What does 'PEARL' mean when written by a nurse in a hospital patient's notes?

The ward is a neurology surgical one.

Most of the answers are correct (even PEARL!):

Depending on the hospital's list of accepted and prohibited abbreviations, the following are all correct:

PERL = pupils equal (i.e. in size & shape) and reactive to light (ideally, reacting briskly to a penlight shone across the eye from the patients lateral side, in a room with low ambient light -- bringing the penlight in from the front can cause accommodation (which can confound the reactivity the pupils to a stimulus other than the light)).

PEARL = pupils equal and reactive to light

PERRL = pupils equal (in size), round (not ovoid or otherwise mishapen), and reactive to light

PERRLA = pupils equal, round, and reactive to light and accommodation: to test accommodation, have the patient stare at an object at arms length and watch the pupil change in size as the object is brought close to the patient's nose. Two things should happen, the eyes should converge and the size of the pupils should decrease in response to the object coming close to the eye.

In short, all these abbreviations may be acceptable (depending on the institution).

maybe thats the nurses name

Actually, its PERRL: Pupils Equal Round Reactive to Light. It is the standard blurb for a NORMAL exam of the eyes/pupils. Sometimes written with an "A" at the end (PERRLA), the A standing for accommodation.

Pupils Equal And Reacting to Light... which is why they shine a light in your eyes. That means your eyes react to light normally.

its a good thing...

PEARL, pupils equal (in size) and reactive to light.

:D

means pupils equal and reactive to light. you can also use EBRTL - equally brisk reactive to light

it means the patient has raised b.o.