Patients knowing medical lingo

PamUK · Jun 15, 2005

Smilingblueyes... my comments were not aimed at you in any way.

I pressed to post a reply, then contrsucted my comments in Word & copied and pasted. By the time I did this, you had already posted

sbic56, BSN, RN · Jun 15, 2005

Do you like it when patients know the basic medical lingo like sub-q, IM, the name of their disorder or diesease, and other such stuff?

I like to know someone has done some research into their illness/condition/situation. It bugs me when they don't even know what they are on such and such a medication or why they are in the hospital in the first place, ie, Q:"Why is the doctor inducing you?" A: "I don't know, I didn't ask." That is what makes me bugs me more than those who do know what's up. On the other hand, there are those who profess to know more than you do about just about everything medical. That feels like therapeutic slap time! :chuckle

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 15, 2005

NP pam!!! :-)

akcarmean, LPN · Jun 15, 2005

NO problem there, Angelia. Assertiveness is not synonymous with ignorance and aggression. I think you know what I meant by " a little knowledge".

Yes I know what you meant my "a little knowlege" but thought why I was posting I would add my 2 cents on what bothers me when some people just think that they have to talk down to you. I am sure we have all run into people like that and I am not just thinking of nursing only.

Angie

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 15, 2005

I have had people with a little "dangerous" knowledge "talk down" to me as their nurse, too. It can go both ways.

pricklypear · Jun 15, 2005

It's one thing to know some terminology, or even have some "knowledge", but putting it in context is a totally different thing. Some people who have a little bit of knowledge often have different or unrealistic expectations. Or they will use what little they know to try to intimidate you. I explain things to families in very simple language. I've had family members interrupt me in front of other members and translate my simple language into medial mumbo jumbo that the family obviously didn't understand. I got the feeling it was to make me look stupid, like I didn't know the terminology - and that's why I was using simple language.

This is a funny story: I explained to a pt's family about the diprivan drip the pt was on, and when other family came in the first one I talked to kindly told them that Dad was on a Ditropan drip. One of the sisters said "But I thought we wanted him to pee alot!"

snowfreeze, BSN, RN · Jun 15, 2005

Yes I appreciate a patient who has an interest in what is going on. It really makes my teaching easier. #1 they are interested, #2 they have knowledge #3 I can teach so much more to that patient than someone who doesn't give a poop.

Pretending to know more than me? Not a problem, it is their body we are talking about so they should know more than me.

HillaryC, RN, CRNA · Jun 15, 2005

Wow, I was just contemplating this this morning! :chuckle I am going to have a C/S soon, and am seeing my OBGYN on Monday... I was making a list of all of the questions I have, and one of them was whether or not I had to be NPO for a certain amount of hours prior. Then that made me wonder how she would react to me saying NPO... LOL. She knows I'm about to graduate nursing school, but I don't want her thinking I'm a know-it-all or show-off, because I'm really still quite unsure of myself. But then again, isn't it MUCH easier to say NPO than "am I able to eat?" Perhaps I should just stop being so anal and find something more important to worry about...

Wow! Congrats on your upcoming graduation and baby!

nurse_wannabe · Jun 16, 2005

Wow! Congrats on your upcoming graduation and baby!

Thank you very much! Unless I go into labor before then, they'll take place on exactly the same day. :chuckle

LydiaGreen · Jun 16, 2005

I admitted an elderly patient with a significant history and numerous meds. Not only did the son have a chronilogical list of diagnoses, tests, where the tests were performed, which doc ordered them, and the results of the tests, but a list of meds INCLUDING the ones that were discontinued, when they were discontinued and why. It was fabulous! The son kept it on his computer and updated it every month or so, keeping a copy in his car, in his mom's purse and at his father's GP's office. Isn't that incredible! The son also went above and beyond to understand everything that was going on with his father's health - he was incredibly knowledgeable. That was amazing.

I guess the only time a little knowledge is dangerous, is when a person is blindly following it themselves, or the person is giving that "knowledge" out as fact to other individuals whose cases may be entirely different.

If a person has gone out and gotten a little knowledge, odds are, they are more willing to not only listen to the health teaching, but adhere to it.

obeyacts2 · Jun 16, 2005

I admitted an elderly patient with a significant history and numerous meds. Not only did the son have a chronilogical list of diagnoses, tests, where the tests were performed, which doc ordered them, and the results of the tests, but a list of meds INCLUDING the ones that were discontinued, when they were discontinued and why. It was fabulous! The son kept it on his computer and updated it every month or so, keeping a copy in his car, in his mom's purse and at his father's GP's office. Isn't that incredible! The son also went above and beyond to understand everything that was going on with his father's health - he was incredibly knowledgeable. That was amazing.

I do the above with my Moms meds and also keep track of her hx and current dx (there are a bunch). I also printed out copies of all of the above and have them in an enveloppe in her purse.

I will say there are times I almost wish I didnt have some knowledge (nursing stuident) and elder care experience. Mom was just dx'd with a fusiform aneurysm of the basilar artery :uhoh21: I guess if the neuro had told me I would have thought, OK so how do you deal with that? But I was like OH MY GOD and thinking about where the artery was, its function.....etc. Panic time....... esp when they mentioned taking her to the trauma center by helicopter. BTW she is fine, the podunk hospital here misdiagnosed the type of aneurysm and she will just need yearly monitoring.

Laura

PamUK · Jun 16, 2005

I know it can be very threatening when a patient/relative appears to know more than the health care professionals. When my husband had myelodysplasia which flipped very quickly into leukaemia a few years ago, although I work with solid tumour patients having chemo, I knew zippo... nada... zilch about leukaemia.

So.... I read all the research, up-to-date approaches, I even knew exactly which of his chromosomes were deleted, duplicated, translocated or inverted! Which hospitals treated MDS in what way, what research was going on internationally for AML. I must have been a nightmare relative.

Although I didn't work in the hospital he was being treated at, many of the nursing & medical staff knew who I was and that I was very knowledgeable & experienced about chemo. I know a lot of the more junior nurses (and even some senior ones) would avoid us. Why did I do all this? I was frightened, bewildered, the unknown was a massive black hole and I couldn't see. I knew I was out of my depth. And if, by using a lot of medical terminology, questioning them, telling them research or about the little known side effects of a certain drug (yes I did that) I don't apologise. I'd do it all again, in a heartbeat

So I guess, from personal experience, I understand why patients and their relatives can sometimes behave in this way. Particularly if the disease is serious.