What does an order of "Q2D" mean to you?

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I thought that it meant that if I give the medication on Monday then Tuesday would be day one and Wednesday would be day two and so I would give it on day two. I'm being told by someone who is not a nurse (our RN is out on leave for two months and we have a director over us who is not a nurse taking her place) that if I give it on Monday then Tuesday would be day one and Wednesday would be day two but I would give it on Thursday (I would think that would be day three). Is that true? I was told this as I was leaving work and so I haven't had a chance to verify this with the doctor and of course today is Friday.

By the way, I'm an LVN with just over one year experience working at a facility that deals with Assisted Living/Memory Care. Thanks for any insight you can give me until I can check this with the doctor.

I see QOD pretty frequently. Guess we're backwards out here :-)

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What in the world? Why didn't the doc just order it every other day or Q48h or something clear? A day is 24 hours, so technically Q2D is Q48h, but why would you even use that? Docs know that people are dumb and that someone in administration will screw it up if ANYTHING is left to interpretation.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I don't understand how ANYONE would interpret q2d as on the THIRD day.

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I don't understand how ANYONE would interpret q2d as on the THIRD day.

Bwahaha! Your admin peeps must be smarter than some of mine.

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Q2D means nothing to me but R2D2 means everything!

May the Force be with you!

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I'd interpret Q2D as every second day, but not being a recognized abbreviation, I'd contact the person that wrote the order to seek clarification. Now you younger nurses are going to think I'm nuts, but 4 years of Latin (which I took in high school) was recommended before entering nursing as prescriptions/orders used Latin abbreviations. I never had a problem with abbreviations, albeit I did with some illegible hand-written orders. If I'm taking the order off a chart and I don't understand the order I call the ordering practitioner for clarification. It lessens my chances of being caught up in litigation.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.
I see QOD pretty frequently. Guess we're backwards out here :-)

No, you're a hip, happening, with-it nurse. Your prescribers are backward for using abbreviations that have been on JCAHO's mandatory "do not use" list since 2004. Always blame the prescriber.

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We mostly write everything out anyway because we have to use laymen's terms for our patients but I didn't know QD and QOD were no longer approved. 2004 was mid SAHM days for me and it has otherwise never come up at work as far as I know.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Figure 1, Chapter 5, Official do not use” list - Making Health Care Safer II - NCBI Bookshelf

The link above contains Joint Commission's current Do Not Use list, as of 2013. QOD and QD are on the list.

Q2D is not specifically listed, but the suggested alternative to QOD is to write out "every other day".

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I would read it as every other day and give it on Wednesday if the first dose were on Monday. However, an order of "every other day" is much better.

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If I make a shopping list I'll write "with" like "c" with the line.

Without = "s" with the line.

I also do a 1 like the little t with the dot over it, the sign for 1 tab.

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If I make a shopping list I'll write "with" like "c" with the line.

Without = "s" with the line.

I also do a 1 like the little t with the dot over it, the sign for 1 tab.

I do this without thinking sometimes. When my daughter was a newborn I was sleep deprived and didn't catch myself. Gave my husband the shopping list...and got to continue being sleep deprived because the phone rang to ask what it all meant and woke us both up😫

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