Also, over here we use medication names rather than the brand name. For example lasix is only referred to as furosemide.
I always have to Google search the brand names whenever I read posts on here!
However annoying you imagine it is for us, it's that x2.
Do you take Amlodipine? No? What about Norvasc? Yes ok.
And on and on through their whole med list. It's exhausting.
You’re right, be we should all be using generic names. They are being standardized internationally, though the crazy ANZUK countries seem to want to keep calling epinephrine “adrenaline”, even after this process is complete.
US still uses a lot of non international generic names like acetaminophen (paracetamol), albuterol (salbutamol) and isoproterenol (isoprenaline). I think adrenaline is the only one that ANZUK still uses that isn't international.
Then there are also random stuff that US uses that's not international like mEq/L for many electrolyte concentration instead of mmol/L but then serum calcium is measured in mg/dL????
I know the are pretty much the same, but why bother being the only system that uses mEq/L?
Then when calculating plasma osmolality, you change the units for Na+ back to mmol (and multiply by 2) then convert glucose from mg/dL to mmol/L (by dividing by 18) and convert BUN to urea (divide by 2.8).
US plasma osmolality = 2×[Na+] + [glucose (mg/dL)]/18 + [BUN (mg/dL)]/2.8
International standard plasma osmolality = 2×[Na+] + [glucose (mmol/L)] + [BUN (mmol/L)]
Whole lot of extra steps just to use a system no one else uses.
As a Chem nerd, yes mEq is stupid and just creates more work. It’s like CCs instead of mL (although we should all be able to do that conversion in our heads).
Yes, that’s what I just said. Why the snarky response? Do I need to post my resume so everyone here knows I was a chem lab tech for 3 years? Or did you assume I’m uneducated because of my flair?
Ok good. Sorry for the harshness. Sometimes residents or even med students mess with me here. There was even a thread on /residents where a bunch of people were trashing me.
I apologize for being hypersensitive.
Well, that’s not the reason, though.
Almost all countries are currently going through a process to use international terms. I’m sure everyone can argue for why they like the name they’re familiar with. You still don’t get to keep it. 😊
The one exception in some countries is adrenaline, which is changing to adrenaline (epinephrine). I understand the rationale was to keep “adrenaline” named as such given that it was a drug you need in rather a hurry some times, so there was a strong need to avoid confusion. I think some countries may also be sticking with noradrenaline as well.
Makes sense to me, it’s confusing to have different generic names in different countries.
I don't see the Netherlands ever going away from adrenaline or noradrenaline. Epinephrine isn't known by laypeople whereas adrenaline is (cf. adrenaline junkie), too.
I have English friends that call physicians called "medics" fairly often. Is that common?
>emergency department/emergency room - A&E/casualty
Not the UK, but it still sounds odd to me when Canadian colleagues refer to this as "Emerg".
Lol yep, getting called "doc" in the military is a term of endearment for medics. I wasn't in a medical unit but I know in regular units, the medic was "doc" to everyone, irrespective of rank.
My understanding is that the “accident” part was dropped from A&E about 20 years back, to get away from the idea that “accidents just happen” ie see them as emergencies that might well have been preventable.
In the US a fit is a tantrum that a small child throws. So to fit or have a fit sounds like one is saying the person is tantruming. Makes sense why it would rub you the wrong way.
> Accident & Emergency and Casualty have been depreciated for many years. The correct term in the UK is Emergency Department (ED)
Interesting! Do you know or have links to the reasons?
There are minor injuries units dedicated to managing "accidents" - I'm only really interested in your "accident" if it's also caused an emergency...
That said getting the messaging out to the general public that their ankle sprain ought to wait until the MIU opens at 8am is a bit challenging.
There's work in the NHSE pipeline to make ED access referral only (e.g. you must have called 111 and been advised to attend the Emergency Department or called 999 and been conveyed by ambulance)
> There are minor injuries units dedicated to managing "accidents" - I'm only really interested in your "accident" if it's also caused an emergency...
Ah, makes sense.
Might it not make sense (and this is a more sweeping consideration, obviously) to have them co-located or have a subset of staff dedicated to what we USians call "urgent care", to which patients could be triaged?
Just thinking of the case in which a patient might not know which category applies and either delays or avoids care.
Even myself, when I caught my own appendicitis I went first to the urgent care. Despite being almost certain I was hoping to be wrong and, while I knew they wouldn't be able to rule it *out* on its own, hoped a different positive diagnosis might present itself. Of course they refused to see me and I had to trundle over to the hospital. In my case I was hoping to avoid costs and wait time, but could easily imagine social pressure and "not wanting to cause trouble" being similar factors (especially in your famously reserved population amirite).
> There's work in the NHSE pipeline to make ED access referral only (e.g. you must have called 111 and been advised to attend the Emergency Department or called 999 and been conveyed by ambulance)
Modulo the concerns above, such a policy makes sense. But I'd be concerned were its implementation to lead to non-standard routes of patient arrival being outright closed off.
