What are some common nursing abbreviations?

Common nursing abbreviations used in patient assessment include “SOB” for “shortness of breath,” “TPR” for “temperature, pulse, respiration” and “C/O” for “complaint of,” states NurseTogether. Abbreviations common in diagnosis include “UTI” for “urinary tract infection,” “QOL” for “quality of life” and “HTN” for “hypertension.” The abbreviations “OS” and “OD” indicate “left eye” and “right eye,” respectively.

A number of nursing abbreviations are created by adding a lowercase "x" to the first or second letter of a word, according to Straight A Nursing Student. These include “Sx” for “surgery,” “Rx” for “prescription,” “Tx” for “treatment,” “Dx” for "diagnosis," “Abx” for “antibiotics” and “Thx” for “therapy.” Some nursing abbreviations for two-word phrases, typically those related to symptom description and diagnosis, consist of the first letter of each word separated by a slash. These include “d/t” for “due to,” “s/t” for “secondary to,” “s/p” for “status post” and “r/o” for “rule out.”

Nursing also employs some abbreviations from mathematics, including the uppercase Greek letter delta to indicate change and “+/-“ to indicate something that may or may not be possible or something that exists with or without another condition. The nursing profession also borrows from the field of chemistry; the formulas “H2O” and “O2” abbreviate “water” and “oxygen,” respectively.