Medical terminogies: acrnoyms, abbreviation and slangs
Posted Mar 16 2012 11:56am
Background
MEDICAL ABBREVIATIONS are in common use in today’s rapidly evolving of medicine. However in a study by Sinha et al. (2001), healthcare professionals only managed to correctly interpret 43% of medical abbreviation and suggested to keep their usage to a minimum as to assure effective and safe communication, henceforth emphasising the need to study them.
Problem domain
Their usage serves to improve efficiency in terms of space and time as long as they are used appropriately. It has however drawn criticisms owing to the fact that they are seen as a major contributor to human errors;
Firstly, some medical abbreviations are ambiguous, i.e. can be mapped to more than
one term with different underlying meaning, and therefore can be easily misinterpreted as Kuhn (2007) stressed. Consider these two instances for example: h.s which could denote “hour sleep” or “half-strength” dc/ DC/ disc which could mean “discontinue” or “discharge”.
Secondly, some medical abbreviations refer to rarely used original terms; hence
deciphering them on their own creates additional workload especially for a novice. Prominent examples include Latin prescription abbreviation such as: Po (per os) means "by mouth" qid (quater in die) means "4 times a da y" The later can also be misinterpreted or misread, especially in hand written format where sloppiness and illegibility factors in, as “qd (quaque die)” which on the other hand means every day.
Thirdly, medical abbreviations are often region specific, denoting a medical
conditions, procedures or treatments prevalent within that locality, which adds to the confusion because of how people in other locations may interpret them. Examples include: Crump (UK) RTA [Road Traffic Accident], (US) crash; trying to die ATS Acute Thespian Syndrome: faking illness; known in US as MGM syndrome (http: www.messybeast.com/dragonqueen/medical-acronyms) Furthermore as Kuhn (2007) described, this issue can even be encountered within the different wards of the same hospital. In scenario presented, the flotation of nurses from one department to another may lead them to become unfamiliar with the abbreviations being used in a particular department. For example these two are some of the commonly used in children’s medical ward, Khawaja et al. (2010): O/E Observed over Expected; NKDA No known drug allergies Whilst in an orthopaedic ward, the prominent examples of medical abbreviation encountered include:AKA Above knee amputation ; BMD Bone mineral density
Background
MEDICAL ABBREVIATIONS are in common use in today’s rapidly evolving of
medicine. However in a study by Sinha et al. (2001), healthcare professionals only
managed to correctly interpret 43% of medical abbreviation and suggested to keep
their usage to a minimum as to assure effective and safe communication, henceforth
emphasising the need to study them.
Problem domain
Their usage serves to improve efficiency in terms of space and time as long as they areused appropriately. It has however drawn criticisms owing to the fact that they
are seen as a major contributor to human errors;
- Firstly, some medical abbreviations are ambiguous, i.e. can be mapped to more than
one term with different underlying meaning, and therefore can be easilymisinterpreted as Kuhn (2007) stressed. Consider these two instances for example:
h.s which could denote “hour sleep” or “half-strength”
dc/ DC/ disc which could mean “discontinue” or “discharge”.
- Secondly, some medical abbreviations refer to rarely used original terms; hence
deciphering them on their own creates additional workload especially for a novice.Prominent examples include Latin prescription abbreviation such as:
Po (per os) means "by mouth"
qid (quater in die) means "4 times a da y"
The later can also be misinterpreted or misread, especially in hand written format
where sloppiness and illegibility factors in, as “qd (quaque die)” which on the other
hand means every day.
- Thirdly, medical abbreviations are often region specific, denoting a medical
conditions, procedures or treatments prevalent within that locality, which adds to theconfusion because of how people in other locations may interpret them. Examples
include:
Crump (UK) RTA [Road Traffic Accident], (US) crash; trying to die
ATS Acute Thespian Syndrome: faking illness; known in US
as MGM syndrome
(http: www.messybeast.com/dragonqueen/medical-acronyms)
Furthermore as Kuhn (2007) described, this issue can even be encountered within
the different wards of the same hospital. In scenario presented, the flotation of
nurses from one department to another may lead them to become unfamiliar with
the abbreviations being used in a particular department.
For example these two are some of the commonly used in children’s medical ward,
Khawaja et al. (2010): O/E Observed over Expected; NKDA No known drug allergies
Whilst in an orthopaedic ward, the prominent examples of medical abbreviation
encountered include:AKA Above knee amputation ; BMD Bone mineral density
So for this study can you contribute by....
identify these medical terms:
http://goo.gl/1Y3A2 < http://goo.gl/1Y3A2 >
or perhaps share the more confusing ones they've encountered here:
http://goo.gl/sy4LM < http://goo.gl/sy4LM >
Many thanks