What is a PRN nurse or employee? In employment, PRN stands for as needed or per day. Standing orders are there if you need them, but typically you don’t want to need them. Whereas PRN orders or medications will be used for pain management or specific use cases. However, standing orders are typically more broad. PRN orders are similar to standing orders because they both are their “if needed”. This means that you don’t need to take the medication every 4 hours, it’s just if feel you need it. If you take home a Q4 PRN medication that means that you should take the medication every 4 hours as needed. Now, this can depend on several other factors, but that is the general idea. But, if they rate their pain a 5, they’ll get morphine. So, if they rate their pain a 2, then they get acetaminophen. The patient needs determine the dosing and medication. With this order, it depends on a patient’s pain level on a 1-10 pain scale. 15mg morphine PO PRN Q4, pain 4-6 (on a 1-10 scale) So, an order might read: -400mg acetaminophen PO PRN Q4, pain 1-3 (on a 1-10 scale) For example, some pain medications or blood pressure medications are written as a PRN order. Most PRN medications providing some sort of temporary relief. What does PRN stand for on a prescription? On a prescription medication, PRN means as needed.
PRN is an approved abbreviation for as needed. This “Do Not Use” list consists of abbreviations for medications or terms that could be considering confusing or misleading. It is listed as an approved abbreviation by the Joint Commission ( source).įor those who don’t know, the Joint Commission controls the approved medical abbreviation list. In medical terms, PRN means “as needed” just as stated before. What Does PRN Stand For in Medical Terms? The phrase or abbreviation PRN is typically used in the medical setting either describing an employee, a medication, or procedure. There can also be other uses for the term PRN. In medicine or nursing, PRN can be used to describe the administration schedule of a medication or how often an employee works.
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In a hospital setting, PRN is an abbreviation used for the Latin phrase, “ pro re nata” or as needed. But, hopefully we can help clear up all of the confusion.Ĭheck out our recent Grey’s Anatomy VS FIGS Scrubs Comparison! What Does PRN Stand For? It can be easy to confuse different medical abbreviations like PRN. Communication is one of the number one areas that needs improvement in the hospital setting. There are hundreds of different medical terms and abbreviations that nurses and physicians use to aid in communication. Another popular question is: What does PRN mean in medical terms? What does PRN stand for in healthcare? This is a common question in nursing, medicine and healthcare as a whole. Our opinions are not affected by affiliates and are our own. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission.