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What did these docs DO in med school? - Venting Valerie

Posted: Jun 01, 2014

Night after night I pretty much do the same doctors (not that I am complaining about that), but sometimes I get frustrated because I am floored at how these doctors can get through medical school and NOT KNOW how to pronounce medical terms and medications!!! This doctor pronounces tubal ligation as "Tubical ligation" and she is always mispronouncing names of medications! There are many, many other med terms she flubs! I fear for the patients so I try and match up whatever ailment they have to decipher what medication she could possibly be meaning, if I'm not sure then I just send it through to QA. Sadly, she isn't the only doc on this account that does it. But it just brings me to the question above, what did they do while they were learning medical terminology? >:/ Sorry, had to vent!

Maybe a Carribean med school grad? - Val

[ In Reply To ..]
Does she drop her g's all the time? My ophthalmologist friend had a story about a graduate or a teacher (don't remember which -- it's been a very long time) who insisted on an aspect of the heart which was just plain wrong (the dominant artery side, if I remember correctly). I don't know if was a right-left confusion or ?
In any case, the doctor the OP is talking about is a danger to self and others. I wouldn't want her practicing on me.

She has a strange dialect, but she is an American doctor. - Venting Valerie

[ In Reply To ..]
Maybe I'm being cranky tonight, but it really amazes me how many of these doctors do not pronounced the med terms as they should, and then how they stumble around the medications. The medications is what worries me. There are many sound-alike medications and my goodness if one doesn't pay attention then it could really mean someone's life. That's why I try and pay attention to their ailments or problems and then match them up to what the doctor is "trying" to say, but if I am not 100% sure I sent it through to QA.

Medical students do not take "medical terminology." - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Medical students and graduate students in medical schools do not take "medical terminology." They take anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microanatomy, pathology, internal medicine, surgery, and other graduate courses, in which they learn the subject material. In the course of doing that, they learn the language.

Medical terminology is a college freshman course, at best, intended to teach some of the language and definitions to students in primarily early college programs like MT and nursing.

Everybody in the world is not just like you. You are able to do MT because you have better than usual language abilities. You can probably hear the differences between certain sounds and make those sounds yourself. You write well, understanding the rules of grammar, and you are a naturally good speller.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that your math abilities and skills go beyond high school algebra or freshman "college math." In contrast, medical students probably started college with calculus and linear equations, or even higher courses. They got As in math, physics, and chemistry courses that you don't even know exist.

Some people are better at math and science than you are. Some of them have difficulty hearing and pronouncing sounds.

You have a job because you can do something they can't.

A little tolerance for diversity might make your life less unpleasant.

You started out making sense but that quickly degraded. - cum lauded grad

[ In Reply To ..]
You have absolutely no knowledge of any of our education backgrounds or abilities and accomplishments. There was absolutely no reason to insult the OP's math and science intelligence. Not everyone on this board went straight from high school to MT trade school and nothing more. Some professionals on here actually graduated four-year universities, with A's in physics and calculus and pathology (none of which are graduate courses). They are the ones who are the best MTs!
Her post had nothing to do with intolerance of diversity.

I'm not sure where you are getting - your information from

[ In Reply To ..]
but second year medical curriculum in at least some medical schools does indeed include pharmacology. I would interpret that to be medications. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect a physician to be able to correctly pronounce medical terminology and medications for diagnoses and conditions which they are making and treating. Not doing so makes them dangerous. Perhaps we are able to do MT work well simply because we care enough about what we do to do it well.

Why should the OP or anybody else who comes here develop tolerance for such lazy, sloven behavior? The doctor is supposed to be an "expert."

How many years of education and experience does it take to speak well enough to be understood, pronounce things as they were pronounced in medical school, and make some effort in pronouncing medications? If they can't pronounce the medications, they should be able to spell them. I cannot imagine any circumstances in which the MT should know more about anything being dictated than the doctor who is doing the dictating.

Maybe they should start humming the words they don't know.

You should not be trying to decipher what med she could - possibly be meaning. If it isnt SM

[ In Reply To ..]
said clearly, you should sent it to qa. I would not want a MT trying to figure out, based on my illness, what meds the doctor is trying to say. Send it to qa so they can find out for sure.

I used to have a doc that sounded EXACTLY like what you are describing. sm - Feather Tuscadero

[ In Reply To ..]
She was Southern and black and had her own regional accent, and she was practicing at a small hospital in a old Southern city. She mispronounced EVERYTHING, not just drugs, but body parts and especially patient names. She just was not good with words. She often made herself laugh on dictation with her own mispronunciations; she obviously realized she couldn't say the words.

I think some of them are just uncomfortable dictating, especially if someone else is in the room, and they end up messing themselves up.

Now as far as *matching up* ailments to meds, I complete AGREE with you, unlike other posters. That is what separates us as medical linguists from being mere typists.
Case in point: I transcribed for a Chinese doctor with the heaviest of accents. He had the very stereotypical habit of reversing the L and R sounds...(fa ra ra ra ra and all that). Because of this, Celebrex and Cerebyx ended up sounding like the other. (Cereblex and Celebyx). I can't tell you how many newbies we had that would be doing his charts and put that the patient was given Celebrex for seizures. Yes, it IS what it sounded like, but a good MT will know that Celebrex is for pain, and a widely-used drug for seizures is Cerebyx...so despite what was *obviously* heard, it WAS our job to THINK and ANALYZE and RESEARCH to figure out what was logical.

Finally, if you're working for a national, QA isn't calling up the docs to ask what they meant. They are guessing or they are leaving blank.

Med Term - I learned same way

[ In Reply To ..]
I have had a few who mix up palpitations and palpation....!!!!

I cringe at the same things, inability to pronounce medical terms, drug names....makes me wonder if they know what the meds are even taken for...

I learned med term in medical assisting school through anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, etc. I find that I know a lot more about med term that my nurse friends.

I taught med term for 10 years. I was tough....and constantly told my students it was imperative that they be able to pronounce the meds and terms properly...I even gave them some examples of terms that people tend to pronounced differently, for example duodenum. Each student had to pronounced terms out loud over and over...

When an MD cannot pronounce a term...it is an embarrassment for them, and scary for the patient. How do they even communicate between each other if they can't pronounce medications...it is their job! it does not compared to my inability to do more than basic math! Math is not my job....

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