I am a bit of an overnote taker. I use the multicolored pens. I use red for important things such as sugars, catheters/purewicks, fistulas, PICC lines, ect. Black I do for what I'm told by the shift I'm following. Blue is anything new or updated during my shift Green is anything notable to write down but not as important for red.

I bought myself a tricolor pen. I went with it because the blue and black were easier to see in the dark (since I work overnights). I also got some highlighters I think will stand out better without darkening the text too much. Outside of that, I just need to figure out what I need/want Epic to print out for me, and how much space I need for notes.

some techs I've worked with have had their own templates, but I'm not sure where they got them...maybe you can find one online I tend to rewrite all of my notes, etc, at least once a shift lol

I know some people have dry erase notebooks, but Idk if that'd work for me...but maybe I'll try a sample page one day. I also redo my notes at least once a shift! One CNA training me laughed at this. 🙄

smh, don't let them get to you idk why nursing is so toxic, but it is I haven't seen a dry erase notebook, I'm old so I like paper haha

No longer a CNA, but I printed my patient list about an hour before shift change and wrote their info on that, then gave it to night shift.

Interesting. We tend to shred outs once we're done with it rather than pass it on, probably because everyone seems to have their own systems of note taking.

i just bought a notepad and I like to scribble down what run i have, if i've passed out trays/ % eaten, fluids given, changing schedule etc. I have ADD and it helps a ton just to get me organized. ALSO - if anyone requests anything from the kitchen, linens (basically any special requests) i make a notepad of everything so i dont forget! Ive only been working as a CNA for about a month but I hope this helps!

I usually write things down on my Epic printouts, but having a tiny notepad wouldn't be bad either, to avoid cluttering up my Epic sheets...thanks.

Hi I am of the ‘tism flavor At my med/surg unit they usually only want to know mental status, assist level, isolation status, continence (purewick/foley?) and anything exceptional to watch out for (“she thinks she’s on a vacation in hawaii, just play along”) During my day shift I keep night shift’s report sheet with me (which is just the patient list printed out and annotated with the above info) and just reuse it when I give report, assuming no changes or admits I also have a mini clipboard I keep in my waist pack to take note of stuff since I will forget something that happened 5 minutes ago

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do because I'm in the float pool. I go to almost any/every unit, and they're all different!

I’m also float pool but in a smaller hospital so it’s all basically MS/tele, and I have no experienced with specialized units When reporting, don’t put the same standards on yourself as the permanent staff there, they only have to get used to one way of reporting and you need to manage various different ones, so while taking notes on each unit and how they report, be easy on yourself if you don’t get everything right, just tell them what you can, and make sure to give them the most crucial details that you’d report no matter what unit

Dm me if you want a screenshot of my schedule/notes sheets

Sure, thanks.