How to Use a Checklist

Submitted by Anonymous on

In The Checklist Manifesto (2009), p. 122, Atul Gawande says that when you stop for a moment in the course of your work to consult a checklist, it's a "pause point".  Then you use the checklist in one of two ways:

  • As a DO-CONFIRM checklist: you perform your job from memory and experience, then pause to run the checklist and confirm that everything that was supposed to be done was done, or
  • As a READ-DO checklist, with which you carry out tasks as you check them off, more like a recipe.

NurseMind supports both styles of usage. 

Gawande has proven that checklists in operating rooms improve outcomes. Why stop there? We think that they can improve outcomes in hospital nursing units, too. We are doing for nurses what he is doing for doctors. Thanks for the wisdom!