When you begin your search for a UK healthcare role, you’re bound to come across several acronyms and abbreviations that will be used not only throughout your job search and relocation process, but also within your new healthcare setting.
In this blog, we’re going to shed light on some of the healthcare and recruitment abbreviations you might hear or read and explain what they mean and when they should be used.
1. A&E – Accident and emergency. An accident and emergency department is a medical treatment facility, which specialises in emergency medicine and care of patients who arrive prior appointment, either arriving by their own means or by an ambulance.
2. BMI – Body Mass Index. BMI is an abbreviation of Body Mass Index – this is a value that comes from the weight and height of a person. It’s defined by the person’s body mass divided by the square of their height and is presented in units of kg/m². Find out your BMI.
3. DNR – Do not resuscitate. DNR is a legal order that is written or spoken, depending on country, and indicates thata patient shouldn’t receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation if their heart stops beating.
4. Dx – Diagnosis. Dx is an abbreviation of ‘diagnosis’, which determines the nature of a disease or illness.
5. h/o – History of.
6. IM – Injection into muscle.
7. IV – Injection into vein.
8. Wt – Weight
9. Stat. – Urgent, without delay, now. Stat. is used as a direction to medical staff during an emergency and comes from the Latin work ‘statim’, meaning ‘instantly’ or ‘immediately’.
10. o/e – On examination.
1. FTC – Fixed term contract. This phrase is used to describe interim roles, maternity cover, and specific project work for a fixed period of time (e.g., 6-month contract).
2. JD – Job description. This is also known as a job specification. It’s a list of the responsibilities and requirements of a job. This often forms part of a job advert.
3. ERS – Employee record system. This is software that helps companies keep track of all its employees and their records.
4. IR35. This is the UK’s tax legislation and is designed to identify contractors who are avoiding paying the required tax by working as ‘disguised’ employees, or businesses that are engaging workers on a self-employed basis to ‘disguise’ their true employment status. Find out more about IR35 on the www.gov.uk website.
5. On-boarding. This is a process for new employees to gain the necessary business knowledge and skills to become effective workers, as soon as possible.
6. Locum. This is a person who stands in temporarily for someone else of the same profession.
7. ATS – Applicant tracking system. This manages a recruitment process and typically includes candidate journey mapping, ‘talent pooling’ – a sourced list of suitable candidates who’ll be screened and prepped for future requirements – authorisation, interview scheduling and contract issuing. An ATS will also supply recruitment analytics, such as time-to-hire and survey results.
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