When working in the medical field, learning and using medical terminology is essential to navigating through the vast ever-advancing medical world. Every occupation within healthcare uses it. Medical terminology is a universal language in the medical field that helps us identify, define and understand large complicated terms which facilitates faster and easier to understand oral and written communication. With the ability to put together root words and modify them by using prefixes and suffixes, one can figure out meanings and spot mistakes. In addition, it creates consistency and accuracy over several practices and departments. Thus, medical terminology is efficient and essential to simplifying communication in the medical world. Another …show more content…
Slang is popular among medical staff for venting and commiserating with one another, and by using insider terms specific to the medical field, it allows for co-worker bonding. Much of the slang is derogatory so is not used in documentation because it can create legal implications by patients. Some of the words are not as harsh or hurtful such as the term “Mets” which means metastases. There are many examples of offensive demeaning slang, which refer to the patients or their condition or disease or even refer to the physician themselves. One is the term “clinic unit” meaning 200 pounds so a bariatric patient with a weight of 600 pounds might be rudely referred to as three clinic units. AMA Journal of Ethics. Another is the acronym LOBNH short for “lights on but nobody home” in reference to a patient with suspected dementia. Medical Slang Leading to Logical Fallacy: A Practice to be Avoided. As far as using slang to describe a physician, the term “referologist” used to name an ER doctor, portrays the idea that all they do is refer patients to specialists. Press, S. U. (n.d.). The secret slang of hospitals: What doctors and nurses call patients behind their backs. Although slang will not disappear anytime soon, slang needs to decrease within the medical vocabulary in order to solve the problems associated with its …show more content…
The BBC News reported “Medical abbreviations ‘pose risk’” and “Doctors are being warned that using abbreviations in medical notes is putting patients’ lives at stake”. Health | Medical abbreviations 'pose risk'. In this report, “The UK’s Medical Defence Union said difficulties often arose because abbreviations can have more than one meaning or might be misread” and “some patients have had the wrong limb removed or operated on and others have been given deadly drug overdoses”. Health | Medical abbreviations 'pose risk'. Sometimes the consequences negatively affect both patients and medical staff. As legal nurse consultant, Kathleen A. Mary, stated, “A Texas case involving a filled prescription which was misread because of illegibility resulted in a $450,000 verdict against a physician; jurors said they were angered that the patient died because of illegible handwriting…”. Legal Nurse Consulting –Issues, Ideas, Information. In the end, there are too many consequences of improper use of medical
During the 1980’s and 90’s there were many studies done that showed that medical errors were occurring in inpatient and outpatient settings at a very high rate. Computer Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems were designed to reduce or eliminate mistakes made by using hand written orders. The CPOE system allows users to directly enter their orders into the system on computers which are then sent directly to the healthcare providers that will be implementing the orders. Previously orders were placed by writing on order sheets on patient charts. This was sometimes done by the doctor or by a nurse acting on behalf of the doctor. Order sheets were then signed by the doctor and then the information was input into the patient’s record. This left room for error due to misreading bad handwriting, confusing medications with similar names, etc.
Lexis is referred to as terminology that is used by only members of the community for intercommunication that outsiders of the community would not comprehend. “Serve it”, “Hold It”, “HBO”, “WOW”, and “Working” are some of the terminology that we use at the McDonald’s that I work at. The first phrase “Serve it”, is used to serve off the orders on the screen in drive thru. There is a timer that keeps up with how long it takes to have the order ready from the time the order is cashed out until the customer makes it to the second window. You tend to hear the runner who is bagging the orders for the person in the drive thru window yell to “Serve it”. “Hold it”, the second phrase is when the order at the window is not ready yet or something for that order is in the process of cooking. We tend to tell them to pull around and park in a reserved spot that is only for drive thru. “HBO”, is yelled by the person presenting the order at the second window in drive thru. HBO means when an order is ready before the customer makes it to the second window. “WOW” is when a customer brings back an order that is either messed up, or wrong. Last but not least, “Working” is used by the people on the grill. When the people in the front call out something their waiting on to the grill people they tend to say “working”, which means it is in
4). Examples of how nurses can integrate this competency include; using current practice guidelines and researching into hospital’s policies (Jurado, 2015). According to Sherwood & Zomorodi (2014) nurses should use current evidence based standards when providing care to patients. Nurse B violated one of the rights of medication administration. South Florida State Hospital does not use ID wristbands; instead they use a picture of the patient in the medication cup. Nurse B did not ask the patient to confirm his name in order to verify this information with the picture in the computer. By omitting this step in the process of medication administration, nurse B put the patient at risk of a medication error, which could have caused a negative patient
Medical error occurs more than most people realize and when a doctor is found negligent the patient has the right to sue for compensation of their losses. Debates and issues arise when malpractice lawsuits are claimed. If a patient is filing for a medical malpractice case, the l...
