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

[Lisa CCU RN]

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?

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I HATE 'noncompliant'.........makes it sound like medications, treatments and such are orders to be obeyed unquestioningly by the patient. It's judgmental, and as such it shouldn't even be in the medical lexicon.

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'?

And when will OB stop calling a pregnant woman's due date her 'estimated date of confinement'? I still hear this one being used, when it should be 'estimated date of delivery'. Confinement sounds like a prison sentence instead of one of life's greatest events. Lose it!

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

I've thought of another. Why do we say the patient has "gone bad"? That's like expired. Sounds like we are comparing our patients to food!

Yeah, obese could simply be "pt is 50 lbs, 100 lbs. over ideal weight." I don't think we should even label the weight as "normal" either.

[Liddle Noodnik]

With you on this one, I never could figure out how they devised that term. It just sounds nasty to start with lol.

I have heard "pulmonary hygiene", but that just makes me think of "feminine hygiene" so I don't like that either!

How about pulmonary calesthenics? lol :pumpiron:

[hogan4736, BSN, RN]

hematochezia

ick

[rnin02]

hematochezia

ick

That's what I was going to say! I hate this word.

[MedSurgeMess]

hematochezia

ick

I've been a nurse for a while, but never heard or saw this one. At the risk of sounding dumb, what does it mean?

Pulmonary toilet has always given me the giggles, just because it sounds funny.....

Diaper for an adult just makes me angry! At our workplace it is not allowable-you get written up for it. Brief is such a better word....

Now, I am obese (yuk!), but I call myself fat-but I realize that that won't work for charting

[MedSurgeMess]

Non-compliant.....most of my patients who are "non-compliant" are actually those with limited resources-$$$$-and have to choose between eating and rent or meds....I agree with the other terms suggested for this one

[hogan4736, BSN, RN]

...what does it mean?

hematochezia is a bloody stool

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

"Diaper" is another term I dislike........how undignified! As is "bib" for clothing protector and "sippy" for the adaptive cup used by stroke patients and others who have trouble holding onto traditional glassware. They may no longer have the physical capabilities of adult human beings, but they still are adults and should be regarded as such.

Just a pet peeve of mine!

[augigi, CNS]

hematochezia is a bloody stool

Hmm.. never heard of that. Here in Australia, that's called malaena.

[rnsrgr8t]

I hate using the word "client" instead of patient, that was really big in all of nursing textbooks in school (10 years ago). I work in Urology and I hate the term gross hematuria. We have to use it to describe the difference between frank blood in the urine or micro-hematuria but I never like the word. I hate the word foley, where did that come from?

[hogan4736, BSN, RN]

Hmm.. never heard of that. Here in Australia, that's called malaena.

from a medical dictionary online:

"Hematochezia is the presence of bright red, fresh blood in the feces. Hematochezia usually occurs with bleeding in the lower intestines (colon, rectum). Hematochezia should not be confused with melena, which is the passage of dark, tarry, black feces. Melena represents the passage of old, digested blood that has occurred with bleeding higher up in the intestinal tract."