Medical terminology is a crucial component of healthcare communication, promoting accuracy, safety, and efficiency in patient care. This terminology consists of official terms and abbreviations that describe anatomy, bodily functions, diseases, diagnoses, treatments, and procedures.
The University of San Diego’s website states that medical terminology is crucial as it contributes to the foundation of medical literature and research, enabling healthcare professionals to access and contribute to ever-expanding medical knowledge. “Building your medical terminology skills can lead to promotions and increase your hireability in the healthcare field. Even if you don’t work in a clinical role, being able to list this as a skill on your resume can make you stand out as a particularly valuable asset.”
The Netcare publication explains that improper use of medical terms in the medical field can lead to an ill-usage of medications. South African pharmacist Teresa Kuschke warns that the improper use of prescription and non-prescription medications can lead to dangerous health complications.
Medical jargon and abbreviations can compromise patient safety when used incorrectly. The Nurse’s publication reports that in 2017, a nurse mistakenly gave a paralytic medication to a patient, “The problem was that the abbreviation or the short term of these two medications are similar, but one is a sedative, and one is a paralytic medication. Now this is a big difference. One paralyzes and one just puts you in a sleeping state, and to have made that mistake and given the paralytic medication and her pin is on the line, well, her pin is gone.”
The above source explains that these kinds of mistakes not only put patients in situations of life and death but also compromise the medical practitioner’s career.
There are also instances whereby someone with little medical knowledge decodes to have an opinion on a person’s health status and ends up using the wrong terms to address them. This can cause unnecessary shock to others and (in a more far-fetched scenario), even heighten a person’s condition.
Also see: The accuracy of medical TV shows
