Acronyms/Abbreviations

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

I've recently seen another poster have to ask for clarification on an abbreviation, and it occurs to me that it might be a worthwhile courtesy to adopt the convention of using the complete term or title the first time you use it in a thread. Thus, if I were starting a thread entitled "My CNA hit me," I would open with "Last night, my Certified Nurse Assistant punched me in the arm. Really hard. I don't think she liked me refering to her as 'my CNA.' So then, she gets a call and says, 'I'll be there in a minute. I'm busy punching my nurse.' This seems really unfair."

By the way, the example post is entirely hypothetical, even though this type of thing actually does happen to me quite a lot.

[Mr Ian]

IMO ITA TVM

[Mr Ian]

Mike: Ignore that idiot above.

I'd certainly appreciate it - I struggle with some abbreviations being somewhere on the bottom of the world.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I find myself thinking...hmmm...I have no idea what that abbreviation means, lots of times, and I'm too lazy to think it through or ask...so I just go on to the next thing to read--maybe I'm missing something important!!

I like Mike's suggestion.

[truern]

FWIW IDK if it's really WMW IMHO.

Silliness aside, it's truly a problem sometimes. I like your suggestion! :)

[nightmare, RN]

It would be useful to us 'furiners' who have to burn Google red-hot to keep up with some of the posts here!:uhoh3:

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

We've recently moved away from paper Kardexes, but some docs still get a bit whimsical with pt's diagnoses. Had one awhile back with a "pre-syncopal episode." Medicine service, but being a neuro nurse, I'm thinking stroke--CVA/TIA (cerebral vascular accident/transient ischemic attack.) 10 hours into my shift, I'm calling doc to clarify orders on her heparin drip and just happen to ask why she's on it, so I could pass it on in report. Pt reported a history of A-fib, so I was sure that was it, but come to find out she's having a non ST-elevated MI. Pre-syncopal, eh? So I tell the nurse following me about the NSTEMI and she looks at me like I've been drinking. Yeah, nursing is holistic, but we really aren't a cardio floor, so I took an extra 15 seconds to tell her everything I know about an NSTEMI. Maybe 10 seconds. But, hey, I do know that wavy-line machine has something to do with the heart...

On the other end of it, I picked up a patient once with a diagnosis of SBO. Huh?

SDH I know (sub-dural hematoma). SAH I know (sub-arachnoid hemorrhage). Severe Body Odor--is that a Dx? Fortunately, I got it clarified in face-to-face updates after listening to report. Small bowel obstruction--oh, so that'll be sorta like an ileus, huh?

So, even within a facility, it can be useful to spell out the jargon.