hi my name's amanda and i'm a pharmacist today i'll be covering sig codes and roman numerals and if you find this video useful please press the like button and subscribe to my channel and share it with others who may find it helpful too thanks i really appreciate it i'll start with an outline of what's going to be covered in this video first we'll look at sig codes we'll look at some information in general about the sig codes and also the five categories of sig codes which will be covered in detail then i'll look at the units of measure abbreviations roman numerals and then we'll give several examples so first just some information about sig codes so what are sig codes sig codes are prescription abbreviations used by medical professionals sig codes are actually derived from latin medical abbreviations this is why sometimes they don't seem to make sense to us as an abbreviation and sig is actually short for the latin word signature which means let it be labeled so knowing what sig codes mean is an important skill for data entry of prescription orders this allows you to communicate to patients in everyday language how to take their medications so first i'll begin with the time of day and frequency sick codes these zig codes tell when or how often a medication is to be taken and q means every you often see that in these type of cig codes so qh means every hour qam is every morning qpm is every evening qhs means every night at bedtime qd means every day or once a day qod means every other day qwk or sometimes it's written qw means every week qmo means every month q with a number and an h means every however many hours for instance q six h would mean every six hours q with a number and a degree sign it's the same thing it means every however many hours so q6 with the degree sign would mean every six hours bid means twice a day tid means three times a day qid means four times a day and prn means as needed next are what i call the extra detail sig codes these are just sig codes that give additional information about how a medication is to be taken or administered so there's ac which means before a meal pc means after a meal cf means with food hs means at bedtime stat means immediately or now ud means as directed wa means while awake t-a-t or u-a-t means until all are taken aud means apply is directed aaa means apply to the affected area per means by or through c means with s means without d c means discontinue t u d means take as directed and an x with a number and a d means for whatever number days so x 70 would mean for seven days next are routes of administration sig codes and we did cover these in our routes of administration video which um you can look at that on my with my other videos but these sid codes basically give information about where medication is to be administered or taken so p o is by mouth sl means under the tongue stands for sublingual iv means into a vein that's intravenously im is into a muscle intramuscularly sc or sq means under the skin just subcutaneously o u means both eyes o d means the right eye o s means the left eye a u is both ears a d is the right ear a s is left ear pv means per vagina or vaginally pr means per rectum or rectally id is into the skin which is intradermal td is onto the skin which is transdermal this would be like a patch and ia is into an artery or intra-arteriole next are the dosage form sig codes these sig codes just basically give information about the dosage form of a medication so tab tab is tablet cap is capsule cr or cre is cream o int oint or ung means ointment lot means lotion inh is inhalation this will be like with an inhaler inj means injection gtt means drop this will be like for eye drops or ear drops syr means syrup s-o-l or s-o-l-n means solution s-u-p-p is suppository s-u-s-p is suspension odt means orally disintegrating tablet er is extended release dr is delayed release and ec is enteric coded those are other ones you may see with a tablet or capsules now we'll look at the prescription order sig codes these are abbreviations used to indicate details about how a prescription is to be dispensed so they're not necessarily going to appear in the directions but they'll be on the prescription so qs means quantity sufficient this will be written sometimes instead of a specific number and it basically means just to give the amount needed daw means dispense is written this means to not sub substitute a generic nr means no refill and r times with a number or an r with a number means to refill it that many times so r times three would mean refill three times now we'll look at some units of measure abbreviations um tsp means a teaspoonful tbsp means tablespoon full ml is milliliter oz is ounce mcg is microgram mg is milligram g is gram and u is units you see this sometimes with insulin now we'll look at roman numerals roman numerals are often used in sig codes to indicate quantities so ss means one-half capital y or sometimes it's written as a lowercase i means one v means five x means ten l means fifty c means one hundred d means 500 and m means 1 000. and you'll usually see on these the lower numbers so i've given you some more of the lower numbers here as well i i means two three eyes iii means three iv means four v of course means five v i means six v i i is seven and v i i i is eight and i x is nine now we'll look at some examples of sig codes so if you have a prescription that has i i tab p-o-t-i-d this means take two that's the ii tab would be tablets po would be by mouth and tid means three times a day so the full seg code would mean take two tablets by mouth three times a day the next one is i gtt od bid i would be 1 so it's going to be place 1 gtt is drop so place one drop od is the right eye so place one drop into the right eye and bid would be twice a day so let's place one drop into the right eye twice a day we'll look at a few more examples aaa ud hs times 7d aaa would be applied to the affected area ud is as directed hs is at bedtime and time seven d would be four seven days so it would be applied to the affected area as directed at bedtime for seven days the next one is i cap q4h prn i would be one so take one cap is capsule so let's take one capsule q4h is every four hours so let's take one capsule every four hours and prn is as needed so let's take one capsule every four hours as needed some more examples i s-u-p-p-p-r-q-i-d-p-r-n i is one so it's gonna be one s-u-p-p is suppository so it's insert one suppository pr is rectally so it's insert one suppository rectally qid is four times a day and prn is as needed so it's one suppository rectally four times a day as needed the next one is 5u sq qpm pc so 5u would be inject 5 units sq is subcutaneously which is under the skin qpm is every evening and pc would be after a meal so it would read inject five units under the skin every evening after a meal and now we'll look at a couple full prescription examples example one our prescription says lysenopril 20 milligram tab one qam number 30 r times three so this would mean lysinopril 20 milligram tablets one qam would be take one tablet every morning be for 30 tablets that's what number 30 is and r times 3 means it has three refills and one more full prescription example this one says amoxicillin 250 mg per 5 ml suspension 3ml tid times 10d qs and nr so this would be dispensing amoxicillin 250 milligram per 5 ml suspension and the instructions take 3 milliliters be 3 ml 3 times a day tid times 10 d would be for 10 days so 3 milliliters by mouth three times a day for 10 days dispense the quantity sufficient that you would have to calculate how much you're going to dispense and we will have a video on that later on and no refills would be nr thanks for watching please like and share this video with others who may find it helpful and please subscribe to see more of my drug information videos thank you