Friday, August 15, 2008

nursey words and phrases I like

Because I am at work I am surrounded by nursey language. Here are some of my favorite words and phrases. If you figure a couple of these out you might just be disgusted. I'll try to keep it tame.

  • Inspiratory wheeze
  • Precordial thump
  • insitu
  • empyema
  • purulent
  • neuro breath
  • ICUitis
  • loculated
  • self limiting
  • stat
  • code brown

One rather disturbing thing that all of us do is to describe various body fluids by equating it with food. Commonly used foods include:

  • vanilla pudding
  • mustard
  • rotten sour cream
  • red juice
  • prune juice
  • There are many more but I fear you may never read my blog again.
Finally, this next list is some things that all of us who have been nursing for more than 10 years can relate to. All of these phrases start with, "you know you're a nurse when...
  • You would like to meet the inventor of the call light in a dark alley one night.
  • You avoid unhealthy looking shoppers in the mall for fear that they'll drop near you and you'll have to do CPR on your day off.
  • You find yourself checking out other customer's arm veins in grocery waiting lines.
  • When checking the level of orientation of a patient... you aren't sure of the answer.
  • Your bladder can expand to the same size as a Winnebago's water tank
  • Eating microwave popcorn out of a clean bedpan is perfectly natural
  • You've told a confused patient your name was that of your co-worker and to HOLLER if they need help.
  • You don't get excited about blood loss... unless it's your own

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