Performance Potential: Documenting the minutes at professional meetings
Linda S. Smith DSN, MS, RN, CLNC

$3.95 		Nursing Management
March 2013 
Volume 44  Number 3
Pages 48 - 51
 
  PDF Version Available!

ABSTRACT
Nursing and interdisciplinary committees in the workplace, as well as professional organizations, maintain minutes to serve as a formal record of the meeting proceedings. Proper documentation of meeting minutes is a valuable skill for nurses in all practice settings.Do you feel confident to be your group's record keeper? To enhance your abilities to prepare accurate professional meeting minutes, read on.Well-documented meeting minutes have four major purposes: They serve as communication tools, legal documents, instruments for good management practices, and historic records.1,2 * Meeting minutes are communication tools for the dissemination of important information, such as the decisions made by the clinical research or evidence-based practice committee in preparation for the facility's Magnet(R) application. * Admissible as evidence during a legal deposition or trial, meeting minutes can be used to verify compliance with policies, rules, regulations, or other requirements.1,2 For example, a facility's infection control committee minutes could be subpoenaed by attorneys during a bedbug infestation lawsuit. * Managers, supervisors, and administrators use meeting minutes to help identify who's going to do what and when, creating a great opportunity for follow-up on issues and problems.3 Minutes guide managers' decision making related to future meetings and needed agenda items. Minutes are also important tools for project management, moving projects forward with the aid of well-written reports of progress and commitments.3,4 These publicly stated commitments facilitate members' accountability and responsibility for the committee's work and purpose. * As historic documents, meeting minutes help new and current participants remember what has and hasn't already been accomplished. They also help committee chairs and administrators evaluate the successes and problems of the committee. For example, following a careful meeting minute analysis and synthesis, the administration

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