Medical terms you'd rather see changed....

Nurses General Nursing

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I hate saying "expired" for someone who is dead and I could also do without seeing "morbid obesity" or even obese in the chart.

I know being overweight is a serious health issue, but those words are so ugly to me.

So, what are some medical terms you could do without or you think are strange?

Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.

I don't like "student nurse". We were "nursing students" 50 years ago and the students at the medical school next door were "medical students" NOT 'student doctors" (except in jest, of course).

Specializes in NICU.
I hate to see, "Patient complaining of _____"

Makes it sound like they're all just whiny and gripey.

That one and when I see "pt denies tobacco use" or whatever I always think that it sounds like they were caught in a lie.:chuckle

....I also loathe the term 'obese'---even if I weren't an English speaker, that's a word I'd want to stay away from. It sounds gross, and even though a lot of folks might consider obesity to BE gross, it's not helpful. What's wrong with using 'severe overweight' or even 'extreme overweight'?

I say we start using the term "fluffy", as in the pt is extremely fluffy.

A morbidly obese person could be called a "fluffee' grande' " to make it sound more medical.:lol2:

A mildly overweight person: Flufee' petite

Moderately overweight: Flufee' Median.

Now, ya'll have a good Thanksgiving and don't get all fluffed up!:

LOL, Helllo! I like your terminology and vote that we make it official!

:rotfl:

There's nothing I like better than a debate over medical semantics...

To those people who find the terms "non-compliant" and "denies" distasteful when used in the context of patient behaviour or responses to questioning, I say pull that stick out of that place it's sitting...

The patient approaches the health care practitioner for help. The health care practitioner responds by prescribing a treatment regime. The patient either complies or does not comply with that regime, meaning they are either compliant or non compliant. "Non adherence", in this context, is a synonymous term, and the benefit of "increased patient autonomy" it offers is mere rhetoric: the patient is no more autonomous by not adhering to the prescribed regime as they are by not complying with it.

Similarly, when a patient is asked a simple question, such as "are you a smoker?", and responds in the negative, they are confirming they are not a smoker by denying the alternative positive response. Thus, the patient denies being a smoker. When used in the context of a medical examination, it is possibly more accurate to state that the patient denies a direct question rather than interpreting their responses as gospel truth, as the health care practitioner may not be able to state with any great deal of certainty that the patient is in fact telling the truth. For example: "Mary, a 70y lady with chronic emphysema denies being a smoker..." seems a much more accurate record of interview than "Mary, a 70y lady with chronic emphysema has never smoked in her life...". The latter sentence of course suggesting the interviewer has intimate knowledge of every event occuring in Mary's life from birth to interview.

Oh I love semantics...

When I was a young mom, I found out I was pregnant. I had one other child, and had miscarried once. While I was in the doctor's office, the nurse was taking a history, and when I said I'd miscarried she said, oh, you had an abortion. I said no. (not knowing that it was a medical term for miscarriage) She then said, how many times have you had an abortion? I said never. Anyway, it went around and around and never once did she explain that she didn't mean I'd gone in to some clinic somewhere and had an abortion, that it was a medical term. Not once. She wouldn't let it go and just say all right, how many miscarriages have you had. Nor would she explain. I ended up in tears, feeling attacked and feeling that she thought I was lying to her and had secretly been sneaking out to have dozens of abortions in a clinic somewhere.

Every time I see the word in paperwork it reminds me of that afternoon, and if I ever have to use it to a patient, I am very careful to explain in what way we are using the word. But I don't like the word. It has way too much emotional freight.

im not an ob nurse and hatedit - but i recall something from school way back when that the diference medically between aborting a fetus and a miscarriage is the time one has been prgnant - dont recall the amount of time until miscarriage turns to the body aborting but seems i do recall a difference. i agree the conotations of the word abortion holds a stigma - perhaos they could use the term died in utero - thats what they classified my sisiter who died just prior to birth.

Confinement sounds like a prison sentence instead of one of life's greatest events. Lose it!

LOLOL i have to admit there are times i woner if it isnt a prison sentence HAHAHA - kidding - i agree - really does sound bad to "confine " vs actually say due date lol.

in my former workplace they used " A/O3X.NSR w/BBB.......I am a newbie, I hate it when they make their own abbreviations! hx, sx, tx? as in texas?

most places have standard approved abreviations - usually taught in school as well - alert and oriented times three meaning to time place and person - normal sinus rythym , bundle branch block, however many are getting away and encouraging full written words due to some abreviations are to similiar casuing errors to happen.

I'm 39 and have been labeled with "geriatric maternal age". I could have handled advanced, but GERIATRIC, come one!!

tvccrn

LOL there are times though i DO fel like geriatric maternal age LOL. and dh will tell you i act that way at times too - butyeah it does sound nasty.

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

I've seen similar assessment shorthand.

A/Ox3 RSR /s (M)BSP af /s AS----------circle around the m

Alert, Oriented times 3

Regular Sinus Rhythm Without Murmur,

Breath Sounds Present All Fields Without Adventitious Sounds.

But just think what a mess that would be defending in court.

Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.

Re the compliance/noncompliance issue: It would be helpful if the writer were to specify "was unable" or "was unwilling" to comply with...

Re the compliance/noncompliance issue: It would be helpful if the writer were to specify "was unable" or "was unwilling" to comply with...

Good call. I think that's a very sensible and much more helpful alternative to the ridiculously PC "non adherence", which achieves nothing more than the term "non compliance" anyway.

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