EMR Downtime Group Project: How to Build the Clinical Training Presentation
A section-by-section guide to dividing slide responsibilities across group members, writing content for each nursing process phase, building effective quiz questions, meeting the two-slide maximum per member, coordinating visuals, and producing a cohesive clinical training PowerPoint that meets every graded requirement.
The EMR Downtime Group Project Clinical Training Presentation combines two distinct challenges: the content challenge of accurately representing a downtime plan across four nursing process phases, and the coordination challenge of building a coherent, visually consistent group PowerPoint where each member owns specific slides. Students lose marks at both levels — on content, because they treat downtime planning as a general summary rather than connecting it specifically to assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation; and on coordination, because group members produce slides in different styles, miss the two-slide maximum, forget to add their name for individual grading, or skip the quiz question requirement. This guide addresses every graded element in sequence, from the shared title slide to the Members 3 & 4 conclusion.
This guide explains how to approach and structure the assignment. It does not write your slides for you. The content of your downtime plan must reflect the specific clinical environment your group is addressing — fabricated or generic content that is not grounded in a real or course-defined downtime scenario will not satisfy rubric requirements for specificity. Use this guide to understand the structural requirements, what belongs on each member’s slides, and the most common errors that reduce individual and group scores.
What This Guide Covers
What the Assignment Requires
This is a group clinical training PowerPoint presentation built around an EMR (Electronic Medical Record) Downtime Plan. The plan is organized using the nursing process — Assessment, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation — and each group member is responsible for one phase of that process. The presentation functions as a brief clinical training: staff viewing it should come away understanding the key points of the downtime plan for each phase and be able to answer quiz questions about what they learned.
The instructions state that “each student must include their name on their slides for grading.” This means your instructor grades your individual slides separately from the group product — your score depends on the quality of your assigned slides, not just whether the overall presentation is complete. A group that submits a polished deck where three members did excellent work and one member’s slides are thin will result in that one member receiving a lower individual score. Do not assume group effort averages out individual accountability.
Understanding EMR Downtime Plans: What Your Content Must Address
Before your group can divide slide responsibilities, everyone needs a working understanding of what an EMR downtime plan actually contains. A downtime plan is a structured protocol that clinical facilities use when the electronic medical record system becomes unavailable — whether due to scheduled maintenance, unplanned outages, cyberattacks, or power failures. During downtime, staff must continue providing safe patient care without access to the digital systems they rely on for orders, documentation, medication administration records, and clinical decision support.
The content of a downtime plan maps directly onto the nursing process, which is why the assignment uses that framework. Each phase of the nursing process corresponds to a distinct set of downtime concerns that your slides need to address.
A downtime plan for a critical care unit looks different from a downtime plan for an ambulatory clinic. Before building your slides, confirm with your group what clinical setting your downtime plan is based on — your course assignment may specify this, or your group may need to select one. The clinical setting determines what types of patient data are most critical during downtime (vital signs vs. lab results vs. medication schedules), which systems are most relied upon, and which paper-based backup processes are most relevant to describe.
The Full Slide Structure at a Glance
The assignment prescribes a specific slide structure with named responsibilities for each group member. Understanding the full sequence before you start building prevents structural gaps and overlap.
| Slides | Responsibility | Required Elements | Slide Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title Slide | All members (Members 1 & 2 lead) | Presentation title, all group member names with credentials | 1 slide |
| Introduction | Members 1 & 2 jointly | Brief overview of the training — key points about what the presentation covers | 1–2 slides |
| Assessment | Member 1 | 1–2 key points, 1 quiz question, graphics; Member 1’s name on slides | 2 slides max |
| Planning | Member 2 | 1–2 key points, 1 quiz question, graphics; Member 2’s name on slides | 2 slides max |
| Implementation | Member 3 | 1–2 key points, 1 quiz question, graphics; Member 3’s name on slides | 2 slides max |
| Evaluation | Member 4 | 1–2 key points, 1 quiz question, graphics; Member 4’s name on slides | 2 slides max |
| Conclusion | Members 3 & 4 jointly | Brief summary of most important points from the training | 1–2 slides |
| References | All members | Only if citations were used in the presentation — not required if no sources were cited | As needed |
Title Slide and Group Introduction Slides
The title slide is the only slide in the presentation that every group member contributes to by default — all names and credentials appear here. The introduction slides are owned by Members 1 and 2 jointly.
