Keeping a record that matters
Keep a medicine list somebody could hand to a paramedic without a word of explanation.
At four in the morning, in a hallway, somebody in green will ask what you take. Nobody remembers milligrams at four in the morning — not the patient, and not the person standing beside them in a bathrobe.
A single sheet answers it. Not a clever sheet. Four columns, in your own words, copied straight off the boxes. It takes twenty minutes once, and it is one of the most genuinely useful things you can do with a computer.
Key points
- Keep a medicine list somebody could hand over without explaining it.
- Say why a list on the computer is not yet doing its job.
- Put allergies and a telephone number where they will be found.
What to remember
- Copy from the box, never from memory. Then print two copies.
- The file lives on the computer. The copies live where somebody would look for them.
Try this
Tonight, write the medicine list. Copy each one off the box — name, dose, when, what for — and put allergies and a telephone number at the bottom. Print two: one for the fridge, one for the folder. It is twenty minutes, and it is the single most useful sheet of paper in the house.
Practice: Keeping a record that matters. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.