Use Sticky Notes

What this is

Sticky notes, shown in Sitebase as Notes, let site staff leave a written note on a participant, one of their visits, a form, or a single field. Use them to record context that does not belong in the source data itself, such as a phone call, a reminder to follow up, or an explanation for a monitor. A note can be flagged as action required and assigned to a person, which turns it into a piece of open work that stays visible until someone resolves it.

You work with notes on the participant's Notes tab, and you can add a note straight from a visit, form, or field on the Visits tab.

When to use it

• You need to record something about a participant, visit, form, or field that other staff should see.

• A colleague needs to do something, and you want the request tracked until it is done.

• You want a site monitor to see an explanation without giving them access to internal notes.

• You want to see which visits and forms have notes.

Before you start

• To see notes, your clinical user type must be able to view notes. Without it, the Notes tab and the Notes column on the Visits tab do not appear.

• To add notes or reply to them, your clinical user type must be able to add notes.

• To edit, flag, or resolve notes, your clinical user type must be able to update notes.

• The participant must be assigned to a site before you can add notes to them.

Add a note to a participant

1. Open the participant and click the Notes tab.

2. Click Add note.

3. In Note, write the note, up to 5,000 characters. The text cannot be changed after the note is added, so check it before you save.

4. Under Reference, choose what the note is about. Participant is selected by default. Click it to choose a more specific reference:

   • Click Participant to keep the note on the participant as a whole.

   • Click a visit's Select to attach the note to that visit, or open the visit to see its forms.

   • Click a form's Select to attach the note to that form, or open the form to see its fields and pick one. Forms that are not part of a visit are listed under Log forms.

   The reference cannot be changed after the note is added. See Note references below.

5. Optional: Choose a Note type. The type is a label that helps people filter and scan notes. It does not change who can see the note.

6. Optional: Turn on Action required if someone needs to act on the note, then search for and choose the person in Assign to. A person is required when Action required is on.

7. Under Permissions, set who can see the note:

   • Has PII: turn this on if the note contains personally identifiable information. Only people with PII access can read the note. Everyone else sees that a note exists, marked Restricted, without its text.

   • External: turn this on to let site monitors see the note. Leave it off to keep the note internal to site staff.

8. Click Add note.

The note appears on the participant's Notes tab. If it is flagged, the participant's count in the Flagged Notes column on the Participants list goes up by one.

Note types

A note with no type is shown as Note. Every type works the same way: the type sets the note's icon and lets people filter by it, and nothing else.

Note references

Add a note from the Visits tab

You can start a note from the item it is about, so the reference is filled in for you.

1. Open the participant's Visits tab.

2. Click the note icon with a plus sign next to the item:

   • Visit: next to the visit's title, in the visit list or the open visit's header.

   • Form: next to the form's title. Only Operational and Log forms take notes.

   • Field: in the field's actions, on a submitted Operational or Log form, including fields that were left blank.

3. The Add note dialog opens with the Reference already set and shown read-only. Complete the note as in Add a note to a participant, from step 3.

The note icon appears only if you can add notes. Visit icons are hidden while you have forms from more than one visit selected, and form icons are hidden while more than one form is selected.

See which visits and forms have notes

1. On the Visits tab, open Toggle columns and turn on Notes.

2. A visit shows a note icon when the visit, or any form or field in it, has a note. A form shows the icon when the form or any of its fields has a note. Otherwise the cell shows a dash.

The column shows whether notes exist, not how many. It appears only if you can view notes.

Work with a participant's notes

Each note on the Notes tab shows its author, how long ago it was added (point to the time to see the exact date and time), its text, and icons for Action required, Has PII, and External. Notes on a visit, form, or field also show what they are attached to.

• Click Action required to show only flagged notes. The number beside it is how many flagged notes the participant has.

• Use Type to show only certain note types. Choose more than one to combine them.

• Use the page controls at the bottom to move through long lists.

Reply to a note

1. Click the note's reply count to open its replies.

2. Write a reply and click Reply.

Replies stay with the note, so the conversation about a request and its outcome stays in one place.

Resolve a flagged note

When the work on a flagged note is done, click Resolve. The note stays on the participant's record, but it is no longer flagged, it drops out of the Action required filter, and the participant's Flagged Notes count goes down by one.

Edit a note

1. Click the pencil icon on the note.

2. Change any of these: Note type, Action required and Assign to, Has PII, or External. The note text and reference cannot be changed.

3. Click Save.

Use this to reassign a flagged note, flag a note that now needs action, or tighten who can see it. To correct the text, add a new note or a reply.

Tips

• Attach a note to the most specific reference that fits, so the note shows on that visit, form, or field in the Notes column. Starting from the item's note icon on the Visits tab sets the reference for you.

• Assign every flagged note to a person, so open work has an owner. Use the Flagged Notes column on the Participants list to see which participants have open work.

• Turn on Has PII whenever a note names the participant or includes contact details, because the setting is what keeps that text from people without PII access.

• Leave External off for internal discussion. Turn it on only for notes written for site monitors.

Still need help? Submit a help request here.