|
ADVANTAGES |
DISADVANTAGES |
|
Up keep recognised legally and clinically
as a professional duty. |
Handwriting often
unintelligible. |
|
Forms standardise information capture
and assessment schemes. |
Costly in terms of staff time
and organisational efficiency. |
|
Written record survives. |
Must be stored for term of
years. Non- compressible (microfilm?). |
|
Pen and paper cheap and readily
available. |
Needs of users change, form
designs soon become outdated? |
|
Slow access. |
Bulky, take up space.
|
|
Aids continuity of care.
|
Need management - storage,
tracing, archive. |
|
Helpful in research, audit -
historical archive - (if forgotten?). |
Security often taken for
granted. Control of access can be difficult. |
|
Facilitates evaluations of
nursing care. |
Never where you want them when
you want them. One copy - Many potential users. |
|
Record entry must be signed and
dated. |
Clinical and administrative
details often incomplete. |
|
One worker - one record.
|
Not suited to multidisciplinary
working. One copy - many agents. |
|
People are familiar with the
format - a book! |
Physical form of file can damage
investigative reports, scans, graphs, etc. |
| |
Once written records not used.
Information recorded is redundant. |
WRITTEN
(manual) RECORD
