Mispronouncing a word makes you less of a nurse

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I was in open lab practicing things from my lab the day before. I was talking to a classmate and I mentioned the word larynx but I pronounced it wrong. It's a new word for me so I'm not going to be perfect at pronouncing it. The professor there noticed I pronounced it wrong and corrected me. Then he went on to give me an example of if I were a nurse and he brought his kid to me and I mispronounced a word to him I would be little less of a nurse. In the sense that I was not as competent as a nurse who could pronounced words correctly. He understood that it shouldn't make you less of a nurse but to him it does. I know it's just his opinion and opinions are like mouths everyone has one. I just didn't like the comment nor did I expect this from him. What do you guys think?

Specializes in Med/Surg, Acute Rehab.

Oh no! Someone beat me to the punch!:selfbonk:

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:chuckle You sound like Sally Field (from her Oscar acceptance speech!)

Just don't start hustling Boniva, please. :D

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Just don't start hustling Boniva, please. :D

:rotfl: No worries there. I'm not as cute and perky as Sally and she is older :coollook:

Ever try to type with a puppy on your lap?? This is harder than when Danny was a baby.

steph

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Sio, has the OP come back to gain all this great knowledge we've all shared?

And is the consensus that a teacher does need to teach correct pronunciation and a student needs to take instruction, as long as the teacher isn't rude?

And that people do perceive lack of correct pronunciation as a negative thing?

If so . . we may be finished here.

steph

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Let's turn the situation around. Suppose a highly educated nurse moved to a part of the country where "fancy talk" was perceived to be conceited and judgmental. Might this nurse run into unfair reactions based on the idea that her natural way of speaking created a hoity-toity impression? Of course, she would! But then it would be up to her to demonstrate in other ways that, although her speech was different, she really did have the goods to treat her patients with capabilty and respect.

This is sadly true in the the United States. You have to talk like an idiot and be willfully stupid in order to be accepted. In nursing, in particular, there is a working stiff/blue collar mentality that can be anti-intellectual. God forbid you should mention reading something in the New York Times or the New Yorker, you'll immediately be branded as a snob or elitist. And whatever you do, don't EVER mention that you don't believe in God (although it's perfectly acceptable to be praising God all day long at work), everyone will think you're some kind of monster.

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Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.
Another word that made us crazy was centimeter, pronounced "SOHNtimeter". I went and looked up pronunciation in a couple of different dictionarys to see if it was an appropriate way to say the word, but I couldn't find this alternative pronunciation listed. (I still hear it all the time.)

After I read this, I was curious to see if I could find it in an old (c 1950) dictionary we happen to have. I did find it--in the French section! So I guess we're paying homage to the French, who developed the metric system, when we say sahntimeter!

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After I read this, I was curious to see if I could find it in an old (c 1950) dictionary we happen to have. I did find it--in the French section! So I guess we're paying homage to the French, who developed the metric system, when we say sahntimeter!

Although someone mentioned in an earlier post . . if you are going to say it in French, you need to say the end of the word in French too. :coollook: . .centimètre . . . .

steph

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Acute Rehab.

To firstyearstudent: Oh how right you are! I am originally from NYC and was educated there. Moved away when I was 29 (to the south) and luckily found friends at least as smart or mostly smarter than myself. Then nursing school, boy was I in for a surprise...I know this does not apply to every nurse, but there are so many where I now work that may be wondeful nurses, but take them out of their element and you see what a narrow base of knowledge they have. They probably don't even know what the New Yorker is! Isn't that a rude person who tawks funny?? I at least have a few docs that I can talk to when I have time about cultural things, like traveling and books, and really wanting to understand the patho behind what we do. I know, I sound like such a snob, but I really try to keep these feelings hidden at work. :spbox:

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

I can say some real tongue-twisters, but for some reason, I got a tad dyslexic when it came to hematocrit and bulemia. To me, it was hemocrit and bilumia.

It only took a couple of eye-rolls and annoyed corrections from my buddies to get me to fix it.

But there's one word pertaining to either neuro or GI, that I cannot seem to master and I trip over it every single time. Thankfully, I've forgotten what it was. ;)

I don't think I'm any less of a nurse because I can't say that word, but it would definitely make me less of a nurse if I was not teachable and I did not try.

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Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.
I am more impressed that you could spell Creutzfeldt-jakob...

Ah, but anyone can spell anything correctly nowadays by Googling it... provided it's something professionally written. I double-checked it. Bragging on it and then spelling it wrong would make me look quite the fool...

Although, I must confess - I was a spelling bee champion in the halcyon days of yore....

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Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.
This is sadly true in the the United States. You have to talk like an idiot and be willfully stupid in order to be accepted. In nursing, in particular, there is a working stiff/blue collar mentality that can be anti-intellectual. God forbid you should mention reading something in the New York Times or the New Yorker, you'll immediately be branded as a snob or elitist. And whatever you do, don't EVER mention that you don't believe in God (although it's perfectly acceptable to be praising God all day long at work), everyone will think you're some kind of monster.

I dont know where you are talking about but I live in NJ and that is simply not true. Where I work we talk all the time about all kinds of things like books, politics, philosophy, religion (I happen to be agnostic and some nurses share that view). We also talk about our families and nursing issues like we do on this board.Nobody is trying to be an elitist this is just what our interests are. To make a blanket statement like that is just judgemental. I think you must be working in the wrong place. I am assuming you are from another country.

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I am assuming you are from another country.

i don't think s/he is necessarily from another country...

but clearly from a different part of town, for sure.

i can go a couple of miles in opposite directions, and encounter those 2 types of folks...

leslie

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