trouble pronoucing some medical words

Nursing Students General Students

Published

I am having trouble pronouncing some medical words. I want to be able to hear how they are pronounced and then I can go ahead and sound them out. Can anyone help on where I can go to listen recordings of how medical words are pronounced? thanks

Specializes in NICU.

Depends on the word. Try searching on dictionary.com and then click on the little speaker symbol next to the word. If it's a med you're having problems with, some drug books spell out the names phonetically for you.

I am having trouble pronouncing some medical words. I want to be able to hear how they are pronounced and then I can go ahead and sound them out. Can anyone help on where I can go to listen recordings of how medical words are pronounced? thanks

Trust me I think everyone including doctors have those issues.I'm sure Medical terminology books have Cds in them which can have pronouncination option

Hello!

http://www.thefreedictionary.com has the option to hear how the words are pronounced. Hope that helps!

Specializes in I have done in home care once before.

Thats always been my biggest weakness. I either miss a sillable or two or twist the sounds around to where I say one word but mean another (ex. "infraction" instead of "infarction") Spelling them is even harder. Thats where I always bomb out.

Try spelling, "cerebalspinal" I dont think I will ever get over that.

I think a nurse can lose its job if he or she cant spell or pronounce medical terms.

Specializes in ER, LTC, IHS.

I think a nurse can lose its job if he or she cant spell or pronounce medical terms.

You're kidding right? It scares me if you think this is true.

It doesn't help that some words are pronounced differently depending on where a person goes to school! I had an instructor in Indiana who was from Georgia....she pronounced alveoli to rhyme with ravioli!

thank you to all take care

Specializes in I have done in home care once before.
You're kidding right? It scares me if you think this is true.

I'm not sure if this is true. I have heard of people losing their jobs over the stupidest reasons. I'm basing it mostly on that theory.

I dont know if its happened to a nurse before. I'm only a first year student. But I'm already getting busted in school because my handwriting is hard to read and my spelling is atrocious. Some instructors will dock a grade for that, which I myself think is dumb. But I think the medical proffession expects you to know how to use the medical terms rather than if you can say them or not. Pronounciation can be hard for some.

It doesn't help that some words are pronounced differently depending on where a person goes to school! I had an instructor in Indiana who was from Georgia....she pronounced alveoli to rhyme with ravioli!

LOL - my last professor pronounced it the very same way! I have been doing medical transcription for 15 years and had NEVER heard it like that, ravioli/alveoli?! HOWEVER, I have heard some funky pronunciations in my day from docs, and just when I think I've heard them all . . . I would worry about spelling over pronunciation if your professors, like mine, say they count off for it; I happen to be lucky with my background since spelling is what I do, and I know some people who struggled with spelling but never heard them complaining that the professor actually marked it wrong, but I would try to spell it and then I'd worry about pronunciation. There are several ways to say lots of terms as well as there being sound-alike terms, i.e., aphagia and aphasia sound the same--when pronounced correctly :) --and they have two different meanings, so spelling is a must, or scatoma and scotoma; again, you want to make sure you spell it right cause they have nothing to do with each other. You can get Dorland's or Stedman's spellcheckers for Word, so you'll have it for your papers and then it has a separate dictionary part to it where it sounds out the words and gives you the meanings.

Specializes in Clinicals in Med-Surg., OB, CCU, ICU.

Medical terms are taken from Latin. The pronunciation could be causes some of the issues. Another problem is the length of some medical words. What I have found helpful is hearing the words over and over. There are audio sets available :smokin:which provide the medical word, its definition, and then an audio pronunciation of the medical term.

+ Add a Comment