Abbreviations to avoid (The Joint Commission)

The Joint Commission requires every health care facility to develop a list of approved abbreviations
for staff use. Certain abbreviations should be avoided because they’re easily
misunderstood, especially when handwritten. The Joint Commission has identified a minimum
list of dangerous abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols. This do-not-use list includes
the following items.
 

Official “Do Not Use” List1
Do not use	Potential problem	Use instead
U, u (unit)	Mistaken for “0” (zero), the number “4” (four), or "cc"	Write “unit”
IU (International Unit)	Mistaken for “IV” (intravenous) or the number “10” (ten)	Write “International Unit”
Q.D., QD, q.d., qd (daily)   Q.O.D., QOD, q.o.d, qod (every other day)	Mistaken for each other   Period after the Q mistaken for “I” and the “O” mistaken for “I”	Write “daily”   Write “every other day”
Trailing zero (X.0 mg)* Lack of leading zero (.X mg)	Decimal point is missed	Write “X mg” Write “0.X mg”
MS     MSO4 and MgSO4	Can mean morphine sulfate or magnesium Sulfate   Confused for one another	Write “morphine sulfate”   Write “magnesium sulfate”

 

¹Applies to all orders and all medication-related documentation that is handwritten (including free-text computer entry) or on preprinted forms.

*Exception: A “trailing zero” may be used only where required to demonstrate the level of precision of the value being reported, such as for laboratory results, imaging studies that report size of lesions, or catheter/tube size. It may not be used in medication orders or other medication-related documentation.

©The Joint Commission, 2020. https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/news-and-multimedia/fact-sheets/facts-about-do-not-use-list/. Reprinted with permission in Comerford, K.C. & Durkin, M.T. (2024). Nursing2024 drug handbook. (44th edition.) Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.