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 :)

[SherriJones]

In the Air Force, where we have lots of fit, handsome soldiers as patients, it was customary for PACU to give us med-surg nurses report and include the code words "E.O.E." or "E.C." E.O.E. was a 9 and E.C. was a 10, if you get my drift. (Easy on the Eyes, and Eye Candy, respectively).

[SherriJones]

Phrases used wherever I've worked

Brain = report sheet where you took notes at shift change and plotted out your day

Christmas tree = green O2 adapter

Code Brown = incontinent bowel movement overwhelming in either amount, odor, or runniness

Du'av kees = "Do you have [the narcotic] keys?" run together, sounds like you're speaking Indian or Pakistani

Frequent Flyer = patient whose frequency of returning to our care unit far, far surpasses that of every other patient

GI cocktail = M.O.M., belladonna, and lidocaine concoction

Hat = urine collector that can be set inside the toilet

Red Robin = the in and out urinary cath kit with the customary red catheter

SCDs or Scuds = Sequential Compression Device or leg massagers

Slug = postop patient who consistently refuses to get out of bed or ambulate

Stopcock = three way valve for IV

Vitamin A = Ativan, Vitamin H = Haldol

My own additions I regularly use

Armani designer fashion = hospital gown, tread socks, and whatever else the doctor ordered, like TED hose

B.S.C. = a mental health condition manifesting in an ER Psych patient which stands for Bat Sh*t Crazy

"If Mary Kay was here do you know what she'd ask you? 'Would you like a little blush for those cheeks?'" = Dear patient, your

backside is exposed. Let me tie your gown."

"Those little pancake thingies," "EKG buttons" = electrodes

Darnitall = Donnatal

"Oh GOODIE! Yeah, yeah yeah!" = patient has a shockingly deep or bloody wound

I also worked on a unit where "Bacon Thirty" was the time the dining hall could start selling breakfast to staff, and another hospital where premie babies were "frogs"

[frenchfroggyAPRN, MSN, LPN, RN, APRN]

We call them "skids" =SCDs

[Sezza83, BSN, RN]

In the OR when doing laparoscopic surgery, we use two monitors. The outlet monitor was called a "slave". They banned that term, and it's now called a "satellite". PC non-sense. I'm black, and I could care less. It's not like a black person has to hold the screen during the entire surgery, NOW that would be a "slave", lol.[/quote']

Lol. Even all the way down here in Australia we call the 2nd monitor the slave!

[hlrc2004]

A package is a pt that is boarded and collared

Zithromax and rocephin is the funk pesticide

A stoner is a possible kidney stone

Triage is the torture chamber or box of doom

Locked and labed is a pt that has a saline lock and urine and a rainbow to the lab

[ellaballet]

Hats and johnnies, bariatric beds are called big boy beds. The smaller beds that you can bring all the way to the ground are low boy beds. Computers are WOWs, our blood pressure machines are called dynamaps but I think thats the brand name..

A patient asked me for the "litter box" (bedpan) yesterday and I think thats going to catch on where I work...

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

We have hats for urine samples, big boy and low boy beds, computers are WOW's, dynamaps. The saline lock loop I call it a J loop. Christmas tree for the O2 connector.

[SaoirseRN]

A person ambulating with their IV pole is going for a walk with their Polish friend.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Upper and lower endoscopy is a spinner

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

OMG, I couldn't sleep thinking of all the "nicknames" we use.

Tonsil sucker - Yankauer suction

Nose hose - NG tube

Bunny boots - foam heel protectors

Bunny suit - disposable white jumpsuit used for visitors to the OR

Peek and shriek - open and close surgery when cancer is too widespread to remove

Sundowner - ICU patient (usually elderly) that is perfectly normal during the day but gets demented at night

Expensive Care Unit - answering phone in ICU, "Expensive Care Unit, this is Nurse Nancy, may I help you?)

Eggcrate - foam overlay placed on beds for treating decubitus ulcers

Crotch rot - smelly perineal area (usually female)

Wallet Biopsy - patient transfer to University Hospital from Private Hospital after finding out patient doesn't have insurance

Orthopods - orthopedic surgery doctors

Respiratory mistreatment - going out for a smoke break

Bugs / bug juice - bacteria / antibiotics

Butts and guts - GI clinic

Levophed leaves 'em dead - futile last effort to use a vasopressor to prolong life

Tombstone "T" waves - configuration of EKG in an acute MI

Send patient to the floor - transfer patient to regular Med-Surg unit from ICU

Buffalo cap - heparin lock

[jsepark119]

One of our patients would continuously yell "BILL!!" for hours and hours until we gave her Ativan, at which point she would stop. As a result, whenever we had a patient who had trouble calming down, the nurses would be looking for Bill. :)

[lpnpgh123]

Not much use for pipettes anymore( mostly for QC's), but pipettes= Barbie Baster

smoke break = PFT's