Thursday, December 5, 2013

Pronunciation

I can understand when a patient mispronounces a medication. They do have some ridiculous names, let's be honest. But SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. If you are an intelligent nurse, STOP MISPRONOUNCING "PHENERGAN!" For fuck's sake, it's not phener-GRIN. Just stop.

We had computer training for a new (super awful) EMAR/charting system at work today, and that's the medication the superuser nurse decided to reference. Incorrectly. About a billion times. It was AWFUL.

10 comments:

Aesop said...

If photocopying the link to the PDR or nursing drug reference doesn't solve the problem, try a trip to a ToysRUs, and gluing kid's blocks together to correctly spell the word, then gift the result to that nurse anonymously.

It's both funny and fun, and you get to play with blocks!

Condolences on having to play with another EMAR.

Jennifer said...

One of my personal favorites is LAR-NIKS, over. and over. and over. Just how hard is it to pronounce larynx LAR-INKS? Yet medical people, in whom one might reasonably expect some fluency in medical terminology, get pissy when you point these things out.

Solitary Diner (Also Known as The Frugalish Physician) said...

I would also appreciate it if people wouldn't say "metropolol". Makes my eye twitch every time.

Anonymous said...

I met an EMS instructor who continually mispronounced acetaminophen, "act-a-men-o-phen."

Anonymous said...

Bupropion. Not buproprion! It is not a prion disease! Thank you and good night.

Sam said...

went to a trauma lecture and the nurse giving the lecture kept saying "sphinxter tone" or "spinster tone" instead of sphincter tone. It was painful.

I also have a patient that always says "vomicking". FML.

Lisa researching hospital admissions said...

Ugh. I also get very annoyed when people repeatedly mispronounce words. I used to work at an oral surgeon's office, and the office manager was a straight hillbilly. Warsh, ain't, accrost. It seriously drove me bananers.

littlemissbig said...

A 'medical professional' on a radio commercial kept mis-pronouncing Artherosclerosis. I'm not a nurse yet, and I know how to pronounce it.

ownuprojas said...

y all-time favorite screwed up word is Alzheimer's -- people it is not "Old-timers"! I have heard medical colleagues mispronounce it also!

Unknown said...

I am not a nurse, but my mom, my sister, my current girlfriend, and standards couple of ex-girlfriends were or still are and so I have been around the profession for a long time and it drives me insane to hear people say it "fin-uh-grin." I have even corrected them before as to the correct pronunciation and, sure enough, they keep saying it wrong. Drives me insane.