What is this symbol?

[elisabeth]

i've searched all over and can't find this anywhere. i don't even know what to call it. it looks like a t with a dot over it or tt with 2 dots over it. it's found on the practice med dosage calc test we have and is mentioned only in problems with gtts.

any help or direction would be much appreciated.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

When I write scripts ii or (if I'm sloppy), I write out the word "two" which is the way it should be...I would bet its the number 2.

[deleern]

Yep i & ii with a line is 1 and 2

[NBMom1225]

Yep, i = 1 and ii = 2:

For example:

Ultram 50mg

i - ii tab q6

means "1 - 2 tablets of Ultram 50mg every 6 hours"

(former pharmacy tech, newly accepted nursing student!)

[elisabeth]

So sometimes ii is 2 and sometimes that TT with the 2 dots is 2?

[Thedreamer]

dont forget ss with a line over it is half :X

[WolfpackRed]

dont forget ss with a line over it is half :X

yeah, but many hospitals have this on the DO NOT USE LIST as it can be confused for other things, like sliding scale etc.

[TazziRN, RN]

So sometimes ii is 2 and sometimes that TT with the 2 dots is 2?

No, TT with the dots is two but we can't type that so when typing ii means two. When it's written by hand it's the TT with dots.

[elisabeth]

Thank you all so much! :)

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

just like we have capital letters (upper case) and uncapitalized (lower case) letters in our alphabet, these are roman numbers in the lower case. most people are familiar with seeing only the capitalized roman numerals. you will generally see the lower case roman numerals used to paginate the prefaces of books. it is an old way of writing numbers doctor's orders. some of the older styles of print included a little serif at the top of the "i" which is probably how it got turned into looking like a "t" with a dot over it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/roman_numerals - the roman numerals

the ss with the line over it (which is the symbol for 1/2) is not recommended to be used anymore because it has been mistaken for the number "55" (per the institute for safe medication practices) http://www.ismp.org/tools/errorproneabbreviations.pdf