Mispronouncing medications

[californiaRNstudent]

Do you know how to pronounce EVERY drug and even if you've looked up the drugs you don't know, what do you do when you're going over pt. home meds. and there's a ton of atypical meds. you are unfamiliar with and don't know how to pronounce them. (I do my best, but some I don't say perfectly and I feel really stupid when my patient corrects me.)

[jmking]

Don't feel stupid, there are still some drugs I have difficulty saying. It's more important to know what they are, the side effects, and how they are beneficial to your patients.

[californiaRNstudent]

Good point. Thanks.

[ACRN06]

Not only that but people still have different opinions on how things are pronounced...

for example.. some people pronounce

"Levaquin"

Lev-uh-quin

others pronounce it like

Leev-uh-quin

This is a pet peeve of mine...as I am strongly sided on the "lev-uh-quin" side....and every time someone says "Leev-uh-quin" I cringe a little inside.

But different people have learned it different ways..

Just spout off your best shot at the word and learn as you go! :)

[Straydandelion]

Actually medications are pronounced different in different parts of the country also :wink2:

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I think you should try to pronounce them before saying them to another person, so you sound like you know the word. If you pronounce it incorrectly, at least you can do it confidently and without hesitation then! It looks kind of silly to get stuck. Then if you get corrected, you can just continue on, head held high, do the teaching, and go on!

[d!gger]

Took me about a month to be able to say "a-rip-PIP-pra-zole" without biting my lower lip off.

I would've paid money to hear Otsuka pronounce it when they first developed it.

dig

[MedicalLPN, LPN]

For some reason, I had the hardest time learning to say metoprolol correctly. Why? I have no clue lol Sometimes I still have a hard time with it so I prefer to say either Lopressor or Troprol XL, just whichever the patient is on :)

[ChocoholicRN]

I have tons of trouble pronouncing the names of HIV meds, they're so long and it's such an odd combination of letters!! Luckily, the patients who are on them generally know what I'm talking about and also have difficulty with the names. I always bring the medication to them still in the package though, so I can show them exactly what it is.

[jjensen]

I will spell the drug to the patient and show them the package if I cannot pronounce it correctly and say this is your heart pill or whatever it is... I have been a RN for almost 10 years and still have trouble with some of the pills...

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I gave up pronouncing all medications accurately 100% of the time when I started giving chemo

[CathyLew]

There are so many new drugs, it would be almost impossible to be able to pronounce them all correctly the first time. Even when you say a drug corectly, yuo have patients not recognize it by that name, since they call is something totally different. (sometimes something funny, and its hard to not laugh!)

what is worse is some of the Docs on the phone. If they have a thick accent, and they start ordering drugs. I always have them spell them out.