Medical Terminology: Learning A New Language

• The accumulation of blood within the cranium, due either to head trauma or flaws in the cerebral vasculature

Hello Mrs. Goldman, this is Krystal from the orthopedic office regarding your office visit with Dr. Mitchell. I see you were interested in finding out more information about your office note. Below I have clarified your medical break down of your clinic note.

Medical terminology has a long and rich history that evolved in great measure from the Latin and Greek languages. “It is estimated that about three-fourths of our medical terminology is of Greek origin.”(Banay) “Latin accounts for the majority of root words in the English language.” (Fallon).

CYANOTIC: A patient who has cyanosis, or a slight bluish discoloration of the skin due to the presence of abnormal amounts of reduced hemoglobin in the blood

| By using words or phrases that the most people understand rather than jargon. Getting an interpreter or carers that speak the same language. Using flash cards that indicate a phrase so that they may be understood. Keeping language simple and avoid using idioms.

Decoding is very important because then it becomes easier to understand medical terminology. You should first break down the word by evaluating the meaning of the suffix, then prefix, and then the word root. This will in able a worker to identify what it is that is going on and be able to describe it to their patient and to the doctor or physician when asked. But first the worker needs to have a good sense of the origin of words which is called etymology. (Theirer & Breitbard, 2007, p. 1-4)Once you have the basic rules down you should be able to put words together and take them apart by decoding them. You also need to make sure that the spelling and pronunciation are correct because if a medical term is used incorrectly, it can become very dangerous and sometimes life threatening because you diagnose wrong procedures and medication. It creates a communication for health care professionals to make sure that a patient is treated with the highest amount of service and to ensure that they are being treated with the right medication.

Brooks, M. L., & Brooks, D. L. (2012). Exploring Medical Language A Student-Directed Approach (8th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: ELSEVIER.

I’ve found that my experiences laboring through three year of medical school to be surprisingly similar to learning another language. Being surrounded by patients, physicians and nurses at the beginning of my 3rd year, I quickly realized the vast amount of clinical knowledge that I have yet to master. Consequently, I found that my learning rate is nowhere quicker than on the

Our training delivery partner, College of DuPage (COD), will provide the Medical Terminology training sessions on May 19th and June 7th. After attending the session, you will be able to:

Why medical abbreviations should not be use in the medical field? Abbreviations can be used to save time, space, and have become be available everywhere in prescriptions and medical records. It help save times and space on the paper while writing on document such as prescription or medical record, but it have also causes misinterpreted and involvement in harmful medication errors. Therefore medical abbreviation should not be use when you are trying to communicate with medical information. Giving the wrong prescription to a patients can be harmful and sometimes life threatening. Another reason why medical abbreviation should not be use to communicate is there are frequency a confusion and you can also put your medical practice at risk.

A medical setting in which a patient feels safe and secure is more likely to create the conditions in which optimal outcomes can be achieved. Part of helping to ensure a patient feels secure is addressing the communication barriers between the provider and the patient. Some of these barriers arise from the use of professional jargon. Surgeons, Physicians, Nurses, etc. work at a fast pace to make sure that every patient is attended to. As this is their profession, medical jargon is used frequently when communicating to each other, figuring out a diagnosis, and coming up with a treatment plan for the patient. But this medical jargon creates a barrier between the healthcare professional and the patient. There can be misunderstandings between the patient and the professional when it comes to diagnoses and treatment plans due to the communication barrier. The professionals commonly use medical terminology to inform the patient of their status and a patient may simply nod their head to be polite. This nod does not necessarily mean that there is a mutual understanding, it could potentially mean that they are overwhelmed and don’t know how else to act in response to long confusing words being directed at them. This is dangerous because a patient could leave the facility not knowing how to appropriately take care of themselves after their procedure/diagnosis. Medical jargon has the potential to cause the patient and medical professional relationship to be both broken and

American Psychological Association (APA) states word choice: Make certain that every word means exactly what you intend it mean (2010). Clarity requires written documents to have organization that allows readers to place the information in context (Grand Canyon University (GCU), 2013).

Medical terminology standardizes communication in the medical field. EHRs use interface terminology which makes a bridge to connect the clinician’s medical language and the administrative and insurance industry terminology.

Phlebotomy is the process of making an incision in the vein with a sterilize needle in order to get a sample for analysis.

In learning foreign language, the level of understanding is high enough to understand a message and learning brand-new terminology objects may be affected in this particular point.