Healthcare gadgets--- Where DID that name come from?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

All,

I am on a list for legal nurses and we got talking about why some gadget or other was called what it was called (in the context of OR documentation-- what really happened/was the stuff being used appropriate).

As conversations do, we wandered off into other like objects, and I got wondering what other gadgets you have or use that you don't know or wondered about.

Here's some excerpts from our conversation to get you started:

One of the hospitals I worked at called lap sponges Mik. For the life of me I could not figure out why till I googled it and found out the xray loop was designed by a guy named Mikinopolos.

Another anomaly I discovered when working in hospitals in different countries, is that surgeons may call sponges various names depending on what those were called where they trained (this is also true of instruments). So perhaps the surgeon in your case trained at the Mayo Clinic.

This reminded me of when I worked at Stanford 40 (!) years ago. Tom Fogerty, of Fogerty catheter fame, had been one of the late, great Norman Shumway's residents and earned Norman's disdain for going out into (very lucrative) private practice, in fact as the only private cardiac surg team at Stanford. In those years, residents in the two Stanford academic cardiac surg teams were not allowed to ask for a "Fogerty catheter" in the OR or cath lab, being sternly instructed to ask only for "balloon-tipped catheters."

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

I had always wondered who was Jerry that required so many restraints that they had a chair named in his honor. It was only when I finally saw it written out that I realized that a Geri Chair actually has a name that makes sense.

Now if I can figure out what a posy restraint is...

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

Dinamap is one brand/type of "vital signs machine." But all others are commonly called Dinamap too.

Same with Pyxis for any medication dispenser.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

I work in ophthalmology and we have headlamps in every exam room, but some Dr's have favorite ones. Every once in a while you'll hear one of them say "can you grab my Heine in room 107"? Yes, we giggle like 8 year olds every time it happens

[RunBabyRN]

Dinamap is one brand/type of "vital signs machine." But all others are commonly called Dinamap too.

Same with Pyxis for any medication dispenser.

But that applies to a lot of things- Q-Tips, Kleenex, etc.

[klone, MSN, RN]

If you are a nurse in Colorado, or were trained there, you call a saline lock a "buff cap". Apparently a type of saline lock was invented at CU medical school and and CU's mascots are the Buffalos, or "Buffs". I remember staring blankly at another nurse the first time I heard in report that she "buff capped the patient's IV". Having grown up in Denver, she had no idea it wasn't called that everywhere.

And while we are on the topic, I am still perplexed as to why it's the University of Colorado, but everyone calls it "CU". It's a strange state I live in.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

And while we are on the topic, I am still perplexed as to why it's the University of Colorado, but everyone calls it "CU". It's a strange state I live in.

The University of Oklahoma is referred to as 'OU,' and the University of Kansas is called 'KU.' Perhaps 'OU' rolls off the tongue better than 'UO.'

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I always wondered where "Texas cath" came from....

OR chux for blue pads (and some aren't even blue!! HAHA)

There has been more than one occasion that I have been asked to grab a _____________, and have not a CLUE what the heck they are talking about.....

[Red Kryptonite]

I always wondered where "Texas cath" came from....

I have a theory on this. One day a nurse in Texas went into the room of the quintessential good ol' boy with orders from the doctor to insert a catheter. When she explained what she was going to do, the good ol' boy said, "Now darlin' you're gonna stick what up where? I think you better come up with another plan!"

OR chux for blue pads (and some aren't even blue!! HAHA)

I think this one came about because you can "chuck it" meaning it's disposable.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Please....when I moved to New England I wanted to were a sign that said "I'm not stupid I just don't know the language"

A Johnnie for patient gown. A bubbler is a water fountain. A toomey syringe is a cath tip syringe or as we called it in the inner city a clot retractor (for levaging clots on GI bleeds).

Once when I was working cath lab the suction stopped working and we were coding a trauma that was intoxicated and I needed suction....I asked for a Gomco....every single person in that room stopped and looked at me like I was crazy:eek:...apparently that is what the circumcision surgical tool is called....

On time in the ED we were semi coding a trauma when a new trauma surgeon was asking for a CORDIS....the nurse New England born and bred....came up to me outraged that the MD kept talking/asking for coitis....I about fell on the floor....I knew what he wanted I told her CORDIS not COITIS....he wants a sheath introducer!

Priceless

[anon456, BSN, RN]

If anyone has ever suctioned an infant with a BBG, well the BBG really does stand for Baby Booger Grabber. It was invented by some nurses. I used to have a link to the whole story, but here is proof that they really are called that.

[quixotic.dy]

And while we are on the topic, I am still perplexed as to why it's the University of Colorado, but everyone calls it "CU". It's a strange state I live in.

I can answer this, kind of.

It's because UCs are well known for being California schools. So UCD would be University of California at Davis not University of Colorado Denver.

Of course this doesn't explain UCCS (Colorado Springs) or either CSU school.