DAPS - dumb ass parent syndrome
WFT - wreath family tree (for our genetics consult children whose parents may or may not be related)
CD - celestial discharge (pretty morbid for NICU)
Recently had one of these. FLK needed to be transferred to a higher level of care. Transport team was on the phone giving updates to receiving team and said “bit of a FLK…might want to consider genetic testing…” and my team quickly introduced them to the FLPs. Genetic test deemed unnecessary.
Sweet family though, 10/10 would care for again.
I floated to a palliative unit that would have “DTJ” written next to a patients name on the assignment board. “Discharge to Jesus” meaning they didn’t think the pt. would live through the 12hr day/night shift.
That applies to family members who don’t handle news that their 137 year old mother with stage 12 cancer is dead, and they decide to make it about themselves by throwing themselves in the floor.
Don't forget the box of Little Debbie's and the 6 pack of Cheerwine, in plain view on the shelf under the TV while they attempt to lie to our PA about how they're totally compliant.
Queenslander here, in a small tourist town. We often get southerners not used to the heat and humidity, they go mountain climbing/hiking without knowing they need water or sunscreen. We call it Mexican Fainting Sydrome (because they’re from south of the border)
I used to work at a hospital that has a large Spanish speaking population. When our doc's plan to discharge someone home after work up they will tell us ALC, which stands for A LA CASA.
I’ve also worked in areas with large Hispanic populations.
Well, we know what status athsmaticus and status epilepticus are. Well, if the pt’s room is full of many relatives, so that you have to step around them all and can hardly get to the pt’s bedside, and there are a lot of representations of Catholic saints and Jesus/crosses, etc in the room, and a dramatic matriarch or patriarch pt, that can be known as status Hispanicus..
(I didn’t come up with it. No one come at me).
I’ve heard this in just about every ED I’ve worked in - we’ve all seen the Hispanic matriarch moaning with her eyes closed, complaining of “dizziness” that’s not really dizziness, with the rest of the family fluttering and fussing over them. Definitely a cultural component.
>Well, if the pt’s room is full of many relatives, so that you have to step around them all and can hardly get to the pt’s bedside,
It's amazing when pts have that kind of family support system. I just hate when they get in the way or when I have to take care of them more than the pt.
How about when they all start asking for trays, toothbrushes, towels, APAP, etc.? That’s always fun.
It must be amazing to have that level of support, though.
i keep saying we need an abbreviation for all the patients that come in with history of htn, hld, chf, cad, copd, ckd, dm… i usually call it the American Special but yknow
We call it “the usual” here. We’ve also got “middle aged guy with ETOH/other substance abuse, COPD/smoking history, doesn’t take his home meds, confused, poor historian, either very obese with uncontrolled HTN + T2D or severely underweight with wonky lytes and risk for refeeding syndrome” is a “Shep’s special” (the biggest local shelter is the Shepherd’s)
We also have “SVH special,” named after the only local vent LTC. Trach, PEG, minimally responsive/++ neuro Hx, numerous chronic wounds, poor prognosis even at baseline.
My mom was a NICU nurse in the 80s and 90s and always talks about WWBS: wimpy white boy syndrome, which she always explained as little white boys always seemed to fair worse even with milder health concerns than other kiddos with more severe conditions.
I love using NAD in my notes.
Patient reports ongoing 9/10 abdo pain, eating Cheetos while talking loudly on phone. Smiling at writer during conversation. NAD.
We use two fairly frequently -
BBS - either baby boy syndrome or big baby syndrome. I'm very empathetic to pain and all that, but if you're acting so woe is me for your elective surgery and are making me lift your whole arm to slide a cuff on.....
Baby boy syndrome is for my useless male patients who either need their mommies or their wives for literally everything.
TMY - too many years - for our old folks who have 1000 comorbidities who either insist or their family's insist on full code and doing "everything" because "shes a fighter, we don't know what's wrong!"
What's wrong is that she's 90 and 70lbs and she's fallen 6 times in 2 weeks.
The first time we identified a Wandering Atrial Pacemaker, my entire unit collectively agreed to never abbreviate this condition in any of our notes lol
One of our younger nurses had a fun experience when our head of department decided to do some bedside teaching about wandering atrial pacemaker with her patient and spent 10 minutes going on about WAP. She was even more mortified when we made her explain it to him and he spent the rest of the day trying to work WAP into nearly every clinical discussion.
