Learn To Say It Correctly!!

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

nurses-say-it-correctly.jpg.6b7b324be686944e89bf310af3666c2c.jpg

Doesn't it just drive you insane when someone tells you that Mr. Smith's O2 STAT is 96%?

It's O2 SAT people! Sat, short for saturation. I even hear respiratory therapists saying this. I am sooooo tempted to say something next time, but I know it's just petty, so I needed to vent here. Thank you.

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in nursery, L and D.

That drives me crazy too! Lol, wonder where it came from? I guess the people saying it could think they are saying the pt o2 status is such and such? Anyway, know where you are coming from!

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geri, Home Health, OB GYN.

I think everyone has little stuff like that that urks them.

I had a client the other day that had "cadillac" surgery on his right eye.

Also had one that had "suggestive" heart failure.

It takes all types. Just drives you nuts though. :chuckle

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, ICU cath lab, remote med.

I haven't heard anyone say "stat" instead of "sat" but...

My personal pet peeves:

"phernegan" or some other twisted form of "phenergan"

"Nucular" to which I respond "How do you spell that?". It's "nuclear" people!

"Scrip"...as in, "Lucky1RN, what do you think of this patient's rhythm scrip?" Uh...what's a scrip? Do you mean "strip"?

"Sontimeter"...as in "the patient's wound is 2 sontimeters wide". It's "centimeter". Do you say a gumball costs 1 sont? Nooooo.

Yeah, I'm a bit picky about language! I could go on and on. Expresso instead of espresso. Orientated instead of oriented. Prostrate instead of prostate. Ok...I'll shut up now.

4
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'm picky, too. I can't stand it when people say real-A-tor. It's realtor. Real + tor. Not real + a + tor...

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×

We need to take geographic location into consideration however. If you ever have a chance to travel the country, you should find the differences in annunciation and language articulation interesting. I know language differences exist in most other countries as well.

I was raised up north and know my annunciation of specific words is considered strange by the people I currently live and work around. My articulation of words such as carotid and trauma are considered strange by many people in the southwest.

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU/ER.

My all time pet peeve is when I hear the CNAs giving report and they say "mrs smith is up with lib".....

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

Its exacerbation NOT exasperation. That makes me crazy . Mrs.Smith dosen't have a exasperation of her asthma she has a exacerbation of her asthma.

4
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

Risperdal being pronounced "risper-I-dal" chaps my butt. So does "zyprex-I-a" for Zyprexa. I can handle alternate pronunciations, but don't add letters that aren't there!

Phar-nix and lar-nix are butt chappers as well.

Nare or phalange are irritating. These two I get from doctors lots and lots.

I am a medical transcriptionist right now, so I hear a few head scratchers from doctors, PAs, and NPs. The one that irritated me the most was probably this nurse practitioner who had a habit of mispronouncing words to the point of me not being able to tell from context what the heck she was saying. Her weirdest one, I think, was one I knew what she wanted to say, though. She decided she didn't like to "palpate" anything anymore and started dictating that she "palpitated the abdomen for masses or hepatosplenomegaly."

I definitely hear my share of ESLs who don't pronounce things we consider as correct pronunciation, but that doesn't count so much as a mispronunciation to me--some sounds in English are not present in other languages and vice versa and are unable to be pronounced by a non-native speaker.

Now I'm off on a tangent of sorts! 

4
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'm not really bothered when pt's or family members say things incorrectly. There are some things that the general public just doesn't know....but I get really annoyed when healthcare workers/professionals don't use or say the words correctly. It's not so much that regional accents bother me, it's the addition or subtraction of letters and/or entire syllables that gets to me.

btw, SONTimeter bugs the heck out of me too! lol

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Assisted Living, Med-Surg/CVA specialty.
lucky1RN said:
I haven't heard anyone say "stat" instead of "sat" but...

My personal pet peeves:

"pheRNegan" or some other twisted form of "phenergan"

"Nucular" to which I respond "How do you spell that?". It's "nuclear" people!

"Scrip"...as in, "Lucky1RN, what do you think of this patient's rhythm scrip?" Uh...what's a scrip? Do you mean "strip"?

"Sontimeter"...as in "the patient's wound is 2 sontimeters wide". It's "centimeter". Do you say a gumball costs 1 sont? Nooooo.

Yeah, I'm a bit picky about language! I could go on and on. Expresso instead of espresso. Orientated instead of oriented. Prostrate instead of prostate. OK...I'll shut up now.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/centimeter

Actually, if you go here, there's 2 pronunciations of centimeter.

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I used to know someone who would get upset if you said a patient didn't have a temperature. He would get so mad, "If they didn't have a temperature they would be dead!"

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment