Wards terminology is making my brain explode

[SonOfKrypton]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I just started my first rotation (pediatrics) and wards terminology is already making me want to shoot myself in the fact mainly because, even though there are some terms I know and understand from 1st and 2nd ear (like QID for example), there are other terms which are simply not explained and which I don't want to look like a ******* for and ask of during rounding with my team. For example: "I&D", "p/w", "q6hr", and "s/p". Is there like a medical dictionary online that can define all of these somewhere? I really don't want to ask other students or my residents and look stupid, but I want to learn also. Delicate balance...

 

[Bacchus]

Incision and drainage
presents with
every 6 hours
status post

If there is an acronym you don't understand, google it. There are general ones you'll grow to know and others you'll never remember. Google google google.

 

[J-Rad]

I&D-incision and drainage
p/w-? (d/w? discuss with)
q="every"; q6hr=every six hours
s/p-status post

http://www.medilexicon.com/medicalabbreviations.php

This site is also good to show why a lot of abbreviations should be avoided or, at least, minimized. Too many abbreviations with multiple definitions. Example: look up "PTA".

Depending on how strident your hospital is on adhering to the JC banned abbreviations list (http://www.csahq.org/pdf/bulletin/issue_3/dailey.pdf) there are some, in particular, that should be avoided.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I just started my first rotation (pediatrics) and wards terminology is already making me want to shoot myself in the fact mainly because, even though there are some terms I know and understand from 1st and 2nd ear (like QID for example), there are other terms which are simply not explained and which I don't want to look like a ******* for and ask of during rounding with my team. For example: "I&D", "p/w", "q6hr", and "s/p". Is there like a medical dictionary online that can define all of these somewhere? I really don't want to ask other students or my residents and look stupid, but I want to learn also. Delicate balance...

Get with the unit ward clerk and see if they will give you the study sheet for the ward clerk exam and all the acronyms used in the hospital for their job. Then you won't be so much in the dark.

 

[evilbooyaa]

All of these things are googleable. Luckily you have some nice people willing to tell you the right answers.

Just type in a simple 'What does s/p mean' or whatever term you aren't familiar with. It's one thing to be unfamiliar with it on the floors (in which case if its important just ask someone), it's quite another to come back to your computer and still be unable to figure out the answer.

Now if you're asking for, separately, a full list, I have not in my time been exposed to a certain list. If it's the first week of your first rotation or whatever, people will forgive you not knowing the basic ones.

Here's a few that I had no idea about until a few days in
BRBPR, UGIB, LGIB, c/o, p/w, d/w, 2/2, etc. etc.

 

[45408]

Now if you're asking for, separately, a full list, I have not in my time been exposed to a certain list. If it's the first week of your first rotation or whatever, people will forgive you not knowing the basic ones.

http://www.globalrph.com/abbrev.htm

The list is of varying quality. AED is listed as "anti-epileptic drug," but I have only ever heard it in reference to an "automated external defibrillator."

 

[dally1025]

I just started my first rotation (pediatrics) and wards terminology is already making me want to shoot myself in the fact mainly because, even though there are some terms I know and understand from 1st and 2nd ear (like QID for example), there are other terms which are simply not explained and which I don't want to look like a ******* for and ask of during rounding with my team. For example: "I&D", "p/w", "q6hr", and "s/p". Is there like a medical dictionary online that can define all of these somewhere? I really don't want to ask other students or my residents and look stupid, but I want to learn also. Delicate balance...

Give it time, soon you'll be speaking in acronym too...

 

[evilbooyaa]

http://www.globalrph.com/abbrev.htm

The list is of varying quality. AED is listed as "anti-epileptic drug," but I have only ever heard it in reference to an "automated external defibrillator."

Got through the letter A, and I'd say 75% of them are actually pretty useful (and all review for the most part)

Thanks for the link.

 

[Siggy]

Ppl don't usually talk with acronyms on the wards right? It's mostly seen in charts?

Depends. Lab acronyms like CBC, BMP, BNP, SPEP, UPEP are common. Chart acronyms like "s/p" are not.

 

[dally1025]

Ppl don't usually talk with acronyms on the wards right? It's mostly seen in charts?

I use a lot of acronyms/abbreviations when I talk as do a lot of the nurses, residents, and attendings. A few words aren't abbreviated but you'll hear q4, bid, lap chole, ACS, COPD, EGD, DKA way more often than every 4 hours, twice a day, laproscopic cholecystectomy, acute coronary syndrome, etc... Every time you change rotations you have to learn the specialty specific ones (AMA in Ob is advanced materal age but everywhere else in the hospital it's against medical advice). It's tough but don't feel stupid for having to ask. We all had to learn at some point.