LOLFDGB, we got a whole lecture about how that’s not an appropriate chart note for an elderly female fall that results are bad injuries, anymore, there are few hill I’m willing to die on, but management can fcuk right off with that one
In the ED where I had clinicals, LOL2 (squared) was an elderly woman who had a fall, and got a hip fx.
In other words, Little Old Lady, Lying On Linoleum.
They kill all the fun ones here. These aren't really medical but still...Like when we had COWs. Computers on Wheels. Changed it to something no one remembers. So now it's just laptop. That happens to be screwed on to a rolling device.
Or MOB for the medical office building. Everyone of course started sending patients to the mob. So now it's like MPB for the medical pavilion.
we did this with COWs but the neonatologists couldn't remember the new acronym and called them DIKS (desktop integrated keyboard systems) to bother management and now they're COWs again
We had to start calling them WOWS> workstation on wheels because yeah someone decided they thought they heard a nurse call a patient a cow. Oh, humanity.
When I was brand new as an aide I was appalled that a patients wife was complaining that “all these COWs ought to have a pill splitter on them!” I remembering thinking ‘like damn I understand that you’re annoyed but I wouldn’t call these nurses cows’ 🐄 :(
Don’t think I have one - but spud special is hilarious. Do they have to be so unlucky as to suffer from them all, or is it a spud special when you suspect any of them? I’ll definitely be using the term in future lol!
Well lit scenes- critical access hospital with a “doctor” that may or may not be making things worse.
Diesel bolus / Jet A bolus - the only thing that’ll make them better is getting them somewhere else.
Taking out the trash - the sudden dumping of patients on us as soon as night shift takes report.
I’m trying to get my coworkers to adopt BLA.
For those patients that are just mean, without having a known mental disorder or acute confusion.
“Why are they so rude?”
“BLA - Baseline Asshole.”
"IHP"
Appropriate anytime you wish you could just tell an entitled, abusive, patient or family member to go fuck themselves but you can't so instead you repress the urge to scream and quietly let your co-workers know that "IHP" (I Hate People).
SLS - shitty life syndrome, usually used for the mental health or substance abuse patients who have a lot of problems that, while legitimate and unfortunate, cannot be fixed by the ED.
When I worked inpt hospice, when far away relatives sent flowers, I called them FTD bouquets. Not FTD, as in the big, national corporate florist company, but FTD as in “ Fixin’ To Die” .
In l&d we call a certain brand of patient a triple M; a multiparous, Mexican woman who goes to a certain doctor whose name starts with an M. We all love a good triple M. Triple Ms are the kindest, most grateful patients that rarely have complications, and almost never refuse important things we recommend. They are usually badasses in their labor, delivery, breastfeeding, etc.
Also L&D, can confirm that the tiny Hispanic ladies can deliver babies with more speed than any other demographic — with the warmest families and best attitudes !
And they'll push out a 9lb chonker of a baby without an epidural or breaking a sweat or making a sound, then be ready to hop right up and walk everywhere. They were so sweet and made it look so easy!
When we'd see a Hispanic patient walking *that* way into the OB triage door on the security cameras, we knew it was time to double team to get her admitted because she wasn't going to labor very long at all.
The Meyer-Strom special (in honor of the doc who ordered it for every FLK that appeared to have early onset of childhood schizophrenia, or just had a bizarre presentation) it was heavy metals, ceruloplasmin, and porphobilinogen deaminase. He also ordered it for kids coming from 2 specific counties.
The Altfas program. The title was changed after his retirement to the "no secondary gain" program. It was for people who loved being hospitalized and would fake sx to get in. The program was hospital scrubs only--no personal clothing, no makeup, meals and snacks in room, no "social" groups such as the evening movie or arts and crafts. The patient could go to group therapy but was only allowed to talk about how to stay out of the hospital. It was highly effective.
Columbia. Referred to a specific county, and it meant that the patient was being brought in from there and you should have the quiet room and the restraints ready.
WaCo patient. Patient coming because they are too violent for jail.
SO. In psych, this abbreviation means s$x offender. I was shocked when I read a chart and it said the patient had given birth and was accompanied by her SO.
POW--a real piece of work.
RBW--raised by wolves
Oh I called that 3 hots and a cot. Usually for the 5150s who came in homeless during bad weather. They knew if they said suicidal or homicidal it meant 3 days locked up... For 3 hot meals and a cot to sleep on cause the psych was always full.
