Safety and emergency

MONA

Morphine, Oxygen, Nitroglycerin, Aspirin

A memory aid from older cardiac teaching, listing four things historically associated with the early management of chest pain. Note that the letters were never the order of administration — they only spell a name.

Outdated as a description of practice. Cardiac guidance has changed substantially since this mnemonic was coined — routine oxygen for patients who are not hypoxic and routine morphine have both been reconsidered. Treat MONA as a historical term you may be asked to expand, never as a sequence to follow.

What each letter stands for

  1. 1 Morphine.
  2. 2 Oxygen.
  3. 3 Nitroglycerin.
  4. 4 Aspirin.

How it gets tested

Still appears in review material and in question banks, which is the only reason it is here. Where it is asked, the item is a straight expansion.

Related terms

LMNOP

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