The use of abbreviations shortens length of many words thus really help healthcare professionals in saving time spent in writing notes. Abbreviations however do not always provide positive contributions due to misconceptions, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations leading to commitment of errors in the practice. Similarities in abbreviations for instance could root to a grave mistake. For instance the q.d. which an inscriber would like to indicate as every day could be erroneously interpreted as q.i.d. which means four times a day. Such error could result to over dosage when a certain medication is taken four times in a day instead of just once. Though some abbreviations can be easily understood clearly and exactly as to what meaning they communicate, the use of abbreviations generally invite error potentials particularly the error-prone abbreviations (ISMP, 2007) which can be best avoided by eliminating abbreviations.
Many medication errors occur due to abbreviated words symbols, and dosage that cant be read and become misunderstood. These mistakes can cause harm if no one notices it. Many patients end up with a life threatening problem due to a medical error. A nurse might give the patient the wrong dose because of the handwritten abbreviation the doctor wrote is not clear. Many abbreviations are similar and this can cause complication. If abbreviations are similar the best thing to do is write the abbreviation completely out and always ask if not sure. Providing unabbreviated prescriptions, communication, and writing all abbreviations out can reduce errors in the healthcare setting. Another consideration would be to make sure in the healthcare setting written policies are mentioned and used.
Day by day medical technology is improving, unfortunately so are cases of nursing malpractice. By understanding the laws that governs nursing practice, it will help the nurse protect client’s rights and reduce the risk of nursing liability (Sommer, 2013, p. 23). It’s usually necessary to prove that the nurse was negligent to prove nursing malpractice. The Joint Commission defines negligence as a “failure to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful person would under similar circumstances” and malpractice as “improper or unethical conduct or unreasonable lack of skill by a holder of a professional or official position. Sommer defines professional negligence as the failure of a person who has a professional training to act in a reasonable and prudent manner (p. 24).
Poor order transcriptions and documentation of orders given by doctors to nurses whether it’s verbal, written or over
"Doctor, doctor, my body hurts wherever I touch it!” A young brunette exclaims. “Show me,” says the physician. The girl proceeds to poke multiple areas of her body and scream every time she does so. “Hmm,” the doctor remarks, “I think I ought to send you off to a specialist.” Wait a minute, that’s not how the joke goes, is it? Isn’t he supposed to say she’s a blonde with a broken finger? Well, in the future, the joke just might go like that. Lately, Americans and their physicians have been at odds. Citizens are focused on getting the treatment they deserve, while physicians are doing their best to provide it. Unfortunately, many people feel as though they have been shorted or neglected. The result? Medical malpractice litigations one after
If there were any incorrect abbreviations in the health record, they may have diagnosed her with something that she didn’t actually have. Or the doctors could’ve given her prescriptions to medications she wouldn’t have needed. It is so important that they use correct abbreviations and correct terms
Although malpractices do occur among physicians, nurses are responsible for having a thorough understanding of the medications they administer to their patients. A nurse does not just simply do what they are told and administer drugs without having a thorough understanding and background knowledge. Nurses are to know the purpose of each drug they administer, the therapeutic effects, side effects which can be harmless or injurious, and adverse effects which are a severe negative response to the drug (2009). In reference to the previously mentioned scenario, the physician’s handwriting was careless and illegible. Although the physician demonstrated lack of clarity, the nurse noticed the hastily written sentence signed by the physician and continued to administer the drug as she had routinely done the past couple days.
As a nurse you must know how to write legible so that other nurses can understand your writing to follow out care plans. If a nurse can’t understand the writing they may give wrong medications to patients, which could cause several medical issues. A simple mistake like this can cause a nurse their licenses and serious federal charges (Purdue). Several times information written on medical charts can turn into legal documents in the results of death of the patients (Purdue). Therefore the information must be accurate and correct at all times. Many nurses go by the motto “If its not charted, then its not done”.
The nurse’s role in healthcare continues to expand throughout the years. For example, with the new Healthcare Reform Act taking affect, the roles of the health care nurse expand even more, increasing the demands placed on them for the care and treatment of every patient. This has also led to an expansion of legal liability for malpractice. The nurse upholds a close and professional relationship with the patient and has the best advantage of impacting the patient. The nurse holds the utmost responsibility in continuing to be well informed about malpractice, as well as how to avoid a malpractice case or negligence by presenting outstanding patient care in addition to malpractice insurance to protect yourself from an undesirable outcome.
A physician was accused of professional misconduct for having his office nurse sign her name to his preprinted prescription forms for medications that the physician prescribed for his patients. The physician did not delegate any medical discretion to the nurse; in fact, it was the physician who determined the type of medication, administration, strength, and other particulars of the prescription the patient was to be given. The state board of nursing charged the nurse with professional misconduct for agreeing to sign these prescriptions.
a. The adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the ad The “Electronic Patient – Physician Communication: Problems and Promise”. Annals of Internal Medicine, 129, 495 – 500. Newman, Stanton. (1992)