Acryonym ***? PSWU

[itsatrap]

I'm having trouble figuring out the acronym PSWU in my research. My peers have no idea what it means, and a Google, CINAHL, and medilexicon search won't tell me what it is.

Any awesome nurses in the house?

For more information, it's sort of related to ObsGyn, but I'm not sure if it's limited to that.

Here's a screenshot of my info:

[Nursey103, ADN, RN]

OMG..........this is really bugging me! LOL I tried looking up just SWU & came up with septic work up. It makes sense with antibiotics being started but don't know what the P would stand for. Curious if someone else knows....

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Looks like Neonatal orders (if US of the head is any clue). I've never heard of this acronym before, but with it being followed by antibiotic orders it would be my guess that it stands for:

Post Septic Work-Up

A septic work up is generally cultures, like blood cultures, sometimes urine cultures, and in the neonatal setting on a new admit, it could also include surface cultures.

[itsatrap]

PERFECT. Thank you so much. That was like 20 minutes for an answer! Wow! I'm starting to like this community...

[KateRN1]

I vote for Post Surgical Work Up

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

Looks like Neonatal orders (if US of the head is any clue). I've never heard of this acronym before, but with it being followed by antibiotic orders it would be my guess that it stands for:

Post Septic Work-Up

A septic work up is generally cultures, like blood cultures, sometimes urine cultures, and in the neonatal setting on a new admit, it could also include surface cultures.

Yeah, has to be neonatal, with the head US and the Indomethacin (used to close PDAs).

[HealthShepherd]

In my NICU, PSWU stands for "partial septic workup" and means just a blood culture and a CBC (looking for abnormal white blood cell count or immature/mature cell ratio). A "full septic workup" includes a cerebrospinal fluid culture, i.e., a lumbar puncture, and often a urine culture.

Getting a PSWU and 48 hours of broad-spectrum antibiotics is par for the course for almost every baby in our NICU - either they're premature so the mom's GBS status is unknown, or they had some kind of problem at birth and need infection ruled out. Getting the FSWU is reserved for babies who show signs of infections themselves or maternal risk factors (fever during delivery, or foul smelling placenta/amniotic fluids). My guess would be that this child had some feeding intolerance or apneic spells on July 9, making them check again.

Hope that helps, Marion