What Belongs on the Title Slide
The presentation title — something that identifies this as an EMR Downtime Plan clinical training, not a generic nursing presentation. All group members’ full names listed together. Each member’s professional credentials immediately after their name (e.g., RN, BSN, MSN candidate). The course name or clinical setting if applicable. A relevant visual that sets the tone — a clinical setting image, a technology graphic, or a hospital icon.
What the Introduction Slides Must Do
The introduction is described in the instructions as “a few points about what is included.” Its job is to orient the audience before they see the phase-by-phase content. Members 1 and 2 should briefly state: what an EMR downtime event is, why a downtime plan matters for patient safety, what the four phases of the plan cover, and what the audience will be able to do after the training. Both Member 1 and Member 2 names should appear on these slides.
The instructions specify “include your credentials” for each group member on the title slide. This is a clinical training convention — when staff receive training from nurses, they expect to see who is presenting and at what level of professional qualification. If you are a student, include your student designation (e.g., SN for Student Nurse, or BSN-S for BSN student). Do not leave credentials blank or write “N/A.” Your cohort year or program can serve as the credential if you do not yet hold a license.
Member 1: Assessment Phase Slides
The Assessment phase is the foundation of the nursing process — it covers what information is gathered about the patient and how that information is collected and communicated. In the context of an EMR downtime plan, Assessment content focuses specifically on how this information-gathering process changes when the electronic system is unavailable.
Key Points to Cover (Choose 1–2)
The instructions limit you to one or two key points per phase — not a comprehensive overview of EMR assessment processes, but the most critical points a nurse needs to know during a downtime event. Strong assessment key points for a downtime plan address: (1) how nurses access existing patient data when the EMR is offline — what paper backup systems, printed reports, or cached data sources are available; and (2) how new assessment findings are documented during the downtime period — what forms are used, where they are stored, and how they are subsequently reconciled with the EMR when the system is restored. Choose the one or two points most relevant to your clinical setting and build each into a clear, actionable bullet on your slides.
How to Frame Assessment Key Points for a Clinical Training Audience
Your audience is clinical staff who need to know what to do — not nursing students who need to understand the theory. Frame key points as actionable procedures: “During downtime, retrieve the most recent downtime report printed at shift change — this contains [specific data elements]” is more useful than “patient data must be accessed using available backup systems.” Specificity about what the backup system is, where it is located, and who is responsible for it is what makes a clinical training slide worth including.
Member 1’s slides must include a quiz question and at least one graphic. The quiz question should test the assessment key point directly — not general nursing knowledge. Member 1’s name must appear on both of their slides, typically in the slide footer or in a consistent location designated by the group’s template.
Member 2: Planning Phase Slides
The Planning phase addresses how clinical staff develop and communicate care plans during a downtime event. This phase is where the organizational and communication structure of the downtime protocol is most visible — who is responsible for what decisions, how orders are processed without the EHR order entry system, and how the care plan is maintained and shared across the team.
Key Points to Cover (Choose 1–2)
Effective planning key points for an EMR downtime training address the practical breakdown of the planning process during an outage: (1) how physician and nursing orders are transmitted and verified without computerized order entry — paper order forms, verbal order protocols, telephone order procedures; and (2) how the interdisciplinary care team communicates about patient plans when the shared EHR is unavailable — what replaces the shared chart as the coordination tool, who leads that communication, and how decisions are documented. Member 2 should also address the introduction slides jointly with Member 1, so the planning content on their phase slides should be distinct from the introductory framing they contributed earlier in the deck.
Member 2 shares introduction slide responsibility with Member 1 — meaning their contributions appear in two places in the deck. For grading purposes, the introduction slides should credit both Members 1 and 2, while the Planning phase slides are Member 2’s individual graded section. This distinction matters: if Member 2 only focuses on the phase slides and does minimal work on the introduction, it will show in the quality of that shared section.
Member 3: Implementation Phase Slides
Implementation is the “doing” phase of the nursing process — carrying out the care plan, administering medications, performing procedures, documenting interventions. In a downtime context, this phase carries significant patient safety implications because it is where medication administration errors and documentation gaps are most likely to occur when the digital systems nurses rely on are offline.
