What does a nurse need to know when they arrive on the floor? (I'm creating a brainsheet)

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So I'm in my third semester of nursing and I have a bit of a hard time collecting myself during clinicals. I keep falling into the pit of having my professor come up behind me and ask me a question on my assigned patient and not knowing the answer, mostly about IV infusion rates and settings on equipment. I don't have access to the medical chart most of the time unless I bug my precepting nurse.

My only chance to truly know what is going on with my patient is early in the morning when I first meet my assigned nurse for the day and ask him/her everything I need to know, basically get report. So my question then is, what SHOULD a nurse ask first thing in the morning to make things go smoothly throughout the day and not have to go back-n-forth looking up information?

Assume I'm on a med-surg floor but feel free to include things from OB/PEDS/PSYCH as those will be my next clinicals. I'm currently making a brainsheet and would like to have a sequence to go by.

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It seems like you may need a brain sheet. Things like infusion rates should be something you are able to answer. Having a sheet with the pertinent info on it will help. Things to include would be general pt. information, history, admission statues i.e. are they a monitored patient, CODE STATUS, allergic, plans for the day. It took me quite a while to come up with a good brain sheet (I finally made up my own system). This is important for when you have more than one patient to take care of.

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Specializes in ICU.

Go to Pinterest and pop in nurse brain sheets.

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If you type "brain sheets" or "report sheets" in the search bar you will find lots of very good brain sheets that members have posted.

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