In nursing, “CC” most commonly stands for “chief complaint,” the brief statement describing why a patient is seeking care. It can also mean “cubic centimeters,” a unit of fluid measurement equal to one milliliter. Less frequently, CC appears as shorthand for a cardiac care unit or critical care unit. The meaning depends entirely on context: whether a nurse is charting a patient’s symptoms, measuring medication, or referring to a hospital department.
CC as Chief Complaint
The chief complaint is a concise statement of the symptom, condition, or problem that brought a patient in for care. It’s recorded at the very beginning of the medical process, typically by a triage nurse or registration clerk, and it’s meant to capture the patient’s own words rather than a clinical interpretation. Examples include “chest pain,” “decreased appetite,” or “shortness of breath.” A full opening line in a chart might read: “47-year-old female presenting with abdominal pain.”
The chief complaint is a required element at every level of clinical documentation. CMS evaluation and management guidelines specify that a CC must appear in the medical record regardless of whether the visit history is problem-focused or comprehensive. In SOAP notes, the format most nurses learn in school, the CC sits at the top of the subjective section and frames everything that follows: the history of the present illness, the physical exam findings, and the treatment plan. If you see “CC:” followed by a short phrase in a patient chart, this is what it refers to.
CC as Cubic Centimeters
One cubic centimeter equals exactly one milliliter. For decades, nurses and physicians used “cc” when documenting fluid volumes: medication doses, IV drip rates, and patient intake and output. You might still hear nurses say “give 500 cc’s of saline” or see older documentation that records urine output in cc’s.
However, this usage is being phased out. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices lists “cc” as an error-prone abbreviation because when handwritten, it can be mistaken for “u,” the abbreviation for units. Confusing a volume measurement with a unit count could lead to a dangerous dosing error, particularly with medications like insulin or heparin. The Joint Commission created a formal “Do Not Use” list in 2004 for hospital accreditation, and “cc” is flagged under that standard. The recommended replacement is “mL,” which is visually distinct and harder to misread.
In practice, modern intake and output records, electronic medication administration systems, and nursing documentation all use milliliters. Current nursing education teaches students to write “mL” exclusively. You’ll still encounter “cc” in conversation, in older textbooks, and occasionally on syringes, but it should not appear in written medical orders.
CC in Hospital Unit Names
When written as “CCU,” the abbreviation takes on a different meaning. In some hospitals, CCU stands for critical care unit, which functions the same as an intensive care unit. In others, it refers specifically to a cardiac care unit (also called a coronary care unit), a specialized department for patients with serious heart conditions or those recovering from heart surgery. The distinction depends on the hospital. A critical care unit handles a wide range of life-threatening conditions, while a cardiac care unit focuses exclusively on heart-related problems.
Variations you might see include CICU (cardiac intensive care unit), CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit), and CSRU (cardiac surgery recovery unit). If a nurse mentions transferring a patient to “the CCU,” the surrounding context, whether the patient has a cardiac issue or another critical illness, clarifies which unit they mean.
How to Tell Which Meaning Applies
Location in the chart is the fastest clue. If “CC:” appears at the top of a clinical note followed by a symptom description, it means chief complaint. If it appears next to a number in a medication order or fluid record, it refers to cubic centimeters (though it shouldn’t be used this way in current practice). And if it shows up as part of a unit name like CCU, it’s identifying a hospital department.
For nursing students reviewing charts or studying for exams, chief complaint is by far the most frequent written use of “CC.” It appears in virtually every patient encounter note. The volume measurement is fading from documentation, and the unit abbreviation almost always carries the extra letter (CCU) to avoid confusion.