CPR scribe
A scribing app built around the human role, not the form
Most arrest documentation tools digitise the paper form. This one digitises the scribe role — the person standing at the foot of the bed whose job is to keep the timeline honest. Closed-loop logging, leader-visible status, and a record the consultant can actually sign.
What you get
- A view for the scribe, a view for the leaderScribe sees the full event log and every drug button. Leader sees the cycle clock, shock count, what's due next, and the last three events.
- Closed-loop communication, visualisedTapping a drug or shock briefly highlights both the scribe view and the leader view. Confirmation happens silently, on screen, without shouting across the bay.
- Notes and rhythm changes, in contextFree-text notes ('airway secured', 'family at door', 'arterial line in') sit in the same timeline as the algorithmic events, not in a separate margin.
- A PDF the consultant can countersignStructured to function as the contemporaneous record: start time, initial rhythm, full timeline, totals, outcome, clock source.
Scribing is a clinical skill, not stenography
The scribe is not a typist. The role is to maintain situational awareness for the team leader: what time is it, what cycle are we in, when did we last give adrenaline, has amiodarone been considered, what was the last rhythm. A scribe who only writes down what they hear is a scribe who has stopped thinking.
Good scribing apps support the thinking, not just the recording. The buttons are the prompts. The cycle clock is the prompt to call the rhythm check. The drug status panel is the prompt to remind the leader that adrenaline is due. The free-text note button is the prompt to capture the moment the airway plan changed.
The team leader's relationship with the scribe
In a well-run arrest, the team leader and the scribe are in a tight feedback loop. The leader gives an instruction; the scribe acknowledges with a tap; the tap appears on the leader's view; the leader moves on. No one has to repeat anything.
This is what the dual view supports. The scribe carries the device most of the time. When the leader wants the summary, the device — or a second one cast to the same session — surfaces the leader view: cycle clock, drug clock, the last three events. Everything else stays out of the way.
Making the record one the consultant trusts
An arrest record that the on-call consultant has to rewrite from memory is a failed record. The PDF this app produces is shaped specifically so that the consultant can read it, agree with it, and sign it as the contemporaneous account.
That means it captures the fields that the medico-legal record needs (start time, initial rhythm, witnessed status, downtime, drugs by dose, shocks by energy, outcome) and presents the timeline in elapsed-and-wall-clock form so it can be cross-referenced with monitor strips, blood gas times, and the discharge summary.
Frequently asked
- Who should be the scribe?
- Ideally a clinician who is not in the active treatment chain — a senior nurse, a resus officer, a registrar not running the arrest. The role is cognitively demanding and benefits from someone whose only job is to watch, record, and feed back to the team leader.
- How does closed-loop logging work in the app?
- When the team leader says 'give 1 mg of adrenaline', the scribe taps the adrenaline button as the drug is pushed. The button briefly highlights and the event surfaces on the leader's view — visual closure of the loop without anyone having to shout back across the bay.
- What does the team leader see?
- The leader's panel surfaces only what matters for the next decision: cycle countdown, shock count, time since last adrenaline, amiodarone status, and a compact list of the last three events. Detail lives in the scribe's view.
- Will the consultant accept the exported PDF?
- The PDF is structured to be signed off as the contemporaneous record of the arrest. It includes start time, witnessed status, initial rhythm, full timeline, drug totals, shock count, outcome and the device's clock source. Most consultants countersign and file it directly into the notes.
CPR Scribe runs in the browser, installs to your home screen, and works offline. No account needed to start — sign in only if you want to save records.