things said wrong that drive you crazy

[SDALPN]

Ok. So I'll start by saying that when I hear the office or a nurse say "orientate", it is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Its orient, not orientate.

Another one is O2 "stat". Its O2 sat, as in saturation.

Its trach, not "trache".

Or parents who tell me their kid has a trachea...I sure hope so! I want to tell them their kid isn't special for that and that we all have a trachea.

Parents that tell their kid I'll give them a shot if they don't behave. I'm not around to cause pain or scare a child.

And parents that speak Walmart! When they tell me they want to "axe me" I fear for my life or my job and then they just ask me a question.

Incorrect spelling of meds. It can lead to a med error. The med name is on the container. It can be looked up online if needed. I can't stand hearing "Phenergren", its phenergan.

Seeing/hearing yankauer spelled/said incorrectly. Passy-Muir is another.

Formula doesn't always have milk in it. Some patients are allergic to milk/dairy. Calling it milk and saying you don't want your kid to drink milk because its too much milk just sounds silly.

I'll think of more. Any others?

[NurseDirtyBird]

This isn't a pronunciation issue, but it kinda bugs me when I hear other nurses giving injections or fingersticks and hear them say, "Ok, little prick!"

Um, yeah. While it's technically correct, it gives me giggle fits every time I hear it.

I'm kinda immature I guess.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

This isn't a pronunciation issue, but it kinda bugs me when I hear other nurses giving injections or fingersticks and hear them say, "Ok, little prick!"

Um, yeah. While it's technically correct, it gives me giggle fits every time I hear it.

I'm kinda immature I guess.

I don't use that way to describe it either. You are setting yourself up for comments from males who never graduate above adolescent humor.

[mluvsgnc]

"Baskin AND Robins".... It's just Baskin Robbins, people! Oh, you meant in nursing....

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

:) On that same link above I found this:

50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should Avoid

Ugh, I say ve-hicle and sher-bert

What about Metoprolol? The emphasis is on the TOE (me-TOE-pro-lol)

[GundeRN]

exasperate vs exacerbate

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

One of my pet peeves is with one of my nurses who continually says 'crit' when she shoud said creat(inine). She told me the patient's crit was 5 and I asked how they could be alive with a hematocrit of 5. She looked at me like I was the odd one....it's CREATinine.

The other thing that makes me cringe: They are a friend of mines. That sweater is mines. Get over yourself!! Mine Mine Mine....there is no 's' on the end of the word unless you are talking about a bunch of explosive devices.

[GundeRN]

This isn't a pronunciation issue, but it kinda bugs me when I hear other nurses giving injections or fingersticks and hear them say, "Ok, little prick!"

Um, yeah. While it's technically correct, it gives me giggle fits every time I hear it.

I'm kinda immature I guess.

The problem I have with this is that you don't know how much that poke is going to hurt. "little prick" may not be a very good description.

[DougThompson]

"We've got" in this thread, REALLY?

[Dragan]

On admission: Asking patients repeatedly if they have any medical history. They say no, they are healthy, you go through their 100 medications and notice Ramipril, Metoprolol etc. and ask 'so you've got high blood pressure'? 'Oh not since I've been taking my medication'. Coloxyl and Senna: 'So, constipation?', 'oh my no, since I've been taking the little brown tablets I've been going regularly' and so forth...

[wsuRN09]

"The Walmart language" makes me cringe every time I hear it. Some of the worst ones for me personally, not nursing related, are the following... "I seen that on the TV" or "I got my hair did."

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

I was shocked the other day when someone told me that I wasn't supposed to pronounce the "t" in often. She said it had been bugging her for years that I did so.

I'm still skeptical. I don't care what anyone says, the "t" should be pronounced!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Often: From Often | Define Often at Dictionary.com

Pronunciation note

Often was pronounced with a t sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the [tShowIPA came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and GreatBritain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor.

Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the [t] for many speakers, and today [aw-fuhn] and [awf-tuhn] [or [of-uhn] and [of-tuhn] ] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, often with a [t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.