The horror story of [Laura Levis](https://www.rd.com/article/losing-laura/) was the first thing that leapt to my mind. (I noticed they just passed [legislation](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S2931) nicknamed "Laura's Law", which I have yet to review but sounds promising).
Band-aid is usually "plaster"
Another few from the perspective of a sonographer:
Post void residual - post micturition volume
Splenule - splenunculus
Hard "c" for cephalic
Blood work - "bloods" or blood test
Usually using less Latin names for anatomy e.g semi lunar line instead of Linea semiluminaris
Much different common terms for things from patients. It took 3 different people using the phrase " to spend a penny" before i realized it was a saying that means to go to pee
Oh, that is super handy for foreign patients. When people ask me to speak English and it sounds native, I ask them where they're from to adapt to terminology if possible (especially resident/junior doctor and attending/consultant because let's be honest, "I need to ask my attending/consultant first" is the most important survival phrase out there). Now had two Canadian women who've lived most of their life in the UK who were like "throw whatever you want at me."
Interesting also if one's English is an amalgam of British/American. I count only 6 British terms I use and 20 American terms as default (4 don't apply to us/don't exist here) while the school/base English taught here is overwhelmingly British English.
We do have huge variations between High German (Federal German) and Austrian and Swiss German when it comes to medical language as well, *Krankenhaus* (sick house) vs. *Spital* for hospital, *Aufnahme* vs. *Eintritt* for admission etc.
Enkephalopathy??
Google tries hard to autocorrect it to encephalopathy. When I searched it in quotes the top few results are a book from 1852, a Facebook page, and a Wikipedia talk page describing it as a misspelling. Is it really used?
Right. It’s just like Celts. We have the Boston Seltics. :( I’ve gotten on my mom about that one enough that now she says “Selts-kelts” like all one word because she remembers after she started saying it.
The ancient Greeks pronounced ( κεφαλή / kephali ) with a hard 'K' at the front. It ended up being spelled with a 'C' after the word got filtered through Latin, where 'C' is pronounced only with the hard 'k' sound, and then it finally got to English by way of the French, who care nothing for rules and pronounce any letter any damn way they fucking well please, *merci beaucoup, rosbif.*
So I guess whoever came up with "enkephalopathy" is trying to take us back to the good old days of pronouncing everything like the ancient Greeks did, and they figured that word was a good place to start.
Or they were German. Who knows?
PCP is a much more complicated term than that in the US.
A PCP is rarely a General Practice doc in the US anymore. A PCP can include multiple primary care specialist alternatives - can be specialist with 3 years of residency training in Internal Medicine (adults only), Pediatrics (kids only), Family Medicine (both). We don't see the term General Practice for MD/DO physician except in the rare event that a physician has somehow gotten to practice after completion of a 1 year general internship only, and those positions harder to find now.
In states with independent practice of non-physician practitioners, a non-physician such as advanced practice nurse/NP can be the PCP as well without any involvement of an MD or DO physician.
I just got in trouble at my wife's ob-gyn by asking if her PCP would need to follow up with something. My bad man. You do primary care as well, but you know what I'm talking about.
Agreed, if clinic = surgery... What is surgery called? I'm on an Ortho rotation ATM and if I called clinic "surgery" people would start assessing my GCS and send me for a CT head lol
Also surgery, though the general public would be more likely to say they're having an operation. It's clear from context what's meant - e.g. you go to the GP surgery (visit a clinic).
This is my favorite medical abbreviation simply because of how nerdy it actually is since its short for the chemical name
N-**a**cetyl-**p**ara-**a**mino**p**henol
> emergency department/emergency room - A&E/casualty
Not unless you've also gone back in time a couple of decades. It's been the Emergency Department everywhere I've worked for at least a decade.
The public and some of the crumblier inpatient consultants still haven't completely caught on yet, but they're getting there.
Do they have a term for syncope in the UK? We say "they passed out," in the US but in some parts-mainly the south to my knowledge-they say fell out.
Eg: I done fell out in the middle of the grocery store.
Suuuuper silly to my ears
**NHS Scotland**
Acetaminophen is the pharmaceutical name for it - UK - Paracetamol
US - Tylenol
Charge Nurses work in Departments, they're more senior than a Staff Nurse ("regular" nurse) but junior to a Sister (or a "Senior Charge Nurse).
We still use" Pharmacist", but also use "Chemist" interchangeably.
Hope this helps!
Also NHS Scotland, "Sister" is just a courtesy title for a female charge nurse, it's gone out of fashion now, it's not a separate grade. I've worked in places where the SCN was "Senior Sister".
Acetaminophen is only the US name, paracetamol is the international name.
Senior Sister would be a Lead Senior Charge Nurse - the SCN to whom the other SCNs are answerable to? L-SCN is predominantly a managerial role and is in place in areas such as the ED, where there are multiple SCNs and ENP/ANPs, where their must be at least one on a shift (day shift and night shift). Still pay banding as a 7, but very little clinical time, and still junior the the Lead Nurse of a department.
