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Nursing report is an important part of a shift. Having a good nursing report sheet can help ease the transition for new nurses and even keep veteran nursing on track. The best part, these are all free nursing report sheets!
The nursing sheets provided, I designed throughout nursing school. They were developed into what they are today as I started working in a neurological ICU and surgical ICU. These are perfect critical care nursing report sheets and are perfect for anyone who needs pediatric, cardiac, med-surg, telemetry, or postpartum nursing report sheets.
What is a Nursing Report Sheet?
Nursing report sheets are used by nurses to obtain shift report. Shift report happens between nurses when they switch nurses for the shift. Shift report includes information about each patient. It is important to include vital potent information in report while being quick.
The report sheet should include the patient’s name, reason for admission, any co-morbidities and other pertinent information. Pertinent information will depend on what floor you work on, but typically includes the medications for the day, code status, nutrition status, labs and vital sign trends.
It can be nice to find free nursing report sheets, but it is important to remember, you should make it your own!
Why Do Nurses Use Report Sheets?
Most nurses will use nursing report sheets to write down information for each patient. It is difficult to recall everything so writing it down helps a lot. There are some great nursing clipboards that can help you organize your papers for the day.
As I mentioned before, nurses will write down information used for the day. However, some nurses might even plan out their day. I typically use my sheets to create a plan for medications and charting expectations for the shift. It is important to mark when you need to chart certain things and obviously pass medications.
Nursing Report Sheet ICU
This is my favorite custom critical care nursing report sheet. I made this report sheet when I was precepting in the neuro ICU. I learned a lot during my time there and really was able to create a custom report sheet. Creating something custom allowed me to perfect my nursing report skills and really helped me as a new nurse.
I wanted to allow everyone to customize these free nursing report sheets to adapt them to their own floor.
Nursing Report Sheet (Version 1)
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The front page consists on basic patient info, report from previous shift, lines, labs, neuro report, blood gases (if needed), etc.
The back page is meant to be separated into four quadrants (we preferred to fold it, but you could mark it with your pen). And we proceeded to use the top two quadrants for medications (including time and info) and the bottom two for the shift’s schedule (time and info) and extra info to give to the next shift report.
Telemetry Nursing Report Sheet
This is a tele nurse report sheet, but it is also great as a med-surg nursing report sheet. This telemetry nursing report sheet is a template you should customize to fit your needs.
In addition, this sample nursing report sheet is used as a template for nursing students or clinical groups. It is great to learn with because it lists all of the important portions of a nursing report in order.
Nursing Report Sheet (2nd Version)
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Med-Surg Nursing Report Sheet (Medical-Surgical Floors)
Here we have a few med-surg nursing brain sheets or report sheets. These are designed for nurses who have more than 1-2 patients.
With my time in the ICU, I learned to manage 2 patients fairly well. However, some med-surg nurses manage upwards of 7-8 patients per shift (which I could never understand), but that means that need to stay organized.
Any seasoned nurses know that organization is 99% of the job. But, for the new nurses, keeping yourself organized can be challenging. So, hopefully these nursing report sheets (nurse brain sheets) can help the med-surg nurses. But, even other nurses can customize them to their liking!
3 Patient Nurse Report Sheet
3 Patient Nurse Report Sheet
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4 Patient Simple Report Sheet
4 Patient Simple Report Sheet
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How to Make Your Own Nursing Report Sheet
Creating your own nursing report sheet is actually easier than it might sound. Typically using Microsoft Word allows you to cater to your own needs.
Start by downloading one of our free templates. Once you have one downloaded, you need to open them in Microsoft Word or another comparable word processing program. Once in, you can edit any of the boxes with text. Just highlight the text and change it!
For example, to change what lab values are their or perhaps which assessments, just highlight the text and type! Once you’re finished, just print it and you’re set!
Love the templates!