EMS related acronyms

ochacon80

ochacon80

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Good afternoon all. I was wondering if anyone knew of a site with all of the ems related acronyms that are used on the field.

The only ones I currently know are:

OPQRST, SAMPLE, DCAP-BTLS, DRGERM, APGAR, and AVPU and a couple of more. Recently I took a test for a local ems company and I blanked on a majority of there acronyms, I have a retest Friday and I want to brush up before I go in, any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Unfortunately, except for APGAR, you won't see any of those acronyms in the field. They are all just mnemonic devices for learning in EMT school, not normal terms used in medicine. And even APGAR is pretty darn rare in the field. I've been at this for thirty-six years, and I can't tell you what SAMPLE, DCAP-BTLS, or DRGERM mean.

Your EMT school failed you. Hopefully, someone has a good standard list for you here that will help you out. Good luck.
 
they should've taught you acronyms prior to anything else I'm sorry you had a poor instructor. I'll look a for a site in a few, but in the mean time a few common acronyms are:
S/P: Status post
MI: Myocardial Infarction
B/P: Blood Pressure
CA&Ox#: Conscious, Alert and Oriented x#
BGL: Blood Glucose Level
DM: Diabetes Mellitus
C/O: Complains of
C/C: Chief Complaint
C with a line over it: medical abbreviation for "with"

it's just a few to get you started but those are probably the most common ones you'll see like i said I'll look around.
 
http://www.chems.alaska.gov/ems/Assets/Downloads/Common_Med_Abbrev.pdf

I don't agree with all of them but it's a fairly good list has a lot of what you'll need and leaves out a lot you won't as a basic. Hope it helps!

EDIT: don't ever use say "within normal limits" most people will yell at you for it a corpse with a pulse of 0, bp of 0/0 and resp of 0 is within normal limits for a corpse :P
 
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Yeah it was an accelerated course, but they neglected some areas of teaching. We never did car extraction neither, its a shame too, the class is taught by all current FF/Paramedics.


Thank you for the help.
 
Afflixion said:
S/P: Status post
MI: Myocardial Infarction
B/P: Blood Pressure
CA&Ox#: Conscious, Alert and Oriented x#
BGL: Blood Glucose Level
DM: Diabetes Mellitus
C/O: Complains of
C/C: Chief Complaint
C with a line over it: medical abbreviation for "with"
Click to expand...

Here it gets easy to confuse medically accepted abbreviations with the acronyms used in EMS.

By definition, acronyms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. That is not to say they are always appropriate for medical documentation and often are a learning crutch/tool which may be more commonly referred to as mnemonics such as those you listed: OPQRST, SAMPLE, DCAP-BTLS, DRGERM, APGAR, and AVPU .
 
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ochacon80 said:
Yeah it was an accelerated course, but they neglected some areas of teaching. We never did car extraction neither, its a shame too, the class is taught by all current FF/Paramedics.


Thank you for the help.
Click to expand...

I think I see the problem.
 
VentMedic said:
Here it gets easy to confuse medically accepted abbreviations with the acronyms used in EMS.

By definition, acronyms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. That is not to say they are always appropriate for medical documentation and often are a learning crutch/tool which may be more commonly referred to as mnemonics such as those you listed: OPQRST, SAMPLE, DCAP-BTLS, DRGERM, APGAR, and AVPU .
Click to expand...

yeah i know the difference between acronym and abbrev. Just in the army every abbrev. is an acronym. I'm pretty sure he wanted abbreviations though.
 
Afflixion said:
yeah i know the difference between acronym and abbrev. Just in the army every abbrev. is an acronym. I'm pretty sure he wanted abbreviations though.
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Then why did he state this?

ochacon80 said:
The only ones I currently know are:

OPQRST, SAMPLE, DCAP-BTLS, DRGERM, APGAR, and AVPU and a couple of more. Recently I took a test for a local ems company and I blanked on a majority of there acronyms, I have a retest Friday and I want to brush up before I go in, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

He may also be an EMT-B student who hasn't learned the difference so it really doesn't matter what you are doing in the army.
 
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The sense of the question was preserved, good enough.

Oh, can't let it go there can we?
APGAR: per wikipedia: "The Apgar score was devised in 1952 by Dr. Virginia Apgar". I don't know WHAT that sort of deal is called, sort of like Heimlich maneuver or "Laforte fracture".

Once you've worked for a while and gotten past the "superior" ballbusters, when they see you write "WNL" or "unremarkable", they start leaving it alone. The proper response is to stare silently, woodenly into their eyes .


Unless you're a rookie, then listen up good and do as you are told!;)
 
mycrofft said:
Once you've worked for a while and gotten past the "superior" ballbusters, when they see you write "WNL" or "unremarkable", they start leaving it alone. The proper response is to stare silently, woodenly into their eyes .
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I thought you were an RN is the state of California or anywhere.

