Nursing Lingo

Work is a very interesting environment- often with many different nationalities working together. On my floor we have Canadians, Americans, Australians, Kiwi's, Filipinos, Czechs, South Africans, Jordanians, Egyptians and Saudis. This can make communication quite interesting. Phrases that I took for granted can mean different things- or nothing at all depending on where one is from. For instance vital signs are referred to as "obs." Report is called "hand over." My personal favourite is something that I didn't think could really be called anything else. BM or "bowel movement" (for those non-nurses out there) is referred to as "bowel motion", BO does not refer to body odour but "bowels open" or BA "bowel action." I pretty much giggle like a school kid every time someone says any variation of these phrases.