Biox vs. Pulse ox vs. whatever else?!

Nurses General Nursing

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Okay, this is driving me nuts.... I'm a nurse on a telemetry unit. Last night I had a patient on continuous pulse ox, and I was pulling my hair out trying to get my patient to quit desatting randomly. In report I was told that the guy just had poor perfusion to his fingers and it wasn't reading him right, but I thought he looked kind of dusky, so I put a forehead probe on him-- he was reading anywhere from 65-100%. So I put a venti mask on him at 35%, he stayed in the 90s, I was happy. Called the doc just to give an update. Doc was cool, told me to call him back if anything changed.

A few hours later, the patient was desatting again-- put him on 40%, 50%, just couldn't get him above 80%. Call the doc back-- hey, this patient is bioxing in the 60s and 70s, do you want a chest xray, bipap, anything? And the doctor goes, "Wait. Why do you keep saying "biox"? What does that mean?" I was like, okay, SpO2, pulse ox.... the patient is not getting enough oxygen.

Is biox not a normal thing to say?! I've been saying it forever. I'm sure I said it in the first conversation. I get that Biox is a brand name for pulse oximeters, and not the technical term for the measurement. I thought it was like Kleenex... everybody knows what it is, right?

Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.

Never heard of it in 7 years of ER nursing at two facilities, or in any clinicals at multiple facilities prior to graduation...

ArrrrEnnn

42 Posts

I'm a new nurse. Less than 6 months. I've never heard it called that.

txerrn6942

44 Posts

Specializes in Emergency.

I've never heard of Biox and wouldn't have known what you meant either. I say Sats or O2 Sats.

Altra, BSN, RN

6,255 Posts

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

I have never heard the term, nor seen equipment of that manufacturer.

Altra, BSN, RN

6,255 Posts

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

I was curious enough about this to look it up. It is worth noting that in 1980 "Biox" was the first widely available pulse oximeter. Though it seems the company was sold within a few years to BOC/Ohmeda Medical and then later became part of GE Healthcare.

Biox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I love lazy Sunday mornings. :)

dream'n, BSN, RN

1,162 Posts

Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.

Never heard of it either

JustBeachyNurse, LPN

13,952 Posts

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

I would be confused but I'm perplexed when people call it a "oh-two stat"

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 20,908 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Let me tell you a story or two.

I got a job in the cath lab where they were the second invasive lab for hundreds of miles. There was a standing joke about a gomco (The Gomco circumcision procedure uses tools called the Gomco bell and clamp, to assist with the surgical procedure) being set up on the surgical field for a balloon angioplasty....well I didn't get the joke. As they were falling on the floor laughing thinking I'd be flustered and embarrassed about a circumcision tool for a plasty...I went and brought and old Gumco portable suction machine to the room. As they stood there puzzled we all began to laugh at our foolishness. It was a good laugh.

When I moved to New England...specifically the Boston area...I felt I needed to wear a sign that said "Please speak slowly I do not know the language". A packie is the liquor store, a bubbler is a water fountain, a milk shake is just that shaken milk, a frappe has ice cream, Jimmies are sprinkles, a Tooemy to me is a clot retractor or cath tip syringe, and wicked isn't a reference to the Broadway musical.

I was working in the ED. It was my first day or so when a code came in that didn't make it. While doing postmortem care (which to my horror entailed tying up the patients hands...a toe tag...and a plastic bag. Our deaths where I worked for 20 years were picked up from the rooms from the patients bed) the nurses told me to get a Johnnie. Now where I come from male patients would ask "Where's the John...Johnson needs to take a leak" or the large flushable toilet in the dirty U was called a Johnnie hopper. SO....I thought..."what in the heck is a Johnnie?"... "I know what a John is so"...."I wonder why the heck they want a bedside commode?"... "Are they really going to get the deceased patient up on a commode? What are they planning to do?"

So...being the good nurse...much to their HORROR...I returned with the bedside commode. AS they stood there initially slacked jawed and looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears...it quickly turned to disgust and the "senior" nurse in the room rolled her eyes, smacked her lips, and stormed out of the room stating...."and they thought she came with experience" and slammed the trauma door. I stood there speechless when the "senior" nurse returned with a patient gown and put it on the patient all the while muttering about liars and embellishing a resume to get a job when I finally stopped her and made it very clear that I did come with experience however I had NEVER heard a patient gown called a Johnnie and asked it there was a Boston/English translator available to assist with translations.

The trauma room incident became the infamous standing joke....I made many more faux paus until I learned the local dialect...LOL

Remember even locally there are variances to equipment and try to be as generic as possible when referencing terms.

annie.rn

546 Posts

Nope, I've never heard the term either.

Esme, your stories were great. I had similar experiences getting used to the dialect of my husbands very Southern family. The first time he brought me home to TN to meet them, his Aunt asked me, "how y'all making it?" I literally stood there in silence thinking to myself "I understand the words she is saying but what in the heck is she trying to ask me? Making it? Making WHAT? What have we been making?" My husband stepped in and answered. I asked him for the translation later. Found out it meant "How are you guys doing?". Another one that got me was having a picture "made" and not "taken". Sorry to go off topic.

MunoRN, RN

8,058 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care.

I've never heard of Biox either. We do have a habit of substituting brand names for actual names, I worked on a unit once where each room had an automatic BP machine made by "Omron", some of the staff took to calling a blood pressure an "Omron"; my patient's Omron is 180/100. "Cordis" is another example, we often call an IJ introducer a "cordis", even though the brand Cordis by J&J makes a wide variety of products an the name could apply to just about anything.

Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

Almost 20 years here and never heard of it,...maybe a regional thing? I still call IV catheters jelco's and many people stare at me like I'm crazy ;(

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