Do you use a clipboard? Do you flip pages, or do you write everything on one side of a sheet of paper for shift? Do you pre-print a special format? How many PT's do you fit on a sheet of paper? Are you an impromptu sheet maker? Have you ever scoffed at another RN's sheet?
For each shift, I use one sheet of the thin engineer graph paper you get at the bookstore for a penny a sheet. Then I fold it so I make 4*8=32 label sized boxes. The floors usually have no more than 28 beds, so I have a spot for everyone. I'm addicted to the .5mm pencil with the soft graphite (4B). Then, for each PT in a box, I have just enough room for rm#, name, and RN name plus 5 spaces under it for vitals, and 4 columns after that, per PT, for add'l vitals input, output, cbg. It took me 7 months to develop the best way for me to write down stuff in a nursing environment. This way, I can have a hard copy of what I'm doing as I put it in echart AND let the RN's know exactly what I do AND make it easy for the RN's to do their charting of vitals from my clipboard.
It's cool some nurses w/5 PT's, use one sheet and circle hours for meds or IV's, and I can only dream about organizing stuff an actual nurse has to note and record. Some RN's just use a folded sheet of paper in their pocket. I guess it depends on what your doing too.
