Glossary.

Acute Care: This refers to settings in which patients get their immediate medical needs met and is meant for short stays, treatments, and recoveries, rather than long term care. This usually refers to the hospital setting, where patients are admitted to the hospital and have 24/7 medical care at the bedside. Emergency, while not technically inpatient, also falls under the category of acute care.  See bedside nursing. See inpatient. See emergency department. See skilled nursing facilities. 

Acute: A problem with a recent onset. Best understood when held in conjunction with a chronic or long lasting problem. I.e. if you are playing soccer and you roll your ankle, that pain due to the new injury is acute pain. In contrast, chronic pain would be having continual ankle pain due to a soccer injury that was sustained years ago. 

Admissions: When a patient needs continued medical care, they are admitted to the hospital and are assigned a room / bed. For a nurse to “admit” a patient, they have to perform a series of tasks and assessments, per hospital policy and procedure, to get each patient accommodated. See admit tasks. 

Admit Tasks: All the tasks that a nurse has to do in order to get the patient admitted on the floor after being checked into the hospital. This includes getting a full list of the patient’s home medications, a health history from the patient, photos of any wounds/pressure injuries the patient might have, conducting a depression screen, as well as follow up with the patient’s admitting doctor for orders if needed. See pressure injuries. See depression screen.

Aid: The unsung heroes of the hospital. They take care of the patient’s activities of daily living / physical needs, so that the nurse can focus on the patient’s medical needs. Aids also are known as certified nurse assistants or patient care technicians. Depending on the department they may also have more roles. 

ALS: A disease that affects the functioning of the neurological system by causing one’s muscles to weaken. Another name for this disease is Lou Gehrig’s. 

Amniotic Sack/ Amniotic Fluid: The water balloon-like casing that fetuses develop in. Usually, the sack pops while the mother is in labor which is where we get, “My water just broke” from. Unlike in the movies, the mom’s water often breaks after she is already at the hospital. By the end of pregnancy, amniotic fluid is mainly composed of the baby’s urine. However, babies don’t poop while they are in utero. If there is poop (aka meconium) found mixed in with the amniotic fluid during labor, it is considered to be a medical emergency. If there is meconium present when the “water breaks” it means that the baby is in distress. See meconium. 

Arm Band: A plastic bracelet that has the patient's name, birthday, and medical record number on it so that the patient can be properly identified. At many hospitals these bracelets have a barcode that links the patient directly to the computer system. When scanned, the patient can be correctly identified prior to medication administration or prior to other interventions. See patient identifiers. 

Bedside Nursing: A term for nurses who provide nursing care “at the bedside.” They work directly with patients within the setting of the hospital by responding to the patient’s medical needs and by performing direct interventions for the full length of a shift. See inpatient. 

Blood Sugar Check: Checking a patient’s blood sugar by sticking their finger with a lancet, putting a small drop of their blood on a test strip, and inserting the strip into a hand held machine called a glucometer. This is usually performed on diabetic patients prior to administering insulin, but in the case of rapid responses if a patient has suddenly become lethargic or unconscious, the nurse has to make sure that the change in status isn’t simply due to low blood sugar. See rapid response. 

Blood Type/ New Blood Type: There are eight different blood types that a person can have; O-, O+, A-, A+, B-, B+, AB-, and AB+. What makes each blood type different are these proteins called antibodies, and the presence of what’s called the ‘Rh Factor.’ The Rh Factor indicates if the blood is positive or negative (positive meaning it has the Rh factor, negative meaning it doesn’t). A person’s blood needs to be tested for blood type prior to transfusion, because the antibodies, which live on the red blood cells, will trigger an immune response if the patient’s blood type and any transfused blood do not match up. When the blood DOES match up, this is known as ABO compatibility. If someone receives a blood transfusion with the wrong type of blood they can have what’s called a hemolytic transfusion reaction, which is also known as ABO incompatibility. In mild cases it can be uncomfortable and in severe cases it can be fatal. Hospitals are extremely diligent when it comes to blood transfusion protocols, so that transfusion reactions from ABO incompatibility don’t happen. What is remarkable is that red blood cells are made and produced from a person’s bone marrow. When a cancer patient gets a bone marrow transplant, and the bone marrow they are receiving comes from someone else, the patient develops new bone marrow cells based off of the transplanted cells. Therefore, they develop new red blood cells as well, which means that their blood type will change to their donor’s blood type. See bone marrow transplant. 

Blowing A Vein: When a nurse starts an IV they have to stick a needle into one of the patient’s veins. The metal part of the needle doesn’t stay in the vein, however. The needle is there just to get through the skin and into the vein. Each needle has a little plastic straw around it called a catheter, and that catheter is what actually stays inside the vein. Once the needle is in, the nurse advances the catheter off the needle and farther into the vein and then retracts the needle until the needle part is completely withdrawn. Unfortunately, while the catheter is pliable, the needle is sharp, and if advanced slightly too far or at the wrong angle, it can cause the vein to rupture. This can cause the patient’s skin to bruise or even get a little balloon of blood where the vein blew called a hematoma. While not explicitly detrimental, it can cause discomfort to the patient. Getting an IV started is a very satisfying feeling. See IV start.  

Bone Marrow Transplant: Occurs when a patient receives new bone marrow from a donor, or from healthy bone marrow that was removed from the patient themselves prior to treatment that was set aside and frozen. This occurs when a patient’s bone marrow cells have been damaged, i.e. by chemotherapy, and they are in need of new bone marrow cells, so that their body can keep regenerating cells. The term for when the body accepts these new cells is called engraftment. See blood type/ new blood type.

Brain: A piece of paper where a nurse keeps all of their notes about their patients. They are called “brains'' kind of jokingly, because it is hard to remember all of the information about your patients off the top of your own physical head, especially in the middle of the night when you are tired. The paper becomes an extension of your actual brain. Sometimes if a nurse misplaces this piece of paper, they will run around asking if anyone has “seen their brain.”

Broken Heart Syndrome: A medical condition in which part of a person’s heart stops pumping properly due to an extremely emotional or stressful situation (i.e. the loss of a spouse) and the side effects of which can mimic a heart attack. It is usually temporary in effect, and can be treated to the point of reversal, but in some cases it can be fatal.

Bubble CPAP: A system of breathing machinery, similar to a CPAP breathing machine, that is specifically built for infants who are in respiratory distress. It works by allowing for airway pressure to transfer from the device/mask into the infant’s airway, so that they are able to receive oxygenation when they are unable to breathe for themselves. See respiratory therapist. See oxygen. 

CABG: Abbreviation for coronary artery bypass grafting. When arteries (the tubing that extends from the heart and allows for the passage of oxygen rich blood to travel to the rest of the body) get clogged, blood is unable to travel like it is supposed to. This puts the body at risk for impaired circulation. If your blood isn’t circulating, then the other parts of your body will start to die because all of your tissues and organs need oxygenated blood to function. A CABG is a procedure that opens up those damaged or blocked blood vessels around the heart, so that circulation can commence properly. 

Call It: “Calling it” can have two meanings. The first type of “call it” is when a call is put out for a code to start, so that emergency measures can be implemented and the proper response can happen. The second type of “call it” is declaring a person’s time of death, thereby ceasing any further emergency life saving measures. See code. See code blue. 

Cardiac Floor: A specific area or unit in a hospital that takes care of patients with more complex heart issues. While many floors have telemetry monitoring (where patients have a heart monitor on so that the nurses and monitor technicians can keep an eye on the patient’s heart rhythms), cardiac floors are where patients who need additional / more comprehensive monitoring and heart specific medical interventions go to be cared for.  See unit. See floor. See EKG/ telemetry monitoring. 

Charge Nurse: The nurse in charge of the unit during each shift. The charge nurse is an experienced nurse who, usually, does not take on a direct patient assignment. Instead, they are a resource that helps all the other nurses when questions, issues, or complications arise during the shift. They are a wealth of information and are the captain of the ship. Additionally, they advocate for both the nurses and the patients to make sure that everyone is safe. See unit. 

Charting/ Chart: All of the documentation that nurses have to do on all of their patients. This includes assessments, notes about the patient’s activities, their input/ output, medication reactions, conversations with doctors about the patients, and can even include direct patient quotes. Essentially the rule in nursing is, if you didn’t chart it, it didn’t happen. While most hospitals have moved away from paper/ handwritten charting, we still use the term “chart” for the patient’s profile on the computer. 

Chief Nursing Officer: There is a level of hierarchy in the hospital. The chief nursing officer is the person in charge of all the other nurses, charge nurses, nurse managers, etc. They are at the top of the list for who is in charge of an entire hospital’s nursing staff. If nurses need advocation hospital wide, it is Chief Nursing Officer (aka CNO) who brings it up to the other powers in the hospital.

Clinicals: The hours/days a nursing student spends learning within the clinical / hospital setting, although some hours are also completed in the community and outpatient sectors as well. It is the equivalent of internship hours and is where nursing students get the opportunity to work directly with patients under the leadership of a practicing nurse. Clinicals are interesting in that they are where students do the most practical part of their learning, but they are also exhausting because on top of their school work they are going to the hospital at 06:30 for at least one twelve hour shift a week. No, these hours are not paid. See clinical nursing class. 

Clinical Instructors: While student nurses practice under and work directly with a nurse, they are also accompanied to the hospital by a professor/ instructor. Usually, students are put into smaller groups and one professor oversees each group. The students are then placed on a floor with their assigned nurse, and the professor/ instructor serves as a resource and oversees the student’s activities and progress. See clinicals.

Clinical Nursing Class: After all a student’s prerequisites are done, and they enter into the nursing specific courses, they become part of a cohort, aka clinical nursing class. From that point on, nursing students pretty much live, eat, and sleep nursing together as a class until they graduate. There is a lot of solidarity, because no one else really knows what you are going through except for your nursing classmates. See clinical program. 

Clinical Program: The portion of a nursing student’s schooling that comes after all the prerequisites and general education classes. Usually spots in clinical nursing programs are very competitive. Once accepted, nursing students take all nursing specific classes and go to hospitals and other settings to participate in hands-on nurse-patient training. See clinical nursing class. 

Code: There are many different codes that can be called in the hospital. Essentially, when someone says to “Call a Code _____,” a call goes out throughout the entire hospital on the overhead speaker system, so that the proper response can be put in place. For example in the case of a Code Gray, when a patient is belligerent, security comes. In the case of a Code Pink, an infant abduction, the hospital goes into lock down. Or when there is a Code Red, which is an alert for fires, fire protocol is put into place. See code blue. See code team. 

Code Blue: The emergency code that is called when an adult patient is in a severely critical condition (the patient has lost a pulse, stopped breathing, and has become unarousable). When a code blue is called, CPR is started, doctors, respiratory, and pharmacy all come to the bedside, and all the nurses and aids work together to resuscitate the patient. This includes giving medications through the patient's IV to help chemically stimulate the heart to start beating again, helping ventilate the patient because they cannot breathe on their own, performing compressions because the patient’s heart cannot pump blood to the rest of the body, and administering electric shocks through a defibrillator to try and electrically stimulate the heart. While this is happening, someone specifically documents everything by hand on a special “code sheet,” so everything can be kept track of amidst the chaos. See code team. See compressions. See CPR.  See defibrillation/ defibrillator. See run a code. See respiratory therapists. See oxygen.

Code Team: In the inpatient setting, aside from emergency department or critical care in which the nurses serve as their own code team, when a patient loses pulses and a code is called, specifically trained nurses who have specialized training in code situations will help respond to the patient. This team can also include respiratory therapists and doctors as well. See code. See code blue. See rapid response.  See respiratory therapists. See oxygen. 

Community Health Nursing: Also known as public health nursing. Nursing is not just limited to the inpatient setting of the hospital or to the bedside. Community health nurses work in a wide spectrum of areas. Examples of which include, but are not limited to; home health and hospice care, school nursing, university health, international disaster response, transport/ flight nursing, correctional nursing, outreach nursing for marginalized communities, crisis pregnancy response, vaccine clinics, infusion centers, physical rehabilitation centers, parish nursing, county/ governmental nursing, case management, nurse consulting, doctor’s office advice line response, urgent care, camp nursing, and even event and theme park nursing. Most nurses, but not all, start out in the hospital setting. It is important to remember, however, that the beautiful thing about nursing is the ability to diversify one’s practice based on one’s interests and who they are as a person. See inpatient. See bedside nursing.  

Compressions: An intervention that occurs when someone’s heart has stopped and they have lost their pulse. It is is the act of forcibly pushing down on a person’s chest with both hands and locked elbows, to a specific rhythm, to ensure that blood is still pumping to the rest of the body when the heart is no longer beating/ able to perform such a function. See code blue. See CPR. 

CPR: Also known as cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. This is something anyone, anywhere, can learn. In fact many different professions require it. In short, CPR is an emergency response to when someone collapses, stops breathing, and loses a pulse. Basic CPR consists of chest compressions, which are now considered to be the key implementation. CPR for healthcare professionals goes a step further and includes breathing support through a mask and a hand-held forced air system called an “Ambu-bag,” which first responders out in the field or hospital staff will use to implement breathing. The third component of CPR includes the use of an AED (automated external defibrillator) to help stimulate and restart the electrical activity of the heart. See compressions. See code blue. See defibrillator. See respiratory therapists. See oxygen. 

Crashing: When a patient starts to quickly deteriorate. This could be a sudden drop in blood pressure, a change in level of consciousness, an inability to breath, ect. Crashing can be followed by a rapid response, or a code blue, depending on the severity of the situation. See code blue. See rapid response. See stable. See vital signs. See oxygen. 

Critical Care / Critical Care Rotation: The portion of a nursing student’s clinical education in which they work directly with a nurse in the critical care setting of a hospital. Critical care is also known as intensive care or ICU. This is the unit where the patients are monitored the closest because of the severity of their conditions. In CCU/ ICU, there are usually two patients or even one patient paired with each nurse due to the patient’s level of instability. See stable. 

Death Rattle: When a person is close to dying, they often make this distinct noise as they breathe. It occurs when a person is no longer able to swallow their saliva and the saliva rattles in their throat with each breath. It is normal, and not usually uncomfortable, but there are medications that can help decrease some of that salivation. 

Defibrillation/ Defibrillator: A cardiac specific electrical device utilized in code situations. In cases where the heart is still attempting to fire electrical signals, but the patient’s pulse has been lost, defibrillation becomes required. This involves pads being placed on the patient, one on the chest and one on the back, that are connected by electrical wires to the defibrillator. Unlike in the movies, in most cases, big metal paddles are no longer used. Instead, these pads are small plastic ones. The defibrillator then reads and interprets what electrical stimuli is going on in the heart and therefore can determine what rhythm the heart is in. Defibrillation occurs when an electrical shock is delivered from the machine to the body to try and electrically stimulate the heart back into a sustainable rhythm. During codes, a combination of CPR, defibrillation, and medications are administered based on the patient’s response to each intervention.  See code blue. See EKG. See CPR. 

Depression Screen: Every patient has to be screened for depression when they enter the hospital. During the screening the nurse is prompted to ask questions such as; have you been feeling depressed or hopeless? Have you had less interest in things that usually have interest in? Have you thought of harming or killing yourself in the last thirty days? Have you attempted to harm yourself in the last six months? It starts there and builds up to see if the patient is a danger to themselves. Often they are not, but sometimes they answer yes to enough questions to the point where a social worker needs to come and  assess them. This serves as a valuable resource for patients who may not have been able to get mental health help otherwise. See social work. See 5150. See admit tasks. 

Diabetic Ketoacidosis: Occurs when a patient’s blood sugar gets out of control and their body isn’t able to produce enough insulin to take care of it. Usually, it occurs when their blood sugar is too high. While it is reversible, severely abnormal blood sugar can be fatal to a patient if not treated quickly. Fixes for this include giving the patient insulin and fluids in order to help their blood sugar to come down. See fluids. See blood sugar check.

Discharge: The act of sending a patient out of the hospital back to their home, or to another facility. On the nurse’s end, discharges involve patient education, charting, discharge planning, etc. Essentially it is providing the patient with the information and resources they need so that they can leave. 

DNR: An acronym for “do not resuscitate.” This means life saving measures, such as CPR, will not be implemented. If the patient has selected to be  DNR, this means that if they lose a pulse, stop breathing, etc, a code blue will not be initiated to try and revive them. Nurses and doctors will instead aim to make them comfortable. The opposite of this is a “Full Code,“ which everyone is assumed to be unless they have specified a different code status for themselves. This means that If something does happen to a full code  patient, all life saving measures will be implemented. See CPR. See code blue. 

Double Checks: Ways nurses make sure they are doing things correctly by having someone double check them or by double checking their own work. A lot of double checks have to do with medications to prevent medication errors. Often, computers have double check systems implemented in their programing to help prevent medication errors. See drips. 

Drips: When an IV bag is hanging off of an IV pole at the bedside and is dripping (or running)  medication through IV tubing and through a pump, into the patient’s vein. Drips are usually calculated by how many millimeters or units of medication the patient is getting per hour. Depending on how the patient’s body is responding, the rate of the drip has to be adjusted accordingly. This is a process called titration. For instance if a patient is on medication to elevate their blood pressure because their blood pressure was previously too low, and then suddenly their pressure shoots up, the rate of medication they are receiving must be titrated down so that they are receiving less of the medication per hour. With many drip medications, it is protocol to have two nurses double check the medication together, especially if it is being adjusted up or down, in order  to make sure the patient is getting the medication at the right rate. See IV bag.  See IV start. See fluids. 

EKG Monitor/ Telemetry Monitor: Also known as an electrocardiogram or ECG. This is a device that is worn by the patient in which special stickers, called leads, are stuck to their chest at specific anatomical sites. The leads are connected to wires which go to a box, called a telemetry box, which wirelessly transmits to a computer monitor that then reads the electrical rhythm of the heart. These devices help paint a real time, visual picture of what the heart is doing electrically. This is also known as telemetry monitoring. Hospitals have specific staff members called monitor techs, who closely watch the monitors (and all patients on telemetry) 24/7 to catch any critical cardiac events that might occur. If an event does occur, they immediately call the patient’s primary nurse. See twelve lead EKG. 