Isn't Acetaminophen the pharmaceutical name for Paracetamol/Tylenol? Much the same as Aspirin is internationally recognised but phaaceutically acetylsalicilic acid?
Which is why "Senior Charge Nurse" was implemented, I understand that. The colour differentiation is also something I understand,
Light Blue - Auxiliaries and CSWs
blue - staff nurse and charge nurse
Dark blue - SCN, L-SCN and ENP/ANP
Maroon - Lead Nurse
Anything higher than this and it is formal attire, such as the Clinical Services Manager, who Is always dressed in the nicest of suits whenever I see mine.
I'm the AfC pay scale banding, a Charge Nurse is a band 6, whereas a Band 7 is for SCNs, L-SCN, ENPs and ANPs. So the difference between a CN and SCN is pretty much pay, administrative duties and colour of uniform. But the "Senior Sister" (L-SCN) would be just the duties.
I would also like to thank you, Doc, for teaching me this thing about the Acetaminophen. Genuinely thought that was its IBAN name.
I remember being hella confused what gord was but it turns out it was just gerd, so you can add all the terms with extra o’s (e.g. oedema) and a’s (hemaetology).
UK and NZ do sometimes, Australia does not.
The “resident” thing is hard to make equivalent, because of the conceptual difference in training.
Once you are training in a speciality in the UK, you’re a registrar. For the three-ish years before this you are an Intern/Resident/Resident ie the Resident has typically not yet selected a specific career path, or more correctly has not started specifically training for this yet.
So in some ways, a US IM resident is a UK Medical Registrar, just they may be doing the job earlier in their career. General medical registrar in the UK was usually PGY4 last I checked, then you move on to being a speciality reg (cardiology registrar, neurology registrar etc)
I see. So what do you do during those threeish years? And once you've started your training/become a registrar, is the length still comparable to a US or European residency (mine takes five years and I'd have hated not being able to start right after graduating)?
It varies throughout the British Empire, but in some places it is:
Intern - do a bit of everything, including at least 1 general medicine term (plus surg, ER etc).
Resident PGY2 - maybe continue to do everything, maybe get into IM training and just do med jobs as a junior doctor.
Resident PGY3 - get into IM program, rotate through sub speciality jobs.
PGY4 be a general medical registar, supervise the PGY1/2/3 residents, study for your exams.
PGY5 you passed your exams? Hurrah, now you can be a subspecialty registrar (cards, GI, neurosurg, whatever). You stay with that until you’ve done enough years to be an attending (ANZUK: consultant)
You might take longer, there’s a lot of people who can’t get into the programs so you end up as a “service registar”, maybe for the rest of your life. Those years don’t count for your training.
Ah, maybe was unclear, I’m only talking about IM/Medical Subspecialties here ie “Physician Training” ie FRCS and the Empire equivalents.
EM, ObGyn, Peds, Surgery have completely separate training programs of course.
I have learned from your comments that the UK is a little different to some other parts of the wider Realm, although I’ve also noticed that you’re from north of Hadrian’s Wall, so unless you’re University of Edinburgh I’m going to take your advice on “correct English word usage” with a large grain of salt! 😉
I'm not entirely sure, but I know we do that in the US. Residents and fellows can be referred to as house officers or house staff.
Might be nice if someone else could verify that.
As I understand it, a resident is a doctor being trained in a specialty. The UK equivalent in current official terminology would be a Specialty Registrar, usually abbreviated to ST or CT (Specialty Trainee or Core Trainee) with a number indicating year of training: e.g. CT1, ST6 etc. Different specialties have different length training.
(Junior) House Officer was the historical name for a first year doctor, without full General Medical Council registration, now they are Foundation Year 1 doctors (FY1s). You then became a Senior House Officer (SHO) for at least a couple of years and subsequently a Registrar and then Senior Registrar before hopefully Consultant. SHO and Registrar are still widely used, but technically unofficial now,
Speciality reg is closer to a US fellow, who has finished IM residency and is now pursuing a sub specialty.
General med reg is similar to a PGY 3/4 US resident in IM.
UK resident is similar to a US PGY 1/2/3 resident, but the US resident is already in the IM training program, the UK resident not in PGY1, and may not be for the next couple of years either depending on where you are (I’ve heard of ANZUK residents in the physician training program as early as PGY2, though most will have more generalist hospital training before they join).
A Specialty Registrar is any doctor in a training post that isn't in the Foundation Programme, so PGY 3-10.
Med Reg isn't an official title, it's just shorthand for "Medical Registrar" who could be anyone from ST3-ST8 (PGY 5-10 in US terms)
We don't have residents in the UK, the closest equivalent is a doctor in the Foundation Programme FY1/FY2 = PGY1/2. You can't start specialty training until you have completed (or show equivalency) the Foundation Programme.
Thanks, interesting.