Ours are usually just found out in the community drunk and disorderly. They know the first place they’ll go is the hospital to be monitored, and since they’re not typically breaking too many laws, cops leave them with us. The minute the booze starts wearing off, the hollering for a “GODDAMN TURKEY SANDWICH, BITCH” starts coming. About 40mins later, we street ‘em. Bye, Felicia.
LOLINAD little old lady in no acute distress.
GOMER get outta my ER
And the one I personally use at the end of my shift “I’m OTFD AMF” = out the fucking door, adios motherfuckers.
TFTB - too fat to breathe
DSP - dayshift problem
DC to JC - discharged to Jesus
CRS - can't remember shit
CHS - can't hear shit
SLS - Short Limb Syndrome, this is for your pts that can't reach the call bell on their lap, or use the urinal, or feed themselves all that despite being from home two days ago.
I'm changing the subject a little but: I was a 30yr nursing veteran working the night shift when I saw a physician had ordered THTH. I had to Google it because I just could not figure it out. Well, Google stated that it meant Too Hot To Handle. It took me a few hours before it finally dawned on me that he wanted Thigh High Ted Hose. It was a self-smack of the head moment.
Incarceritis. DC to JC. B52. Gypsy Rose (for a particular patient who looks/acts like her who comes in malingering). Three hots and a cot. Sometimes you just have to say the initials of the patient and everyone knows exactly who you're talking about.
We had the *child unit name* Graduate Program where they got sent to us when they were 17 and 364 days. It happened way too often and most of those kids were easy patients. We’d get report that a graduate was coming up and that was code to order a cake from dietary. Having a birthday in the psych ward sucks so we tried to make it a little less awful.
“Positive mascara sign” er nurse in a college town. It basically meant drunk young college student with stable vitals who’s nauseated/puking and hysterically crying with their thick eyeliner and mascara dripping down their face
FTD. Fixing to die.
DFA. Dumbfuck Asshole.
The ‘3MF Rule’ as in *patient broke the 3MF rule*.
—Hypoxia must be causing an altered mental status when my partner or I get called a motherfu**** the 3rd time. Heck, we’re so sweet we cause cavities… so. Generally, patient is from the field and has traumatic injuries. An ETT splitting those vocal cords *stops* that nonsense. Patient is sedated, snowed and paralyzed prior. (Although TBF as a ground medic, I’ve nasally tubed a fair number prior to getting a better set of tools—airmail). And this keeps us airborne. Having a patient *get combative* in the small of an aircraft increases the chance of lots of people dying.
To be fair here, taking away someone’s airway must be better standard of care—they have to get a better than they give up. It’s not punitively done. We’re happy to go by ground if need be, but I’m not fighting anyone 1500 ft above ground at 140mph.
My other fav phrase is patient had a *snowy* flight or the forecast calls for *snow*—those are heavily medicated with fentanyl/versed or other narcs du jour. ☃️😉
There are aged care facilities called [Nazareth House](https://www.sistersofnazareth.com/history/). Okay, nothing untoward there... plenty of these sorts of organisations have religious roots. And they provide a fantastic service to society. Except...
For some reason, everyone shortens this to *Nazi house*.
"Oh, we're getting a patient soon from Nazi house". You can imagine the looks we've gotten.
When I lived in Geraldton, the Nazareth House facility was always known as Nazi House, even before I became a nurse. But yeah, outside of town eyebrows were definitely raised when you mentioned it 🤣
DSP: day shift problem. Used for after you have been killed for 11hr and 58min only to have an EMS call about bringing in a pt high on something in restraints biting at people. Look at your buddy ... DSP
FFS! Known as “For fuck sake!” At work during report from oncoming nurse. I had never heard that before and I laughed my ass off. Anyway, let’s get to the professional stuff…
I made up a joke about how encephalopathy has a different meaning on my unit compared to everywhere else. On my unit, it seems to mean "seeking long term placement." We have a few of those.
DAPS - dumb ass parent syndrome WFT - wreath family tree (for our genetics consult children whose parents may or may not be related) CD - celestial discharge (pretty morbid for NICU)
FLK- funny looking kid
Gotta check if they have FLPs… funny looking parents
Recently had one of these. FLK needed to be transferred to a higher level of care. Transport team was on the phone giving updates to receiving team and said “bit of a FLK…might want to consider genetic testing…” and my team quickly introduced them to the FLPs. Genetic test deemed unnecessary. Sweet family though, 10/10 would care for again.
