The Big Picture
A verbal report is a spoken account of the care you provided and what you observed. It helps health care team members share current information quickly.
You need to report important information accurately and protect the client’s privacy while doing it. Some situations also require you to contact your supervisor.
Look for Nova Scotia CCA Notes throughout this page for current provincial guidance.
Quick tip: Tap, click, or press Enter on any term with a dotted underline and an ⓘ icon to see its plain-English definition.
Start Here If You’re Overwhelmed
Focus on these core ideas:
- A verbal report tells someone about care provided and observations made.
- In a facility, reports must be prompt, thorough, and accurate.
- Report only what you observed or performed.
- Immediately report changes in a client’s previously reported condition.
- You must contact your supervisor when specific problems, changes, safety concerns, questions, or conflicts arise.
- Client information is confidential, including information shared during telephone reports.
Jump to:
Course Notes: Key Ideas You Need to Know
What Is a Verbal Report?
A verbal report is a spoken account of care provided and observations made. Verbal reports help team members share current information quickly.
Verbal reports do not provide a permanent record of the information reported. Support workers need to report and record their actions and observations.
An observation is the active process of using your senses to gather information about a client’s current condition.
Employers use different methods for verbal reporting. Each employer also has policies about what to report and how often reports are required.
Protect Client Confidentiality
Information about a client is confidential. Take care when sharing client information with other members of the health care team.
When discussing client information:
- Choose a quiet area where other people will not overhear you.
- Do not discuss a client in the client’s room.
- Do not discuss a client in a common area.
- Keep conversations about clients professional.
- When calling your supervisor from home, make sure nobody in your home hears the conversation.
Verbal Reporting in a Facility
In a facility, support workers report their actions and observations to the charge nurse or supervisor.
Reports must be prompt, thorough, and accurate.
Information to Include
Always include:
- the client’s name
- the room and bed number
- the time you made the observation or provided the care
Key fact: Report only what you observed or performed.
Start with the most important information. Give reports as often as the client’s condition requires or as often as the nurse requests.
Report: Immediately report any change in the client’s previously reported condition.
End-of-Shift Reports
At the end of a shift, the charge nurse gives an end-of-shift report to the incoming charge nurse.
The report includes information about:
- each client’s condition
- care already given
- care that must be given during the next shift
Some facilities expect all team members starting duty to hear the end-of-shift report.
Verbal Reporting in a Community Setting
Employers set their own policies for verbal reporting in community settings.
Most community employers do not require support workers to make daily verbal reports. If something unexpected happens, call your supervisor immediately.
Follow your employer’s reporting policies and telephone-reporting guidelines.
When You Must Contact Your Supervisor
You must contact your supervisor in each of the situations below.
Emergencies, Illness, and Changes
Contact your supervisor when:
- there is an emergency, such as finding a client unconscious on the floor
- you observe a change in the client’s condition or normal functioning
- the client becomes ill, such as vomiting, diarrhea, or fever
- the client experiences physical or emotional distress
Safety, Medications, and Care Concerns
Contact your supervisor when:
- you believe the client’s safety is at risk
- you believe your own safety is at risk or might become at risk
- a problem involving medications occurs
- the client complains about their condition or care
Questions, Care Plans, and Conflicts
Contact your supervisor when:
- the client asks a question about their diagnosis, condition, or treatment plans
- the client or a family member asks you to do something that contradicts the care plan
- you have a conflict with a client or family member
- a question or problem arises and you need help sorting it out
A care plan is a document that details the care and services the client must receive.
Nova Scotia CCA Note
Sorrentino’s Canadian Textbook for the Support Worker, 5th Edition teaches that support workers observe changes and report concerns to a supervisor. Current Nova Scotia standards add more detail about the CCA’s observation role.
In Nova Scotia, a CCA uses an observational point of care assessment, or POC, to observe the person and care environment before, during, and after care. The CCA uses these observations to recognize changes that need to be escalated to a supervisor. The CCA also follows documented escalation and reporting directions connected with the care plan. (novascotiacca.ca)
A POC observational assessment is not a nursing assessment. It does not give the CCA authority to perform a comprehensive evaluation used to make care-planning decisions. (novascotiacca.ca)
Why this matters in Nova Scotia: You need to recognize the difference between observing and reporting changes, which belongs in the CCA role, and performing a comprehensive nursing assessment, which does not.
