Common nicknames for hospital items.

[LifesAJourney]

Just wanted to see if the nicknames we call certain items are the same names you guys call them lol. I work in the midwestern region.

Examples include:

1.) "Bubblier" for humidifier

2.) "Ice pack" for the polar pack and the original ice pack

3.) "Patches" for tele electrodes

4.) "Stickers" for labels

5.) "Booties" for spenco boots

6.) "Christmas tree" for O2 connector

That is all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to add to the list. I am looking forward to seeing new nicknames I haven't heard before :)

[kiszi, RN]

The little device that connects the secondary IV tubing to the primary set is officially called a "lever lock cannula", but way back in nursing school my clinical instructor introduced it to us as "the little yellow doomahicker"

I always called them alligator clips.

Microclave on end of IV line : "cap". I work HH and teach pts using this term. Then when they call Triage with a problem, the nurse will be talking about the Microclave and they're like... huh?

And it may not be a nickname but I'll usually get a laugh when I call a three-way valve a "stopcock".

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Medical students and interns are called "baby docs". As in "Ya man a whole herd of baby docs showed up to the code and stood next to the bed doing nothing but making it difficult for those of us on the code team to access the patient".

Watching the attending walk down the hall followed in single file by his senior resident, junior resident, intern, and 3 or 4 med students looks just like a mamma duck followed by her little baby ducks.

We also have "chicken feet" (in Wisconsin). The same thing is called a "turkey foot" in Minnesota. I don't even know the real name for them but you attach them to an IV line port, or to the end of a central line and it had 4 ports on it. Like if you have 4 different drips going into one.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Really? Our code brown is a chemical spill.

If it's liquid code brown we call is a "slake". A combination of sh!* and lake. This youtube video did the rounds of our hospital and inspired the slake.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Oops! Double post.

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

If it's liquid code brown we call is a "slake". A combination of sh!* and lake. This youtube video did the rounds of our hospital and inspired the slake.

Thanks for sharing.... Aloha~

[goats'r'us, ASN, RN]

Patients always look at me askance when the anaesthetist puts in their IV and then asks me for a toilet seat. I used to try to explain, now i just show them this and they laugh.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

The cooker an autoclave.

[Rhi007]

Anyone good at blood draws is called 'James'

Berocca is vitamin B

Stretchers/guerney is called a Baruch

Where the docs sit and do their thing is 'the fishbowl'

Foleys are IDC's or CDC's

[finn55]

Where I've worked, we call the plastic urine collector that fits in the toilet, a "nun's cap". Never have figured out why, but everyone knows what we're referring to!

[liebling5, MSN, RN]

I'm from California, and worked in the Midwest for a while. There, the rolling laptops were called "cows". I thought it was cute, especially when I saw some with "tags" on them like "Bossy", "Bessy", "Elsa", etc.

SCD= leg squeezers

Anything I can't think of the name quickly: a "thing-a-ma-bobit" or "whatchamacallit", followed by "That's an official medical term."

[loriangel14, RN]

Where I've worked, we call the plastic urine collector that fits in the toilet, a "nun's cap". Never have figured out why, but everyone knows what we're referring to!

We call them hats.

[GerberaDaisy]

Same here-back in Canada the white toilet hats were called nun's caps, guess it's better than calling it a nurse's cap! But I Still get funny looks when I call it that here in California.