A guide to common medical abbreviations

Have you ever looked at your prescriptions or medical records and wondered what all those abbreviations mean?

Abbreviations are used in medical settings to save doctors and nurses valuable time and space when writing prescriptions and other healthcare records.

Here we provide a brief guide on what some of the most common medical abbreviations used in the UK mean. Please feel free to bookmark this page so that you can return to it when you need it.

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WHY ARE THERE SO MANY MEDICAL ABBREVIATIONS?

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff see a large number of patients every day. Medical abbreviations are a convenient way to convey important medical information quickly so that healthcare professionals can spend more time with their patients.

Abbreviations can save healthcare professionals precious space and time while writing prescriptions or healthcare records. For instance, instead of having to write “to be taken once a day”, a doctor or nurse may simply write “OD” to save time.

Abbreviations can also help eliminate human error due to misspellings, typos or handwriting that is difficult to understand.

LIST OF COMMON MEDICAL ABBREVIATIONS

It is important to note that healthcare staff sometimes use the same abbreviations to mean different things.

If you do not know what something in your health records or prescriptions means, ask your GP, nurse or pharmacist.

Medicines

Medical Tests and Terminology

Body & Conditions