Key Points to Cover (Choose 1–2)
Implementation is often the most content-rich phase for downtime planning because so many clinical workflows depend on the EHR. However, the two-slide cap means Member 3 must be selective. The most impactful implementation key points focus on: (1) medication administration during downtime — how nurses verify medication orders without the eMAR, what the process for double-checking high-alert medications is, and where paper MARs are located and how they are completed; and (2) how completed interventions are documented during the downtime period and how that documentation is reconciled with the EHR after restoration. Member 3 should resist the temptation to list every possible intervention type — choose the one or two most safety-critical points and address them specifically and actionably.
Member 3 also shares responsibility for the conclusion slides with Member 4. The implementation phase slides are Member 3’s individual graded section; the conclusion slides are jointly credited. Plan the workload accordingly — Member 3 is contributing to two parts of the deck, which means their total slide count will exceed two when the conclusion slides are included. Only the phase slides (maximum two) have a per-member cap; the conclusion slides are a shared section.
Member 4: Evaluation Phase Slides
Evaluation is the phase that closes the nursing process loop — it asks whether the care provided achieved the intended outcomes and what needs to be adjusted. In an EMR downtime plan, evaluation has two dimensions: evaluating patient outcomes during the downtime event itself, and evaluating the downtime event after the fact to identify what went well and what failed.
Key Points to Cover (Choose 1–2)
Evaluation in a downtime context is often the least intuitive phase for students because it is not just about patient outcomes — it is also about system and process outcomes. Effective evaluation key points address: (1) how patient outcomes are monitored during a downtime event without real-time data — what manual monitoring processes replace automated alerts, how critical value reporting works when clinical decision support is offline; and (2) the post-downtime reconciliation and review process — how paper documentation is entered into the EMR after restoration, how discrepancies are identified and resolved, and what after-action review processes exist to improve the downtime plan based on the event. Member 4’s slides should connect these evaluation activities explicitly to patient safety, since that is the clinical rationale that makes downtime evaluation important enough to include in a training.
Members 3 & 4: Conclusion Slides
The conclusion is a brief section — “a few points about what is most important” — jointly produced by Members 3 and 4. Its function is to close the training by reinforcing the most critical takeaways from all four phases, not by summarizing everything that was covered.
A strong conclusion slide for a clinical training answers one question: if staff remember only two or three things from this training, what should they be? Those things should be the highest-stakes points across the four phases — the ones most directly connected to patient safety during an actual downtime event.
Avoid: “In conclusion, we covered Assessment, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation.” — This restates the structure, not the content. Staff already know the four phases were covered; they do not need a restatement of the outline.
Instead: Identify the two or three actions that are most likely to prevent patient harm during a downtime event — for example, the location and use of downtime report packets, the medication verification process without the eMAR, and the post-restoration reconciliation procedure. State those three things specifically. Staff who leave the training knowing those three things are better prepared than staff who remember that the presentation had four sections.
Format: The conclusion does not need a quiz question. It should have a visual that reinforces the takeaway — a simple checklist graphic, a workflow diagram, or a clinical safety icon works well. Both Members 3 and 4 names should appear on the conclusion slides.
Writing Effective Quiz Questions
Each group member must include at least one quiz question on their phase slides. Quiz questions in a clinical training context serve a specific purpose: they check whether staff retained the key point of that training section and can apply it. A quiz question that tests general nursing knowledge — rather than the specific content on that member’s slides — does not serve this purpose.
Knowledge Check Format
A multiple-choice or true/false question that directly tests the key point covered on that member’s slides. The correct answer should be stated on or clearly derivable from the preceding slide content. One distractor per wrong answer is sufficient — this is a training quiz, not a licensing exam.
Scenario-Based Format
A brief clinical scenario followed by a question about what the nurse should do. More engaging than simple recall questions and better aligned with clinical training objectives. Keep the scenario to two sentences — it should set a realistic downtime situation, not tell a story.
Application Format
A question that asks the learner to identify the correct procedure or locate the correct resource in a downtime situation. Example: “During EMR downtime, where would you locate a patient’s current medication list?” — with answer options that include the correct backup resource.
Quiz questions should be placed on their own slide or at the bottom of the second key-point slide — not buried in the middle of content. The standard clinical training format puts quiz questions at the end of each section, after the content, so staff can attempt the question with the content still fresh. Some presentations display the question on one slide and the answer on the next — this format works well and gives the instructor flexibility during a live presentation.
