For Registered Nurses ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have a personalized nursing reference library built into Claude Projects — a persistent AI assistant that knows your specialty, your most common patient types, your unit's protocols, and your personal knowledge gaps. Every reference question, study session, or documentation need starts with Claude already knowing your context.
What you'll need
You are my personal nursing reference assistant. I am a registered nurse with [X] years of experience. My specialty: [unit type, e.g., medical-surgical, ICU, ED, PCU]. My hospital uses Epic as our EHR.
Common patient populations I care for: [list your top 5–8 diagnosis types — e.g., "post-surgical, CHF, COPD exacerbations, sepsis, pneumonia, DVT/PE, diabetic ketoacidosis"]
My current certifications and study focus: [e.g., "RN license, studying for CCRN, strong in respiratory/cardiac, weaker in hemodynamics and renal"]
When I ask clinical questions, give me:
1. A direct, clear answer (the bottom line for practice)
2. Key nursing considerations
3. Red flags or "when to call the doctor" signals
4. A note about where to verify for high-stakes decisions
When I ask for documentation help, generate clean nursing documentation using NANDA/SOAP/SBAR format as appropriate. Always remind me to verify clinical accuracy before using in the EHR.
Never use patient names or MRNs — I always describe patients in de-identified terms.
Claude Projects lets you upload documents that Claude can reference. Consider uploading (de-identified, non-patient) documents:
To upload: In your Project, click the paperclip icon → select files. PDFs and text files work best.
Now use your Project for these daily needs:
Quick clinical reference: "Quick question: what's the safe rate to correct hyponatremia and why? I have a patient whose sodium is 118."
Medication safety: "My patient is on heparin drip and was just ordered IV ketorolac. Any interactions or concerns I should flag?"
Protocol confirmation: "Walk me through sepsis bundle timing requirements. My patient hit criteria at 0800 — what needs to be done by what time?"
Differential thinking: "Patient with COPD is more confused than usual, O2 sat dipped to 88% on 2L NC, tachycardic. Help me think through what might be happening."
After a few weeks of queries, you'll notice your most common questions. Ask Claude to create permanent reference cards for them:
"Create a quick-reference cheat sheet for: (1) when to hold metoprolol in a cardiac patient, (2) sepsis bundle 1-hour timing, (3) heparin drip titration basics, (4) signs of respiratory deterioration in COPD. Format for quick scanning at the bedside."
Save these to your phone's notes app — now you have a personalized quick reference you built from real clinical questions.
Quick clinical question: "Quick: [clinical question]. What's the bottom line for nursing practice?"
Medication safety check: "Any concerns about giving [medication] to a patient who also has [condition/other medication]?"
Assessment interpretation: "Patient has [assessment findings]. Help me think through what might be happening and what I should do first."
Protocol review: "Walk me through the current [protocol name] — what are the key nursing steps and timing?"
Personal study: "I'm weak in [topic]. Give me a concise but complete overview at an RN level, then quiz me."