red was for doing chart checks or taking off orders. 20 years ago, day shift charted in black, the evening in green, and nights in red.
I remember that. As an evening shifter I thought green ink would've been fun -- but alas when I started they had already abandoned the color-coding for shifts.
Night shift documents on and signs certain logs and tx. sheets in red. All chart checks are signed off in red by both shifts. Everything else is in black.
Here in Australia at my hospital facility, everything is to be written in black biro no exception, due to copying issues, apparently blue biro still does not fax/copy well enough.
We had a couple of nurses on the floor use blue last year (due to running out of black pens I believe) and they were scolded for it in a ward meeting.
Pharmacists however write in green or purple ink so its very obvious on the medication charts their corrections.
Another thing is that we're only allowed to use a biro not felt tip/fountain pen due to the ink leaking through papers, or obscuring words.
Neat to see how different it is across the globe :)
Cat_RN, ASN, BSN, RN
298 Posts
In my facility, everything is used in black. Other colors aren't allowed for any reason.