Nurse Slang Yo!

Nurses General Nursing

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So this morning, after my alarm clock rudely woke me up (so ruuuuude :sniff:) , 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!

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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.

Thanks!

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.

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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!"

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Specializes in Critical Care.

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!

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Where is the link for the actual article?

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LOL, Garden Party, catching the bus.

The rude and disrespectful language I hear from American nurses when talking about their patients surprises me every time. This is not about a little dark humour to cope with the stresses of the job. Can you imagine yourselves as the relatives of a PVS patient hearing yourselves referred to as a garden party? Words fail me.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
LOL, Garden Party, catching the bus.

The rude and disrespectful language I hear from American nurses when talking about their patients surprises me every time. This is not about a little dark humour to cope with the stresses of the job. Can you imagine yourselves as the relatives of a PVS patient hearing yourselves referred to as a garden party? Words fail me.

I'm confused here. You lol but then shake your finger at us. We are not saying these things in front of the family/patient. We would never do that. We all cope in different ways & using dark humor is one way many nurses cope. You may not like it but it doesn't make it wrong.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
Where is the link for the actual article?

What article, huh?

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Specializes in Hospice.
LOL, Garden Party, catching the bus.

The rude and disrespectful language I hear from American nurses when talking about their patients surprises me every time. This is not about a little dark humour to cope with the stresses of the job. Can you imagine yourselves as the relatives of a PVS patient hearing yourselves referred to as a garden party? Words fail me.

Please stable your high horse, and refrain from throwing out the "Ugly American" stereotype.

Yes, some of the humor you read here is very dark and would certainly be considered inappropriate IF it was said in front of the patients and families.

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Organised Chaos. You are confused because you didn't read the comments. Lol = little old lady apparently.

I don't think it matters that you don't say it in front of patients / relatives. Referring to a PVS

Patient as a garden? Tell me you'd be happy with that from the carer of your relatives? Unbelievable.

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I'm confused here. You lol but then shake your finger at us. We are not saying these things in front of the family/patient. We would never do that. We all cope in different ways & using dark humor is one way many nurses cope. You may not like it but it doesn't make it wrong.

Consider the source. look at her comment on the "8 nursing tips when caring for geriatric patients in the er" article

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://allnurses.com/emergency-nursing/8-nursing-tips-1005763.html&sa=U&ved=0CAUQFjAAahUKEwjj1dLGpIvIAhWIjA0KHVMjDTM&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNEOvqZFJeKGLKl8TKyey3BmppXYkA

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Organised Chaos. You are confused because you didn't read the comments. Lol = little old lady apparently.

I don't think it matters that you don't say it in front of patients / relatives. Referring to a PVS

Patient as a garden? Tell me you'd be happy with that from the carer of your relatives? Unbelievable.

I think it *does* matter that we don't say it in front of them.

Guess we disagree!

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I never mentioned ugly Americans. This is an American website and the language I hear consistently on hear (not just this post) really surprises me. We clearly live in different cultures and the language I hear on here was inappropriate 30 years ago. I'm just surprised.

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