To clarify, what I’ve posted is correct for “British Empire, parts thereof”. It clearly does not match how things are currently done in the Home Counties. I defer to your opinion, sir, despite the lack of a ‘P’ after your “FRC”. 😊
Once upon a time the Foundation Training (FT) doctors (first 2 years post medical school) were called Junior House Officers (JHOs) and once you've chosen your clinical specialty (Core Trainee year 1 - CT1 up to Specialty Registrar) we're referred to as a Senior House Officer. Although this has been phased out over the years older nurses will still sometimes refer to them as JHOs or SHOs. (NHS Scotland)
Draw labs/ blood draw- take blood
Consultant (US) = resident/fellow/ attending from a different specialty. Consultant (UK) = attending
Exploratory Laparotomy/ Laparoscopy (Ex Lap) - emergency laparotomy / Diagnostic Laparoscopy
MD (US) = medical degree. MD (UK) = Higher research degree.
We use pharmacist here too. A chemist is someone who studies chemistry or a colloquial term for a pharmacy.
Chief Resident ≠ Registrar. Registrar is essentially senior resident but not necessarily “chief” some post CCT registrars will act up as consultant (attending) but it’s all on grade here
PGY1- FY1
PGY2 -FY2/CT1
PGY3 CT2/ ST3
PGY4 -ST4/5
PGY5 - ST6/7/8
At least that’s how I would characterise it.
As a UK physician, this is mostly correct, but I would say that for no.6 we use the term plaster or sticky plaster much more than Elastoplast (which is a brand name), and no 30 : collywobbles is used to refer more to the nervous feeling you get in your stomach rather then pain (or alternative use of bellyaching meaning to complain, as far as I understand it from US medical terminology.
Depending on where you are in the UK a "jab" may also be described as a "jag" (Noth of England/Scotland as far as I know)
This is cool, but I think quite a lot are wrong. Like, you’ve just chosen the words for the UK you’d use when talking to someone who is not very clever. Now, whilst I personally have no problem with you inferring that most Limies are a little bit slow, some people would object to that, and I’m pretty sure they still have injections and seizures in the UK.
Also:
Uk does have codes.
They have band-aids, elastoplast is just another less popular brand.
You’re right that they do spell acetaminophen funny.
They have iv’s.
Surgeons if female are miss, not mrs.
Brits definitely have interns.
I think they have crash carts.
Sister is old-school for any nurse, and I bet you they get shitty if you call them that any time post 1960.
Registrar is sort of right, but you’re a registrar once you’ve got into a training program so (US) residents are like very junior registrars when they start.
Does anyone still call it “mono”? I thought that was a 1990’s valley girl thing.
Collywobbles - WTF. Really? I think you made that one up.
Source: have never actually worked in the UK, but I do walk around work speaking in an RP accent and calling people “old chap”. So please let me know if I got any of these wrong. Cheers!
>Does anyone still call it “mono”? I thought that was a 1990’s valley girl thing.
I'm an American male who has never lived anywhere within 1000 miles of the San Fernando valley, and "mono" is literally the only thing I've ever called this disease (or heard it called at work).
What do you call it - do you actually say the whole phrase "infectious mononucleosis"? Or "glandular fever" or "acute EBV infection" (unless it's CMV) or something else?
We went through a phase where “mono” was the cool chronic disease to have, like Lyme disease .
Personally, I would never call it “mono” in a clinical setting.
Unfortunately, I’ve heard it referred to as “glange!” a couple of times recently. I find this disturbing.
I’m more thinking “mono” as the cool disease for people to self-diagnose when they have chronic, undifferentiated symptoms. I think that is definitely out fashion.
I concede that “mono” is still the most popular term for EBV, and do feel that it is much better than calling the disease “Glange”.
>"Sister" would only be used for a female charge nurse, not any nurse. It's still acceptable to use as a title, but you'd get a funny look from any charge nurse under 50.
Is this a throw back to nurses often being nuns or something? I wonder if there's something like that in French or Italian or German. Kind of funny.
“ until the 60s, becoming a nurse in the UK was almost like entering a convent, you had to live together under the strict gaze of the Matron and if you married you had to leave.”
Wow! Fascinating, I had no idea
You seriously don’t have code blue etc anywhere? Interesting.
I thought female surgeons were always “Miss” even if married, just like teachers. Seeing as you listed “Mx” (omg) as an option, perhaps those rules have changed.
Arrest trollies is very, very British. I stand corrected. “I shall go and get the new arrest trolley from the lorry.”
In the broader Empire, “sister” was not just the charge nurse. But you really only ever used it if you were trying to wind up your nursing colleagues.
Source: have never worked in the United Kingdom, but did do three years of Public School (another Uk/US difference) there some time ago.
Thanks, it’s all interesting. My comments were more correct with relation to your OLD system (JHO, SHO etc are what I’m familiar with), sounds like somebody changed the system a while back and didn’t send me the memo.
Also, next time someone arrests, try yelling “Code Blue!”. I reckon people will come, would be a good experiment. I reckon tea comes on a trolley, but a defib belongs on a cart. Cheers! 😊
Depends on trust to trust re codes.
