Common nicknames for hospital items.

Nurses Humor

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Just wanted to see if the nicknames we call certain items are the same names you guys call them lol. I work in the midwestern region.

Examples include:

1.) "Bubblier" for humidifier

2.) "Ice pack" for the polar pack and the original ice pack

3.) "Patches" for tele electrodes

4.) "Stickers" for labels

5.) "Booties" for spenco boots

6.) "Christmas tree" for O2 connector

That is all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to add to the list. I am looking forward to seeing new nicknames I haven't heard before :)

Specializes in med/surg.

we too have "sliders" -although I like to add a little apple juice to improve the MOM, prune juice and margarine. I suppose this could be a gourmet slider?

A "slug" is a patient who acts like one when otherwise capable of actually moving.

"celestial discharge" (self-explanatory)

many patients find "hat" a humorous term.

I'm sure there are more...

Foley bag= "Bag of Gold".

Specializes in ICU/CCU, Med Surg.

I call the SOMA bed "mosquito netting".

I also had a pt (WWII navy vet) refer to using the urinal in bed as "pumping the bilges" :lol2:

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
i always call golytely-- go lot ly!!!

in all my years of nursing i always questioned why they didn't call it go heavy!!!!! :cool: that's what my pt. in gi use to say.

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

i just remembered at ed, when a doctor orders blood to be drawn of a pt. we draw "the rainbow"= all the colors of blood tubes.

i went to school in the east and worked in the west for 15 years. then i came back. guerneys went back to being stretchers, patient gowns went back to being johnnies. dmis went back to being imis. or maybe i have that backwards.:D

on the west coast, it's an-jih-nuh; in new england it's an-jye-nah. i got funny looks on both coasts until i adapted to the local pronunciation, so i got to the point where i would say, "it's an-jih-nuh or an-jye-nah, depending on whether your doctor went to stanford or harvard."

if it's ice cream and milk all whipped up in the blender it's a frappe, not a milkshake, if you're in new england. and it's jimmies, not sprinkles, on your sundae.

it's not coffee milk, it's a cabinet, if you're in rhode island.

I am really enjoying this thread, and it reminded me how obscure our nursing jargon can be to laypeople (except those who watch medical shows on tv;) ). "I need a PRN of ASA QID for my COPD patient--ASAP!!!" Alphabet soup!

Specializes in Med-Surg, Peds, Ortho, LTC and MORE.

sucker and string suction vacumm and suction catheter

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

We had to stop calling our computers on wheels "COWS" because some visitor got offended and complained because she heard "Get that COW out of the hallway" LMAO....now they're WOWs, workstations on wheels...how upscale

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
I totally agree! Is there by chance "Vitamin H" for Haldol?

That is what we call it. Vitamin A for Ativan, and Vitamin V for Versed.

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
i just remembered at ed, when a doctor orders blood to be drawn of a pt. we draw "the rainbow"= all the colors of blood tubes.

we say that too in my unit, or we say we drew everything under the sun for labs.

We had to stop calling our computers on wheels "COWS" because some visitor got offended and complained because she heard "Get that COW out of the hallway" LMAO....now they're WOWs, workstations on wheels...how upscale

Yep us too.

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