> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Nursing station

> Work a shift from one board: see what observations are due across the ward, read the handover, and chart without losing your place.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Nursing and clinical staff" note="Needs the In-patient care area" />

The **Nursing Station** is the board you keep open for a whole shift. It answers one question — who needs something right now — and lets you record it without walking back to the desk.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Inpatient', 'Nursing Station']} />

<TaskHeader before="At least one patient admitted to a bed" time="Continuous — this is the screen you leave open" after="Observations, notes and doses recorded, and a handover the next shift can read" />

## Before you start

The board's idea of "due" is not a guess. The observation interval, the grace period and your shift boundaries are set once by an owner under **Settings → Facility** — see [Facility](/hospital/settings/facility). If patients look overdue when they are not, or "nothing charted this shift" reads wrong, that is where it is fixed.

## What you're looking at

The heading reads **Nursing Station**, and under it: **Observations due across the ward. Recording happens on the patient.**

**Filter chips** sit across the top and double as counts. Selecting one narrows the board:

**Overdue · Due · No obs yet · Doses due · No fluids charted · All patients**

Below them are the controls:

| Control                    | What it does                               |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Ward select                | Defaults to **All wards**                  |
| **Search patient or bed…** | Finds one person without scrolling         |
| **Bed order**              | Sorts the way you physically walk the ward |
| **Priority**               | Sorts by what is most overdue              |
| **Refresh**                | Re-reads the board                         |

Use **Bed order** while you are walking, and **Priority** when you come back from a break and need to catch up.

### The worklist columns

| Column        | Shows                                                |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| **Bed**       | Which bay                                            |
| **Patient**   | Who — **Unnamed patient** if no name was recorded    |
| **Ward**      | Ward and sub-ward, or **Unassigned**                 |
| **Last obs**  | When observations were last taken, or **No obs yet** |
| **Last note** | When anyone last wrote, or **Nothing this shift**    |
| **Doses**     | What the drug chart has due                          |
| **Fluids**    | Intake and output balance, or **No fluids charted**  |
| **Status**    | **Overdue**, **Due**, **No obs yet** or **Recorded** |

With nothing outstanding the board reads **Nothing waiting**. On a brand-new hospital with no admitted patients, that is what you see — and it is correct, not broken.

## Read and write the handover

A **Shift handover** block sits above the worklist, on the page rather than behind a button, because a handover that takes a click stops being read.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Read what the last shift left">
    Until anyone writes, it says **Nothing written this shift yet.**
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add to it as you go">
    Type into **Add to the handover…** and select **Add to the handover**. Write through the shift rather than saving it all for the end — this is the first thing the next person reads.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the full history">
    **Open handover** shows this shift; once the previous shift has entries the button becomes **Handover & history** and shows both.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Chart from a row

Each row carries up to three actions, and which of them you see depends on your profession.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Select Chart">
    The primary action. It opens the charting sheet over the board, so you keep your place in the list.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick the tab you need">
    The sheet has **Observations & fluids** and **Drug chart**, and always opens on **Observations & fluids** — that is the question the board asked.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Or write a note from the pen">
    The pen offers a **Nursing note** if you are a nurse, or a **Round note** if you prescribe. A role with neither sees no pen. Saving confirms with **Nursing note recorded** or **Round note recorded**, and the row's **Last note** updates.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Use Open for anything bigger">
    **Open** leaves the board for the patient's full inpatient chart — every tab, the whole stay. See [Ward admissions](/hospital/inpatient/admissions).
  </Step>
</Steps>

<AuditNote action="Opening the nursing station worklist" />

## Working offline

The board and the observation form keep working. Two things do not, and each says so rather than failing quietly:

* **Writing a note needs a connection** — on the pen.
* **The drug chart needs a connection** — on the **Drug chart** tab.

A stale drug chart is a claim about a patient's medicines, so it is never served from cache. See [Working offline](/platform/apps/offline).

## Who can do this

Your **role** decides whether the **Inpatient** group appears at all, and whether an owner has hidden it from that role under [Role navigation](/hospital/settings/role-navigation). **Permissions** decide what you may record once you are in:

| Action                         | Who by default                  | Permission                                       |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Open the board and read it     | Anyone with the Inpatient group | Governed by role, not a separate permission      |
| Record observations and fluids | Doctors and nurses              | **Record observations**                          |
| Give, hold or refuse a dose    | Doctors and nurses              | **Give a medication**                            |
| Write a nursing or round note  | Follows your profession         | The pen is absent for a role that writes neither |

Two things surprise people. Enforcement is **opt-in per person** — someone never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**. And a **denied action is recorded** in the audit log while an allowed one is not; hiding a module from a role's sidebar is a convenience, not a security boundary. See [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).

## Check it worked

* The row you charted shows a fresh **Last obs** or **Last note**.
* Its **Status** badge moves from **Overdue** or **Due** to **Recorded**.
* A patient with nothing outstanding drops out of the **Overdue** and **Due** chips.
* Your handover text is visible in the **Shift handover** block to the next person who opens the board.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Nothing waiting, but I know observations are due">
    Check the ward select is on **All wards**, that no text is left in **Search patient or bed…**, and that you are on the **All patients** chip rather than a narrower one. Then switch to **Priority** to bring the most overdue to the top.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The pen is disabled">
    **Writing a note needs a connection.** Reconnect and try again — nothing half-written was saved, and nothing is lost by waiting.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The Drug chart tab will not load">
    **The drug chart needs a connection.** It is never served from cache, because a stale drug chart is a false statement about a patient's medicines.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Everyone looks overdue at the start of a shift">
    The observation interval or the grace period is set too tight for your ward, or the shift pattern moved. Both live in **Settings → Facility** — see [Facility](/hospital/settings/facility).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="There is no pen on any row">
    The pen follows your profession: nurses get **Nursing note**, prescribers get **Round note**, and a role that writes neither sees no button. Use **Open** and write from the patient's chart instead.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Nursing Station is missing from the sidebar">
    It needs the Enterprise plan and the **In-patient care** area in **Settings → Facility**. See [Care areas](/hospital/get-started/care-areas).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can I record a dose from this board?">
    Yes — the charting sheet's **Drug chart** tab records doses without leaving the board. If a colleague has claimed the round on another device, give from that device or open the patient's full chart.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Who sees my handover note?">
    Everyone who opens the Nursing Station for that ward during the same shift, and the next shift once theirs begins. It is a ward record, not a private note.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why does a patient still show No obs yet after I charted?">
    The row updates on the next read of the board. Select **Refresh** — and check you charted against the right bed, since the sheet names the patient at the top for exactly that reason.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does changing the shift pattern re-file notes I already wrote?">
    No. Notes already written stay where they were filed; only future ones follow the new boundary. That is why an owner should change the pattern at a quiet changeover and tell the ward first.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is this the same as the ward chart?">
    No. The board is a worklist across the whole ward; the chart is one patient's whole stay. **Open** takes you from one to the other.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck />