The Brain Sheet Builder

What you’ll do

Open the Brain Sheet Builder, drag fields onto a canvas, set their labels and properties, save the template, print or export a PDF, and reuse it every shift. Optionally share it with another nurse.

Why nurses use this

Every nurse has a brain sheet. Every hospital has a different blank one. Nobody’s hospital sheet has the boxes you actually need. So you carry yours folded into your badge holder, you fill it out at the start of every shift, and you tape it to whatever surface holds your pen. The Brain Sheet Builder is the digital home for your sheet. Not the unit’s, not a vendor’s. You design it once and the app prints it on demand.

It’s the most personal thing in your work bag, and Synapse treats it that way: yours to design, yours to keep, on every device you sign in to.

How to get there

• Pick a template to start from: open app.nursebrain.com/sheets. The Template Picker. Pick one, edit it.
• Open the editor on a blank canvas: app.nursebrain.com/builder.
• From inside the app: the Brain Sheet Builder is reachable from the main nav.

Step-by-step

1. Pick a template or start blank. The Template Picker shows system templates (shipped with the app, keyed by specialty, ICU, med-surg, peds, OB), your custom templates, and shared templates from other nurses. Pick one to start; you’ll edit it from there.

2. Drag fields onto the canvas. The field palette runs along one side. Drag a “Vitals” grid, a “Labs” block, text fields and free-text areas, dropdowns and chip selectors, checkboxes, assessment blocks (pain, GI), repeating lists. Whatever your sheet needs. Drop anywhere.

3. Set field properties. Tap a field and the properties panel on the right opens. Set the label, set the dimensions, decide whether it shows on print, decide whether it’s required.

4. Preview the PDF. Tap Preview to see exactly how the sheet prints. The preview is what shows up on paper if you print or what saves if you export PDF.

5. Save the template. Give it a name (“My ICU sheet, v3”). It now appears under “Your templates” in the picker. Templates save on your device so they load without a signal.

6. Rename via inline edit. Tap the title at the top of the canvas to rename. No nested settings menu.

7. Share with another nurse. Use the share action to send your template to another nurse. They import it and get their own copy. Useful for unit-wide sheets, less useful for personal ones.

Tips from the floor

• Start by picking a system template close to your unit. It’s faster to edit “ICU brain sheet” down to what you actually use than to build from blank.
• Print one and use it for a shift before refining. You’ll notice what’s missing only when you try to fill it out for real.
• The “vitals” field type knows it’s vitals. It lays out as a labeled grid with the right slots. Don’t fight that by using free-text rows for vitals. You’ll lose the print formatting.
• Templates are yours. Custom templates save on your device and sync to your account. When you share one, the other nurse gets a copy at import time, not a live link.
• Bump the template after every couple of shifts of using it. v1 has gaps you’ll only see in practice. v2 is the one that actually works.
• There’s no “right” brain sheet. Med-surg with 6 patients needs a 2-column layout; ICU with 1–2 needs a single-column deep one. Build yours, not the textbook one.

Common questions

Can I print directly from my phone? Export PDF, then use AirPrint / your phone’s print menu. Most nurses save to PDF on a personal device and print from a personal computer to avoid hospital print queues.

Are the field types fixed? Mostly. There are several specialized field types (vitals, labs, pain and GI assessments, text, dropdowns, chip selects, checkboxes, repeating lists). They’re built for the shape of clinical data so the printed output looks right. You can’t author a custom field type. Yet.

Can I use the same template across iPhone and iPad? Yes. Templates sync to your account across devices.

What’s the difference between a template here and a system SBAR template? This is the print/PDF/personal-brain-sheet template. The SBAR/patient form templates (templates) drive the in-app patient form. Different layouts, different purposes. Your brain sheet is on paper, the SBAR form is on glass.

Can I scan a paper brain sheet into a template? Sort of. See brain sheet scan. Scan reads a filled-out sheet and pulls the fields into the app. It doesn’t turn the paper layout into a builder template you can edit.

Where this fits in your shift

The brain sheet lives in your scrubs pocket. The builder is where it gets made. For pulling data off a paper sheet at shift start, see brain sheet scan. For the in-app patient form (a different artifact entirely), see SBAR intake.