Emergency Department: Also known  as the “emergency room.” The emergency department, or ED, is unlike anywhere else in the hospital. When a patient comes to the ED they first enter the waiting room to be “triaged.” A specialized nurse, called a triage nurse, performs a quick assessment on each patient waiting in the waiting room, then determines which patient is the sickest/ most critical to be seen first. At the same time, ambulances are dropping patients off to the back side of the emergency department. For the most part, the nurses working in ED are assigned to a fixed number of beds or an allotted area (i.e. chairs or gurneys) instead of to specific patients because the turnover rate is so fast. From ED, patients are either admitted into the hospital to a floor that is appropriate for the patient’s condition or are sent home once they have been assessed and cleared to be discharged by a doctor or an advanced practitioner. In both emergency and critical care, the nurses act as their own code and rapid response teams and partner directly with the doctors to provide immediate emergency care. See critical care. See patient assignment. See floor. See unit. 

Emesis: The medical term for vomit. 

First Year Of Nursing: A nurse’s first year of nursing is the first year that they are employed and practicing as an autonomous nurse. This can be inside the hospital or outside the hospital, but it is the first time a person is functioning as a nurse after graduating from school and getting licensed through the NCLEX. It is this first year that experienced nurses will often describe as “the hardest year of your life.” See NCLEX. 

Floor: Different areas or specialties in hospitals are usually referred to as floors or units. For example, there are cardiac floors devoted to patients with heart problems, oncology floors devoted to patients with active cancer, and so on and so forth. See unit. 

Fluids: Often, and for a variety of reasons, patients need to be rehydrated with IV fluids. Sometimes patients need fluids because they are dehydrated. Sometimes they need fluids because their blood pressure has dropped. In either case, the patient’s IV gets hooked up to a big bag of fluid; I.e. normal saline (which is like salty water). Sometimes the fluids will just ‘run,’ which means that the IV bag is left unclamped and without a pump. Other times the fluids are put into a ‘pressure bag’ if the patient needs the fluids pushed into them quickly. In other cases, if a patient needs a certain amount of fluids per hour, then they are put in an IV pump and run at a certain amount of millimeters an hour. See IV. See IV bag. See IV start. See drips. 

Foley Catheter: A long plastic pliable / soft  tube that is inserted into a patient’s urethra (male or female) and goes into the bladder to drain out the patient’s urine. Once the tube is inserted, a small balloon at the tip of it is inflated with normal saline (salty water), so that it won’t slide out. The small internal tube is connected to a larger external tube, which drains into a large plastic pouch that can be emptied from the bottom. Catheters are usually inserted when a patient is unable to void and their bladder has become distended, or if they are incontinent and have open wounds that risk becoming infected if urine gets on them. The name Foley itself simply comes from the manufacturer. 

Getting Fired: This happens to all nurses at one point or another when the patient or their family doesn’t want to work with the nurse assigned to them anymore. It can be extremely hurtful when a nurse gets fired for the first time. Therefore when this happens, it is important to remember that you are not a bad nurse or a bad person because someone has chosen to fire you. Many times it can simply be attributed to a conflict of personalities.

G-Tube/ G-Tube Contents: (also known as a PEG tube) A tube that is surgically inserted through the abdomen and into the stomach so that “tube feeding” may occur. This is put in place when a patient is no longer able to swallow food or water in any form and they need chronic feeding. When a patient is on tube feeding, their nutrients are liquified, hung in a rectangular bottle, pushed through a pump system, through the G-tube and into the stomach. (Though tube feeding can also be pushed by hand with a syringe, without the pump system). Medications are also given through these tubes too in liquid form or the pills are crushed, mixed with water, and then instilled. What can be referred to as “G-tube contents” is the fluids that fluid up within the tubing itself, which is a mixture of the patient’s stomach acid, undigested tube feeding, and fresh tube feeding. These tubes are notoriously messy and prone to getting clogged, which requires the nurse to flush them by hand with water multiple times a shift. See tube feeding. See NG tube. 

Hanging An IV Antibiotic: Antibiotics are hung on an IV pole at the bedside in the form of little pouches prepared by the pharmacy. You spike an antibiotic like you spike a boxed or pouched juice, hang it upside down, and then run it through tubing, through a pump, and into the patient’s IV where it runs at a certain rate of millimeters per hour. See fluids. See IV bag. See unclamping the IV antibiotics. 

Hard Stick: A person who has very difficult veins to find and is therefore hard to start and IV on. See IV start. 

Heavy Patient: The “heaviness” of a patient refers to how sick the patient is and how much frequent medical attention they need. A heavy patient would be one that requires continual interventions for multiple presenting problems.  See high acuities. 

High Acuities: References how sick the patients are and how much care they require. If someone were to say, “Our acuities on the floor are high tonight,'' that would mean that the patients at that given time are more critical in nature and require more care and interventions. See heavy patient. See floor. 

Home Health/ Home Health Visits: A unique branch of nursing that sends nurses directly into the homes of patients to deliver medical care. Frequently, patients are discharged from the hospital as going “home with home health,” meaning that while the patient no longer needs to be in the hospital, a nurse needs to continue to follow up with medical care for the patient. 

Holistic Care: The caring for a person as a whole person, not just for their body and physical needs, but for their emotional, mental, and spiritual health as well. Holistic care isn’t just something that nurses are supposed to provide for patients, however. It is how we all need to care for ourselves. 

Hospice: The specialty of nursing in which nurses care for patients that are actively in the process of dying. The aim of this specialty is to keep the patients as comfortable as possible, often with the use of pain medication, while ceasing all other treatments. Hospice nurses see patients in a variety of settings, at hospitals, in skilled nursing facilities, and in the patients’ own home as well. Hospice nurses often end up taking care of the families just as much as they take care of the patients. See skilled nursing facilities. 

Inpatient: The “in the hospital” setting. Aside from Emergency, most of the units in the hospital setting are considered inpatient. For example, if you go to the emergency department for care they may either send you home after assessing you/ treating you, or if your condition is in need of more medical attention, you will be admitted into the hospital, into the inpatient setting. See admit. See emergency department. 

Imminent: The word that is used for a patient who is terminally ill and their death is closely approaching. See hospice. 

IV Bag: IV fluids, antibiotics, and drip medications are all contained in special, thick, plastic bags that are like pouches. Medications are usually contained in smaller pouches that hold one hundred milliliters of liquid. IV fluids, however, usually come in big pouches that hold one liter of fluids. These bags are then spiked like juice boxes, hung upside down on an IV pole, and connected to tubing that is connected to the patient’s IV. See fluids. See hanging an IV antibiotic. See drips. 

