Glossary
Terms we use, in plain words.
OctoPiSim is built for clinical educators, so some words are professional terms. Here is what they mean.
- MAR — Medication Administration Record
- The chart where medicines that have been prescribed are scheduled and where each dose given, withheld or refused is recorded.
- EMR — electronic medical record
- The digital version of a patient's chart: observations, medicines, orders, results and notes. OctoPiSim recreates one for teaching; it is not a live EMR.
- PBS — Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
- Australia's national scheme that subsidises prescription medicines. OctoPiSim includes PBS-related medicine information.
- LMS — learning management system
- The system a university or college uses to run courses and record results, such as Moodle or Canvas.
- NSW — New South Wales
- The Australian state whose health service publishes the Between the Flags observation system.
- EICC — Edinburgh International Conference Centre
- The venue for NETNEP 2026.
- NETNEP — International Nurse Education Conference
- The 10th International Nurse Education Conference, 1–4 November 2026, Edinburgh, where OctoPiSim is exhibiting.
- QR — quick response (code)
- A square barcode a phone camera can scan to open a web page.
- Between the Flags
- A NSW Health system that colours observation charts so a deteriorating patient's vital signs stand out and trigger a response.
- Observations (vital signs)
- Measurements such as pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate, temperature and oxygen level, charted regularly to track how a patient is going.
- Un-charting
- Correcting a record entry the proper way, so the original mistake stays visible alongside the correction.
- Witness / co-sign
- A second person checks and signs for a task, such as giving certain medicines. In OctoPiSim another learner can be the witness.
- Routine, urgent and stat
- How quickly a test is needed. Stat means immediately; urgent means soon; routine means in the normal order.
- Turnaround
- The time between ordering a test and the result coming back.
- Pathology
- Laboratory tests on samples such as blood or urine. Results are often called investigations.
- Triage
- Sorting patients by how urgently they need care, usually on arrival at an emergency department.
- Handover
- When one clinician passes responsibility for a patient to the next, explaining what has happened and what is needed.
- Antenatal, labour and postnatal
- Care during pregnancy, during birth, and in the weeks after birth.
- Prescribing
- Ordering a medicine for a patient, including the dose, route and timing.
- Rubric
- A set of marking criteria that describes what is being assessed and how each part is scored.
- Cohort
- A group of students taught and assessed together, such as a year group or class.
- Scenario
- A prepared teaching situation: a simulated patient, what has happened to them, what will happen next and what learners are expected to do.
- Orchestration
- The educator controlling events during a simulation, such as releasing a new result or a change in the patient.
- Audit trail
- A time-stamped record of who did what in the record, including changes and corrections.
- Moderation
- Checking that marking is fair and consistent between different markers.
- Mannequin (manikin)
- A life-size model patient used in simulation labs for hands-on practice.
- Simulation lab
- A teaching space set up like a clinical area, where students practise safely.
- Jurisdiction
- A health system with its own rules and forms, such as a state or country.
- Interprofessional
- Involving more than one profession, for example nurses, doctors and pharmacists learning together.