Why Every Doctor Should Be Using a Logbook – And Why Osler Is the Best One for the Job

As a doctor, your days are full—clinics, ward rounds, procedures, documentation, learning on the go. It’s easy for things to blur into each other, and even easier for valuable learning opportunities to pass by undocumented and under-reflected upon.

That’s where a logbook comes in. Far from being just a tick-box exercise, logging your clinical work—both patients and procedures—can have a significant impact on your development as a clinician. In fact, it’s one of the most effective self-directed educational tools available to you.

Logging as Self-Audit

At its core, logging is a form of self-audit. It allows you to take a structured look at what you’re doing, how often you're doing it, and how well. In the same way that clinical audits help improve hospital systems and patient care, a personal logbook can help improve your individual clinical practice.

Are you seeing the breadth of cases you need exposure to? Are there recurring complications in certain procedures? Are your patient outcomes aligning with best practice?

Logging gives you the raw data to start asking—and answering—these questions.

Recording Reinforces Learning

Importantly, the act of recording itself is an educational activity. When you take a moment to log a patient or procedure, you’re forced to pause and reflect: What did I learn? What went well? What could have gone better? This reflection reinforces your learning far more effectively than simply moving on to the next task.

Rather than letting valuable cases fade from memory, a logbook helps you process experiences as they happen. Over time, this reflection adds up, shaping you into a more thoughtful and effective doctor.

In many ways, maintaining a logbook is a form of professional journalling. Journalling has long been recognised in education as a powerful tool for consolidating knowledge, promoting self-awareness, and deepening critical thinking. Writing about your clinical encounters, even briefly, transforms them from passive experiences into active learning moments. It encourages you to move beyond simply what happened and to explore why it happened, how you responded, and what you might do differently next time. Over weeks and months, this habit builds a richer, more personal understanding of medicine that textbooks alone can never provide.

What should you journal? That’s entirely up to you! You don’t need to write everything you do or see down - just the things that are important to you!

Procedures: Quantifying Experience and Competence

Logging procedures is perhaps the easiest part to conceptualise—and the most directly beneficial. Knowing how many cannulations, contraceptive implants or central lines you’ve done is valuable in itself. Humans have a tendancy to over or under estimate our activity - countless audits have demonstrated surprising results when the data is actually captured and reviewed.

But it gets more powerful when you start to track outcomes: How often were you successful on the first attempt? How many had complications?

These metrics not only give you a clearer picture of your skill progression, but they can also highlight areas that need improvement. That, in turn, can guide your future learning and training focus.

Don’t Forget the Patients

While procedures are often front-of-mind for logging, tracking the patients you see is just as important. You can monitor patterns in your exposure—such as how many patients with COPD exacerbations or stroke referrals you’ve managed. This helps build a portfolio of clinical experience that’s invaluable for career progression, especially in specialties with a strong emphasis on case mix.

It also allows you to keep tabs on memorable or complex patients, so you can follow them up, learn from their outcomes, or even use them as case studies in presentations and assessments.

Analyse Your Data Regularly

A logbook isn’t just a digital filing cabinet—it’s a tool for insight. Set aside time to look back and analyse your entries. Are there gaps in your experience? Are you improving over time? Use the data to guide your CPD, identify trends, and reflect on your development.

These insights can directly shape how you approach your work, prompting changes in technique, focus, or learning goals.

Capturing your experience

In time, your comprehensive logbook provides an exceptional history of your clinical exposure. This can come in handy in many circumstances - such as when you’re applying for a new job, or defending yourself in the context of a medical error.

Why Osler Is the Ideal Logbook for Junior Doctors

While there are plenty of ways to log your clinical experiences, Osler stands out as a purpose-built platform for doctors working in real clinical environments. Here’s why it’s worth adopting:

• Ease of use: Osler is designed for the clinical setting. It’s quick, intuitive, and doesn’t disrupt your workflow.

• Earn CPD while you log: For every patient or procedure you add, Osler automatically records 0.1 hours per patient and per procedure under the Measuring Outcomes category in your CPD diary. This time reflects the educational value of logging—not the time spent with the patient.

• Procedures and patients count equally: Whether you’re inserting a central line or reviewing a patient with heart failure, each log entry earns you time and insight.

• Fully searchable: Need to find all your chest drain procedures before an assessment? Looking for that fascinating case of autoimmune encephalitis? Osler makes it easy.

• Export for deeper analysis: You can download your data as a spreadsheet to analyse trends, case volume, success rates, and more.

• Structured reflection: After analysing your data, you can create a formal self-reflection and earn additional CPD time under the Reviewing Performance category.

• Future-proof: Osler is actively developing built-in analytics tools to help you extract insights from your logbook effortlessly.

The Takeaway

Using a logbook isn’t just about meeting training requirements—it’s about becoming a better doctor. It helps you consolidate learning, audit your own practice, identify areas for improvement, and document your professional growth.

Osler makes this process seamless, educationally meaningful, and CPD-generating. It turns a simple act—recording your work—into a habit that fosters clinical excellence.

So if you haven’t already, make logging a regular part of your routine. Your future self will thank you.