Lab Skeletons/ "fishbone"

I work in the ICU and write down the standard chemistry & hematology fishscales on my flow sheet with every patient. You can quickly access lab values when you need them! I make sure every nursing student knows them by the end of the day! Here is the other common ones.

There are other threads on this topic that might be helpful -- or may just muddy the water more.

https://allnurses.com/lab-values-worksheet-t89608/

https://allnurses.com/fish-scales-t162234/

I also have not seen a consistent pattern for using the fishbone grids for organizing lab values. I guess choose one and stick with it (and make sure your school or facility don't have a preset grid layout that they want you to use).

Ah, thank you. Etiquette boo-boo

Vespertinas said:

Ah, thank you. Etiquette boo-boo

No worries on my part. I just happen to be looking for discussions on the topic and came across this thread after those other two, LOL.

Here are the fishbone images from the PDF referenced in the other thread. Note: in the "short" fishbone (middle row of this set) sometimes the bottom middle is CO2 sometimes bicarbonate, which as you know, are related to each other)

For ABG, I really like using 

On 1/13/2012 at 11:08 AM, StayLost said:

I work in the ICU and write down the standard Chemistry & hematology fishscales on my flow sheet with every patient. You can quickly access lab values when you need them! I make sure every nursing student knows them by the end of the day! Here is the other common ones.

Love it!! Do you put potassium too? Wish I had thought of this when I worked in Stepdown instead of just writing all the labs in a list form LOL