Weak Quiz Question
“Which of the following is a component of the nursing process? A) Assessment B) Diagnosis C) Planning D) All of the above.” — This tests general nursing knowledge, not EMR downtime training content. A staff member who never attended this training would answer it correctly.
Strong Quiz Question
“During an unplanned EMR downtime, a nurse needs to verify a patient’s current medication list. What is the correct first step according to the downtime plan? A) Call the pharmacy B) Retrieve the downtime report packet from [designated location] C) Wait for the EMR to restore D) Ask the patient.” — This tests content specific to the downtime training and has a clearly defensible correct answer tied to the slide content.
Visuals, Color, and Design Requirements
The instructions specify “creative use of color, style, and graphics for high visual appeal.” This is a graded dimension of the presentation — not an aesthetic preference. A clinical training PowerPoint with no graphics, black-and-white slides, and plain bullet text fails the visual requirement regardless of content quality.
What “High Visual Appeal” Means for a Clinical Training Deck
- Consistent color theme: Choose two or three colors from the start and apply them consistently across all slides — slide backgrounds, heading colors, accent elements, and icon colors. Inconsistency across members’ slides is the most common visual problem in group presentations. Agree on the palette before anyone builds their slides.
- Graphics per phase: Each member’s slides require graphics. Clinical icons, workflow diagrams, process flowcharts, hospital/EMR imagery, and nursing process visuals are all appropriate. Free clinical icons are available from sites like Flaticon and The Noun Project. Screenshots of downtime documentation forms — if your course has provided them — are highly relevant graphics for implementation and assessment slides.
- Minimal text per slide: A training slide is not a written report. If a slide contains more than five to six bullet points or more than two to three sentences per bullet, it has too much text. The visual should do work, not just decorate the margin of a text-heavy slide.
- Font consistency: One heading font and one body font, applied consistently across all members’ slides. This requires agreement at the template stage, not after individual members have built their slides.
The most practical way to achieve visual consistency in a group presentation is to build a shared PowerPoint template before any group member starts adding content. One member sets the slide master — backgrounds, heading style, color palette, logo placement, footer format — and shares the template file. Everyone builds their slides inside that template. Merging four separately designed slide sets at the last minute consistently produces a presentation that looks like four different documents.
Coordinating a Group PowerPoint: Practical Steps
Group PowerPoint projects fail most often not because of content quality gaps but because of coordination failures — one member delivers slides in a different format, another misses the deadline for their section, the file merging process introduces formatting errors, or quiz question answers are missing because no one confirmed the format before submission.
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Hold a brief kick-off meeting before anyone builds anything
Confirm: which clinical setting the downtime plan covers, which member owns which phase, what the shared color palette and font scheme will be, where the shared file will live (Google Slides, OneDrive, or a shared PowerPoint file), and what the internal deadline is for each member’s draft slides — a date earlier than the submission deadline that leaves time for review and merging.
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Build and share a slide template before individual work begins
One member — often Member 1 or whoever has the strongest PowerPoint skills — builds the title slide and a blank template slide with the agreed colors, fonts, and layout. All members duplicate that template slide when building their sections. This takes fifteen minutes and eliminates the single biggest source of inconsistency in group presentations.
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Confirm slide count compliance before each member submits their section
Each member’s phase slides must not exceed two slides. Before merging, confirm that Member 1 has no more than two Assessment slides, Member 2 has no more than two Planning slides, and so on. Members 1 and 2 Introduction slides and Members 3 and 4 Conclusion slides are shared sections and are not subject to the per-member two-slide cap — but they should be proportionate to the rest of the deck.
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Check every slide for the member name requirement
After merging all sections, review the full deck slide by slide and confirm that every individual phase slide (Assessment, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation) has the responsible member’s name visibly displayed. The standard location is the slide footer or a small name tag in a consistent corner position. Introduction and conclusion slides should credit the joint members responsible for them.
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Review the complete deck as a training artifact, not a collection of slides
Read through the full presentation in presentation mode. Check that the introduction accurately previews the content that follows, that the phase transitions flow logically, that quiz questions match the content on the preceding slides, that the conclusion addresses the most important points across all four phases, and that the visual theme is consistent from the first slide to the last.
Where Most Groups Lose Marks
Phase Content Not Specific to Downtime
Slides that describe general nursing process phases — what Assessment is, what Planning involves — without connecting any of it to what actually changes during an EMR downtime event. The presentation is titled “EMR Downtime Group Project.” Every key point on every phase slide must address the downtime context specifically.
