Introduction
Your duty status is a visibility indicator that tells your team whether you're currently available for clinical work. When you're on duty, you receive push notifications for urgent updates and your contact number is visible to colleagues. When off duty, notifications are paused and your team knows you're unavailable.
Before You Start
- Your duty status is visible to all members of your organization
- Only verified users can change their duty status
- You must have a mobile number or email address verified before setting yourself on duty
Understanding Duty Status
The On-Duty Indicator Helps Teams Collaborate
When you set yourself on duty, several things happen:
- Your profile shows a green "On duty" badge next to your name
- You appear at the top of the Team Members list
- Your contact/bleeper number becomes visible to your team
- You receive push notifications on mobile for urgent clinical updates
- Colleagues know you're available to receive handover requests
When you set yourself off duty:
- Your profile shows a dimmed "Off duty" badge
- Push notifications are paused
- Your contact/bleeper number is hidden from team members
- Colleagues can see you're unavailable
Where You'll See Duty Status
Your duty status appears in several places:
- Your profile in the sidebar - Shows "On duty (your role)" or "Off duty (your role)"
- User Profile screen - A toggle switch next to your name controls your status
- Team member tables - Duty badges appear next to each team member's name
- Login screen (mobile) - You'll be asked if you'd like to go on duty when signing in
Off-Duty Users Can Still Manage Patients
Being off duty does not restrict your activity within CAREFUL. This is an important distinction.
Users who are off duty can still:
- View and manage their patients
- Send and receive handover
- Be assigned and complete actions
- Access all teams they belong to
- Perform all normal clinical activities
The off-duty status is purely informational - it tells your team you're unavailable, but doesn't enforce any technical restrictions.
This flexibility is useful for:
- Senior staff who remain accountable for patients but aren't physically at work
- Outpatient teams who manage patients only during working hours but don't hand over responsibility at day's end
- On-call clinicians who are responsible for patients but not actively on-site
Shift Workers Typically Use Duty Status Differently
For shift-based clinical teams, the recommended pattern is:
- Before going off duty - Complete handover of all your patients to the incoming team
- Set yourself off duty - This signals you're no longer available
- When next on duty - Sign in, set yourself on duty, and accept handover from the outgoing team
This creates clear boundaries of responsibility aligned with shift patterns.
Tips
- Your contact number is private when off duty - This protects your privacy during off-hours
- Administrators and Team Owners can change your duty status - They may set you off duty for operational reasons
- On-duty users are listed first - This makes it easy to see who's available at a glance
- The mobile app prompts you at login - You'll be asked "Would you like to set yourself to on duty?" each time you sign in while off duty
- Consider your handover workflow - Decide whether patients should be handed over when going off duty, based on your team's clinical model