Mispronunciations That Drive You Nuts

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Car-dee-ya-zem.

It's car-di-zem. Or dil-ti-ya-zem.

Cardiazem isn't a real thing.

Can I get an amen?!

Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Here in the South there is phrase/word and I have no clue of the etiology for it: "T-Mortal-Hell" There is no "T" in Hell! (Probably no water either!) In context it might be something like...."It/He/She scared the T-Mortal-Hell out of me!"

I don't get it, but after 26 or so years down here, I am used to it and do recognize the vehemence behind it and what it is trying to convey.

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Specializes in retired from healthcare.

A lot of these pronunciations depend on where someone comes from.

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Specializes in Hospice Nursing.
lpoore said:
I work in hospice and we have had a few patients and families that call Hospice "hostage" or "hos-pick". I've also heard oxygen said many different ways.

We had a dementia patient ask one of my colleagues "what is Hot Spice?" when looking at her hospice badge!

Of course, we were all pretty hot, but that is besides the point

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Saiderap said:
A lot of these pronunciations depend on where someone comes from.

Yeah, everybody know that; just like it only takes 15 minutes to sign up for that insurance they advertise on TV.

It's still fun. I am amazed by the fluidity between the ear, the brain, and the mouth. Pretty interesting.

Local accents in Nashville, for a true Nashvillian have folks pronouncing Murfreesboro as Muhfsbro, and Smithville as Smiville. When I first moved south, sometimes I'd have to ask someone to SPELL something If I couldn't seem to hear/understand what they were saying.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.
For some reason, at my hospital, they will refer to MRSA (sounds like Mersa) as M-R-S-A; in other words, they'll spell the acronym out when referring to it.

Always have done that in Australia, UK and Ireland.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
K+MgSO4 said:
Always have done that in Australia, UK and Ireland.

Yes, I always spell out the acronym too ... I'm a nurse on the east coast of Canada.

"Mersa" would be one of MY peeves haha!!

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I have never heard anyone spell out MRSA, I think I would probably have to stop and think about it

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

Worked with a Texan nurse who handed over to 10 nurses in general handover that a pt had Mersa, none of the group knew what she was referring to. Also most Aussie's call it "golden staph ".

Whenever I watch US medical shows and the say Mersa I grind my teeth.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

I do not mean this as an insult, but to me "mersa" sounds uneducated. It must be a regional thing.

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Specializes in Inpatient Oncology/Public Health.
psu_213 said:
"Dilutent" instead of "diluent."

I'm guilty as well. However, this says they are synonyms: dilutent - definition of dilutent by The Free Dictionary

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
I do not mean this as an insult, but to me "mersa" sounds uneducated. It must be a regional thing.

It must be regional. Everywhere I have worked, most people say "mersa." Where I work now, someone even says "marza"--which sounds really weird.

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We say both. M R S A and Mersa. It's a California-thing!

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