Hospital ID Bracelets

[Kris199699]

I have a question for the more experienced nurses than me. I am a new to the floor as a nurse.

The other day we had a female patient who was transferred from a different hospital. She still had her ID bracelets on from the previous hospital and their was one that caught me off guard it was Orange and it had DFS on it. (printed not hand written) Our hospital does not have these. What does DFS stand for, any background for it? I am just wanting to know I have no knowledge of these.

[djh123]

This is why I'm not a fan of acronyms, especially those that we don't "all" know - and I just put that in quotes because even with some of the most common ones, if it's not used in your nursing specialty (or maybe even in your facility), you may not know what it means.

Actual words are a lot harder to confuse (but are still, sometimes).

DFS?

Dog For Sale

Distal Foot Staples

Don't Forget Sandwiches

Don't Friend Steve

Dementia; Fuzzy Stuff

...

[amoLucia]

In New Jersey, it's DYFS - Division of Youth and Family Services. So maybe you are dealing with Family Services. It will make a big difference for you all if you need to make any notifications or seek consents. Get the answer resolved ASAP.

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

On that note - if it is DFS, could it be she's an abuse victim and her visitors are screened?

Then again, you'd think all this would've been passed on in report!

You need to call the previous facility. It might mean NOTHING, or it might be extremely important.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

Diabetic Finger Stick? Maybe they've had a problem with people forgetting the finger-sticks, and this helps remind them. I have never seen orange used.

[FurBabyMom, MSN, RN]

I have no idea what the intent behind DFS would have been. There are, as others pointed out, so many possible answers it's hard to tell.

We remove all "old" namebands once the patient arrives in our facility and has a nameband for our facility. The only time we keep namebands with patients when they arrive is in the case of an unidentified patient that is transferred to our facility from another. Even then we remove it and place it attached in their paper chart (and only kept until positive identification has occurred).

[Julius Seizure]

I'm not sure, but I have some guesses based on what I would want to know about a new patient:

Drug-Seeking Female

Diet Sugar Free

Demands Some Food

Doesn't Seem Funny

Doesn't Speak Fluently

Does Some Fibrillating

Diagnosis Sounds F....

Death Sounds Feasible