Did anyone take Medical Terminology course?

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

I had completed my electives, so I decided to take a Medical Terminology course. I know it won't help me get into nursing school, but I must say I'm finding it incredibly informative. When I had my interview recently, the interviewer was saying how she thought it should be a requirement for all of the Allied Health programs they have.

Has anyone else taken one? This one is great too, because it's through my college but all online. I've moved far ahead in the class in terms of work, so I have extra time to study for my midterm.

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Yes, a few years ago - before I ever even thought about nursing I took medical terminology for fun - I would recommend taking it before taking anatomy even - it is so useful

I think it should be a requirement for nursing and possibly for anatomy - it makes things make so much more sense - knowing the latin roots of words and what they mean you can string medical words together and instead of them being long medical words that you have to memorize now you know what each part of that word means

It makes everything so much easier - like deciphering a language...

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i took it last semester. i found it extremely useful for all my bio classes. i agree that it should be taken before any a&p classes because all the meanings of the words basically reflect on the function or location of body parts.

i took it online also, only thing i disliked about it was the exams were timed and if you missed one letter the whole problem was marked wrong. don't know about all of you, but some times my mind works faster than my fingers and i tend to leave out letters when im typing fast.

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Specializes in Urgent Care.

I did quite a few years back. It was a work at your own pace class and I finished in 2 months. It was a great course.

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Yes I am taking one right now. Although it is not required it is suggested taking it before starting the nursing classes and clinicals.

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Yea, I took it. It wasn't a requirement, but was suggested. An easy A, but honestly...I've forgotten everything I learned in there. It was about 3 years ago.

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I took mine about a year ago and it helped me so much in anatomy and physiology, becasue when it comes to that stuff if I couldn't rember where it was at or what it did, I just broke the name down and it told me what I wanted...

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can you guys or gals give tips on how to stuff all those medical terminology in your head. I'm pretty overwhelmed on the amount of new words to memorize. :uhoh3: BTW I just switched from computer engineering to major in Nursing so I'm used on seeing numbers than words. I just think my old study habits wouldn't work on this field. It just doesn't flow as smooth as numbers for me. This is my first semester for the prereqs. thx for any suggestions.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Flashcards helped me learn the terminology. I made them on whatever we were covering on a test.

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

I took it over 20 years ago and failed it. For some reason, I thought it was difficult. Knowledge of medical terminology came to me on the job when I worked as a secretary for a big name medical school. Knowing the terminology has definitely served me well and given me a leg up.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

I am amazed that this isn't a requirement. When I went to LPN school back in the dinosaur ages (20 years ago), it was required. They taught us the root words, and how certain things mean this or that and helped you decipher the meaning of the word even if you didn't know what it was. It was great and still helps me today.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

Teg9~

I am in the middle of this course right now, and you're right, there is a TON of memorization. But I have found that it is getting easier, because once you know the word roots and meanings (i.e. nephr/o = kidney), you will be able to pick it out of much longer words (i.e. nephrolithotomy = incision into kidney to remove a stone). It takes a lot of studying, but all of a sudden it will click, and you will be able to break down large terms into their word roots.

The course I am taking is 100% online, and by accident I bought the wrong book - the one my college uses for the classroom course. By chance, that wrong book came with about 600 flash cards. I wasn't able to return the book, so yeah, I had to get the required one, but I was able to keep my $79.95 worth of flash cards! :rotfl: But they have helped tremendously.

I found that this course is much more than just terminology also. I am also taking Human Biology, and they seem to really complement each other. I'm learning much more than just the word meanings. The book and software/site I have seems very much like a Bio course - explaining how systems function and work together. I've gotten almost as much out of the Blood System work in my Terminology course as I have out of my Bio course!

A lot of the nurses I have spoken with that got their degrees more than a decade ago had to take M.T. courses, and are really surprised that it is not required. I'm also applying to a Surgical Tech program in case I don't get into Nursing School this year, and M.T. is one of their course requirements. But go figure it's not for the BSN program I applied to. :rolleyes:

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