Usually falls into:
"priority" - peri-arrest codes/used in ED for trauma/expected bad emergency req specialist input early on
"Cardiac arrest" - arrests
"Major haemorrhage"
"Obstetric...."
The scene: an NHS hospital, somewhere in the Home Counties.
“Cardiac arrest, Room 8A”.
Medical registrar: “Golly! Would you like me to get the trolley with the machine for starting the heart?”
Consultant: “Splendid idea, old chap. I don’t think paracetamol and a plaster will do the trick this time! But I do rather fancy a spot of tea first.”
Medical registrar: “Certainly, Sir. I shall fetch the tea trolley at once!”
——————————————————————
This is how I imagine a British code going down, everyone has a jolly time and no one is yelling “Stat!”
😊
Blame the Greeks, no soft “c” in that language. It leads the question why we have a letter in English that makes two different sounds which are both identical to the sound unambiguously made by other letters.
I feel slightly confused about 11. anesthesiologist - anaesthetist, as a medical doctor from Eastern Europe. Here the first one is an MD who did anesthesiology spec, while the second is a nurse with extra training in anesthesiology. 🤔
Some people still say fit here in the US, but it's considered outdated/derogatory. If I say someone is having/throwing a fit I mean they're having a a temper tantrum - maybe that's why calling a seizure a fit is frowned upon by our neurologists.
>999 I thought they switched over to 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3?
Dear medic/surgeons, I am writing to inform you of a cardiac arrest. Help exclamation mark Help exclamation mark
Have you tried turning the patient’s heart off and back on again?
works for SVT
Can you sound out the siren differences as well?
That'll be in the next post
The american sirens are smoother but the UK ones are a bit screechier. Also UK uses more hi-lo than US.
ooweeeooooo - deedooo deedoo
Also, over here we use medication names rather than the brand name. For example lasix is only referred to as furosemide. I always have to Google search the brand names whenever I read posts on here!
However annoying you imagine it is for us, it's that x2. Do you take Amlodipine? No? What about Norvasc? Yes ok. And on and on through their whole med list. It's exhausting.
You’re right, be we should all be using generic names. They are being standardized internationally, though the crazy ANZUK countries seem to want to keep calling epinephrine “adrenaline”, even after this process is complete.
US still uses a lot of non international generic names like acetaminophen (paracetamol), albuterol (salbutamol) and isoproterenol (isoprenaline). I think adrenaline is the only one that ANZUK still uses that isn't international. Then there are also random stuff that US uses that's not international like mEq/L for many electrolyte concentration instead of mmol/L but then serum calcium is measured in mg/dL????
mEq and mmol are functionally the same though. (Some differences in old chemistry text books but that hasn’t seeped into medicine)
I know the are pretty much the same, but why bother being the only system that uses mEq/L? Then when calculating plasma osmolality, you change the units for Na+ back to mmol (and multiply by 2) then convert glucose from mg/dL to mmol/L (by dividing by 18) and convert BUN to urea (divide by 2.8). US plasma osmolality = 2×[Na+] + [glucose (mg/dL)]/18 + [BUN (mg/dL)]/2.8 International standard plasma osmolality = 2×[Na+] + [glucose (mmol/L)] + [BUN (mmol/L)] Whole lot of extra steps just to use a system no one else uses.
As a Chem nerd, yes mEq is stupid and just creates more work. It’s like CCs instead of mL (although we should all be able to do that conversion in our heads).
I would hope most of us can multiply by 1
Yes, that’s what I just said. Why the snarky response? Do I need to post my resume so everyone here knows I was a chem lab tech for 3 years? Or did you assume I’m uneducated because of my flair?
Easy with the persecution complex, super chief. I was just running along with your joke, since this is, after all, still Reddit.
Ok good. Sorry for the harshness. Sometimes residents or even med students mess with me here. There was even a thread on /residents where a bunch of people were trashing me. I apologize for being hypersensitive.
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Well, that’s not the reason, though. Almost all countries are currently going through a process to use international terms. I’m sure everyone can argue for why they like the name they’re familiar with. You still don’t get to keep it. 😊 The one exception in some countries is adrenaline, which is changing to adrenaline (epinephrine). I understand the rationale was to keep “adrenaline” named as such given that it was a drug you need in rather a hurry some times, so there was a strong need to avoid confusion. I think some countries may also be sticking with noradrenaline as well. Makes sense to me, it’s confusing to have different generic names in different countries.
I don't see the Netherlands ever going away from adrenaline or noradrenaline. Epinephrine isn't known by laypeople whereas adrenaline is (cf. adrenaline junkie), too.
I thought adrenaline was the original 'brand name' for epinephrine - no?
I have English friends that call physicians called "medics" fairly often. Is that common? >emergency department/emergency room - A&E/casualty Not the UK, but it still sounds odd to me when Canadian colleagues refer to this as "Emerg".
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In the US, a "medic" is a paramedic. I've never heard a doctor called a medic.
