Essentials of Pharmacology for

Health Professions
Eighth Edition

Chapter 5

Abbreviations and Systems of

Measurement

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Abbreviations (1 of 10)

• First responsibility when preparing medication for

administration
– Interpretation of the medication order
• Knowledge of medical abbreviations and symbols
– Essential for accurate interpretation of the physician’s
order
 Orders may vary in the use of capital versus lowercase
letters
• See Table 5-1.

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (2 of 2)

• Institute for Safe Medication Practice (ISMP)

– Monitors for and categorizes medication errors
– Identifies practices that have contributed to medication
errors
– Has published a list of problematic abbreviations (ISMP
List of Error-Prone Abbreviations, Symbols, and Dose
Designations)
– See Figure 5-1 in your text.

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (3 of 10)

• The Joint Commission

– Approved a minimum list of “dangerous” abbreviations
that have been prohibited effective January 1, 2004
– Items required to be on an organization’s DO NOT USE
list are highlighted with a double asterisk (**) in the ISMP
List

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (4 of 10)

• Medication orders contain six parts

– Date
– Patient’s name
– Medication name
– Dosage or amount of medication
– Route or manner of administration (e.g., oral,
subcutaneous, etc.)
– Time to be administered, or frequency

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (5 of 10)

• Medication orders must always be written and signed

by a physician
– In an emergency the physician may give a verbal order
(VO)
 Health care practitioner must read back the order before
administration, and write down medication, amount, and
time of administration as soon as it is given

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (6 of 10)

• Telephone orders
– Always determine the policy of the agency before taking
a telephone order (TO)
– Some agencies require a registered nurse
– Always obtain the name of the person and write it down,
as well as the time
– Repeat all of the details regarding the medication,
dosage, frequency, etc.
– Physician must sign all verbal and telephone orders
within 24 hours in most cases

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (7 of 10)

• Medication orders
– Can be written on the patient’s record in the physician’s
office, clinic, or institution, or on a prescription blank
(See Figure 5-2 in your text.)
– The health care practitioner is responsible for checking
for completeness
 Date, patient name, medication name, dosage, route, and
frequency
 Question any discrepancy, omission, or unusual order

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (8 of 10)

• With the widespread use of electronic records,

computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is now
being used
• Prescriptions are typed into the system, printed out and
singed or sent directly y the pharmacy (e-prescribing or
eRx)
• Administered medication can be ordered using
electronic medication administration record (eMAR)

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Abbreviations (9 of 10)

• The prescription blank contains two additional items

– Physician’s Drug Enforcement Administration
registration number if the medication is a controlled
substance
– The number of times that a prescription can be refilled
 If there are to be no refills, write the word “NO,” “NONE,”
or “0/” after Refill

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
Abbreviations (10 of 10)

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Systems of Measurement

• Apothecary system
– Original system, now obsolete
• Metric system
– Preferred system of measurement
 Used at the present time
• Household system
– Least accurate
 More familiar to the layperson and used in prescribing
medications for the patient at home

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Metric System

• International standard for weights and measures (See

Table 5-2.)
– Based on three basic units: liter (L) for volume, meter
(m) for length, and gram (g) for weight
 Prefix representing a "power of ten" can be placed before
each of these units to change its value
 Example: "milli" means "one thousandth" and therefore a
milligram (mg) would be one thousandth of a gram (i.e.,
1000 milligrams would equal 1 gram)

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Household System

• Conversion from metric system to household system

may be necessary
– Especially in the home care setting
• Memorize the most commonly used basic equivalents
– See Table 5-3.
– Equipment commonly used for measuring includes the
medicine cup and various syringes calibrated in milliliters

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.
 Common Medical Conversion

• Almost all countries use the metric system as their

official measurement system
– United States still uses the English system of
measurement (See Table 5-3.)
 Ounces, pounds, feet, miles, yards etc.
• Often a conversion of units is needed
– Example: patient weighs 150 pounds but drug is ordered
on a per kilogram dose
 Conversion factor: 1 pound = 2.2 kilograms, therefore
150/2.2 = 68.18 kilograms

Introduction
© 2019to Cost management
Cengage. All rights reserved.