Children learn by example

[Brian, ASN, RN]

Nurses use a lot of abbreviations. It saves time and serves as a communication device among fellow colleagues to ensure good patient care. Our children may pick up on this when they see things like a grocery list, blog entries, or other random notes. However, we need to ensure they understand the proper use of a word, it's correct spelling, and meaning before they can abbreviate. *sigh* ... it's a never-ending parental responsibility. Do you use abbreviations in every day life?

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[CCRN2BE]

I find myself often using medical abbreviations in my daily planner. Examples...c with a line above for "with", QD for daily, etc.

I sometimes wonder if something happened to me and my planner was looked at for clues, they'd be wondering what the heck I was talking about! :)

[airwaynurse]

Great toon!

Much like the ability to obtain a manual blood pressure (or really understand what clinical data is obtained by it) nurse abbreviations are fading away....like the apothecary/Latin abbreviations that have been "outlawed" over past years. The EMR has further degraded the nurse's ability to abbreviate: no body really has to write charts with pen & paper anymore. Just sayin...

The greatest message of this toon is this: parents are always "homeschooling" their children, the question is, "What are we teaching them?" I have always taught my children the little tricks of the trade...when those tricks are totally erased from society at large our children will remember!

This is an easy transition into a comment about children not being able to write with a pen & paper (not many teach penmanship anymore) of course then outcome is that they will not be able to easily read hand writing either. That's too bad because much of our heritage as a nation can still be read in the writer's own hand, but alas, our digital generation soon will not be able to read them that way so they will rely on "someone " to interpret these documents for them....surely they will tell them the truth!

[jojoe]

I was shocked to find out that schools in Michigan are no longer teaching our children "cursive" writing or writing in "script". It bolstered my daughter (a fellow nurse) to homeschool her children ("who knows how many other things my kids are not learning"). She is also teaching them responsibility in caring for living things: goats, rabbits, chickens, and more. I'm loving it because all "school" meant to her as a teen was having a social life. She is enriching her children's lives and their children's children for possibly generations to come!

I loved learning as a child, reading anything I could get my eyes on. I loved answering the myriad questions from my children and found I loved patient education: why a certain medication is needed, what risks and benefits their doctor weighed on their behalf, how certain lifestyles are important, etc.

My eyesight has diminished a great deal in the last few years but I'm teaching others around me how to offer help to someone who has low or no vision and how to actually help them (and that included some of the staff at my ophthalmology office!) but that's part of my being a patient advocate -- for myself... I participate in support groups for the blind and visually impaired, learning to navigate a computer screen with key strokes that produce audible cues, and coming up with ways (husband is a huge creative support) to circumvent many challenges at home and in the outside world.

I love when parents allow their children to ask me questions about my white cane, dark glasses, etc. as it exposes them to people who have disabilities and perhaps some empathy. The same is true coming from a dear friend of mine who gets all over town on her own in her electric wheelchair.

I had read and enjoyed a post somewhere here at AN about a mom with a child who only used the proper terms to describe bodily functions and parts. Keep homeschooling all ya'all...

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

When I'm talking to or corresponding c other nurses, all the time. Others, no. What would be the point of saying "q8h" or "prn" to somebody who doesn't speak the language, tu sais?