Please help interpret this order

sorry i gotta say it....if you don't understand that order, you don't need to be giving meds.

if you would read the op's profile, it's posted on there that he/she is a pre-nursing student. please do a little research before you start getting nasty.

back up a minute. the question was not what is the dosage frequency. i would have to verify that with the doctor even though i know exactly what it should be.

the question was 'what does ntg mean and what does sl mean' i'd say that's pretty basic nursing knowledge. i would have to seriously question a nurse giving meds who does know what ntg sl means.

it states in op's profile, that she is a pre-nursing student.

maybe she's a med aide?

and yes, while the order is technically and legally incomplete, the op was asking only about the drug and route...

although many docs end up adding to their orders, per manufacturer instructions or something similar.

leslie

the question was 'what does ntg mean and what does sl mean' i'd say that's pretty basic nursing knowledge. i would have to seriously question a nurse giving meds who does know what ntg sl means.

the op is a prenursing student. so she's unlikely giving meds. again even if something is obvious, as a matter of principle abbreviations & apothecary units should be avoided. few mfr's give dosing strenghts in grains/drams etc. and sometimes the obvious isn't so...there is an case where md used ssri to mean "sliding scale regular insulin" rather than an antidepressant but it was misinterpreted as so. now, in case of research publications (or other non-rx situations) it is an entirely different matter.

I don't read members profiles before I reply to a post, so that's kinda unfair to expect the poster to know this person is a pre-nursing student.

She was asking as though she had an order she didn't understand in terms of NTG and SL.

Can someone help interpret this....... what is NTG and sl stand for?

• NTG 1/150 sl prn chest pain
  

Boy- people are pretty touch yaround here.

There are three things you should know about this order.

1. As already answered, it is for nitroglycerin, given sublingual, in the standard dose of 0.4 mg. (1/150 grain = 0.4 mg)

2. Those particular abbreviations are common, and not likely to be misunderstood, given the context of chest pain. Those abbreviations might, or might not, be prohibited by your hospital.

3. It's a bad order. It's bad for a number of reasons, some nitpicky, some important.

a. There is no dose. While you may know that 1/150 is equivelant to 0.4 mg, that is not the same as the dose being written. (nitpicky)

b. This dose is a vailable as pill or spray. Does the doc care which is used? (nitpicky)

c. No frequency ordered. The standard would be every 5 minutes for a maximium of three doses, given adequate blood pressure. (important)

As a nurse, the correct thing to do with this order would be to call the doc as soon as it is discovered.

Good luck with your future as a nurse. Bet you didn't mean to start an argument with this reasonable and simple question.

hherrn