Templates: system, custom, shared

What you’ll do

Pick a template to drive the SBAR/patient form, the Brain Sheet Builder, or any other dynamic form in Synapse. Templates are layered. System templates ship with the app, custom templates are yours, shared templates come from other nurses.

Why nurses use this

Different units need different fields. An ICU intake without “drips” is useless; a med-surg intake with mandatory ventilator settings is annoying. Templates are how Synapse adapts to your specialty without making you build everything from scratch.

How to get there

• Pick a template for a brain sheet: open the Template Picker at app.nursebrain.com/sheets.
• Pick a template for the SBAR form: it’s automatic. Your specialty drives which template the form loads. Change specialty in Settings to change the template set.
• See all templates in one place: Template Picker, with three tabs: System, Yours, Shared.

Step-by-step

1. Open the Template Picker. From the main nav or /sheets. Three groupings:

   • System templates: built-in, keyed by specialty (ICU, med-surg, peds, OB, antepartum, NICU, ED, etc.). Loaded from bundled assets.
   • Custom templates: ones you saved from the Brain Sheet Builder.
   • Shared templates: published by other nurses who shared with you.

2. Pick one. Tap a tile. The Brain Sheet Builder opens with that template loaded. You can use it as-is or edit + save as a new custom template.

3. Save your own. From the Builder, name your template and save. It appears under “Yours” in the picker.

4. Share a template. From a custom template, use the share action. The recipient sees it under “Shared.”

5. Let specialty change drive the form. For the in-app SBAR/patient form, you don’t pick a template at all. Your specialty (set in Settings) loads the right one automatically. Switch from med-surg to ICU and the SBAR form starts asking ICU questions.

Tips from the floor

• Don’t fight the system templates. Fork them. The shipped ICU template is close enough that editing it down is faster than starting from a blank.
• Custom templates persist offline. They’re hydrated from local storage on launch. You don’t need to be online to load your sheet.
• Shared templates are point-in-time copies, not live links. When you use someone’s shared template, you get a snapshot. If they update theirs, you don’t get the update automatically. Re-share is the path.
• Unit-wide sheet building works. Charge nurses sometimes build the “official” unit sheet and share it to the team. New hires get a sane default; veterans fork it.
• Specialty-specific fields are why specialty matters at onboarding. If your specialty is wrong, the SBAR form shows the wrong fields. Setting > Profile > Specialty fixes it.

Common questions

What’s the difference between an SBAR template and a brain sheet template? SBAR template drives the in-app patient form (the glass surface). Brain sheet template drives the PDF/print artifact (the paper surface). They both run on the same dynamic form renderer under the hood, but they serve different surfaces.

Can I edit a system template directly? No. System templates are read-only. You can fork (open one, edit it, save it as a custom). That’s the canonical workflow.

How often do system templates change? When the app ships an updated taxonomy or layout, templates update silently. Major reshapes get release-noted.

Can I have specialty-specific custom templates? Yes. A custom template can be tagged with the specialty it’s for. The Template Picker filters by your active specialty by default; switch the filter to see all.

Are shared templates moderated? Currently no formal moderation. Use the share feature with people you trust. Reporting a bad template is a Settings action.

What’s the “form renderer”? The dynamic form renderer is the rendering engine behind the SBAR form, the omni form, the brain sheet builder, and the form builder itself. One renderer, many template definitions. It’s why fields you learn in one place look the same in another.

Where this fits in your shift

Templates are the configuration under everything. For the Brain Sheet Builder specifically, see brain sheet builder. For how specialty drives the patient form, see SBAR intake. For the moment you actually fill a form, see adding a patient.