This course is an essential foundation course for anyone working in or dealing with health services, health care. Understanding the physical challenges of individuals with whom you come in contact will support holistic care, decrease misunderstandings and help with preparation of assessments of all types. Knowing and using the terminology provides entre to the care team, individual and family. This knowledge supports the ability to read and interpret important research, health, and medical articles, reports and to know whether they are applicable to the patient/client population you are serving.
Medical Terminology eases clinical proceedings and enables everyone involved in the process of treatment and care to perform more efficiently for the patient’s benefit. In the medical field, doctors quite often use different medical terms interchangeably, but depending on the situation and context the terms could have very different definitions. For example: abdomen/ stomach/ gut/ belly. But stomach is an organ inside of our body that is a part of Digestive System and it is positioned inside the abdominal cavity or abdomen. And what about the gut? Is it an abdomen or a bowel – another organ? It depends on the context of what is said during the medical encounter. Sometimes, familiar words do not have the same definitions in the medical field. Think about “stool” and “evacuation”. And yes – we are not talking about chairs or emergency/ war situations. Many people are convinced that “infection” and “inflammation” have the same meaning. Yet the meaning is very different for these 2 medical terms. Transliteration of “angina” in many languages has definition “sore throat”, but not in English.
This course offers students engagement and interaction with the dynamic language of health care. Through comprehensive discussions and activities, students will have the opportunity to be immersed in the words used in health care, understanding the root of the words, as well as the form.
Even Moses realized the importance of being able to “speak the language;” not speaking the same language promotes confusion (e.g., tower of Babel).
Underpinning of desire to understand and be understood; understanding the variation of terms in transliteration vs. translation is also important in order to clarify and have all with correct understanding (e.g., Gerber baby food when sent to 3rd world countries many years ago – perceived to be ground babies in the jar).
In the medical field, doctors quite often use different medical terms interchangeably, but depending on the situation and context the terms could have very different definitions. For example: abdomen/ stomach/ gut/ belly. But stomach is an organ inside of our body that is a part of Digestive System and it is positioned inside the abdominal cavity or abdomen. And what about the gut? Is it an abdomen or a bowel – another organ? It depends on the context of what is said during the medical encounter.
There are some conditions and diseases that will not be prevalent in the same manner, nor treated in the same manner across cultures.
Basic building block for all.
Empowerment of student.
