What do NWB, TTWB, and PWB mean on the discharge papers?

They're the standard shorthand for weight-bearing status — non-weight-bearing, toe-touch weight-bearing, and partial weight-bearing. What matters for the roster isn't the general definitions, it's exactly what YOUR parent's surgeon said they may and may not do, for which leg, and until when. Ask the question directly — "what may she put weight on, and what does that mean for stairs, the bathroom, and the car?" — and record the answer verbatim in the status row. When the status changes at a follow-up, update the row the same day and tell every helper.

How do we learn to help with transfers safely?

From the physical therapist — before discharge if possible. Ask the PT to train every family member who'll actually be helping, and to watch each one do it once. Transfer technique depends on your parent's status, strength, and equipment, and getting it wrong can hurt the helper as well as the parent — it's hands-on teaching, and this roster deliberately contains none of it. The roster's job is different: making sure a trained helper is actually scheduled for every block where a transfer happens.

What equipment will we need at home?

That's a question to answer WITH the care team, using your actual house — which is why the worksheet is a list of questions, not recommendations. Whether a knee scooter, wheelchair, walker, or bedside commode makes sense depends on your parent's status and strength AND on doorway widths, steps, and where the bathroom is. Walk the PT or discharge planner through the layout (or bring photos and measurements) and write down what they advise. Medicare may cover some prescribed equipment as durable medical equipment — ask the discharge planner what applies.

How long will the non-weight-bearing period last?

Only your parent's surgeon can say, and their answer — including the date of the follow-up where it gets reviewed — belongs in the status row of the roster, not guessed at. Plan the roster in follow-up-to-follow-up stretches rather than assuming a total duration; coverage that quietly evaporates in week three because everyone assumed week two was the end is the most common failure this roster exists to prevent.

Non-weight-bearing recovery support roster for families

A free coverage roster for when a parent is non-weight-bearing after surgery or a fracture — transfers, toileting, and meals across morning, midday, and evening blocks, each with a named helper; an equipment worksheet built as questions to ask the care team about your house; and a status row where you record exactly what the surgeon said your parent may do.

By Rachel Moore, Founder, Sagebeam · Published September 2026 · How we research and review our guides

Part of: Care coordination for aging parents – simple system

"Non-weight-bearing" is two words on the discharge papers that reorganize an entire household. A parent who can't put weight on one leg can't get to the bathroom at 2am alone, can't carry a plate while using a walker, can't do stairs the usual way — and every one of those moments now needs a person, on purpose, at a time.

This page is a free coverage roster for that reorganization: transfers, toileting, and meals mapped across three daily blocks, each with a named helper and a backup; an equipment worksheet framed as questions to ask the care team about your house; and a status row at the top where you record — verbatim — what the surgeon said your parent may do.

What this page is not: a transfer-technique guide or a rehab plan. How to physically help someone move with a non-weight-bearing leg is hands-on teaching that belongs to the physical therapist, and the roster's standing instruction is to ask the PT to train every helper before they're on the schedule. This page only makes sure a trained person is actually there.

This article is educational and is not medical advice. Your parent's weight-bearing status, restrictions, equipment, and transfer technique all come from their own surgical team and physical therapist. If anything ever seems like an emergency, call 911.

Related resources:

One-handed home support roster — the sibling roster for a temporary arm or hand limitation
Recovery after hip fracture surgery — the wider picture when the cause was a hip fracture
Caring for a parent at home after knee replacement — for planned knee surgeries with weight-bearing restrictions
Caregiving task delegation framework — for dividing the wider load beyond these three task lanes

On this page:

What this roster covers and what it does not
The status row: record what the surgeon said
The support roster (copy and print)
The equipment worksheet: questions for the care team, by house layout
How to fill it in
Common mistakes and how to avoid them

What this roster covers and what it does not

A named helper and backup for transfers, toileting, and meals in each of three daily blocks — morning, midday, evening/overnight
The weight-bearing status, recorded from the care team's instructions — NWB / TTWB / PWB, which leg, and what the surgeon said it means in practice
An equipment worksheet organized around your house's actual layout, as questions to bring to the PT or discharge planner

What it deliberately leaves out: how to perform a transfer, how to use a knee scooter or crutches, exercises, and any judgment about how recovery is going. Those belong to the physical therapist and surgeon. If the PT hasn't yet trained the family members on the roster, that training — not this page — is the missing piece; ask for it before the first solo shift.

The status row: record what the surgeon said

Everything on this roster hangs off one set of facts that only the surgical team can supply. Before assigning anyone to anything, get the answers and write them down verbatim:

What did the surgeon say your parent may do? Non-weight-bearing, toe-touch, partial — for which leg, and what does that mean for stairs, the bathroom, the shower, and the car? Copy the words, not your summary of them.
Until when? Not a guess — the date of the follow-up where the status gets reviewed.
Who trained which helpers, and on what. A transfer helper the PT hasn't watched do it once isn't trained yet.

When the status changes at a follow-up — and it usually changes in steps — update the row the same day and tell every name on the roster. A helper working from last month's restrictions is a genuine safety problem, in either direction.

The support roster (copy and print)

Copy this into a shared document, or print it and post it where every helper will see it.