IV Start: When a nurse starts an IV on a patient. They take a small needle that has a small straw like plastic sheath over it, and pokes the needle through the patient’s skin and into their vein. The nurse then retracts the needle and leaves the straw-like catheter in the vein so that liquified medication or fluids can be infused directly into the patient’s bloodstream. See blowing a vein. 

Labor And Delivery: The specialty in which babies are born. On this unit, nurses have to be prepared not only for vaginal deliveries, but to also assist in c-sections. These nurses also recover mom and baby until they are both deemed to be stable, and then they are transferred to the post-partum unit. If any complications arise for the baby, the baby can be sent to NICU, or neonatal intensive ICU. See neonatal intensive care. See stable. 

LOA: Acronym for leave of absence (from work). 

Low Census: This is when there are not as many patients on a floor or a unit. Usually, a unit can only take as many patients as they have beds available and nurses available. Sometimes, however, there just aren’t that many patients needing to be admitted into the hospital. On those days, beds may be empty and the census is low. See admit. See inpatient. See unit. See floor. 

Meconium: The medical term for the poop a baby produces during the labor process. Unlike urinating, babies do not usually poop in utero. If they do, it is because they are highly stressed during labor. This occurrence is considered to be a medical emergency, because it can get into the baby’s lungs and cause them to stop breathing. See amniotic sack/ amniotic fluid. 

Medication Pass: In the inpatient setting, patients have to be on a medication schedule. Many medications are scheduled to be given at 9:00am and 9:00pm. This is often the busiest time of a nurse's shift because they have to make sure that all the patient’s receive their medication within the allotted time frame.. See inpatient. 

Medication Room: The room in which medication is stored, more often called “the med room.” 

Military Time: The timetable hospitals run on so that there is no confusion between 9:00am and 9:00pm. In military time, the clock is twenty four hours, where 9:00am is 09:00 and 9:00pm is 21:00. Midnight is 00:00. 21:00 if said allowed, would be spoken as twenty-one-hundred. The easy way to remember it is that anything that comes after 1:00pm, which is 13:00, subtract twelve from it and then you have standard time. 

Narced Up: In reference to narcotics, or in short, strong pain medications. Narced up can mean numbed out. See narcotics. 

Narcotics: In the hospital this usually refers to strong pain medications that are used for severe pain. Examples of such are Norco and Morphine. 

NCLEX: Acronym standing for the ‘National Council Licensure Examination.’ This is a computerized test that all nurses must pass in order to get their license, in order to practice as a nurse. It is kind of like the SAT, except there is no set amount of questions. You start by having to answer seventy five questions. If you answer enough in a row correctly, the test shuts off. If the test keeps going, it doesn’t mean that you have failed, it just means you haven’t gotten enough in a row correct to pass yet. The test will shut off when you get enough right in a row, but it will also shut off when you get too many in a row wrong. The max number of questions that you can reach is 265 and then your passing depends on if you get the answer correct or not. The NCLEX will be changing in 2023, however. 

Neonatal Intensive Care: The specialty in which really sick infants go right after birth. Often, the infants that end up in this setting are exceptionally premature, or there were complications during delivery. It is critical care, but for the littlest patients. 

New Grads: Short for “New Graduates.” These are nurses who have just graduated from school, are freshly licensed, and are practicing as nurses for the first time. You are considered a New Grad for one year, then after that you are considered to be experienced, even if you don’t necessarily feel like it. A lot of hospitals have programs for new nurses called new grad programs in which new nurses go through special classes and trainings, so that they aren’t just shoved out into practice. As a new nurse you usually precept for a time too, but the length of that preceptorship depends on the hospital. See first year of nursing. See new grad year. See preceptorship. 

New Grad Year: A nurse’s first year after nursing school, in which they are considered a new graduate. See new grads. See first year of nursing. 

NG Tube: NG stands for nasogastric. This is a pliable tube that is inserted through a person’s nostril and down into their stomach. This can be used in one of two ways. The first way is to allow for stomach contents to be taken out by connecting the tubing to suction. The second way is to allow for feeding to be put into the stomach. A NG tube is usually placed temporarily, while a G-tube (or PEG tube) is usually used for longer or chronic use. See also G-tube. 

Nights: Working nights is to work the night shift. A traditional twelve hour night shift position is from 7:00pm to 7:30am. A full time nurse works three of those shifts a week. Working nights can be grueling  because it affects  your body, sleep schedule, and overall life. See military time. 

Obtunded: A state of alertness occurring when a patient or person isn't very reactive to stimulus (voice, touch, etc). They are extremely drowsy, difficult to arouse, and appear to be out of it. See oriented. 

Oncology: The specialty of nursing that specifically pertains to the treatment and care of cancer patients. 

On Your Own: When a new nurse is no longer partnered with a preceptor and they have to practice independently as their own autonomous nurse, caring for their own patients. See preceptor. See new grad. 

Orders: Orders are the actions, treatments, ect., that the doctor wants the nurse to implement in their caring for the patient. Orders can refer to a multitude of things from what medications need to be given to the patients to things like restraining a patient, to how often a patient should get up and walk. A doctor can give nurses orders verbally, over the phone, hand write them, or put them directly into the computer system themselves. See wrist restraints.

Oriented: This is in relation to the patient’s mental status. Are they oriented? Can they say their name, where they are, why they are in the hospital, and what year it is? If they can, they would be Alert and Oriented x4. The alert portion means simply, that they are alert or arousable/ able to awaken by voice and/ or  touch. A patient can be alert, but not able to answer any of your questions correctly. There are differing levels of alertness as well. See obtunded. 

Orienting:  A new nurse’s orientation period. This can essentially also be referring to the time a new nurse is still precepting, getting to know the unit, taking classes, etc. See precepting. See preceptorship. See unit. See new grad. 

Outpatient: The medical setting outside of the hospital where people receive medical care, often referring to a clinic-like setting. There are many different outpatient settings that correspond with different specialties. For example, some cancer patients can go to an outpatient infusion center to receive certain treatments and then go home, rather than having to go to the hospital. 