 

[Bacchus]

I use a lot of acronyms/abbreviations when I talk as do a lot of the nurses, residents, and attendings. A few words aren't abbreviated but you'll hear q4, bid, lap chole, ACS, COPD, EGD, DKA way more often than every 4 hours, twice a day, laproscopic cholecystectomy, acute coronary syndrome, etc... Every time you change rotations you have to learn the specialty specific ones (AMA in Ob is advanced materal age but everywhere else in the hospital it's against medical advice). It's tough but don't feel stupid for having to ask. We all had to learn at some point.

On cardio last year I went on a bit about how I didn't agree with the diagnosis of MR on a patient. Then I found out she was had MR and wasn't MR. Mental ******ation vs. Mitral Regurg, haha.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

I just started my first rotation (pediatrics) and wards terminology is already making me want to shoot myself in the fact mainly because, even though there are some terms I know and understand from 1st and 2nd ear (like QID for example), there are other terms which are simply not explained and which I don't want to look like a ******* for and ask of during rounding with my team. For example: "I&D", "p/w", "q6hr", and "s/p". Is there like a medical dictionary online that can define all of these somewhere? I really don't want to ask other students or my residents and look stupid, but I want to learn also. Delicate balance...

In general, using shorthand like that is dangerous. Just becuase YOU know what it means, doesn't mean the person READING it knows what it means. Documentation isn't just for billing and legalities, its to communicate what's going on. That being said, everyone does it.

In time, you will see the same things over and over again. You will begin to use them in your own vocabulary. You will have a strong contingent of acronyms (those listed in this thread) that everyone will understand. Depending on your field, you will develop fringe acronyms that most people understand.

The most frustrating thing is reading some crappy VA note from dermatology where they use all abbreviations that only a dermatologist can understand. This has happened to me twice. You will develop acronyms that make sense to you and no one else. Refrain from using these as best you can.

The goal should be to eliminate shorthand from your notes. On a practical standpoint, when you're writing 10, 12, or 15 notes (and are trying to be thorough) it is impossible not to; it just takes too long. But know, in time, the things you thought were confusion fuse with your vocabulary, they become innate. Its like learning another language (again). Stick with it, the more you use it, the more you see it, the easier it becomes.

 

[235009]

I just started my first rotation (pediatrics) and wards terminology is already making me want to shoot myself in the fact mainly because, even though there are some terms I know and understand from 1st and 2nd ear (like QID for example), there are other terms which are simply not explained and which I don't want to look like a ******* for and ask of during rounding with my team. For example: "I&D", "p/w", "q6hr", and "s/p". Is there like a medical dictionary online that can define all of these somewhere? I really don't want to ask other students or my residents and look stupid, but I want to learn also. Delicate balance...

to make ur head explode even more I&D can also mean irrigation and debridement depending on who you're talking to. I learned that the hard way during my subI when i was talking to a plastics resident on the phone and got really confused when he told me they wanted to I&D a skin graft infection.

anyway....you weren't born knowing what "lol", "wtf", "qft", "imo", and "ymmv" mean ...and just like you eventually learned what they mean and it's second nature to use them online you will also learn the multitude of abbreviations used in medicine.

in general google is your friend...if you google the word "abbreviation" before whatever abbreviation you're confused about you should find the meaning fairly quickly

 

[st0w]

Is there like a medical dictionary online that can define all of these somewhere? I really don't want to ask other students or my residents and look stupid, but I want to learn also. Delicate balance...

If you're an iPhone user, I'd highly recommend this:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/medabbreviations-medical-abbreviations/id303058840?mt=8

Best $0.99 I ever spent on a medical app, made third year a whole lot easier.

 

[csnitchl]

Back in the day when I was a 3rd year I was getting really frustrated with all that stuff too. Just realize that learning the lingo is 90% of the game of third year. Try to make yourself sound competent (even if you're just saying what the intern tells you), act like you're interested in every specialty, and occasionally throw something out there during rounds so they know you've been reading.

 

[link2swim06]

http://www.globalrph.com/abbrev.htm

The list is of varying quality. AED is listed as "anti-epileptic drug," but I have only ever heard it in reference to an "automated external defibrillator."

I just finished neuro rotation...AED is mentioned all the time in their notes when they mean "anti-epileptic drug" so it is a valid abbrev, but I have yet to see it any note from another service.

I guess it is one of those which is specialty specific. As you said when most people read AED they think of something else...I sure did.

 

[CaptainSSO]

'""

 

[VenusinFurs]

AFSOF: anterior fontanelle soft, open, flat

Tripped me up a couple days ago.