Learn To Say It Correctly!!

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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.

Specializes in Critical Care.

It kills me when the many nurses I work with give patients a smoking sensationpacket rather than the ordered smoking cessation packet.

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las2009 said:
I didn't realize the word that rhymes with glut is a no-no (in this context). I'm sorry. 

thank you I was trying to figure what would go there

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Specializes in Emergency Room; Acute Psychiatry.

lucky1RN listed a lot of the same ones that drive me nuts. I'd like to add that a BUN is B.U.N not Bun as if it were the bread you'd eat with your hamburger. Also I think MRSA should be spelled out as well. When I hear everyone call it "Mersa" it is irritating to me.

I work in psych at a VA facility, so I can be forgiving of the risperdal mispronunciation because the generic name risperidone does have the "I" in it, but in the VA system everything us called by it's generic name so no one says Zyprexa, it's Olanzapine to us.

I used to work ER and all the drug seekers were looking for "Dilauda." One of an ER nurses biggest pet peeves has to be when people say "defibulate" instead of defibrillate.

The best one I've personally heard was when a paramedic told me that the patient she was handing off to me had "psoriasis" of the liver. I made her repeat it just for kicks and laughed about it later, but I didn't say anything to her, sometimes you just have to over look other peoples ignorance.

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las2009; I just knew you meant the s-ut word,but have no idea why. weird,huh?

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oh my gosh. So I was reading this thread the other day and one word that stood out to me was people calling a centimeter a "sontimeter". When I read that I thought, who the heck would do that??? Well I was sitting in class yesterday and my professor was discussing chest tubes and referred to "sontimeters"... and it was actually centimeter... ahhh!! it really bugged..

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I've heard so many doctors say "O2 stats"....

My pet peeve revolves around people putting the pocessive apostropey on names that end with s then adding another s. Like "Magnus's"....

While acceptable... you only need the one s people!

But what really gets me, is in NZL, we say "orifice", as in "that man is an orificehole" or "that man got some metal in his orifice", we don't say "ass".

Ass is a donkey in NZL.

Pedantic, absolutely. Especially about profantity.

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I've heard so many doctors say "O2 stats"....

My pet peeve revolves around people putting the pocessive apostropey on names that end with s then adding another s. Like "Magnus's"....

While acceptable... you only need the one s people!

But what really gets me, is in NZL, we say "orifice", as in "that man is an orificehole" or "that man got some metal in his orifice", we don't say "ass".

Ass is a donkey in NZL.

Pedantic, absolutely. Especially about profantity.

Yeah, the extra s's really get me.:) I've never heard the sonnameter or sontameter...yet. I lived in Maryland for a while and my kids were born there. Marylanders say "zink" for sink, "zippen" instead of zip, and (my favorite, which I always correct my children for saying) "wooder" instead of water. Oh, and don't get me started on myspace grammar. Prolly, yelp (inplace of yep or yes or yup). I mean, yelp? That's what dogs do. Oh,and there, their, they're, your, you're........Ok I'm finished.

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also am-ba-lam for ambulance, and for some reason when I tell people my son's name, Dale, they always think I'm saying "Dell". ? whatever.

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Thought I was the only one in the world chapped by these:) Thanks!

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.

Actually, where I come from, we always said "sontimeter" for centimeter. It may be regional.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

I worked with a new RN once who was charting on a patient with pneumonia. She charted "breathing sounds good, no weasels present."

I just had to laugh and be thankful that I was in a weasel free zone 

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Stanley-RN2B said:

Incorrect. ?

'If I were' is standard formal.

'If I was' is standard informal.

If you are going to get me you had better come better prepared. 

mrsraisinkain said:

I learned "were" is used when expressing a want, wish, or a desire:

I was at school all day.

I wish I were at the pool right now.

If I were at the pool, I would be very happy.

"If I were," is used for hypothetical situations. One example is the song title, "If I Were a Rich Man," from Fiddler on the Roof. Or the Cowardly Lion's tune from The Wizard of Oz, "If I Were King of the Forest."

Both of these express a wish or a desire, however, the expression of any any hypothetical situation should use this tense. "If it were to rain on the day of the picnic, we would use the pavilion." This is not the desire, but it is still a hypothetical.

The word "if" is a red flag, meaning that you should take a second look when you see it. If the "if" refers to something that is in the future (hypothetical), use were. If the "if" refers to something that is in the past (whether or not it actually occurred), use "was." "If I was wrong in using 'was' in my sentence, I apologize." The "if" still implies uncertainty, but it refers to an event that has already taken place.

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