4 hourly vs 4/24

Nurses Medications

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I'm still confused with these two terms used for frequency of medication (4 hourly vs 4/24)... are they the same or different? Please help. :confused:

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Q 4 hourly = every four hours (0001, 0400, 0800, 1200, 1600, 2000)

4/24 = four doses in a 24 hour period (0001, 0600, 1200, 1800)

Feel free to come along and correct me if I am wrong. :)

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super thanks!!!! :)

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Hi there, according to my information, 4/24 means every 4 hours. It is considered a dangerous abbreviation to use, as it can easily be misconstrued as 4 times per day.

Refer to page 15 of https://safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/24380-GuidelinesForNIMC2009.pdf

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I'm changing my response to avoid confusion.

According to the document posted by Matthew EN, they are the same (to answer OP question).

That is certainly not how we would interpret that in the US, but no point in going into that.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I had never heard of that abbreviation before but just based on basic math, 4/24, ie 4 per 24 would pretty clearly seem to imply 4 doses over a 24 hour period, which would be q 6hrs not q 4hrs, so if it's meant to mean q 4hrs I can see why it's a banned abbreviation.

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