Official source: Continuing Care Assistant Occupational Standards of Practice
Last checked: September 17, 2026
Guidelines for Telephone Reports to Your Supervisor
Prepare before making a telephone report.
A descriptive report gives specific facts. For example, you might report that you saw a 5 cm by 3 cm abrasion on the client’s buttocks while bathing the client, then give the client’s exact statement: “I fell down the stairs last night.”
- Keep agency telephone numbers and extension numbers handy.
- Have a pen and paper ready.
When you call:
- Identify yourself and give the date and time of your call.
- Give a concise , accurate, and descriptive report.
- Explain what you observed and when you observed it.
- Report what the client said and use the client’s exact words.
- Speak clearly and slowly.
- Pause between sentences.
When your supervisor gives instructions:
- Write down the instructions.
- Repeat the instructions back to your supervisor.
- Write the instructions on the appropriate document in the client’s chart.
A chart is a legal document that contains information about a client’s condition or illness and their responses to care. It is also called a record.
Confidentiality During Telephone Reports
Client information remains confidential during telephone reports.
Share client information only with health care team members involved in the client’s care. Follow the rules in the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or PIPEDA.
Legislation may vary between provinces and territories. Support workers need a working knowledge of the legislation that applies in their area.
Nova Scotia CCA Note
Sorrentino names PIPEDA and reminds students that privacy legislation may vary between provinces and territories. In Nova Scotia, the Personal Health Information Act, or PHIA, is the provincial health privacy law governing the collection, use, disclosure, retention, disposal, and destruction of personal health information. (novascotia.ca)
PHIA protects personal health information while allowing health information to be used and shared as permitted for providing, supporting, and managing health care. (novascotia.ca)
Why this matters in Nova Scotia: When studying confidentiality for Nova Scotia CCA work, recognize PHIA as an important provincial privacy law alongside the privacy teaching in Sorrentino.
Official source: Personal Health Information Act: overview
Last checked: September 17, 2026
Facility and Community Reporting Compared
| Facility Reporting | Community Reporting |
|---|---|
| Support workers report to the charge nurse or supervisor. | Employers set their own verbal-reporting policies. |
| Reports must be prompt, thorough, and accurate. | Most employers do not require daily verbal reports. |
| Report changes in a previously reported condition immediately. | Call the supervisor immediately when something unexpected happens. |
Exam Clue Words
- Always: Include the client’s name, room and bed number, and the time of the observation or care in a facility report.
- Only: Report what you observed or performed.
- Immediately: Report changes in a client’s previously reported condition right away.
- Immediately: In a community setting, call your supervisor when something unexpected happens.
- Must: Contact your supervisor when one of the listed situations involving emergencies, changes, safety, medications, care concerns, questions, conflicts, or need for help occurs.
Fast Review
Use these points for a quick review before a quiz or exam.
- A verbal report is a spoken account of care provided and observations made.
- Verbal reports share current information quickly but do not create a permanent record.
- Client information is confidential. Discuss it where other people will not overhear.
- Facility reports must be prompt, thorough, and accurate.
- Include the client’s name, room and bed number, and the time of the observation or care.
- Report only what you observed or performed.
- Start a report with the most important information.
- Immediately report changes in a client’s previously reported condition.
- In a community setting, call your supervisor immediately when something unexpected happens.
- Contact your supervisor for emergencies, changes in condition, illness, distress, safety risks, medication problems, complaints, care-plan conflicts, other conflicts, and questions or problems requiring help.
- During a telephone report, give clear and accurate information and use the client’s exact words.
- Write down your supervisor’s instructions, repeat them back, and record them on the appropriate document in the client’s chart.
Final Pep Talk
There are several reporting rules and supervisor-contact situations to remember, so focus first on the words that control the action, such as “only,” “always,” and “immediately.” Review the supervisor-contact situations in small groups until the differences feel familiar.