Gobbledygook In Nursing

[Guest 1152923]

Gobbledygook; language that is meaningless; ie gibberish, jibber-jabber

I'm a person that prefers plain speak. Health care, probably like many other industries, is absolutely rife with it (gobbledygook) and it only seems to serve as a distraction (and makes me crazy). While understanding the need for political sensitivity in names and labels, there is just so much fluff, double talk, euphemisms, and marketing ploy BS in health care. What am I talking about?

Hospital mission statements...my pet peeve! “To inspire hope and contribute to health and well-being by providing exceptional care to every patient in our community through integrated clinical practice, education and research.” Blah, blah, blah....really? I've worked at many hospitals (profit, non-profit, big, little, teaching, non-teaching, urban, rural, Level I, II, III, Magnet, non-Magnet) and they were all the same in terms of maximizing profit, discharging inpatients prematurely (when their benefits are exhausted), providing inadequate staffing/resources, and offering cheap benefits/stagnant wages to their employees while ridiculously overcompensating senior managers. In other words, hospital mission statements-all BS! Smoke and mirrors from some marketing firm.

Don't get me started on nursing care plans=superfluous nonsense that does not inform care, improve outcomes, and that 99.99% of bedside nurses don't give a flip about, yet must be addressed every shift to make some auditing clipboard carrier happy. More smoke and mirrors from academia and our nurse leaders. The same for all of the unnecessary hyperregulation in acute care nursing "address this not applicable risk", "check this box", "triple chart your assessments".... Pain: The 5th Vital Sign. Yeah, uh thanks Joint Commission for making our jobs more difficult and also contributing to the opioid crisis-nice!

Euphemisms, ugh! My patient didn't "pass on" or "cross over", he unfortunately 'died'. Saying it another way doesn't soften the blow or take away the loss-sorry! Then there are descriptive terms "blind", "deaf", "handicapped"-all taboo words now. Those people are now "visually, auditorily, or linguistically impaired". "Personnel department"? Nope, "Human Resources". "Housekeeping"? Of course not! "Environmental Services". "Can I please get a 'nursing assistant to help?"..."You mean, a "PCA"?

I feel like this all begins early with nursing theory. I remember studying these theories and thinking that most were arcane, nebulous, and didn't make a lick of sense. Does anyone really believe, even understand most of this nonsense? Are we being disingenuous or adding an extra layer of confusion with all of this?

What are your thoughts, examples...?

[evastone, BSN, RN]

On 12/31/2021 at 6:19 PM, mmc51264 said:

Sometimes I think that a workplace is what you make it. 

What am I supposed to make of a unit that expects me to act as triage nurse, charge nurse, PCA, transport, and hold 10 patients simultaneously in an emergency department? Not only are we short on staffing, we also lack alot of basic supplies crucial to caring for patients. There was not enough staffing for anyone on my unit to take a break last week. Management is very aware of the issue since those of us who remain have bee very vocal about the issues.

Please tell me where you work so that I can join this lone anomaly of a hospital in this vast wasteland of hospitals that care neither for their staff or the patients we serve.

On 1/1/2022 at 3:44 PM, JBMmom said:

Not everyone can just leave. There isn't always another hospital or job within a reasonable drive. Sometimes people have insurance reasons for needing to stay within a certain health system. 

This is why I am still working at my current position. That, and I really love the patient population I work with. But with the current stress and limited resources at my job, I'm not sure it's worth it anymore.

[MarkMyWords]

Doublespeak and euphemisms are in every business and work sector. It began long ago. Education military and government especially. And it is increasing. It is supposed to be nicer and make people feel better. In the 1970s it really expanded. You say you prefer blunt words but what if the statement is about you?  Euphemisms are used to avoid labeling and less shocking.  Also decision makers avoid telling the truth or their motives with stupid jargon. Academia is notorious for this. The opposite is when we insult respectable jobs and lifestyles. The word doublespeak is itself a euphemism

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

On 12/31/2021 at 4:50 PM, JBMmom said:

I wasn't all that surprised, but at least I still have a job. 

Only because everyone else is running away. But the lean board won't discuss that either

[Wuzzie]

I prefer “academic jibberjabber” ?

[DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN]

Agree with the poster who said nursing diagnoses are the biggest load of gobbledygook ever.

I was working in infectious diseases at the height of AIDS, which brought with it loads of useless initials and terminology: PWAs for example.

Pre 2001 I worked in the UK which was the king of useless new wordy concepts every 5 minutes. The Nursing Process, Anticipated Recovery Pathways. Oh and I remember well my "Clinical Supervision" which was basically just sitting down for a coffee and a chat for half an hour.

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

On 12/31/2021 at 11:53 AM, Jedrnurse said:

services agency I worked for had  DMR (Division of Mental Retardation) services which then became the Division of Developmental Disability services which then became the Division of Long Term Supports.  Huh??

This is such an example of how the euphemisms make it legitimately harder to understand what the office does. If someone said “long term supports” I would need them to clarify what that IS and what sort of services they provide. Whereas if they say “developmental disabilities” or, unfortunately, “the MR population,” I understand what they do. 

The other example of this is “gender affirming surgery.”  I understand the desire to move away from the old “sex-change operation” language, but at least that name told you what the surgeon was planning to do!  “Gender-affirming” is confusing terminology, because surgery generally isn’t needed to “affirm” things. 

I don’t have a problem with the fact that language changes (my first degree was in linguistics. I get it, I promise.) But inventing euphemisms often makes people feel that they are doing something progressive, when they are not. Are the disabled clients getting better help, or did we just rename the same ineffective office? How about the trans people- are we improving care, or are we just renaming surgeries?  

[RuralMOSchoolRN, ADN, RN]

When I first graduated as a nurse I worked in the ER which turned into the ED (what was wrong with ER and isn't ED insensitive to those with erectile dysfunction??) 

We were also allowed to chart/put on the complaint list SOB for short of breath but then had to change it to SOA for short of air since SOB is mean.  Its stupid. 

We had techs and then that was somehow wrong and had to say PCA or some such.  NONE of those changes help the patients or provide better care!

[T-Bird78]

I had a patient who was deaf, so I used the “correct” term ‘hearing impaired’ and he got mad at me, said, “No, I’m deaf” so I corrected myself quickly and apologized. Not everyone wants us to use the ‘proper’ terms. There is no right answer. 

[GrumpyRN, NP]

On 1/11/2022 at 4:10 PM, RuralMOSchoolRN said:

When I first graduated as a nurse I worked in the ER which turned into the ED (what was wrong with ER and isn't ED insensitive to those with erectile dysfunction??) 

It is because there is more than one room so it becomes a department. 

Anyone with erectile dysfunction who is offended needs to man up and become hardened to the world as it is, it's not a soft space.

 

Sorry, I could not resist that last sentence.???

[bbyRN, BSN, RN]

Fully staffed.  That's a joke.  Fully staffed = understaffed.

There has always been a shortage of nurses.  The only reason that there was any controversy about this is because those who hire nurses refuse to hire enough.  The need is always there.  The business decisions should not be used to measure the need.  Had the execs in the healthcare industry not ruined healthcare in the past 30yrs, maybe we wouldn't have some of the problems in the Covid era.