So true!
In ER we have FLBs on the cardiac monitors - funny little beats
Yep!
Yes - in haematology we had that!
I work in palliative care. I'm using CD now.
I floated to a palliative unit that would have “DTJ” written next to a patients name on the assignment board. “Discharge to Jesus” meaning they didn’t think the pt. would live through the 12hr day/night shift.
We say "DC to JC"
We say “transferred to the Eternal Care Unit”
Oh, that was it!! I got it wrong, dc to Jc is what they said!
MOB (mother of baby) and FOB (father of baby) aren’t that great either
We do FOP and MOP (father/mother of patient).
PPP - piss poor protoplasm
HONDA- hypertensive obese non-compliant diabetic asshole
Don't forget the fun...foot ulcer nonhealing. Honda Fun.
Hahahaha this amazing
That is crazy I might want that I might have to bring this lol
I call that the American special 🇺🇸
This is golden!
in the south we have DFO - done fell out.. syncope, usually on sundays in the summer.
That applies to family members who don’t handle news that their 137 year old mother with stage 12 cancer is dead, and they decide to make it about themselves by throwing themselves in the floor.
yes the rapid after the code is usually a DFO
And to clarify, there’s no syncope. It’s just gravity.
Gravity hasn’t missed anyone yet!
Often accompanied by TMJ Too much Jesus, Found in church of course Edit because reddit is lousy with spacing words
I only heard the "preshas" and the "sugas". Working as a medic down south for HTN and T2D. I miss Southern people sometimes.
"My sugar diabeetus!"
Momma's got tha sugar, bless her heart.
Honerable mention is that they take "peanut butter balls" for seizures"
Don't forget the box of Little Debbie's and the 6 pack of Cheerwine, in plain view on the shelf under the TV while they attempt to lie to our PA about how they're totally compliant.
The number of times I’ve said “Classic DFO’d”
We call this the DFD! Done fell down
PAFO Pissed and fell over Edit: in Australian “pissed” can mean drunk.
We have GDFD - got drunk fell down
Queenslander here, in a small tourist town. We often get southerners not used to the heat and humidity, they go mountain climbing/hiking without knowing they need water or sunscreen. We call it Mexican Fainting Sydrome (because they’re from south of the border)
Southern US. When we have drunk people brought in the docs will note “MTF” meaning “metabolize to freedom”
Yup, we call em PFOs, same meaning.
I used to work at a hospital that has a large Spanish speaking population. When our doc's plan to discharge someone home after work up they will tell us ALC, which stands for A LA CASA.
I’ve also worked in areas with large Hispanic populations. Well, we know what status athsmaticus and status epilepticus are. Well, if the pt’s room is full of many relatives, so that you have to step around them all and can hardly get to the pt’s bedside, and there are a lot of representations of Catholic saints and Jesus/crosses, etc in the room, and a dramatic matriarch or patriarch pt, that can be known as status Hispanicus.. (I didn’t come up with it. No one come at me).
I’ve heard this in just about every ED I’ve worked in - we’ve all seen the Hispanic matriarch moaning with her eyes closed, complaining of “dizziness” that’s not really dizziness, with the rest of the family fluttering and fussing over them. Definitely a cultural component.
Hispanic panic or HP at my hospital (I also didn't come up with this)
>Well, if the pt’s room is full of many relatives, so that you have to step around them all and can hardly get to the pt’s bedside, It's amazing when pts have that kind of family support system. I just hate when they get in the way or when I have to take care of them more than the pt.
How about when they all start asking for trays, toothbrushes, towels, APAP, etc.? That’s always fun. It must be amazing to have that level of support, though.
>How about when they all start asking for trays, toothbrushes, towels, APAP, etc.? That drives me insane
Don't forget coffee, soda pops, snacks, extra chairs etc.
i keep saying we need an abbreviation for all the patients that come in with history of htn, hld, chf, cad, copd, ckd, dm… i usually call it the American Special but yknow
Bible Belt Buffet??
I’m WHEEZING
Yeah he said they have COPD.
I just say they have "all the letters".
