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.
Go, you! I've never even heard of a Kennedy Terminal wound before.
They show up at the lower back/sacral area, start out purple/blue/black and have kind of a shiny, leathery appearance. If a declining patient develops one, death usually occurs within 24-36 hours. First described by a Hospice Nurse.
Treatment is supportive; cover with a foam dressing for protection, and offload, just as you would a pressure wound.
It's thought that they develop as multi organ/system failure progresses. Remember, skin is an organ.
Even turning q2 hours won't prevent one. It's called "7-3" syndrome; nothing there at the beginning of the shift, last position change of the shift...bam. (It was first described back in the Stone Age, hence the 8 hour shift reference lol).
Pain is subjective. If YOU don't think it's painful, it's not for an ER nurse to insist that it is. Irresponsible of him/her to say that to you.
I viewed it differently. I looked at it like, the doctor was trying to make sure that she was not under treated for pain.
Similar to certain cultures that do not admit to being in true pain. We have to be mindful of that. Written poorly on the doctor's part, but I think he was just trying to make sure that a good pain assessment was done and that her pain was treated appropriately.
Why are you offended by her comment? I wasn't! In fact, I found it humourous! #1 - I had to explain to her that, yes, I knew what a GOMER was, and why/how I knew the acronym #2 I AGREED with Dr "starts with S, ends with ski(cause, although I have seen him myself 3 times, twice with my boys in the past 20 yrs, I cannot for the life of me remember his full name), my pain scale IS OFF! 10 was a breech birth, no meds, rush to the OR, too late, emergency episiotomy to assist ; 9.5 was en-caul, posterior, pressing on sciatic nerve, cord wrapped and calcified, no meds, NO DOCTOR! THANK THE LORD FOR LD NURSES!!!!! (according to my hubby, took 4 surgical packs to stitch me back up once DR "I was at a dinner party, I didn't think I needed to rush" bothered to show)
I REFUSED both Oxy and Perc because I DO NOT like the "helium filled frontal lobe", augmented hearing/sight/every vibration in the house feeling. She was most likely used to "T3s do nothing for me" type patient.
So, here is a question for you.
Ever had a patient apologize for being at the hospital because they felt it was a waste of your/hospitals time and/or resources? CAUSE THAT WAS MY REASONING FOR CALLING MYSELF A GOMER!!! I think the nurse was just SHOCKED that a non-medical person used the phrase!!
Specializes in CNS Pediatric Surgery, now retired.
WIMP = without inherent medical problem
For the FLKs (funny looking kids), where an abnormal appearance may be an undiagnosed syndrome, you have to make certain it is not UPS. Ugly parent syndrome.
They show up at the lower back/sacral area, start out purple/blue/black and have kind of a shiny, leathery appearance. If a declining patient develops one, death usually occurs within 24-36 hours. First described by a Hospice Nurse.
Treatment is supportive; cover with a foam dressing for protection, and offload, just as you would a pressure wound.
It's thought that they develop as multi organ/system failure progresses. Remember, skin is an organ.
Even turning q2 hours won't prevent one. It's called "7-3" syndrome; nothing there at the beginning of the shift, last position change of the shift...bam. (It was first described back in the Stone Age, hence the 8 hour shift reference lol).
Work a psych unit - BSC - Bat S Crazy; Circle with a Dot = Borderline/attention seeking; Special = Diva; M.R.ish - high functioning or not! Active family = Calls screaming & demanding this & that for the pt. I am sometimes heard whispering "Lord have mercy, Christ have Mercy, Lord have Mercy" on particularly bad days usually followed with quietly asking the nurse next to me to please stab me in the eye (to take my mind off of how crazy it is today!) We also have a few hand signs --- the OK sign (always with a smile) = A. Hole. Crossing self = Psychotic like in the movies. We all shake it off during report - but it can get pretty intense at times!!!
During my OB/PEDS clinical, I was in the nursery when a baby was wheeled in by another nurse. As she came in She said to the other nurse, "I have a FLK,". That sounded serious and the nurse I was shadowing seemed as if it was. I quickly rushed over with her to watch them assess the newborn. As I looked at the infant, I noticed it's head seemed larger than the other babies. I asked another standing by nurse what FLK was. She told me it means Funny Looking Kid. Its not meant to be mean but it's when certain features of an infant look different and even though the nurse might not know initially what is different/wrong the features thus prompts the nurse to continue assessment until the reason for an odd characteristic is found. Its sort of like a gut feeling based upon appearence and experience of common features among certain babies with genetic abnormalities. The nurses started doing measurements and were debating on calling a physician in to get a service opinion when the child's father came in. They both looked relieved and signed. There stood a FLP which had a huge head. Like father, like son.
When I worked neonatal, FLKs were usually described by one of our nurses as having "some kind of syndrome" and that passed on to the rest of us, so it became SKS. I didn't stay there so here are some others.
FFH syndrome: Family from Hell syndrome
PTA bath: should be self-explanatory. First heard from a little old lady when I was in home health! A cursory wash-up of the important parts so you don't stink too badly.
D/C (or turfed) to the Eternal Care Unit: died
POF: Pillow on Face. What you want to do to some patients
Jesus bus is parked outside the door, Jesus bus is waiting, etc.: Patient is actively dying
Guest of the state (or county): patient is a prisoner
Frequent flyer: frequent admit
Crock: patient with constant, usually imagined, complaints; might be really sick, but you never know
Serum porcelain level: patient is a crock, but how sick is s/he really? Asked by a fellow RN when a doc was ordering blood work on a patient that was a frequent flyer--she asked with a perfectly straight face, "Dr. S, do you want a serum porcelain with that?" He answered, "Nah, she'd break the machine!"
Haha, we had a patient hear us say we had to go get the COW out of bed 10 and assumed we were talking about another pt and complained. So we had to change ours to "TLCs"...I can't even remember what it stands for, lol!
) , 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!
Jensmom7, BSN, RN
1,907 Posts
They show up at the lower back/sacral area, start out purple/blue/black and have kind of a shiny, leathery appearance. If a declining patient develops one, death usually occurs within 24-36 hours. First described by a Hospice Nurse.
Treatment is supportive; cover with a foam dressing for protection, and offload, just as you would a pressure wound.
It's thought that they develop as multi organ/system failure progresses. Remember, skin is an organ.
Even turning q2 hours won't prevent one. It's called "7-3" syndrome; nothing there at the beginning of the shift, last position change of the shift...bam. (It was first described back in the Stone Age, hence the 8 hour shift reference lol).