Mispronunciations That Drive You Nuts

[ixchel]

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?!

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

Dilaudid is definitely winning the I-can't-say-this-word contest.

Maybe it is related to the people who are asking for it? Are they a&o x 3?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

This wasn't a mispronounciation but it was still pretty funny. When I was a student I found a diagnosis of hyperpotassemia instead of hyperkalemia. The kicker was, it had a diagnosis code and everything!!

That is actually an accepted diagnosis now. There had been too many instances of hyperkalemia being confused with hypercalcemia during dictation transcriptions so too avoid that error many providers changed to hyperpotassemia

[ddunnrn]

Don't know I'd it's benn mentioned here by others, but my all-time favorite, as a psych nurse is "hound dog" instead of Haldol or haloperidol. Although it's not a mispronunciation, I also got a kick whenever my psych patients would scream, "I want my PLACEBO" at the top of their lungs, obviously not having a clue what it was.

[Bezoars]

Around here, people put the emphasis on the wrong syllable of Aggrivated.... saying "Ag-ruh-VATE-ed" or "Ag-ruh-VATE". Drives me NUTS. Also, when you take a med history, they'll tell you they're on Ativan because they "have the nerves".

[CateB]

Or the poor senior (or auld biddy in Scots) who insisted that her pain med of Distalgesic was in fact "Crystal Jesus" Still makes me smile all these years later.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

VP shunt?

Nope, supposed to be parietal craniotomy. But we were making jokes about the patient having his head up his ... (naughty word that would probably be censored so I'm not going to risk it).

[brownbook]

Not exactly your point but I was making a new appointment for myself over the phone. My name is a little unusual so I told the receptionist "I'll spell my name." She kept saying "Okay....Alspella what is your phone number." This conversation went back and forth several times before she understood me.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

And in the South, where the trees are grown, the word is peaCahns. Pee cans are those things you put under your bed in the winter so you don't have to run to the outhouse in the middle of the night. :)

Uh, those would be "chamber pots".

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

A coworker of mine was triaging someone the other day and when she asked about surgical history the pt said "well I had surgery for my camel toe"

The pt's sister then corrected her and said it was HAMMER toe surgery lol

I wonder what exact surgery she'd have for a camel toe.

[TheGooch]

Around here, people put the emphasis on the wrong syllable of Aggrivated.... saying "Ag-ruh-VATE-ed" or "Ag-ruh-VATE". Drives me NUTS. Also, when you take a med history, they'll tell you they're on Ativan because they "have the nerves".

It's Aggravated not aggrivated.

[englishgeek]

My dad kept telling people he was getting colostrum on his wound instead of collagen. We finally convinced him that the first was breast milk, but then he couldn't remember the real word. He would say, "It's not colostrum, it's that other thing." The last day in the hospital his doctor came in and was saying colostrum, too, because he had laughed so hard and joked about it so much with my dad that he couldn't get colostrum out of his head. Haha.

[aboucherrn]

I was in charge one night and got a page for an incoming patient with "Shortness of Breast". Ha ha ha. I also had to correct a HUC who entered an order for "Due Battle May Citrate" instead of "One Bottle Mag-Citrate". Computer order entry has really ruined the game of trying to decipher MD handwriting.