Didn't you get the memo about medical errors and improper abbreviations?

If they can't understand what you write, they won't bother to read it.

If they misunderstand what you write, harm could come to the patient.
 
Hey acronyms for abbreviations is a common mistake guy stop getting so bent out of shape over small fry... I'm sure an EMS employer wouldn't quiz someone on "acronyms." So i figured he meant abbreviations and said acronyms myself common mistake meant something else and everyone else saw what I meant.
 
Afflixion said:
Hey acronyms for abbreviations is a common mistake guy stop getting so bent out of shape over small fry... I'm sure an EMS employer wouldn't quiz someone on "acronyms." So i figured he meant abbreviations and said acronyms myself common mistake meant something else and everyone else saw what I meant.
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EMT tests are based on acronyms...unfortunately.

Their text books are full of them.
 
for the NREMT...not a new employer at least not that I've heard of but I've only worked in TX and AZ so other states may be different...
 
I for the most part never use an abbreviation on a run form.

A couple of times to court cured me of that little shortcut.
 
Ooo, ouch. Rookies close your eyes and hum.

You thought right. I'm not talking about letters I'm talking about real life. If we were held to all the applicable official letters and standards we would see one pt a day.

It comes in three stages. The first stage is when you are not a "known quantity" you have to report everything about the pt to prove you aren't totally fixated on one complaint or just missing important stuff. If you are seeing the pt the fourth time for a plantar wart you had better record their lung sounds despite absence of other indicators or complaints.

Second phase is that your charting indicates that you did appropriate exam by listing every finding appropriate to the reason you are seeing the pt, or any incidental findings or c/o which arise. If I'm seeing Bonzo the fourth time for warts and he has a cough, I listen in and if it's important I go there. If not, the next person reading my chart doesn't want to hear about my ruling something out in 99% of instances, they want to hear about this plantar wart I'm treating. Well, maybe they don't want to, but tough.

Third stage is as a "reasonable" experienced practitioner within the community standard (not necessarily the microtome-like standard some beancounters espouse), if it can be reasonably surmised that I know what I'm doing when I chart WNL, then it can be reasonably expected to be that. If your organization expects second stage to be their level, that's great, and very appropriate for ICU etc pt care, but I'm betting a Twinkie I could go into any pt chart and find MD's and others charting WNL, unremarkable, etc. Most just don't mention it at all, avoiding the red flag nitpickers go for.

The basis for all this is you know what you are doing and doing it right. My docs would skin me alive if I wasted their and my time by doing rookie-level documentation, and the last supervisor who tried that on me and the experienced nurses was let go.
 
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Afflixion said:
for the NREMT...not a new employer at least not that I've heard of but I've only worked in TX and AZ so other states may be different...
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Where do you think they get the ideas for many of their questions?

These acronyms are used for basic assessment and often they write their patient care reports based on these letters. Thus, this may be a way for an employer to see how well they have memorized the order of assessment.

Have you not read the scenarios on the EMS forums? Some will often format their posts by these letters. They are just mnemonics to help them remember things. They can be included in some medical documentation as long as there is information that demonstrates their use.
 
Afflixion said:
for the NREMT...not a new employer at least not that I've heard of but I've only worked in TX and AZ so other states may be different...
Click to expand...

One of the preemployment tests that I've taken included two scenarios that required the applicants to write a narrative for them. While not a direct test of acronyms and abbreviations, it would have been unwise to use non-standard or bad abbreviations.
 
I apologize for any confusion, I meant abbreviations and mnemonics. I am trying to get a job here in L.A. County and seems like some of the test are focusing a lot on those two items.

I scored well on the assessment test, and scored well on situational questions but when it came to abbreviations and mnemonics I didn't do to well. A majority of the ones on the test I never saw during class, so I wanted to brush up before I go back Friday, I appreciate all the help, the link that was posted looks pretty good, thanks.
 
mycrofft said:
You thought right. I'm not talking about letters I'm talking about real life. If we were held to all the applicable official letters and standards we would see one pt a day.
Click to expand...

Let me give you a little information incase you decide to join the real world again.

if it can be reasonably surmised that I know what I'm doing when I chart WNL, then it can be reasonably expected to be that.
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This is an assumption.
We have had documentation and standardized abbreviation requirements in most health care facilities for many years. The "short hand" crap will no longer fly in the professional world if it is a made up term used only by you and YOUR doctor. Even doctors are now held to this standard which makes me thing even you as a nurse would be also.

Proper documentation is not an option. It is now a standard to be a professional. If doesn't matter where you are an EMT-B, RN or MD. It really isn't a difficult concept.
 
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