Shift Definition

Defining a shift consists of selecting a set of tasks that are done on a particular shift in a specific unit at a specific hospital. For example, on every evening shift on a med-surg unit, the nurse gives medications to each patient, so that task is part of the shift definition. If the nurse has five patients, this task appears five times in the task list. Thus, the shift definition is a pre-defined task list for that shift.

For each type of unit where nursing care is provided, a task list template is provided so that NurseMind can construct the appropriate task list for the nurses who work there. This task list template is called a shift definition -- it lists the tasks that a nurse typically does when working a shift on a unit of a particular type. NurseMind has shift definitions for many types of nursing units, such as:

Shift definitions are also distinguished by their times (day, evening, night) and durations (8-hour, 10-hour, 12-hour).