NON-WEIGHT-BEARING RECOVERY SUPPORT ROSTER

Person: _____________________________________________________________

STATUS ROW (from the care team — copy exactly, never summarize)
  What did the surgeon say your parent may do (NWB / TTWB / PWB,
  which leg, and what it means for stairs, bathroom, car):
  ___________________________________________________________________
  ___________________________________________________________________
  Status reviewed next at (follow-up date): _________________________
  Surgeon's office number: __________  PT's number: _________________
  Helpers the PT has trained on transfers (names + date trained):
  ___________________________________________________________________

DAILY COVERAGE GRID (a named person per block — "someone" is not
a name; transfer blocks are PT-trained helpers only)

  MORNING (wake-up, bathroom, dressing, breakfast)
    Transfers:  helper ____________  backup ____________
    Toileting:  helper ____________  backup ____________
    Meals:      helper ____________  backup ____________

  MIDDAY (lunch, bathroom, repositioning, appointments)
    Transfers:  helper ____________  backup ____________
    Toileting:  helper ____________  backup ____________
    Meals:      helper ____________  backup ____________

  EVENING / OVERNIGHT (dinner, bathroom, bed, the 2am call)
    Transfers:  helper ____________  backup ____________
    Toileting:  helper ____________  backup ____________
    Meals:      helper ____________  backup ____________

  Overnight plan (who's in the house, or on call, and how your
  parent reaches them from the bed): _______________________________

WEEKLY REVIEW
  Blocks that went uncovered this week: ____________________________
  Anything the surgeon or PT changed at the last visit: ____________
  Helpers still needing PT training: _______________________________

The equipment worksheet: questions for the care team, by house layout

Families in this situation get flooded with equipment opinions — a cousin swears by the knee scooter, the neighbor lends a wheelchair, someone orders a commode online. Whether any of it fits your parent's status and your parent's house is a two-part question, and both parts belong to the care team: the clinical part (what their status and strength allow) and the practical part (what the PT says works in your actual layout).

So this worksheet is a set of questions to bring to the PT or discharge planner — with your measurements in hand — not a set of recommendations:

EQUIPMENT WORKSHEET — QUESTIONS FOR THE PT / DISCHARGE PLANNER
(walk them through the house, or bring photos + measurements)

OUR HOUSE
  Steps to enter the home: ____  Rails? ______
  Bedroom floor: same as living area?  Y / N   Stairs between: ____
  Bathroom door width: ______  Shower or tub? ___________________
  Narrowest doorway/hall on the daily route: ____________________
  Distances: bed→bathroom ______  bed→kitchen/eating spot ______

QUESTIONS TO ASK (write their answers)
  Given her status and our layout, what do you advise for getting
  around — knee scooter, wheelchair, walker, crutches, some mix?
  ________________________________________________________________
  Does the bathroom work as-is, or do you advise a bedside
  commode / raised seat / shower equipment? ______________________
  What equipment do you advise for the entry steps and the car?
  ________________________________________________________________
  What's prescribed (and possibly covered), and what do we obtain
  ourselves? ____________________________________________________
  Who fits and adjusts it, and who shows us proper use? __________
  What should we rearrange before she comes home? ________________

On the coverage question: some prescribed equipment falls under Medicare's durable medical equipment coverage — the discharge planner can tell you what applies to your parent's situation and supplier options. Get the answers written down before discharge day if you can; the worst time to discover the wheelchair doesn't fit the bathroom door is the first morning home.

How to fill it in

Start from the status row, not from assumptions. Every block's staffing depends on what your parent may actually do — a toe-touch status and a strict NWB status produce different rosters, and only the surgeon's words settle which one you're building.
Name a real person for each block. "Someone will get her to the bathroom" is how 2am becomes a crisis. "Dana, overnight, phone on loud" is a plan.
Transfer blocks get PT-trained helpers only. If the only person free on Thursdays hasn't been trained, the roster's job is to make that visible — ask the PT to train them, or swap the schedule, before Thursday.
Give every block a backup. A cast-iron roster with no backups is one work conflict away from an uncovered morning.
Review weekly, and after every follow-up. The uncovered-blocks line and the status row are the two things to check; a status change reshuffles everything downstream.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Planning for two weeks when nobody actually knows the duration. The honest planning unit is follow-up to follow-up. Write the next review date in the status row and re-commit helpers for the next stretch each time, rather than watching coverage quietly evaporate when the recovery outlasts the first burst of family attention.

Letting untrained helpers improvise transfers. The most dangerous moment in a non-weight-bearing household is a well-meaning helper winging it. The roster's trained-helpers line exists to make the gap visible; the fix is always the same — ask the PT.

Acquiring equipment before asking about the house. Equipment that doesn't fit the doorway, the bathroom, or your parent's actual status becomes hallway clutter with a receipt. Layout questions first, purchases after.

Forgetting the overnight block. Daytime coverage gets planned; 2am gets discovered. The overnight line — who's in the house or on call, and how your parent reaches them without getting up — is the row most worth filling first.

Treating this as a rehab plan. The roster tracks who helps with what, and nothing about how the leg is healing. Progress judgments, technique, and exercises belong to the surgeon and PT.

One-handed home support roster — the same roster pattern for a temporary arm or hand limitation
Caregiving task delegation framework — for assigning the wider household load with a clear definition of done
Caregiver daily log template — for the day-to-day record beyond this roster's three lanes

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