NIGHT REPORTS

INTRODUCTION:
Reporting is information about the patient either written or oral. Report summarizes the
services of the nurse and/ or the agency. Reports may be in the form of an analysis of some aspect
of a service.

TYPES OF REPORTS:
1) Oral reports: Oral reports are given when the information is for immediate use and not for
permanency. They may be used on matters included in a written report. It is usually done by
nurse during the time of handing and taking over the patient and ward changes.
2) Written reports: there are several types of written reports. Reports are written when the
information is to be used by several people or is more or less of permanent value.
TYPES OF WRITTEN REPORTS:
There are several types. They are day and night reports of patient, census reports,
interdepartmental report, interagency reports, special reports on unusual conditions found in
patients which may lead to complaints or law suits, reports on accidents to patient’s, visitors and
personal mistakes in medication, complaints of patients and visitors, death and birth reports, etc.
Principles for charting should be observed in writing reports also and it should be signed by the
person who writes.
NIGHT REPORTS:
The night nurse should receive oral reports from the day head nurse. Be sure that all orders
are understood. The night report should consist of:
a) New admissions.
b) Deaths and discharges.
c) Deliveries.
d) Name of those with temperature over 1000F.
e) Those sending to operation theatre in the morning.
f) Those who have to get medicine or treatment before the doctor’s rounds.
g) Short summary on those who received medicines or treatments during the night.
h) Special reports on seriously ill patients or accidents.
i) Signature of the nurse.
The night report is read out loudly by the night nurse in the presence of all the day duty
nurses. When the night duty time is over, the night duty nurse hand over the written reports duly
signed. A brief oral report also is given to the next duty nurse before leaving the ward after night
duty.
 FORMAT OF NIGHT REPORT
S.N. Name of the Patient Diagnosis Instructions Remark

Signature of the Duty Nurse Signature of the Nursing Superindent

Date: Date:
CONCLUSION:
A good record keeping is an essential and important duty of all health personnels.as
memories are short, life is going very fast and information collected from memory can never be
reliable. Therefore records must be accurately made at the time of the event and should be available
when required. Records and records must be kept as laid down by the employing authority.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Francis C.M. Hospital management. Jaypee brothers. 1993.
2. Huber D.L. Leadership and nursing care management. 3rd ed. Saunders; 2000.
3. Srinivasan A.V. Managing a modern hospital. 1st ed.2000:83.