Instead
For every key point you draft, ask: “What specifically changes about this during EMR downtime?” If the answer is “nothing changes,” the point does not belong on a downtime training slide. Every slide should give staff a concrete action or understanding they need specifically because the EMR is unavailable.
Missing Name on Individual Slides
Submitting the merged deck without going back to confirm each member’s name appears on their own slides. The instruction is explicit: “Each student must include their name on their slides for grading.” An instructor cannot assign individual grades for slides that are not attributed.
Instead
Build the member name into the slide template from the start — use the slide footer or a consistent small text box in the same corner on every slide. When you merge sections, the names will already be in place. Do not rely on adding names after merging, when it is easy to miss a slide.
Quiz Question Not Tied to Slide Content
Including a quiz question that tests general nursing knowledge rather than the specific downtime content on that member’s slides. A quiz question that any nurse would answer correctly without watching the training is not a valid training quiz question for this assignment.
Instead
Write the quiz question after you have finalized your key point slides, not before. The question should test whether the learner retained the specific information on those slides. If the answer to your quiz question is not visible on the preceding slides, revise either the question or the slides until they align.
Exceeding the Two-Slide Maximum
A member submitting three or four slides for their phase because they “had more content to cover.” The two-slide maximum is a hard limit stated in the instructions. Exceeding it is a structural violation that signals the member did not read or follow the assignment requirements.
Instead
If you have more content than fits on two slides, prioritize. Select the one or two most important points and cut the rest. The instructions explicitly limit each phase to “one or two key points” — if you are trying to fit four key points onto two slides, you have already exceeded the intended scope. Ruthless prioritization is part of what is being tested.
Visually Inconsistent Group Deck
Four members building their slides independently in different color schemes, fonts, and layouts, then merging them at the last minute. The resulting deck looks like four separate presentations and fails the “professional appearance” and “creative use of color and style” requirements.
Instead
Agree on a shared template before anyone starts building content. One shared Google Slides or PowerPoint file, one set of colors, one font pair, one background style. Every member builds their slides inside that template. Review the full merged deck in presentation mode before submission and fix any visual inconsistencies that were introduced.
References Slide Added When No Sources Were Cited
Adding a references slide as a formality, listing sources that were “generally consulted” but not actually cited in the presentation. The instructions state: “References — only if used in the training.” A references slide populated with sources that do not correspond to in-slide citations adds no value and can raise academic integrity questions.
Instead
If you cite sources — using data, quoting a policy document, referencing a published guideline — include an APA-formatted references slide listing only those cited sources. If no sources are directly cited in the presentation content, the references slide is not required and should not be included. The instruction is explicit on this point.
Adjustments for Groups Fewer Than Four Members
The instructions address smaller groups directly: “For groups with less than four members, each member should be responsible for only one nursing process [phase].” This means the work is redistributed but the per-member slide cap and quiz question requirement stay the same.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why EMR Downtime Planning Is a Patient Safety Competency, Not Just an IT Issue
The assignment’s use of the nursing process to frame downtime planning reflects a deliberate pedagogical choice — EMR downtime is not primarily an information technology problem; it is a patient safety and care coordination problem that nurses are on the front line of managing. When a hospital’s electronic medical record becomes unavailable, the consequences for patients are immediate and concrete: medication orders cannot be verified electronically, critical lab values cannot be accessed in real time, care coordination between providers depends entirely on manual communication, and documentation of the care that is delivered becomes a retrospective reconstruction rather than a contemporaneous record.
The Joint Commission has issued guidance on downtime procedures for EHR systems, emphasizing that hospitals must have tested, staff-familiar downtime protocols — not just written policies that staff have never practiced. The Commission’s position reflects a broader evidence base: unplanned downtime events that occur without prepared staff routinely produce documentation gaps, medication errors, and communication failures that result in patient harm. A clinical training presentation that teaches staff the specific procedures for each phase of the nursing process during downtime is not a course exercise — it is a prototype of the kind of preparedness training that real hospitals deliver before and after downtime events.
Understanding this context matters for how you write your key points. The question to ask for each slide is not “what is true about this nursing process phase during downtime” — it is “what does a nurse need to know to keep patients safe during the next downtime event?” That question produces key points that are actionable, specific, and genuinely worth including in a clinical training.
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