A progress note template for NDIS and home care visits, free to print.
A one-page progress note template for NDIS and home care visits: four headings, a goal and outcome row, a filled-in example. Free to print, no sign-up.
One page, four headings, written for the next worker and for whoever reads it later with a question. Print it, keep a few in the car, or copy the headings into whatever you use now.
No sign-up and no email address. Printing gives you the blank sheet only.
The template
The posts on writing notes use five parts. The sheet folds them into four: what you saw and what the participant did, said or chose share one box, because they happen together.
Progress note
- Participant
- Date of visit
- Time in
- Time out
- Worker
- Support or service
- Goal or purpose of this visit (optional)
1. Support provided
What you did, in the words of the service agreement where you can.
2. Response and observations
What you saw and heard, and what the participant did, said or chose. Observation, not interpretation.
3. Anything unusual
A hazard, a refusal, a change in health, a missed medication. If nothing, write "Nothing unusual."
4. Follow-up
What the next worker should know or do. Your own view goes here, marked as your view.
Towards the goal, this visit: Progress · Maintained · No change · Setback
- Written by
- Date and time written
Addendum — never erase a note. Add the date, what was wrong and what is right.
The same sheet, filled in
A routine morning visit. The names are invented.
Progress note
- Participant: Priya S.
- Date of visit: Tuesday 9 September
- Time in: 9:02 am
- Time out: 11:00 am
- Worker: Sam
- Support or service: Assistance with self-care; community access
- Goal or purpose of this visit (optional): Keep walking to the letterbox with the frame, towards walking to the shops.
1. Support provided
What you did, in the words of the service agreement where you can.
Assisted with shower and hair wash as per plan. Walked with her to the letterbox and back.
2. Response and observations
What you saw and heard, and what the participant did, said or chose. Observation, not interpretation.
Answered the door dressed and had eaten breakfast. Chose the blue jumper. Walked there and back with the frame, no rest stops.
3. Anything unusual
A hazard, a refusal, a change in health, a missed medication. If nothing, write "Nothing unusual."
Nothing unusual.
4. Follow-up
What the next worker should know or do. Your own view goes here, marked as your view.
She asked to try the shorter route to the shops on Thursday. My view: worth checking the footpath suits the frame first.
Towards the goal, this visit: Progress (ticked) · Maintained · No change · Setback
- Written by: Sam
- Date and time written: Tuesday 9 September, 11:06 am
Four habits that keep a note honest
- Write it at the visit, or straight after. A note written on the day is evidence; one written on Sunday is a recollection.
- Date and time both the visit and the note. Where your software records check-in and check-out, the note should agree with it.
- Facts, not labels. "Ate half the sandwich" beats "ate well"; "declined the shower" beats "non-compliant".
- Never alter a note after the fact. Add a dated addendum below it. A note corrected in the open is worth more than one quietly changed.
If you would rather not print it
In HarvestFlow Care the note is written on the visit when you finish it, beside the check-in and check-out times recorded there, so the date and the times are never copied across by hand. It sits on the client’s record for the next person.
Further reading
General information. Your registered provider or plan manager may have their own note requirements.