Fun poll: Did you get oriented, or did you get orientated?

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And, is your patient 'alert and orientated', or is he 'alert and oriented'? :yes:

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Specializes in ICU.

and is it x3 or x4. I get the person, place, and time. What's left? :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Emergency, LTC.

Oriented is the language that I used. Or just A&O x3 due to myself being in Assisted Living.

The fourth one is sometimes used in the hospital for the 'reason' they're there.

-emerjensee

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Oriented. Never heard the other option. In our new documenting program I use a+ox4 for person, place, time, and "situation"...but I'm an a+ox3 person at heart, 4 things is just too much to ask, I think ;)

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I'll clarify the nuance: oriENTed, or oriENTATed.....:)?

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Specializes in Emergency, LTC.

After looking into what the real difference is in regards the the English language,

I found that the -ate versions are favored in British English and the plain versions in American English.

I prefer to use the shorter form myself, without any adverse reaction so far.

-emerjensee

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Why add complexity to a word when the addition provides no benefit?:no:

"Orientated" and similar constructs are often used by bureaucrats trying to sound important. A pox on all their houses.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

It used to be that orientated did not appear in standard American dictionaries. Whenever it was used in conversation, the speaker was usually quickly corrected by a member of the grammar police. Now, apparently, it has the distinction of a British background and is used widely. I still cringe when I hear it spoken.

Irregardless :yes: I do not correct anyone.

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and is it x3 or x4. I get the person, place, and time. What's left? :rolleyes:

Situation I think. DH is a medic and uses x4, I use x3. But he'll say the patient knows who they are, where they are, when it is and also what happened, as opposed to possibly not remembering the specific incident that brought them in (amnesic to event).

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Oriented. Never heard the other option. In our new documenting program I use a+ox4 for person, place, time, and "situation"...but I'm an a+ox3 person at heart, 4 things is just too much to ask, I think ;)

Me and my night shift buddies joke about how we need medical alert bracelets identifying ourselves as night shift workers since we're NEVER oriented to time.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
And, is your patient 'alert and orientated', or is he 'alert and oriented'? :yes:

*** I have only ever read and heard and used "oriented" here in the USA. When i worked in New Zealand it was "orientated". Just confimed this with my Kiwi wife.

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When a persons knows where they are they are oriented as AAOx3. When a person is being instructed about a new position they are being orientated as in "For the first week of my new job a will be orientated."

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