Oxygen: One of the things that is emphasized when you study for the NCLEX is the importance of the ABC’s (airway, breathing, circulation). Nurses are taught to address presenting problems in that order. If a patient is not able to breathe in enough oxygen to meet their body’s needs, they must be connected to an oxygen source by means of a nasal cannula (a tube that goes just slightly into each nostril) or a mask (which come in various types and sizes depending on the severity of the patient’s oxygen needs). If the patient is in severe enough respiratory distress and they are no longer able to breathe on their own, even with oxygenation from external devices, they have to be intubated. The intubation process requires the patient to be sedated and have an internal breathing tube inserted down their throat to assist them. See respiratory therapist. See respiratory floor. See trach. See ventilator. See code blue. 

Pain Scale (1-10): When patients are in pain, nurses will ask how much pain they are experiencing on a scale from 1 to 10: 1 being not bad, 10 being severe pain/ the worst pain of their life. It’s a little bit subjective because people all have different pain thresholds, but nurses do what we can to find out how we can best help treat the patient. See vital signs.

Palliative Care: A specialty that aims to make people with serious medical conditions as  comfortable as possible as they still continue to receive active medical treatment. Palliative care pertains to finding ways to keep the patient comfortable and improve their quality of life as their diagnosis is being treated.This differs from hospice in that treatments are still actively being implemented.  See hospice. 

Palpitations: When the heart beats irregularly for a moment, but then returns to normal. It can happen to anyone, even healthy people with no cardiac issues. Palpitations kind of feel like a flutter in your chest. They are often harmless and can be brought on by stress, coffee, etc. However, if they are prolonged or have other symptoms associated with them, then they need to be evaluated. See PVCs. 

Paracentesis: A procedure that is needed when fluid collects in a body cavity (often the abdominal cavity) that fluid is not supposed to be in. To perform this procedure, a doctor numbs the area the fluid needs to be extracted from, then sticks a long needle into the body and drains the fluid out into a special closed bottle system. When fluid collects it can be extremely painful, so a paracentesis can be used to not only let the fluid out, but to relieve pain and pressure. 

Parameters: Certain medications require closer monitoring of the patient before and after being given. For example, if a patient has high blood pressure, and they are supposed to be receiving a blood pressure lowering medication, the nurse would want to check the patient's blood pressure before and after giving the medication. Parameters are set by the doctor for when to give the medication and when to hold it. In this blood pressure example, a doctor’s order might say to not give the medication if the blood pressure is less than ______.  See systolic blood pressure. 

Patent: Not clogged or blocked. An IV is patent when it is able to get fluids/ medications through it. See IV start. 

Patient Assignment:  In the inpatient setting, nurses are assigned patients for the shift. In Emergency, nurses are assigned to beds instead of patients because the turnover rate is so fast. How many patients the nurse is assigned depends on the specialty. This is where nurse to patient ratios comes into play. In California, which has controlled nurse-to-patient ratios statewide, nurses are fortunate because hospitals cannot legally assign nurses an unsafe number of patients (although they will sometimes try to). This is a huge safety risk in other states where nurses are inundated with patients. Nurses are currently working to get national legislation passed to keep both nurses and patients safe. Remember… SAFE STAFFING SAVES LIVES!! See emergency department. 

Patient Fall: Nurses all want to do their best to keep their patients safe and when a patient falls they can become injured. Sometimes when a patient falls, they don’t get uninjured. Other times if they fall and hit their head just the right way they can sustain a brain bleed. Any time a fall happens, patients have to be assessed, x-rayed, etc, just to make sure. Then the paperwork begins and meetings have to be held to see what happened so it doesn’t happen again, and so on and so forth. 

Patient History: The patient’s medical history. What chronic conditions do they have? Have they had any past surgeries or procedures done? What medications are they taking? What diseases run in their family? Etc. 

Patient Identifiers: To make sure that the correct patient is being worked with, the patient needs to be correctly identified prior to having any sort of treatment performed or care implemented. Nurses do this both by checking the patient’s armband and by confirming their name, birthday, and medical record number (a specific and unique number assigned to the patient by hospital registration). See arm band. 

Pediatrics: The specialty that is focused on caring for the medical needs of children. 

PICC Line: Acronym standing for Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. PICCS are kind of like IVs in functionality, but their tubing is much longer as it goes through the vein, accessed/ started in the patient’s upper arm, directly into the patient’s heart.  PICCs have to be inserted by specifically trained nurses with a special machine. They are preferable for patients who need to receive medications long term. Caring for a patient with a PICC line requires the nurse to make sure that accessing the line is done as cleanly as possible, because an infected PICC line can spread infection straight  into the heart. PICC lines also have a special dressing over them to keep the site of insertion clean. See IV start. 

Precepting/ Preceptorship: Most new nurses have the opportunity to precept before they practice on their own as a nurse. Precepting occurs when the new nurse works directly under the instruction of an experienced nurse. It starts off as shadowing, then the new nurse takes on more and more responsibilities until the new nurse eventually takes over the full load of patient care. Then, once approved by management, they are released to take their own patients autonomously. The length of time of this process depends on the individual hospital and their new graduate program. When a nurse switches specialties or hospitals, they often have to precept for a while too to learn the new environment, but this preceptorship is usually shorter and less formal. See new grad. See new grad year. See first year of nursing. See orienting. See preceptor. 

Preceptor: The experienced nurse that the new nurse works directly with while they train to be an independent nurse. Preceptors have a huge impact on new nurses. They are the ones that teach the new nurse how to be a nurse, because being an actual nurse is very different from being a nursing student and you really have no idea what it means to be a nurse until you are one. A good preceptor is invaluable because they are your anchor when everything else feels very chaotic and you feel like you are going to be swept away. They are also the ones that provide you with feedback and discuss with the educators and managers to make sure you are progressing as you need to be. Nursing students will also often get to partner with an experienced nurse in a similar fashion for a rotation towards the end of their schooling. See new grad. See new grad year. See first year of nursing. See orienting. See precepting/ preceptorship. 

Pressure Injuries: Formerly known as pressure ulcers. Skin breakdown that occurs when a patient isn’t mobile or moving around enough and the prolonged pressure from their bed, chair, etc, causes the skin to wear away in the boney area that it is rubbing against. This type of wound has to be taken seriously, because if nothing is done about them, the skin can wear away and wounds can open up down to the bone. This is why repositioning patients is vital. See admit tasks. 

