Independent nurses: planning home visit rounds online

A nursing round works when visits follow one another street by street, with travel time you can count on and the door code already in your phone. Plan it in your booking calendar: one home visit service per area, slots that include the drive, access details asked for in the booking note, and series of care booked from your list. Patients and families get a time window they can rely on, and your round doesn't double back across town.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity. Create one home visit service per area of your round, each open on the mornings or evenings you're there.

Durations are examples: set your own. The price field is optional; leave it empty if you don't want an amount shown.

Make each slot long enough for the care and the drive to the next address, and say in the description that the time includes travel. Far villages get longer slots. Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so the round pattern takes minutes to set up.

A round can run a few minutes late. Say in the description that the time shown is the start of a window, such as "between 8:00 and 8:30", so patients aren't worried when you arrive at 8:20.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the patient's calendar file. Ask for the address, door code, floor, key box and who will open. Keep health details out of the note; you'll have the prescription.

Daily injections or dressings every two days are a series. After the first visit, book the following ones from your bookings list; first and last name are enough, and relatives can be the contact in the note. If you enter an email, the patient gets a confirmation with a calendar file for each visit.

Leave a few times unopened each day to add urgent visits yourself. Online booking isn't for emergencies: say in the description who to call. In a group practice, give each nurse their own round services; Book has one booking page per business and no staff field.

Patients can't move or cancel online: they call you, and you move the visit from your list. Rescheduling works across services, so a home visit can become a clinic slot when the patient can travel. Book doesn't email clients about changes or send reminders. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.