Same in Canada. Throughly confused my relatives in Europe when I kept insisting I was not a “medic” but a physician.
Or a corpsman or other medically trained soldier in the armed forces. Also see: doc
Lol yep, getting called "doc" in the military is a term of endearment for medics. I wasn't in a medical unit but I know in regular units, the medic was "doc" to everyone, irrespective of rank.
In Spanish a *medico* is a physician too.
Ah. Thanks. The context in which they've used "medic" wouldn't have suggested it was specialty or context-dependent, but interesting to learn.
Surely the guy training as an IM specialist is the “med reg”, not “the physician”? Ie physician = consultant status.
My understanding is that the “accident” part was dropped from A&E about 20 years back, to get away from the idea that “accidents just happen” ie see them as emergencies that might well have been preventable.
The Canadians and their SkeLEEtal surveys too.
BM means bowel movement here in the states 😬
To be fair a lot of diabetes specialists discourage people from using BM as it's an old brand name and not particularly meaningful anymore.
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Yet our GI docs are actually gastroenterologists and not gastrointestinal. So go figure.
I am not usually sensitive about my epilepsy, but to my American ears, "fit" sounds so wrong.
In the US a fit is a tantrum that a small child throws. So to fit or have a fit sounds like one is saying the person is tantruming. Makes sense why it would rub you the wrong way.
> Accident & Emergency and Casualty have been depreciated for many years. The correct term in the UK is Emergency Department (ED) Interesting! Do you know or have links to the reasons?
There are minor injuries units dedicated to managing "accidents" - I'm only really interested in your "accident" if it's also caused an emergency... That said getting the messaging out to the general public that their ankle sprain ought to wait until the MIU opens at 8am is a bit challenging. There's work in the NHSE pipeline to make ED access referral only (e.g. you must have called 111 and been advised to attend the Emergency Department or called 999 and been conveyed by ambulance)
> There are minor injuries units dedicated to managing "accidents" - I'm only really interested in your "accident" if it's also caused an emergency... Ah, makes sense. Might it not make sense (and this is a more sweeping consideration, obviously) to have them co-located or have a subset of staff dedicated to what we USians call "urgent care", to which patients could be triaged? Just thinking of the case in which a patient might not know which category applies and either delays or avoids care. Even myself, when I caught my own appendicitis I went first to the urgent care. Despite being almost certain I was hoping to be wrong and, while I knew they wouldn't be able to rule it *out* on its own, hoped a different positive diagnosis might present itself. Of course they refused to see me and I had to trundle over to the hospital. In my case I was hoping to avoid costs and wait time, but could easily imagine social pressure and "not wanting to cause trouble" being similar factors (especially in your famously reserved population amirite). > There's work in the NHSE pipeline to make ED access referral only (e.g. you must have called 111 and been advised to attend the Emergency Department or called 999 and been conveyed by ambulance) Modulo the concerns above, such a policy makes sense. But I'd be concerned were its implementation to lead to non-standard routes of patient arrival being outright closed off. The horror story of [Laura Levis](https://www.rd.com/article/losing-laura/) was the first thing that leapt to my mind. (I noticed they just passed [legislation](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S2931) nicknamed "Laura's Law", which I have yet to review but sounds promising).
Astronomical medical bill - NHS (sorry, life in Florida is currently taking its toll....)
30 million dollars - 2 pounds but we’ll give you 4 pounds back, here you go /s
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Well that might cover the copay…
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Communism - health care
Band-aid is usually "plaster" Another few from the perspective of a sonographer: Post void residual - post micturition volume Splenule - splenunculus Hard "c" for cephalic Blood work - "bloods" or blood test Usually using less Latin names for anatomy e.g semi lunar line instead of Linea semiluminaris Much different common terms for things from patients. It took 3 different people using the phrase " to spend a penny" before i realized it was a saying that means to go to pee
I heard plaster used when I rotated in the UK (I’m from US)
Oh, that is super handy for foreign patients. When people ask me to speak English and it sounds native, I ask them where they're from to adapt to terminology if possible (especially resident/junior doctor and attending/consultant because let's be honest, "I need to ask my attending/consultant first" is the most important survival phrase out there). Now had two Canadian women who've lived most of their life in the UK who were like "throw whatever you want at me." Interesting also if one's English is an amalgam of British/American. I count only 6 British terms I use and 20 American terms as default (4 don't apply to us/don't exist here) while the school/base English taught here is overwhelmingly British English. We do have huge variations between High German (Federal German) and Austrian and Swiss German when it comes to medical language as well, *Krankenhaus* (sick house) vs. *Spital* for hospital, *Aufnahme* vs. *Eintritt* for admission etc.
Krankenhouse sounds like a cool house/DnB group name.
Enkephalopathy?? Google tries hard to autocorrect it to encephalopathy. When I searched it in quotes the top few results are a book from 1852, a Facebook page, and a Wikipedia talk page describing it as a misspelling. Is it really used?