Psychiatric Rotation: All nursing students have to go through a psychiatric (or mental health) focused rotation. Psychiatric nursing is the specialty dedicated to treating people who require mental health specific care. It is very different from many of the other specialties in that nurses are still providing medical care for the patients, but it is for patients that are mentally unstable rather than physically unstable. It can be one of the more dangerous specialties, because you don’t always know how the patient is going to react to the interventions you are trying to provide them with. 

PVCs: An acronym for pre-ventricular contractions. This is a non-harmful occurrence when the heart beats a little bit early/ a little bit abnormally instead of sticking to its regular rhythm. These can occur to anyone including healthy people who don’t have any heart issues. Often they can be brought on by stress, coffee, anxiety, etc and feel like a palpitation. However, people who experience prolonged PVCs or PVCs with accompanying symptoms, should seek assessment (and if they are in the hospital, they will receive additional assessment). See palpitations. 

Rapid Responses: Usually, rapid responses occur when the nurse sees a critical change or decline in a patient’s condition and immediate medical attention is needed to prevent the patient from becoming a true code (where the patient’s heart stops beating/ they stop breathing). When a rapid response is called, doctors, critical care nurses, and respiratory therapists will come to the bedside to rapidly treat the patient. Some hospitals have special teams in place that respond to this type of specific call. It is the nurse who is taking care of the patient directly who is responsible to tell (give report to) the doctor and the response team what happened, so that they can make recommendations/ give orders that are appropriate to help the patient’s condition. In the critical care and emergency department settings, the nurses act as their own code and rapid response teams and partner directly with the doctors to provide care. See critical care. See emergency. See code. See code blue. See report. See respiratory therapists. See emergency department. 

Report / Give Report: Whenever there is a shift change or another nurse taking over patient care, the first nurse needs to give a brief verbal overview of what is going on with the patient (what they are here for, what treatments they have received, etc). This also occurs when rapid responses or codes are called so that the doctors and other members of the team can get a picture of what is going on with the patient. See rapid response. See code team. 

Respiratory Floor: A specific area or unit in a hospital that takes care of patients with more complex respiratory, lung, and breathing issues. These patients often require increased oxygenation through nasal cannulas (oxygen delivered into a patient's nose through tubing connected to an oxygen system) or through masks (there are a variety of masks used for respiratory patients and the more oxygen needed, the more advanced the mask), or ventilators/ trachs. Nurses work hand in hand with the respiratory therapists to make sure that the patients are getting the amount of oxygen that they need and are staying out of respiratory distress. See ventilators. See trachs. See respiratory therapists. See oxygen. 

Respiratory Rate: How many breaths a person takes per minute. The normal rate is twelve to twenty. When a nurse assesses someone's respirations, they are checking the rate at which the patient is breathing, as well as how they are breathing. Is the patient struggling to breathe? Are they unable to catch their breath? Etc. Patients sometimes require being placed on oxygen if they cannot meet the oxygen demands of their body with their own breathing. See oxygen. 

Respiratory Therapists: Also known as RTs, respiratory therapists attend to patients who require respiratory-specific care. Whenever a patient is having difficulty breathing or has an issue with their lungs that affects how much oxygen they are getting, the RTs are there to help. From taking care of patients who are chronically on ventilators, to providing medicine-infused breathing treatments to patients whose lungs require stimulus to help them breath and cough up sputum, to determining what kind of device patients need to better obtain oxygen, respiratory therapists do it all. They are also of vital importance during codes because they help make sure that the patient is receiving oxygen and ventilation when they can no longer breathe for themselves. During COVID, it was the Respiratory Therapists who most closely dealt with the grueling work of keeping the patients’ lungs from completely shutting down. If you see, know, or meet an RT, please thank them for their service. If you are an RT reading this, thank you for all that you do. It’s an honor to work with you. See acute. See ventilators. See code. See sputum. See oxygen. 

RN: The abbreviation for registered nurse. A registered nurse is someone who graduated from an accredited nursing program and passed their licensure exam. A nurse’s license must be renewed every two years by taking thirty continuing education course credits (CEUs) within that two year period. See NCLEX. 

Run A Code: To carry out a code. The doctors “run” the code in conjunction with the nurses and respiratory therapists. The doctors will give the orders and the nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, etc, will carry it out immediately. Nurses also are able to make suggestions during the code and everyone does what they can in real time to get everything done for the patient that they possibly can. One nurse records what is happening in the code, when medications are given, when the patients are defibrillated, and helps keep the code on track by saying when the next medication needs to be given, etc. Everyone else jumps in and does whatever they can to help. The code stops when the patient gets their pulses back and the pulse sustains. See code. See code blue. See code team. See respiratory therapists. See emergency department. See defibrillator/ defibrillation. 

Scopes: Abbreviation for stethoscope. 

Scrubs: The uniform that nurses and other hospital workers wear. The medical community’s biggest secret is that they are essentially pajamas. 

Septic: A patient becomes septic/ has sepsis when an infection that they have spreads into the bloodstream. The infection source can be from anything (a urinary tract infection, a wound, pneumonia, etc). Sepsis shock is considered a medical emergency because if not treated, the body will shut down. It is treatable with fluids, antibiotics, fever reducing medications, etc. 

Skilled Nursing Facilities: When patients are discharged from the hospital, and are still too sick or require more care than can be provided at home, they go to a skilled nursing facility for continued medical care. Some patients, however, are too sick/ require too much care to ever go home, so they perpetually live in skilled nursing facilities. 

Skills: The mechanical tasks that nurses perform. This includes IV starts, inserting NG tubes, PICC line dressing changes, inserting foley catheters, etc. See IV starts. See NG tubes. See PICC line. See foley catheter. See skills lab. 

Skills Lab: In school, you learn to perform nursing skills in the skills lab. These labs are spaces that are set up to as closely resemble a hospital as possible with mannequins and hospital supplies/ equipment. See skills. 

