Biox vs. Pulse ox vs. whatever else?!

Never heard of it either

Let me tell you a story or two.

I got a job in the cath lab where they were the second invasive lab for hundreds of miles. There was a standing joke about a gomco (The Gomco circumcision procedure uses tools called the Gomco bell and clamp, to assist with the surgical procedure) being set up on the surgical field for a balloon angioplasty....well I didn't get the joke. As they were falling on the floor laughing thinking I'd be flustered and embarrassed about a circumcision tool for a plasty...I went and brought and old Gumco portable suction machine to the room. As they stood there puzzled we all began to laugh at our foolishness. It was a good laugh.

When I moved to New England...specifically the Boston area...I felt I needed to wear a sign that said "Please speak slowly I do not know the language". A packie is the liquor store, a bubbler is a water fountain, a milk shake is just that shaken milk, a frappe has ice cream, Jimmies are sprinkles, a Tooemy to me is a clot retractor or cath tip syringe, and wicked isn't a reference to the Broadway musical.

I was working in the ED. It was my first day or so when a code came in that didn't make it. While doing postmortem care (which to my horror entailed tying up the patients hands...a toe tag...and a plastic bag. Our deaths where I worked for 20 years were picked up from the rooms from the patients bed) the nurses told me to get a Johnnie. Now where I come from male patients would ask "Where's the John...Johnson needs to take a leak" or the large flushable toilet in the dirty U was called a Johnnie hopper. SO....I thought..."what in the heck is a Johnnie?"... "I know what a John is so"...."I wonder why the heck they want a bedside commode?"... "Are they really going to get the deceased patient up on a commode? What are they planning to do?"

So...being the good nurse...much to their HORROR...I returned with the bedside commode. AS they stood there initially slacked jawed and looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears...it quickly turned to disgust and the "senior" nurse in the room rolled her eyes, smacked her lips, and stormed out of the room stating...."and they thought she came with experience" and slammed the trauma door. I stood there speechless when the "senior" nurse returned with a patient gown and put it on the patient all the while muttering about liars and embellishing a resume to get a job when I finally stopped her and made it very clear that I did come with experience however I had NEVER heard a patient gown called a Johnnie and asked it there was a Boston/English translator available to assist with translations.

The trauma room incident became the infamous standing joke....I made many more faux paus until I learned the local dialect...LOL

Remember even locally there are variances to equipment and try to be as generic as possible when referencing terms.