Before starting nursing school, you may wish to become familiar with common nursing terms. Medical terms in nursing include acronyms like NPO, ICU, and WNL. Other nursing vocabulary to become familiar with include slang like total, peds, and walkie-talkie. Study a few terms each day for better memory retention.
During nursing school, you’ll be expected to commit a great deal of information to memory, including essential nursing terms. It can be helpful to prepare by learning some common nurse lingo ahead of your nursing school start date. When you attend labs and clinical rotations, you’ll have opportunities to use your new nursing words in simulated and actual patient care situations. This can help reinforce memory retention.
At the University of Mount Saint Vincent, we offer strong student support to those attending our Accelerated Bachelor of Science in nursing (ABSN) program. The ABSN program offers the opportunity to earn a BS in nursing in as few as 16 months, which means the curriculum is fast-paced. Although learning some terminology ahead of time is recommended, it’s not strictly necessary, as the ABSN program will prepare you to become a practice-ready nurse.
How does an accelerated nursing program work? Learn what to expect from the structure and curriculum.
Common Medical Terms in Nursing
When learning nursing vocabulary, you may wish to organize your study sessions into categories, covering basic medical terms, abbreviations and acronyms, and patient assessment terms.
Basic Nursing Medical Terminology
You can start preparing for nursing school by reviewing the following basic terminology:
- Charge nurse: The charge nurse is the supervisor of a nursing unit for any given shift.
- Catheter: There are multiple types of catheters. One of the most common is a catheter that drains urine away from the bladder.
- Sharps container: After using a needle, nurses place it in the sharps container for disposal.
- Pulse oximeter: This device measures the oxygen level in blood.
- Hemostat: When a patient is bleeding, this tool can clamp the blood vessels.
- Specimen: A specimen is any type of bodily sample, such as urine, blood, or tissue.
- Code blue/coding: When a patient is coding, it means there is a medical emergency, such as a cardiac arrest.
- Peds: This is short for pediatrics, referring to the care of children.
- Walkie-talkie: This is slang for a patient who can walk, feed, and speak and does not require intensive nursing care.
- Total: A total is a patient who is the opposite of a walkie-talkie and needs significant nursing care. For example, patients in the ICU may not be able to eat, drink, or breathe on their own.
Nursing Abbreviations and Acronyms
Nurses use lots of abbreviations and acronyms in their work. During any given nursing shift, you might encounter the following:
- ABC (Airway, Breathing, and Circulation): When the patient is unresponsive, check the patient’s airway, breathing, and circulation.
- CBR (Complete Bed Rest): The patient should not leave their bed for any reason and will need to have personal needs tended to at the bedside.
- ICU (Intensive Care Unit): The intensive care unit is where critically ill or injured patients are treated.
- WNL (Within Normal Limit): Within normal limits refers to test results or assessment findings within an expected range.
- EHR (Electronic Health Records): Electronic health records cover the patient’s medical history, including medications, diagnoses, and allergies. They must be meticulously updated for each patient.
- DNR (Do Not Resuscitate): A patient may sign a DNR health directive, which means medical staff are prohibited from attempting resuscitation should the patient suffer a cardiac arrest.
- NPO (nil per os): Nil per os is Latin for “nothing by mouth.” Patients are typically NPO prior to surgery, although those being fed via IV or a feeding tube are also NPO.
- SOP (Standard Operating Procedure): Standard operating procedure is the normal, expected way that a particular nursing intervention should be done.
- PPE (Personal Protective Equipment): Personal protective equipment includes masks and gloves, which protect nurses from pathogens and hazardous materials.
Patient Assessment and Documentation Terms
A great deal of your time as a nurse will be spent performing head-to-toe patient assessments and documenting your findings in your patient’s medical records. Every time you have a patient interaction, such as administering another dose of painkillers, you must document what you’ve done.
Common terms you’ll encounter during patient assessments and documentation include:
- Vital signs: These are the basic health indicators. They include blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate.
- Charting: Nurses engage in charting frequently, which means updating the patient’s chart or health record.
- Blood pressure: Blood pressure refers to the force a patient’s blood uses to pump through arteries. Nurses measure patients’ blood pressure during head-to-toe assessments and as needed.
- Respiratory rate: The respiratory rate is the number of breaths taken per minute.
- Pain scale: A scale from 1–10 is often used to measure a patient’s pain. Nurses and other health professionals will ask patients to rate their pain, with one being very little and 10 being extreme.
- Tachy: This is short for tachycardia, which is a rapid heart rate. It’s pronounced “tacky.”
In emergency rooms, nurses need to triage patients. Triaging means determining which patients need to be seen first based on the severity of their conditions. For example, a patient with a broken bone would be seen before a patient with a sprain.
These are the five levels of triage:
- Level 1: Immediate and life-threatening
- Level 2: Emergency and potentially life-threatening
- Level 3: Urgent but not life-threatening
- Level 4: Semi-urgent, not life-threatening
- Level 5: Non-urgent
For example, a patient with a suspected heart attack is level 1, whereas a patient with a minor laceration in need of sutures would be level 4.
Keep an eye out for these 5 common nursing errors.
Pharmacology and Medication Administration Terms
Most nurses are not authorized to prescribe medications to patients; however, administering medications is a major part of the job. The following is a sample of medication-related terms:
- Adverse effect: This is an unintended, potentially harmful effect of a medication that occurs despite the medication having been administered correctly.
- Side effect: An effect that may occur due to a drug other than its intended effect.
- PRN (pro re nata): This is a Latin term for “as needed,” meaning medications are to be given as needed instead of according to a schedule.
- Waste: Waste is a medication term used after a nurse has administered narcotics and has some left over. Medical facilities typically have established protocols for dealing with waste. For example, a charge nurse may need to oversee the proper disposal of waste, in which case the nurse might say, “I need a waste.”
- OTC (over-the-counter): OTC refers to drugs that can be purchased without a prescription. Patients need to be questioned about their over-the-counter medication usage, as some OTC drugs can interact with prescription medicine.
- Milk of amnesia: This is an infusion of propofol, a fast-acting anesthetic. Note it can have toxic effects on children and older adults.
- Absorption: This is the first stage of pharmacokinetics. The medication has gone from the administration site to the body’s bloodstream.
- Bioavailability: The extent to which a drug or other chemical can be made available to the tissue it’s intended to treat.
- Black box warning: This is the strongest warning label the FDA may issue for a medication, indicating the drug carries a significant risk of serious or life-threatening adverse effects.
How to Learn Nursing Vocabulary
Trying to memorize a bunch of new nursing words in one sitting may be counterproductive. Instead, choose just a few new words to learn each day. You should also spend a few minutes each day reviewing the words you learned during previous study sessions.
Other tips for learning nursing terms include:
- Study prefixes, suffixes, and word roots to enhance your understanding of medical terminology.
- Create flashcards with the term on one side and its definition on the other. You can use flashcards to quiz yourself.
- Review nursing case studies involving terminology you’re currently studying to place the words in context.
- Practice using terminology, such as writing down sentences containing your vocabulary words.
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Gain a Strong Foundation for Nursing at the Mount
The nursing school at the University of Mount Saint Vincent has a proud tradition of delivering high-quality nursing education since World War II, with a focus on evidence-based practice, professionalism, and patient-centered care.
If you have a non-nursing bachelor’s degree, you may be eligible to earn your nursing degree in as few as 16 months. Here, you can earn your BS in nursing in the heart of New York City, with five convenient ABSN locations throughout the boroughs.
Contact an admission counselor at the Mount today to get started.