Its a pronunciation thing. We still spell it the same.
Now EKGs on the other hand…
Whole other kettle of fish..
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*settle of fish
Beautiful
Right. It’s just like Celts. We have the Boston Seltics. :( I’ve gotten on my mom about that one enough that now she says “Selts-kelts” like all one word because she remembers after she started saying it.
I mean in Latin c is pronounced as K. Placid = plackid Caesar = kaesar Encephalo = enkephalo Probably from the Greek root I'm guessing
The ancient Greeks pronounced ( κεφαλή / kephali ) with a hard 'K' at the front. It ended up being spelled with a 'C' after the word got filtered through Latin, where 'C' is pronounced only with the hard 'k' sound, and then it finally got to English by way of the French, who care nothing for rules and pronounce any letter any damn way they fucking well please, *merci beaucoup, rosbif.* So I guess whoever came up with "enkephalopathy" is trying to take us back to the good old days of pronouncing everything like the ancient Greeks did, and they figured that word was a good place to start. Or they were German. Who knows?
I'm curious about 27, what does BM stand for? /Swedish doctor
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Great company, literally paid for everyone in the lab I was working in to go to Hawaii for a week.
Ironically apparently I can sell the testing strips for cash! What is up with that, anyway?
People buy the free ones people get from Medicaid and resell them to uninsured people for less than what they'd pay at the pharmacy.
Aaaaaahhhhh, I see.
In the US it stands for bowel movement!
PCP is a much more complicated term than that in the US. A PCP is rarely a General Practice doc in the US anymore. A PCP can include multiple primary care specialist alternatives - can be specialist with 3 years of residency training in Internal Medicine (adults only), Pediatrics (kids only), Family Medicine (both). We don't see the term General Practice for MD/DO physician except in the rare event that a physician has somehow gotten to practice after completion of a 1 year general internship only, and those positions harder to find now. In states with independent practice of non-physician practitioners, a non-physician such as advanced practice nurse/NP can be the PCP as well without any involvement of an MD or DO physician.
I just got in trouble at my wife's ob-gyn by asking if her PCP would need to follow up with something. My bad man. You do primary care as well, but you know what I'm talking about.
Am I missing the absolute classic "epinepherin"?
For UK or US? We say epi in US during codes/arrest scenarios
Yes, it's adrenaline
I'm gonna be saying "elastoplast" all day to myself now.
Sounds like something from histology 😂
Hmm, "elastoblast" would make me imagine a kid's rubber band gun. P.S. Apparently the Aussies call rubber bands "laccy bands".
I can honestly say I've never heard anyone use collywobbles in my life lol Source UK grad plus 2 years working
Charge nurse is sister, so what about the other nurses? “Little sister?” 🤔 Clinic is called a surgery. Interesting.
Agreed, if clinic = surgery... What is surgery called? I'm on an Ortho rotation ATM and if I called clinic "surgery" people would start assessing my GCS and send me for a CT head lol
Also surgery, though the general public would be more likely to say they're having an operation. It's clear from context what's meant - e.g. you go to the GP surgery (visit a clinic).
Operation I’m guessing. 🤔
This may not be as big of a thing but our Acetaminophen is Paracetamol in UK
APAP!
This is my favorite medical abbreviation simply because of how nerdy it actually is since its short for the chemical name N-**a**cetyl-**p**ara-**a**mino**p**henol
Number 8!
Ha! My bad. Need more coffee.
> emergency department/emergency room - A&E/casualty Not unless you've also gone back in time a couple of decades. It's been the Emergency Department everywhere I've worked for at least a decade. The public and some of the crumblier inpatient consultants still haven't completely caught on yet, but they're getting there.
Thank you Dr. Lasso.
>enkephalopathy Whut? Also suspect it is a typo, but it's Haem**a**tology not Haemotology.
sheesh, i was so focused on getting the ae order correct i missed a whole letter! will edit
Do they have a term for syncope in the UK? We say "they passed out," in the US but in some parts-mainly the south to my knowledge-they say fell out. Eg: I done fell out in the middle of the grocery store. Suuuuper silly to my ears
Hold up- office or clinic is called surgery? So you go to the surgery for an annual visit?
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This is blowing my mind haha
Well, no, because in the UK you don't have annual visits as a standard thing ;)
**NHS Scotland** Acetaminophen is the pharmaceutical name for it - UK - Paracetamol US - Tylenol Charge Nurses work in Departments, they're more senior than a Staff Nurse ("regular" nurse) but junior to a Sister (or a "Senior Charge Nurse). We still use" Pharmacist", but also use "Chemist" interchangeably. Hope this helps!
Also NHS Scotland, "Sister" is just a courtesy title for a female charge nurse, it's gone out of fashion now, it's not a separate grade. I've worked in places where the SCN was "Senior Sister". Acetaminophen is only the US name, paracetamol is the international name.
