New Nursing student

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I am a 30 year old male nursing student. I have been in class for a week now and I am enjoying the challenges it has brought. One thing that I am curious about is all of the medical terms I know I will learn in school. Does anyone know a place to get all of these terms and definitions? I don't want to be totally in the dark when it gets more intense next semester. I would like to see a few of the more common ones before then.

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Here's the JCAHO "Do Not Use" List: http://www.jointcommission.org/Do_Not_Use_List_of_Abbreviations/

I would just Google "medical terminology" to find lists of terms & abbreviations. You may also want to purchase a book for this if you're truly unfamiliar with terms. I used Medical Terminology: A Short Course. It's on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Medical-Terminology-Davi-Ellen-Chabner-MAT/dp/1416055185/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307201134&sr=8-1

Looks like it's about $25 on Amazon right now. It comes with an audio CD and a disk for your computer. I think it was worth it. It starts out a little basic, but if you don't have much medical background, that's a good way to begin!

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Specializes in Cardiac, Rehab.

Does the school offer or require a medical terminology class? Its not rocket science, but it gives you enough of the basics so that you can figure out what a word means by its root, suffix and prefix. Ours was a study at home course but we had to go in and take two tests at the school to pass.

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I took a medical terminology class and we also are required to buy Taber's Medical Dictionary so we can look up any words we don't know.

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If you're able to take a medical terminology class, then I'd highly suggest it. Med term was a required course when I was a freshman in high school, and I can't begin to tell you how much it helped me throughout high school and nursing school. I saw some classmates in nursing school struggling at the beginning in terms of medical terminology and helped as much as I could. If there's anybody in your class who seems to really get a grip on terminology, then I'd ask how they studied.

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Actually, this is something I thought of a while back. When I took medical terminology, I remember thinking that I really could have just bought the textbook and learned from that. Maybe that would help?

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Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

you could google medical terminology and get quite a lot of abbreviations and terms that will help you become familar with orders/meds.

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