Online Medical Classes

I need to interview a HCP, such as a nurse or CNA for school if you can take a minute to answer the following?

questions: How important is medical terminolgy in this profession? How did you learn medical terminology (in a class or on the job)? Could you perform your job without knowing medical terminology? What types of medical terms are used the most often in your job? How often do you encounter a term that you are not familiar with or do not understand? How do you find the answer to the terms you are not familiar with? ( ask someone or look it up in a dictionary) If you did not take a medical terminology class, would you take one now before entering the health profession? Should all healthcare professionals take a medical terminology class? Please be descriptive. This is a research paper. I am legally blind and was advised to do my interview online rather than finding a way to go to a medical facility. I appreciate any help.

Public Comments

1. How important is medical terminolgy in this profession? Extremely. Medical terminology was developed so that every healthcare provider, whether it be doctor, nurse, CNA, or unit secretary can understand one another when discussing a patient or taking off orders. Although my current job as a manager of pain clinic does not require as much knowledge of medical terminology, most medical profession jobs do-especially when working in direct patient care. Hospitals rely on medical terminology to ensure that the correct test is ordered or even surgery is performed on the right area of the patient. How did you learn medical terminology (in a class or on the job)? I learned medical terminology on the job. When I was 17 and fresh out of high school, i got a job as a unit secretary at a trauma hospital and learned as I went. Almost all medical courses do require a medical terminology course to graduate though. Could you perform your job without knowing medical terminology? No. Medical terminology makes things a lot easier. Instead of having to give a long description to describe something, we can use one or two words and know that someone will not mistake what we are saying. For instance-positioning of a patient. "Beach Chair Position" is when basically, the patient is laying down with the head of the bed up at like 45 degree angle. Three words replaced a whole sentence. Or "Supine" position-patient is laying face down on their tummy. It takes away room for error if everyone follows the medical terminology because the way one person may describe something, may be completely different from the way someone else would describe it. What types of medical terms are used the most often in your job? The most common terms for my job is areas of the body (Lateral side, Upper, Mid, and Distal thigh, right upper quadrant, etc) and positioning of a body. We have to have patients in certain positions to give them steriod injections for their pain or epidurals, so "Prone" "Supine" "Left lateral decubitus" are very commonly used. How often do you encounter a term that you are not familiar with or do not understand? When I first started at the trauma hospital, it was daily, but I did pick up on the medical language pretty fast and it became pretty rare that I encountered something that I was not familiar with. The only time that really happened was when we had patients admitted to my floor that my floor did not specialize in. Every unit in a hospital specializes in one thing or another. There is a cardiac floor or surgical floor(one that takes post-op patients) or trauma floor or orthopedic floor or labor and delivery, etc. I worked on the trauma floor so when the overflow from the cardiac floor would come to mine, every once in a while a test that i was unfamiliar with or order that I didn't know off the top of my head would come around, but even then, it usually was not too hard to figure out what the word(s) meant. If you know a little medical lingo, you can usually put two and two together to figure out more and use the previous orders/words as "clues". How do you find the answer to the terms you are not familiar with? ( ask someone or look it up in a dictionary) I would look it up in a medical dictionary or ask someone. When it comes to healthcare you don't really want to just "guess" so to be on the safe side if I ran across an unfamiliar order, I would simply ask another nurse or grab the med dictionary. If you did not take a medical terminology class, would you take one now before entering the health profession? If you are going to enter the medical profession and plan on being anything that requires some sort of degree, it is usually a mandatory class you have to take. The college usually requires it to graduate. So yes, i will be taking a terminology class since i am going to school for nursing. I do recommend one if you do plan on being in the medical field since it is so important. Should all healthcare professionals take a medical terminology class? I believe so. The terminology is such a big part of the knowledge of medicine. If you are a nurse and the doctor tells you an order using medical terminology, how are you going to understand them and carry out the orders correctly if you do not understand the terminology/language he was speaking? It would never harm anyone to take a class that can expand their knowledge and help their career.