Only Use Approved Abbreviations

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The county mental health organization I work for has a list of approved abbreviations for notes. They want everything to be as uniform as possible, and do not want us to write illegible notes that will interrupt, delay, or even prevent the provision of services. We had a funny incident in case conference today when we were staffing a case. Someone had mentioned that "bf" was an approved abbreviation for "boyfriend." As my supervisor was reading through a case note in the file, he noticed that someone had written "bf" referring to "best friend." We sat and thought of what types of confusing messages could be sent by using that abbreviation for the wrong term. As the discussion continued, the record noted that this particular person "had been experiencing homicidal ideation" because he "discovered his bf had slept with his wife." Can you imagine the confusion? The note meant that he was angry at his best friend for sleeping with his wife, but it also could have meant that he was angry at his boyfriend for sleeping with his wife, or angry that his wife was stealing his boyfriend. I guess that is why we need the list... lol...oh, that might not be approved. :)