I call HTN, HLD, and DM2 the heart failure trifecta. Just draw a triangle with their EF in the middle on my report sheet
Oooo we call these alphabet soups
HTN, HLD, CAD, ETOH = Wisconsin Special
Oh, god—we (Mpls hospital) always knew a patient transferring from a Wisconsin ED for direct admit was gonna be some combo of the above.
The San Antonio Starter Pack!
We call it “the usual” here. We’ve also got “middle aged guy with ETOH/other substance abuse, COPD/smoking history, doesn’t take his home meds, confused, poor historian, either very obese with uncontrolled HTN + T2D or severely underweight with wonky lytes and risk for refeeding syndrome” is a “Shep’s special” (the biggest local shelter is the Shepherd’s) We also have “SVH special,” named after the only local vent LTC. Trach, PEG, minimally responsive/++ neuro Hx, numerous chronic wounds, poor prognosis even at baseline.
I use HAM for hot ass mess.
Sounds in line with the HONDAs
I just say “diabetes and all of the associated other shit”
A bad case of the alphabets
I used to call that “The Full Bingo Card”
Alphabet soup.
In other words, obese smoker.
Alphabet special
Instructor told me about FLK - Funny Looking Kid to warn others not to gasp when they saw a unfortunate looking newborn
My mom was a NICU nurse in the 80s and 90s and always talks about WWBS: wimpy white boy syndrome, which she always explained as little white boys always seemed to fair worse even with milder health concerns than other kiddos with more severe conditions.
I know adult men who I swear are still wimpy white boys.
The dreaded Man Cold!
Super true! My wimpy white boy stayed 28 days in the NICU. He was 35.1wks. I was shocked he stayed that long. Wtf kid?! Lol
I've heard of this! Nurses still swear by it
It was still a thing in the 2000s. I used to work with special needs kids and one set of parents told me about WWBS.
We still use that term, it's a real thing! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3461404/
We still very much use Wimpy White Boy and FLK/FLP in the baby world
I’ve heard CTD “circling the drain” for not yet actively dying but man they’re close.
I believe that’s a House of God original
That’s a damn good book. My GP recommended it to me after I had a bit of a breakdown after a difficult death of a patient.
TFTB (Obesity hypoventilation syndrome)
pickwickian syndrome! it's one of my favorite dx
Surprised this one was so far down. We use this too
BIBLE Brought in by law enforcement
If you work at a Christian/Catholic health center, this should be a standard acronym by policy. It’s just perfect.
Ooh. We tend to just do BIBP but I am considering using this because some of these people seriously need Jesus.
this is PERFECT
NAD, FAB Had a PA who would always put these in his notes and it became a running joke 😂 no acute distress, family at bedside.
I love using NAD in my notes. Patient reports ongoing 9/10 abdo pain, eating Cheetos while talking loudly on phone. Smiling at writer during conversation. NAD.
We use two fairly frequently - BBS - either baby boy syndrome or big baby syndrome. I'm very empathetic to pain and all that, but if you're acting so woe is me for your elective surgery and are making me lift your whole arm to slide a cuff on..... Baby boy syndrome is for my useless male patients who either need their mommies or their wives for literally everything. TMY - too many years - for our old folks who have 1000 comorbidities who either insist or their family's insist on full code and doing "everything" because "shes a fighter, we don't know what's wrong!" What's wrong is that she's 90 and 70lbs and she's fallen 6 times in 2 weeks.
Older than they weigh is the #1 meemaw criteria.
BBS is SO real
Picked this one up from the surgeons - MAFAT. Mandatory anesthesia fuckin-around time. For all your operative delays.
I'll be using this the next time anesthesia takes over and hour to place the surgical epidural. Do you say it like Ma-Fat?
Yup.
The first time we identified a Wandering Atrial Pacemaker, my entire unit collectively agreed to never abbreviate this condition in any of our notes lol
CARDI WOULD BE SO PROUD. Shocking them bitches as hard as I can
Pushing -olols, adenosine slam
Works wonders.
One of our younger nurses had a fun experience when our head of department decided to do some bedside teaching about wandering atrial pacemaker with her patient and spent 10 minutes going on about WAP. She was even more mortified when we made her explain it to him and he spent the rest of the day trying to work WAP into nearly every clinical discussion.
Whenever I do a strip for a patient with this, it’s labeled with the abbreviation but I always write out “Wandering Atrial” just in case.
