Every nurse has a system.
Maybe you don’t call it a system. Maybe you call it “the sheet” or “my brain” or “the thing I’d lose my mind without.” But somewhere between clocking in and getting report, you’ve built something that keeps your shift from falling apart.
It might be a grid with every patient’s vitals, meds, and labs. It might be a timeline you fill in as the shift moves. It might be something you inherited from a preceptor years ago and have been tweaking ever since — folding it the same way every time, scribbling in the same corners, knowing exactly where to look when things get busy.
That’s what we want to see this Nurses Week.
The Real One. Not the Template.
There are a lot of brain sheet templates floating around the internet. Clean. Color-coded. Made in Canva. They look great in a Pinterest pin.
But they’re not the ones nurses actually use.
The brain sheets that actually work are messy. They’re specific. They were built for a 4-patient ICU assignment or a 6-patient med-surg load or a chaotic ER where your patient count changes every hour. They were built by a nurse who got tired of losing track of things and decided to fix it.
Those are the brain sheets we care about.
7 Nurses. 7 Shifts. 7 Brain Sheets.
This Nurses Week (May 6–12), we’re spotlighting 7 nurses from different specialties and the brain sheets they actually use.
Not a polished case study. Not a stock photo with a stethoscope. The real thing — what their brain sheet looks like, how they set it up before a shift, what they’re writing down during report, and how it keeps them on top of their patients when things get busy.
For each featured nurse, we’ll share their brain sheet as a template that other nurses in their specialty can use and customize in the NurseBrain app.
Here’s what that means: if you’re a tele nurse and you’ve never had a brain sheet that actually fits your assignment, you’ll be able to start with one built by a tele nurse who’s been doing this for years — and make it your own.
We Want Your Brain Sheet
If you’ve got a brain sheet you use every shift, we want to see it.
It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be digital. It just has to be real — something you actually rely on.
If you’re selected, here’s what happens:
We’ll help you build a shareable version in the NurseBrain Brain Sheet Builder at app.nursebrain.com/sheets. The builder is free and takes just a few minutes. You’ll end up with a clean digital version of the brain sheet you’ve been using — one you can keep using, and one that other nurses can start from.
Then we’ll feature you during Nurses Week. Your brain sheet. Your workflow. Your story. On our blog, across our social channels, and as a downloadable template for your specialty.
We’re only selecting 7 nurses.
How to Get In
Reply to the email we sent you, or DM us on Instagram. Just say “I’m in” and we’ll send you everything you need.
Not on our email list? You can still build your brain sheet at app.nursebrain.com/sheets and reach out to us on social to be considered.
Why This Matters
Nursing school gives you a lot of things. A brain sheet that works on the floor isn’t one of them.
Most nurses figure out their system through trial and error — borrowing from preceptors, piecing things together between shifts, and slowly building something that works for their unit and their workflow.
That’s valuable knowledge. And most of the time, it stays folded up in one nurse’s pocket.
This project is about getting it out of that pocket and into the hands of nurses who need it — new grads starting their first job, travelers orienting to a new unit, experienced nurses switching specialties.
Your system could be the one that helps someone else get through their shift.
Coming May 6–12
During Nurses Week, we’ll publish one spotlight per day — a new nurse, a new specialty, a new brain sheet. Follow along on our blog and social channels.
#WhatsInYourBrain
NurseBrain is a free tool that helps nurses build and use digital brain sheets for any shift, any specialty. Learn more →