At our institution our nurses often use what I like to refer to as "cheat sheets." They use these sheets to help them organize what they have to do throughout their day (feeds, meds, dressing changes, etc.).

The concern is that on these handwritten sheets they often write medication names, doses and times. This has led to errors (essentially transcription errors) where medications are given at the wrong time and sometimes at wrong doses because the eMAR is opened after med administration (we do not yet have BCMA and pharmacy does not dispense all oral medications as single doses yet but, we are getting there soon).

We have pushed for nurses to not write times and doses on these sheets however, we are meeting resistance.

I was turning here to see what other hospitals do, feel about this practice or can provide evidence as to best practice to help decide how to proceed.

Thanks for your time,

Randi