Clinical · 5 min
How to Organize Notes During Clinical Postings
Rounds move fast. A pocket system for capturing cases and filing them the same evening.
By Kuber Pujar · MBBS student, founder of Prescribed, creator of MedxKuber
Short answer
During clinical postings, capture cases in a small pocket notebook with one page per case (complaint, findings, diagnosis, one learning point), then file each case into the subject notebook the same evening.
Postings are the opposite of lectures: no slides, no pausing, and the round has moved on before you finish the last sentence. The fix is a two-step capture system.
Step 1 — capture in the pocket
Carry a small notebook that fits a white-coat pocket. One page per case: presenting complaint, three key findings, working diagnosis, and one learning point. Nothing more — the round won't wait.
Step 2 — file the same evening
That evening, move each case into its subject notebook — cardiology cases into the Medicine notebook, operative notes into Surgery — written out in the full case-sheet skeleton. Ten minutes of filing saves the entire posting from becoming an unreadable pile.
Keep a procedures log
List every procedure you witness or assist — steps, instruments, complications. It becomes your OSCE/viva revision sheet and your logbook backup.
What about photos of the whiteboard or X-rays?
Take them, but treat them as raw material. A case isn't captured until it's written into the notebook — photos are the one system that reliably turns into a graveyard of uncrossed screenshots.