Accronyms/abbreviations

[celticcare]

Hi all, I've come into the current CCU that I am in now, after completing my New Grad year in another. And I'm adjusting to a few different things. One being the accronyms used here.

Every class I've taken and book I have used, calls PVC's that, PVC's. Here they are VPBs. That one I have no issue with, but then the staff use the term SVPB for supra ventricular Premature beats, which is one I get a bit irked with.

If someone is having a premature beat above the pacemakers within the ventricles, then surely that must make it either a junctional or an atrial ectopic? The term SVPB just doesn't seem to be as precise for me, especially if I have a patient with nodal blocks or post Thrombolysis where AIVR beats take place.

Perhaps its being pedantic, I am the only one in the unit that uses the other terms, I guess I am of the mindset that when the Docs read the reports from telemetry, they would rather see an actual description rather than a broad term that has two sub paths it can go down. A couple of docs agree with me on it but I know I would be changing a whole culture in here and I haven't bothered to bring it up. Is it worth it?

Scotty

[TakeBack]

Unless someone is giving you a hard time I would document in the terms that you think convey the information best.

We have a regular stream of travelers through my unit and they have all sorts of variations in terminology. As long as we understand each other, it's all good.

In specifics to your issue, in most cases whether its atrial or nodal the premature complexes are managed similarly, so I can see your point about wanting to be specific, but in the end it may not make a big clinical difference.

My 0.02.