So this morning, after my alarm clock rudely woke me up (so ruuuuude ) , I engaged in my terrible terrible habit of getting on facebook immediately after shutting my alarm off on my phone. I am friends with a few nursing students and they are always posting funny little nursey articles. Well this morning, one of my nursing student friends left a link to a pretty funny article that discussed the different slang used by nurses at work.They had it set up in a dictionary format, where they would use the words in a sentence as an example. As a dorky, overly excited pre-nursing student, I found them hilarious!
My fave was "PITA" which stood for Pain in the orifice.
Such as There is a PITA in room 9, just to let you know.
So I wanted everyone to share some of their "Nurse Slang" they may use daily or have heard before.
Donorcycle = motorcycle, since we see plenty of riders become organ donors
The floodgates opened = massive expulsion of liquid stool after days of no BM, and having given Senna, Colace, Miralax, and a Dulcolax supp. Bonus if pt also had an enema
Transfer button = call light, as in pt is on the call light so much, he's way too well to be in the ICU
Turn and water (was that one used? Might have been) = pt is stable on a vent. We're not doing much beyond repositioning and feeding/hydrating
12 hour assignment, aka one-shift assignment = pt and/or family is so high maintenence that no nurse is assigned to them two days in a row
Frontal, as in "he's very frontal" -- refers to behavior/personality patterns associated with a frontal lobe injury
In our place the Vegetable Garden was the neuro stepdown unit mostly populated by young men aged 16-28. They used to have bad judgment; now they have...none.
In our place the Vegetable Garden was the neuro stepdown unit mostly populated by young men aged 16-28. They used to have bad judgment; now they have...none.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Leave-'em-dead for levophed
In our place the Vegetable Garden was the neuro stepdown unit mostly populated by young men aged 16-28. They used to have bad judgment; now they have...none.
I think this quote is brilliant, pertinent, and well said! It's true!
I worked a fresh spinal-cord injury floor as my first job in nursing, right when they were coming up with the halo-frame, which in it's earliest form was an excrutiating bit of torture in that it was attached to a nearly 3/4 body-length Plaster of Paris cast! It has since become lighter weight with a better design.
One guy in a circo-electric bed said her felt like a shish-kebob on spit, being turned every two hours. Since sick humor is rife in that kind of specialty, we took to calling him "Bob" even though that was not his name. He wasn't offended; he said he wished he had never said the word.
Young guys think they are, as the song goes, "Ten foot tall and bullet-proof".
Here are a few from OR, ER and PACU, anesthesia orders Vitamin V, to promote relaxation prior to entering the OR, patient remains conscious enough to follow most commands more or less, and develops general amnesia about the entire procedure for moving, posisitioning and prepping, and in merciful grace forgets most or all of anesthesias jokes during induction. Surgical team all lights a candle for the guy who came up with versed, every sunday Catholic or not.
Kids and Vitamin V, the dosage the child receives prep is in direct correlation to how nervous his/her mother is and how far we can get said parent away from the child before administering med. Then its effectiveness us marked by how long it takes the parents to say good bye. If V is still working, mask goes on kid goes night night IV slides in like magic and away we go. If V doesnt last long enough you just pray that preop took off those rock hard sneakers so when you take the little foot in the gut at least the edges are soft.
What goes up must come down. When doing certain rectal surgeries with a supine male patient, certain things must be taped up and out of the way. And although it seems a simple gravity related rule, the reverse of this process increases in importance exponentially. Forgetting to tape them up might get you and annoyed surgeon explaining that you should know to do this without reminder. However forgetting to UNtape them and let them down will get you a disoriented patient waking from anesthesia, moving the wrong way and suddenly screaming like someone is ripping out his pubic hair one by one ...which they are while trying to get the tape they forgot to remove. The nurse sometime receives a hairy little ribbon of tape to keep as a reminder of what she did to that nice Mr Doe.
This is one I remember from ER, flm=flk ...funny looking mother, funny looking kid.
On the Vitamin V for preop kids: I didn't want the pre-op staff to know my profession because they treat us differently when they know. It was a hospital different from my system, no one knows me. (that was a matter of needing a specialist not available 'in network,' not avoiding recognition). So the preop nurse brings the medication to my son to drink and I couldn't help it..."What's the dose?" /dang, my cover is blown. 'Oh. Are you a nurse?" she said flatly. "Yes," I respond sheepishly. (god bless why am I using so many adverbs?)
But he was funny as heck on that stuff.
My immediate thought reading this is .... It's a little sad the nurse asked if you're a nurse just because you wanted to know what med your kid was getting. Do parents not regularly ask?
My immediate thought reading this is .... It's a little sad the nurse asked if you're a nurse just because you wanted to know what med your kid was getting. Do parents not regularly ask?
I think it was more the fact that she asked about the dose. Most civilian parents would just say "What's that for?"
I blew my cover when my mom was in ICU and declining rapidly. She developed a Kennedy Terminal wound, and none of the ICU staff had ever seen one. So they were a bit flaily, and couldn't figure out how a wound that bad had literally developed in a few hours. So I held an impromptu inservice at the Nurses station and reassured them that they hadn't done anything wrong. The doc ordered a Hospice eval when I was done talking.
I think it was more the fact that she asked about the dose. Most civilian parents would just say "What's that for?"
I blew my cover when my mom was in ICU and declining rapidly. She developed a Kennedy Terminal wound, and none of the ICU staff had ever seen one. So they were a bit flaily, and couldn't figure out how a wound that bad had literally developed in a few hours. So I held an impromptu inservice at the Nurses station and reassured them that they hadn't done anything wrong. The doc ordered a Hospice eval when I was done talking.
Go, you! I've never even heard of a Kennedy Terminal wound before.
) , I engaged in my terrible terrible habit of getting on facebook immediately after shutting my alarm off on my phone. I am friends with a few nursing students and they are always posting funny little nursey articles. Well this morning, one of my nursing student friends left a link to a pretty funny article that discussed the different slang used by nurses at work.They had it set up in a dictionary format, where they would use the words in a sentence as an example. As a dorky, overly excited pre-nursing student, I found them hilarious!
Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN
5,047 Posts
Donorcycle = motorcycle, since we see plenty of riders become organ donors
The floodgates opened = massive expulsion of liquid stool after days of no BM, and having given Senna, Colace, Miralax, and a Dulcolax supp. Bonus if pt also had an enema
Transfer button = call light, as in pt is on the call light so much, he's way too well to be in the ICU
Turn and water (was that one used? Might have been) = pt is stable on a vent. We're not doing much beyond repositioning and feeding/hydrating
12 hour assignment, aka one-shift assignment = pt and/or family is so high maintenence that no nurse is assigned to them two days in a row
Frontal, as in "he's very frontal" -- refers to behavior/personality patterns associated with a frontal lobe injury