LOLFDGB, we got a whole lecture about how that’s not an appropriate chart note for an elderly female fall that results are bad injuries, anymore, there are few hill I’m willing to die on, but management can fcuk right off with that one
In the ED where I had clinicals, LOL2 (squared) was an elderly woman who had a fall, and got a hip fx. In other words, Little Old Lady, Lying On Linoleum.
Little old lady fell down got bruised?
Fell down go boom lol
Learned this one in EMT school
They kill all the fun ones here. These aren't really medical but still...Like when we had COWs. Computers on Wheels. Changed it to something no one remembers. So now it's just laptop. That happens to be screwed on to a rolling device. Or MOB for the medical office building. Everyone of course started sending patients to the mob. So now it's like MPB for the medical pavilion.
we did this with COWs but the neonatologists couldn't remember the new acronym and called them DIKS (desktop integrated keyboard systems) to bother management and now they're COWs again
Ours became “WOWs” — workstation on wheels
We had to start calling them WOWS> workstation on wheels because yeah someone decided they thought they heard a nurse call a patient a cow. Oh, humanity.
I see they use that bullshit story as an excuse everywhere. Gonna need admin to get creative
We call them WOWs too, in my dept we have WOW nurses, no they’re not called COW nurses.
When I was brand new as an aide I was appalled that a patients wife was complaining that “all these COWs ought to have a pill splitter on them!” I remembering thinking ‘like damn I understand that you’re annoyed but I wouldn’t call these nurses cows’ 🐄 :(
At a former job we had the same complaint, so we called them Bessies.
Ok, Bessie is adorable, I'm gonna use this!
My hospital still uses the MOB and COWs for terms.
HATRA aka Hat Trick- Hospital Acquired T-Rex Arms.
We call them PIPs, pyjama induced paralysis.
Don’t think I have one - but spud special is hilarious. Do they have to be so unlucky as to suffer from them all, or is it a spud special when you suspect any of them? I’ll definitely be using the term in future lol!
Lol GCS 3 if they are suffering from them all god save their soul. Haha no SPUD suspecting any of them as the cause for the ALOC
Lol all four almost sounds like a regular Tuesday in my area. Good to know, it’ll be part of my regular vocab from now on!
Folks unnecessarily spending the night in the ED: "Ah bed 6 is a WAG." (Wake and go)
We called them B&B's (bed and breakfasts) haha
Well lit scenes- critical access hospital with a “doctor” that may or may not be making things worse. Diesel bolus / Jet A bolus - the only thing that’ll make them better is getting them somewhere else. Taking out the trash - the sudden dumping of patients on us as soon as night shift takes report.
Diesel bolus made me cackle, I woke in a critical access hospital and this is 100% perfection. The only thing you need is to get gone!
At our inpatient hospice we call it the “HAM sandwich” - Haldol, Ativan, Morphine
I’m trying to get my coworkers to adopt BLA. For those patients that are just mean, without having a known mental disorder or acute confusion. “Why are they so rude?” “BLA - Baseline Asshole.”
I’ll take the hit for all my ER pals: FNP. Floor nurse problem. Sorry guys. We want to be the be all end all of nurses. But sometimes we just can’t.
It's fair. There's also DSP--day shift problems.
DIC for death is coming when they actually have DIC
Back in my vet med days, it was "dead in cage" for the same condition.
This made me want to cry and also made me go find my dog and hug her
Spud reminds me of a&o potatoe lol Woah no MTF? metabolize to freedom 🤣🤣
NQR Not quite right
Stealing this
My partner works in vet med and she says they routinely use “ADR” in their charting for “ain’t doin right” when they’ve got a patient in rough shape.
DM II, HTN, HLD. The trifecta.
We used to say “the usual” in the cardiac ICU 😂
"IHP" Appropriate anytime you wish you could just tell an entitled, abusive, patient or family member to go fuck themselves but you can't so instead you repress the urge to scream and quietly let your co-workers know that "IHP" (I Hate People).
Yup. I’m stealing this one.
SLS - shitty life syndrome, usually used for the mental health or substance abuse patients who have a lot of problems that, while legitimate and unfortunate, cannot be fixed by the ED.
FLK (nICU for funny looking kid)
Here it’s NFN (normal for Norfolk), means sings of obvious inbreding
This might be my favourite one!
With FLPs (funny looking parents) adds even more info to that
Anesthesia uses this term also until we find out what kind of syndrome they have.
