Decoding Complex Medical Terms

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En provenance du cours de University of Pittsburgh

Clinical Terminology for International and U.S. Students

302 notes

University of Pittsburgh

Clinical Terminology for International and U.S. Students

302 notes

Understanding the clinical terms and abbreviations commonly used during verbal or written communication in U.S. hospitals is challenging. This course is designed for U.S. health care profession students and for international students and practitioners who want to become more familiar with the language of the U.S. clinical setting. Others, such as caregivers and medical interpreters, who wish to develop a better understanding of terms and abbreviations used by health care providers will find this course helpful. The course provides visual and auditory learning experiences to enhance the understanding of terms and abbreviations commonly encountered on a general U.S. hospital unit. All content including quizzes are available at no cost to the learner. If you need a certificate, you can apply for financial aid or pay the fee. To find out more, click Learn more and apply next to the information about Financial Aid. (Use a computer, not a mobile device, for this step.)

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Decoding Complex Medical Terms

In week 2, we expand our focus to learn about abbreviations and terms used in the hospital environment. You will tour a modern U.S. clinical unit and visit the bedside of three patients. These vicarious bedside experiences will help you to imagine the context in which the terms and abbreviations are used. Making associations of the terms or abbreviations to specific people, places or types of patients will help to “set” them in your memory. Begin Week 2 by previewing the complex medical terms you will find in this lesson and sharpening your skills for analyzing the structure of complex terms.

Decoding Complex Medical Terms6:40

Tour of the US Clinical Unit9:21

Rencontrer les enseignants

Valerie Swigart, Ph.D. R.N.
Professor of Nursing
School of Nursing
Michael Gold, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Emeritus
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

In module one you were introduced to many abbreviations related to the assessment

of vital signs. You may now feel more confident about

identifying clinical expressions that are simply a shortening of a clinical word.

For example, temp.

Used instead of temperature, or pulsox for pulse oximeter.

You have also

studied abbreviations constructed from the initials or first letter of words such as

BP for blood pressure, HTN for hypertension

and TPR for temperature, pulse and respirations.

You've been introduced to complex terms like hyperthermia and hypothermia.

Now, we will intensify the process of learning to

discover the meaning of these more complex medical terms.

You will learn how to infer, or think through, the meaning of a complex term.

Identifying the parts of medical words and figuring

out how they fit together is like a puzzle.

These word parts are used across the

sciences and derive from Greek or Latin words.

The parts are usually the beginning or the prefix, the

middle or the root, and the ending or the suffix.

Often a word consists of just the prefix and the root.

Or the root and the suffix.

Let's examine the words hypothermia and hyperthermia more closely.

Notice that the main part, or

root of both words, is thermia. You've already

used this root in the word thermometer. A

thermometer is an instrument that measures temperature.

So therm has to do with temperature. Then you may recognize the term

hyper from common English language usage. A word

such as hyperactive or hypercritical. Hyper means more or extreme.

So, hyperthermia refers to high or extreme body temperature.

Hypothermia is the opposite of hyperthermia.

Can you guess what hypothermia means?

Yes, low temperature.

The prefixes hyper and hypo radically change the meaning of the root.

Here the prefix is described the amount or degree of temperature.

A prefix or suffix can also indicate size, color, shape, or direction.

A key to solving these medical word puzzles

is a list of common prefixes, roots, and suffixes.

We call this the Prefix, Root, and Suffix List.

Or, the PRS List.

The list is available as a study guide

in this module and in the clinical terminology dictionary.

Take a good look at the PRS list.

Notice that the list is alphabetical, that those terms that are usually prefixes are

followed by a dash and those that are more often suffixes are preceded by a dash.

Although there is considerable consistency with the role of

either prefix, root or suffix some terms play interchangeable roles.

If you are conscientious and use the PRS list frequently the

Latin and Greek terms simply become part of your new

language. Take the time now to confirm the meaning

of the prefixes and root for the words for hypertension

and hypotension. You will quickly identify the prefixes

as the same as in our previous example.

Recheck the meaning on the PRS list if your not sure.

Now identify and look up the root in the PRS list.

How do these puzzle pieces fit together?

If you had problems with this exercise you can bring this up on the discussion board.

Being an active participant will greatly increase your success in this course.

For example, actually using the PRS list for

an easy puzzle about hyper and hypotension gives you

a pattern for that activity and makes the process

more efficient as you work on more difficult problems.

Actually practicing, saying the terms and abbreviations as

they are presented in the course, will greatly enhance your learning.

Check your pronunciations against those presented in the course audio.

Positive experience builds confidence. Soon this

becomes easy and fun. Another way to be an active participant

is sharing your learning experience on a discussion board.

Keep a list of terms and abbreviations that

are difficult for you, surprise you, or cause confusion.

Share this on the discussion board.

Help others as they share their list. The support of others is very important.

You can find fellow students in your city or town and

arrange meet ups.

You can create scripts for mock medical or

nursing conversations and then read them to each other.

Both the experience of writing the clinical language

and hearing it will be beneficial to you.

Use discussion boards to suggest abbreviations and terms that

you think should be included in the course or dictionary.

You are part of

a global community of new healthcare providers.

We are learning and growing together.

Let's go look around at a typical U.S. clinical unit.

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