Abbreviations in physiotherapy

Original Editor - Ruairi O'Donohoe

Top Contributors - Garima Gedamkar, Ruairi O'Donohoe, Rewan Elsayed Elkanafany, Karen Wilson, Kim Jackson, Scott Buxton, Ewa Jaraczewska, Lauren Heydenrych, Venkata Nagaraj Mummadisetty, Leana Louw, Lucinda hampton and Aminat Abolade  

Description

Abbreviations assist healthcare professionals to make effective use of their time. These abbreviations should be recognised and agreed upon in order to ensure best practice.

The following Abbreviations are taken from the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) Code of Practice for Healthcare Records Management Version 2.  and from wikipedia .

Abbreviations:

Units:

Centimeter	cm
Gram	g
Kilocalorie	kcal
Kilogram	Kg
Litre	L
Milligram	mg
Millilitre	mL
Millimetre	mm
Millimole	Mmol

Frequency and time:

b.d./b.i.d.	Twice daily
Mane	In the morning
Nocte	At night
p.r.n.	When required
q.d.s./q.i.d.	Four times daily
STAT	Immediately
Tarde	In the evening
t.d.s./t.i.d.	Three times daily
h	Hour
Mins.	Minute
s	Second	x/52	x weeks
x/12	x Months

Routes of Administration

IV	Intravenously
IM	Intramuscularly
NG	Nasogastric
PEG	Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrotomy
PO	Per Oral (oral by mouth)
PV	Per vaginal
SC	Subcutaneously
PR	Per Rectum
SL	Sublingually

Never abbreviate

Patient's resuscitation status
Drug names
Right OR Left	Except when used as part of an approved abbreviation
+++, >, <	Avoided unless used as part of an official grading system
+ve, -ve	Can use Pos. and Neg. instead
Patient/Service users name
No abbreviations on a consent form
No abbreviations on an incident report

#

5Ds	Dizziness, diplopia, drop attacks, dysorthria, dysphagia
9HPT	Nine Hole

A

ABBREVIATION	DEFINITION
A&A	Aids and Appliances
AAA	Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

M

LCL	Lateral Collateral Ligament

N

MCL	Medial Collateral Ligament

R

NBM	Nil By Mouth

S

ROM	Range Of Movement

V

SA Node

Sinoatrial Node

VAS	Visual Analogue Scale W X Y Z WZF Wheeled Zimmer Frame References ZF Zimmer Frame