Do you ever correct people about medical stuff?

[mappers]

I'm not talking about patient education, I'm just talking about general conversation. I hear people get things wrong medically all the time, but I rarely correct people. For example, a relative said the other day that she thought her mother just had a kidney infection but then "We found out it was E. Coli! :nailbiting:" I didn't have the heart to tell her we all have E. coli in our guts and most kidney infections are E. coli.

I have a patient who also goes to my church. He tells everyone he has bladder cancer. He really has prostate cancer with mets to the bladder. This happens a lot with "bone" and "liver" cancer as well. I hear people say "so and so" had breast cancer and now they have "bone" cancer. Well, they most likely have bone mets, not bone cancer.

Normally, unless the person is seeking information from me or I'm in the clinical setting, I just keep my mouth shut. I figure I don't want to be an obnoxious know-it-all and, since I don't know the whole situation, I don't have all the facts.

What about you?

[goodgrief]

One time when I was working in the CTICU, my pt had severe pulmonary HTN. The ACNP was rounding on my pt and asked if the pt was still on nitrous oxide. I asked her, "Really? He's on nitrous? Was he up laughing all night?" She looked at me as if I were the idiot and continued rounding on the rest of the patients on the unit, likely never realizing that she was the one who didn't know the difference between nitrous oxide (a general anesthetic) and nitric oxide (vasodilator). Glad I was only floating to that unit and never had to work with that NP again

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

I hate it when TV shows and movies have the doctors/nurses shock the coding patient when they're flatlining. You don't shock someone in asystole. Horrible, horrible hack writing.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

DH refuses to watch anything medical related with me. I critique the whole thing.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I correct fellow nurses and doctors quite a bit when they are talking about something grossly outlandish that they know nothing about have not kept up with current practice, or are just plain wrong possibly leading to patient harm. I will have a conversation when someone (layperson) has false information and remember, it is not what you say but HOW you say it. If they think that I am a know-it-all, too bad. If they do not believe me, they can go look it up.[/quote']

^Agreed...pretty much my method :)..it is HOW you say it. However if one feels that they are going to come off as a know-it-all, then intervene for danger, IMHO...

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

Too funny, let me tell you after I had a car accident I had nerve damage and problems with restless legs and in desperation I tried the bar of soap in the bed and it didnt work LOL

There has got to be SOMETHING to it - some swear by it =).

For the sake of my future research, what kind of soap did you use?

[RNJill]

Pretty much never...sometimes I'll pass along little educational tidbits to immediate family members when there is something that totally relates to them, but the rest of the time it's either 1) something that I don't really care about or, rarely 2) something soooo wrong/annoying that I know I'd be rude if I did say something.

[lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN]

I didn't correct a friend who told me she had trigeminal neuralgia in her hip. It about killed me not to tell her that was anatomically impossible.

[canned_bread]

I used to, but I am scared about being known as a "know it all" so now I don't! Unless it has to do with antibiotic misuse, then I pipe up!

[canned_bread]

I'm from Canada, and we say de-bride, not de-breed.

In Australia, we say "de-bride" too.

[gothichipchick]

My husband keeps using "diaretic" when my kids have a bout of diarrhea. "He's been diaretic all day, hon. What should we do?" I do not have the heart to tel him to stop using the damn term when he has spent all day changing diapers of a "diaretic" toddler.

[SleeepyRN]

Not always is the gist adequately conveyed if people are using the wrong terms for certain illnesses. Years ago, AIDS was called the "gay cancer," an offensive term for a disease that is not the same as actual cancer.

You can justify it all you want. Your initial post was incredulous. No excuse. Besides that post, I've seen you on other threads causing problems. Your words portray your views on this site. Thats all we have to go by to judge you. That's why we have to choose our words CAREFULLY. You can't say something like that and not expect negative responses

[SleeepyRN]

C'mon guys, lets get back to having fun! Prostrate really annoys me! Also, my grandpa thinks that every lab test requires fasting, and nobody will convince him otherwise! Haha

Exactly, this is a fun thread :) I just couldn't take that ONE poster anymore and HAD to speak up. But let the fun continue :)