Social Work: Social workers have a special division in the hospital setting. They come in to evaluate patients and how they are doing mentally/ emotionally and play a large role in seeing if they are safe to go home, have a safe place to go home to, if they are at risk for suicide or harming themselves and need to be held at the hospital, etc. They also get involved in cases where abuse is suspected and provide the resources to help. While nurses try their best to provide holistic care, it is exceptionally difficult to meet all of the patient’s needs. Social workers are a vital part of a patient’s care team, because they help provide for more than just the patient’s physical needs. They also help patients navigate how they are going to pay for their hospital bills as well as help patients get connected to the resources that they need once they leave the hospital. See social work eval. See 5150.

Social Work Eval: When social workers evaluate a patient to see how they are doing, what resources they need, etc. The need for a social work eval is often triggered by the results of a patient’s depression screening that the nurse performs upon admission. See social work. See depression screen. See admit tasks. See 5150. 

Sputum: The coughed up mucus that comes up from the lungs and gets mixed in the saliva. When a patient has a respiratory illness, the lungs can end up making more mucus and the patient needs to cough it up. When they can’t cough it up, medications may help, or they may require more advanced measures such as breathing treatments and suction.  See oxygen. See respiratory therapists. 

Stable: When a patient is still requiring medical care, but is not in an immediately critical medical condition requiring immediate intervention. To be stable also means that the patient’s vital signs are within normal limits. See vital signs. 

Symptomatic: When a patient has an illness and the illness is presenting with active symptoms. For example, a patient can have bradycardia (a low heart rate), but not be having any symptoms. In other instances, a patient may have bradycardia and may feel dizzy and lightheaded. This means that the patient is symptomatic. 

Systolic Blood Pressure: Blood pressure consists of two numbers, the first number represents the patient’s systolic pressure (when the heart contracts and pushes blood out), and the second number represents the patient’s diastolic blood pressure (when the heart relaxes and the blood comes back in). A textbook normal blood pressure is considered to be 120/80, 120 being the systolic pressure and 80 being the diastolic pressure, but “normal” can vary for each individual patient. Blood pressures are usually monitored off of the systolic number. Anything below 90 requires intervention. A low number can be treated with fluids and medications, but if the patient drops to 60 or below, it is considered to be a code situation. High blood pressure, usually anything above 160, requires medical treatment as well. See code. See rapid response. 

Trach: When a patient is no longer able to breath on their own, they may have something called a trach placed. A trach is placed during a procedure called a tracheostomy. This is when an incision is made in the patient’s throat/ esophagus and a tube is inserted into the patient’s airway. This tube is then connected to a machine called a ventilator, which then mechanically breathes for the patient. These patients have to be monitored carefully because without the machine they cannot breathe, so if something happens to the machine, the patient is in trouble. See ventilator. See respiratory therapists. See oxygen. 

Three-In-A-Row: When a nurse works three back-to-back twelve hour shifts in a row. This can be brutal especially on night shift because you only are at home sleeping for a short amount of time before having to go back in. Also, a lot of times in the inpatient setting you will be assigned to the same patients if you are working multiple shifts in a row. This can be good if you have an easy assignment, but bad if you have a difficult assignment because then you have those patients for thirty-six hours. See assignment. 

Twelve Lead EKG: Also known as an electrocardiogram or ECG. Opposed to the regular EKG/ telemetry monitoring, which are worn by patients 24/7, a twelve lead EKG is only performed on initial entrance into the hospital, when a patient is reporting cardiac changes (i.e. chest pain), or the regular EKG/monitor is reporting electrical changes in the heart. The twelve lead EKG has ten wires (called leads) that connect to ten stickers (also called leads), that are placed on ten specific anatomical spots on the patient. Each lead picks up and reads a specific electrical reading of the heart. Two of the leads pick up two electrical impulses each, totaling a reading of twelve electrical impulses in all. This is all done in order to get a clearer, more detailed reading of what the heart is doing electrically. See EKG/ telemetry monitor.

Tube Feeding: When a patient cannot swallow food and requires an NG tube or G tube / PEG to be placed, they must receive nutrients through said tube. Tube feeding is a special formula of nutrients that are liquified and can be hung at the bedside, run through a pump, and pumped into the patient. Although in some instances, the feeding is pushed by hand through a large syringe into the patient’s tube. See NG tube. See G- tube. 

Unclamping The IV Antibiotics: IV antibiotics are hung at the bedside, run through a pump, and into the patient’s IV. You need to clamp the tubing before administering the medication to the patient while you get set up, so it is very easy to forget to unclamp the tubing. If you do it is not the end of the world, but the patient’s antibiotic schedule can get thrown off. See IV antibiotics. See IV start. See IV bag. See hanging the antibiotics. 

Unit: Different areas or specialties in hospitals are usually referred to as floors or units. For example, there are cardiac floors devoted to patients with heart problems, oncology floors devoted to patients with active cancer, and so on and so forth. It just depends on the hospital. See floor. 

Ventilators: When a patient is no longer able to breath on their own, they may have something called a trach placed. A trach is placed during a procedure called a tracheostomy. This is when an incision is made in the patient’s throat/ esophagus and a tube is inserted into the patient’s airway. This tube is then connected to a machine called a ventilator, which then mechanically breathes for the patient. These patients have to be monitored carefully because without the machine they cannot breathe, so if something happens to the machine, the patient is in trouble. See trach. See respiratory therapists. See oxygen. 

Vitals:  Referring to a patient’s vital signs. There are officially four vital signs; blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature. Sometimes pain level is considered to be the fifth vital sign. For a patient to be stable, their vital signs must be within normal limits, or at least normal limits for them. See stable. 

White Leather Shoes: Nursing students, at least in some schools, are required to wear all white shoes. They are notoriously ugly. 

Wrist Restraints: When a patient is deemed to be a danger to themselves, or they are a danger to others, the doctor will order for their wrists to be restrained. This means that a fabric cuff is placed on each wrist and then is tethered to the bed. Restraints are carefully monitored and documented so that the patient does not further harm themselves and so that the nurse can assess if the patient still truly needs them. 

Zipping The Body Bag: When a patient dies, the nurse is the one in charge of providing post-mortem care to the expired patient. Nurses are the ones to clean the body up, put on the identification tag, and put the body in the body bag to be sent down to the morgue. 

5150: The legal code/ term for when a patient is deemed to be a danger to either themselves or others and therefore cannot be released from the hospital, even if they are otherwise medically clear, even if they want to leave. A 5150 hold can only last for up to  forty-eight hours. See social work.