Nurse Slang Yo!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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!

When the circulating nurse brings the patient in the OR and says, How about a "high five", it means the patient has HIV.

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Denim/Haldol cocktail.

That's a shot of Haldol THROUGH the jeans wherever we can get a jab in on a usually moving, psychotic target.

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TFTB- Too fat to breath

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Specializes in critical care, LTC.
Penile Intubation: putting a Foley in a male patient :)

Dang! I thought I coined that phrase. Was brain dead at the end of a wild shift and couldn't think of the words "anchored a foley" and "intubated his member" came out instead.

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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!!

AND refused powerful pain meds!

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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!!

AND refused powerful pain meds!

Ummm, wut?

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Pillow therapy- the desire to put a pillow over your patient's mouth to shut them up (used in jest)

Theraputic wait time- often used in the ED for patient's that have non urgent needs

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Farawyn :

Sorry, first day on site posting. was trying to respond to anothers comment about my original post about laughing at an ER nurses response to a note left in my hospital file. The responder (sorry, too late in the night to go back and figure out who) responded-" 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."

My intent was to dispute his/her opinion of "not for an ER nurse to insist" . My original post was about the fact I am NOT a nurse, I DO know what GOMER stands for, and at that point in time, I considered myself one, even though medical staff did not agree. And, that my pain scale is off, according to the ER staff/docs in my town.

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Ummm, wut?

AND I just figured out to hit "quote" not "reply" to keep everyone in the loop. Will try to do better in the future :D

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Climber -those patients who just don't stay in bed.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Babysitting - caring for a drunk or demented patient who is sleeping/not causing too much trouble.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Frisky - description of those patients who are a little too comfortable with their nurses.

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