now onto the bread and butter of our language Pharmacy abbreviations these are standardized time-saving codes you'll encounter daily General abbreviations cover everything from drug types to prescription instructions abbreviations play a crucial role in the pharmacy World they help us communicate quickly and efficiently saving time and reducing the risk of Errors imagine having to write out dextrose 5% in 9% sodium chloride every time it's mouthful but with the abbreviation d5ns we convey the same information in just four letters and two numbers let's go over some common Pharmacy abbreviations you'll encounter in your studies and your future career you can find a more extensive list in the classroom concentration can be shortened to conch this can be used on medication labels to indicate the strength or amount of an active ingredient in one dose discontinue is represented by DC and might be used on a medical chart to indicate that a medication should be stopped for that patient NPO meaning Nothing by mouth can be sometimes seen on a patient chart typically this means a patient should not eat anything for a set amount of time and prescription or RX indicates that a drug can only be used if prescribed by a doctor let's take a look at this medication label Can you spot anything on here that might be an abbreviation NS which stands for normal saline which is a solution containing sodium chloride at .9% concentration it's commonly used for intravenous drips and medical procedures now how about this one what abbreviations can you see here there are two abbreviations on this label there's RX indicating that this is a prescription drug and also XL which stands for extended release let's do one more how would a pharmacy abbreviate dextrose 5% in water here you would focus on the start of the key parts of this solution D5 and W so you can abbreviate dextr 5% in water as simply D5W the next time you see abbreviations in the pharmacy World remember their importance in streamlining communication and preventing errors you can practice more on your own by reading the labels of any medication you may have at home or any that you may come across on your next trip to the pharmacy and if you ever are unsure about an abbreviation be sure to ask and clarify