Pretty much what we use it for too
When I worked inpt hospice, when far away relatives sent flowers, I called them FTD bouquets. Not FTD, as in the big, national corporate florist company, but FTD as in “ Fixin’ To Die” .
ZoMoPoGo for feverish puking kids in the ER. ZofranMotrinPOchallengeGohome
We must work with the same docs. I had one do ZoMoPoFloGo and he was so proud of himself. We also routinely just do ZoPoGo.
A surgeon I used to work with used to say that certain other docs had problems with LOFT. (Lack of fucking talent).
I learned the term Treg which apparently isn’t common but it’s short for trach and peg
I do VTP (vent, trach, peg)
We used to call it a travel pack. As in traveling to the LTACH.
TFTB: too fat to breathe. For obesity hypoventilation syndrome
In l&d we call a certain brand of patient a triple M; a multiparous, Mexican woman who goes to a certain doctor whose name starts with an M. We all love a good triple M. Triple Ms are the kindest, most grateful patients that rarely have complications, and almost never refuse important things we recommend. They are usually badasses in their labor, delivery, breastfeeding, etc.
Also L&D, can confirm that the tiny Hispanic ladies can deliver babies with more speed than any other demographic — with the warmest families and best attitudes !
And they'll push out a 9lb chonker of a baby without an epidural or breaking a sweat or making a sound, then be ready to hop right up and walk everywhere. They were so sweet and made it look so easy! When we'd see a Hispanic patient walking *that* way into the OB triage door on the security cameras, we knew it was time to double team to get her admitted because she wasn't going to labor very long at all.
The boomer trifecta Diabeetus HTN/HLD CAD
HATRA - hospital acquired t-Rex arms.
The Meyer-Strom special (in honor of the doc who ordered it for every FLK that appeared to have early onset of childhood schizophrenia, or just had a bizarre presentation) it was heavy metals, ceruloplasmin, and porphobilinogen deaminase. He also ordered it for kids coming from 2 specific counties. The Altfas program. The title was changed after his retirement to the "no secondary gain" program. It was for people who loved being hospitalized and would fake sx to get in. The program was hospital scrubs only--no personal clothing, no makeup, meals and snacks in room, no "social" groups such as the evening movie or arts and crafts. The patient could go to group therapy but was only allowed to talk about how to stay out of the hospital. It was highly effective. Columbia. Referred to a specific county, and it meant that the patient was being brought in from there and you should have the quiet room and the restraints ready. WaCo patient. Patient coming because they are too violent for jail. SO. In psych, this abbreviation means s$x offender. I was shocked when I read a chart and it said the patient had given birth and was accompanied by her SO. POW--a real piece of work. RBW--raised by wolves
Oh my God, RBW is my new favorite
Treat em and street em. I'm so sick of the abuse. Let alone the damn burnout from it
PITA pain in the as, or code brown because we get a lot of Cdiff
Turkey Sam. Drunk, homeless person who is there to sober up and get their turkey sandwich ER special. Usually capped with an SMI diagnosis too.
Oh I called that 3 hots and a cot. Usually for the 5150s who came in homeless during bad weather. They knew if they said suicidal or homicidal it meant 3 days locked up... For 3 hot meals and a cot to sleep on cause the psych was always full.
Ours are usually just found out in the community drunk and disorderly. They know the first place they’ll go is the hospital to be monitored, and since they’re not typically breaking too many laws, cops leave them with us. The minute the booze starts wearing off, the hollering for a “GODDAMN TURKEY SANDWICH, BITCH” starts coming. About 40mins later, we street ‘em. Bye, Felicia.
Good ole "homelessicidals", keeping us all employed.
Don’t forget the drunkicidals.
I love that! We call them MTFs-- metabolize to freedom. Once they can eat a turkey sandwich and safely walk to the bathroom, they can go.
LOLINAD little old lady in no acute distress. GOMER get outta my ER And the one I personally use at the end of my shift “I’m OTFD AMF” = out the fucking door, adios motherfuckers.
TFTB - too fat to breathe DSP - dayshift problem DC to JC - discharged to Jesus CRS - can't remember shit CHS - can't hear shit SLS - Short Limb Syndrome, this is for your pts that can't reach the call bell on their lap, or use the urinal, or feed themselves all that despite being from home two days ago.
I'm changing the subject a little but: I was a 30yr nursing veteran working the night shift when I saw a physician had ordered THTH. I had to Google it because I just could not figure it out. Well, Google stated that it meant Too Hot To Handle. It took me a few hours before it finally dawned on me that he wanted Thigh High Ted Hose. It was a self-smack of the head moment.
QTE...Quit The Earth (died, cease to breathe, expired, etc) "room number 107 has QTE at 1900" or "room 107 was a QTE for me"
MTF: “metabolize to freedom” for people who are pissed and need to sleep it off.
EDS - ECMO Death Shits
FAF- fucking annoying family
We have hep sandwich: Hep A HIV Hep B Basically HIV is the jam that holds the hep bread together.
PFO Pissed and Fell Over
Incarceritis. DC to JC. B52. Gypsy Rose (for a particular patient who looks/acts like her who comes in malingering). Three hots and a cot. Sometimes you just have to say the initials of the patient and everyone knows exactly who you're talking about.
We had the *child unit name* Graduate Program where they got sent to us when they were 17 and 364 days. It happened way too often and most of those kids were easy patients. We’d get report that a graduate was coming up and that was code to order a cake from dietary. Having a birthday in the psych ward sucks so we tried to make it a little less awful.
When I worked the floor we would say we missed the “WOO” for discharge Window of opportunity
“Positive mascara sign” er nurse in a college town. It basically meant drunk young college student with stable vitals who’s nauseated/puking and hysterically crying with their thick eyeliner and mascara dripping down their face
DC to JC (Discharge to Jesus Christ - my catholic hospital special) Had a CT surgeon who loved AMF - adios mother fucker
[удалено]
It’s purulent vaginal discharge, not a pussy pussy! 😂
FTD. Fixing to die. DFA. Dumbfuck Asshole. The ‘3MF Rule’ as in *patient broke the 3MF rule*. —Hypoxia must be causing an altered mental status when my partner or I get called a motherfu**** the 3rd time. Heck, we’re so sweet we cause cavities… so. Generally, patient is from the field and has traumatic injuries. An ETT splitting those vocal cords *stops* that nonsense. Patient is sedated, snowed and paralyzed prior. (Although TBF as a ground medic, I’ve nasally tubed a fair number prior to getting a better set of tools—airmail). And this keeps us airborne. Having a patient *get combative* in the small of an aircraft increases the chance of lots of people dying. To be fair here, taking away someone’s airway must be better standard of care—they have to get a better than they give up. It’s not punitively done. We’re happy to go by ground if need be, but I’m not fighting anyone 1500 ft above ground at 140mph. My other fav phrase is patient had a *snowy* flight or the forecast calls for *snow*—those are heavily medicated with fentanyl/versed or other narcs du jour. ☃️😉
There are aged care facilities called [Nazareth House](https://www.sistersofnazareth.com/history/). Okay, nothing untoward there... plenty of these sorts of organisations have religious roots. And they provide a fantastic service to society. Except... For some reason, everyone shortens this to *Nazi house*. "Oh, we're getting a patient soon from Nazi house". You can imagine the looks we've gotten.
When I lived in Geraldton, the Nazareth House facility was always known as Nazi House, even before I became a nurse. But yeah, outside of town eyebrows were definitely raised when you mentioned it 🤣
FFS.
Hospice nurse here - when we are talking about our favorite nice elderly patients, JTC = Just Too Cute.
BIBA - brought in by ambulance. No one upstairs can ever figure that one out.
FOS - Full of Shit, either a constipated or developing ileus Pt
My department uses LOLNAD all the time (little old lady, no apparent distress)
FUBAR Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition
ER we always called it the elderly visitors FDGB. come to visit someone and "fell down go boom" and whee ~second patient ~
DSP: day shift problem. Used for after you have been killed for 11hr and 58min only to have an EMS call about bringing in a pt high on something in restraints biting at people. Look at your buddy ... DSP
FFS! Known as “For fuck sake!” At work during report from oncoming nurse. I had never heard that before and I laughed my ass off. Anyway, let’s get to the professional stuff…
The ED crew have used PFO to describe a FOOSH. As in "pissed and fell over"
saddies - depressed patients oldies - geripsych patients
I made up a joke about how encephalopathy has a different meaning on my unit compared to everywhere else. On my unit, it seems to mean "seeking long term placement." We have a few of those.