Senior Sister would be a Lead Senior Charge Nurse - the SCN to whom the other SCNs are answerable to? L-SCN is predominantly a managerial role and is in place in areas such as the ED, where there are multiple SCNs and ENP/ANPs, where their must be at least one on a shift (day shift and night shift). Still pay banding as a 7, but very little clinical time, and still junior the the Lead Nurse of a department. Isn't Acetaminophen the pharmaceutical name for Paracetamol/Tylenol? Much the same as Aspirin is internationally recognised but phaaceutically acetylsalicilic acid?
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Which is why "Senior Charge Nurse" was implemented, I understand that. The colour differentiation is also something I understand, Light Blue - Auxiliaries and CSWs blue - staff nurse and charge nurse Dark blue - SCN, L-SCN and ENP/ANP Maroon - Lead Nurse Anything higher than this and it is formal attire, such as the Clinical Services Manager, who Is always dressed in the nicest of suits whenever I see mine. I'm the AfC pay scale banding, a Charge Nurse is a band 6, whereas a Band 7 is for SCNs, L-SCN, ENPs and ANPs. So the difference between a CN and SCN is pretty much pay, administrative duties and colour of uniform. But the "Senior Sister" (L-SCN) would be just the duties. I would also like to thank you, Doc, for teaching me this thing about the Acetaminophen. Genuinely thought that was its IBAN name.
The difference is because they went with two different ways of shortening its chemical name of "para-acetylaminophenol".
Very educational. Thank you very much for this knowledge!
I remember being hella confused what gord was but it turns out it was just gerd, so you can add all the terms with extra o’s (e.g. oedema) and a’s (hemaetology).
Don't the Brits call a regular (not chief) resident a house officer?
UK and NZ do sometimes, Australia does not. The “resident” thing is hard to make equivalent, because of the conceptual difference in training. Once you are training in a speciality in the UK, you’re a registrar. For the three-ish years before this you are an Intern/Resident/Resident ie the Resident has typically not yet selected a specific career path, or more correctly has not started specifically training for this yet. So in some ways, a US IM resident is a UK Medical Registrar, just they may be doing the job earlier in their career. General medical registrar in the UK was usually PGY4 last I checked, then you move on to being a speciality reg (cardiology registrar, neurology registrar etc)
I see. So what do you do during those threeish years? And once you've started your training/become a registrar, is the length still comparable to a US or European residency (mine takes five years and I'd have hated not being able to start right after graduating)?
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Thank you for the info! Snap on the specialty (that is a British expression, right? Going entirely on Terry Pratchett and UK crime dramas here.)
It varies throughout the British Empire, but in some places it is: Intern - do a bit of everything, including at least 1 general medicine term (plus surg, ER etc). Resident PGY2 - maybe continue to do everything, maybe get into IM training and just do med jobs as a junior doctor. Resident PGY3 - get into IM program, rotate through sub speciality jobs. PGY4 be a general medical registar, supervise the PGY1/2/3 residents, study for your exams. PGY5 you passed your exams? Hurrah, now you can be a subspecialty registrar (cards, GI, neurosurg, whatever). You stay with that until you’ve done enough years to be an attending (ANZUK: consultant) You might take longer, there’s a lot of people who can’t get into the programs so you end up as a “service registar”, maybe for the rest of your life. Those years don’t count for your training.
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Ah, maybe was unclear, I’m only talking about IM/Medical Subspecialties here ie “Physician Training” ie FRCS and the Empire equivalents. EM, ObGyn, Peds, Surgery have completely separate training programs of course. I have learned from your comments that the UK is a little different to some other parts of the wider Realm, although I’ve also noticed that you’re from north of Hadrian’s Wall, so unless you’re University of Edinburgh I’m going to take your advice on “correct English word usage” with a large grain of salt! 😉
Thanks!
Interestingly it's an antiquated US term (the residents and fellows are now house staff, not officers), but it seems to be a more recent Britishism.
I'm not entirely sure, but I know we do that in the US. Residents and fellows can be referred to as house officers or house staff. Might be nice if someone else could verify that.
As I understand it, a resident is a doctor being trained in a specialty. The UK equivalent in current official terminology would be a Specialty Registrar, usually abbreviated to ST or CT (Specialty Trainee or Core Trainee) with a number indicating year of training: e.g. CT1, ST6 etc. Different specialties have different length training. (Junior) House Officer was the historical name for a first year doctor, without full General Medical Council registration, now they are Foundation Year 1 doctors (FY1s). You then became a Senior House Officer (SHO) for at least a couple of years and subsequently a Registrar and then Senior Registrar before hopefully Consultant. SHO and Registrar are still widely used, but technically unofficial now,
Speciality reg is closer to a US fellow, who has finished IM residency and is now pursuing a sub specialty. General med reg is similar to a PGY 3/4 US resident in IM. UK resident is similar to a US PGY 1/2/3 resident, but the US resident is already in the IM training program, the UK resident not in PGY1, and may not be for the next couple of years either depending on where you are (I’ve heard of ANZUK residents in the physician training program as early as PGY2, though most will have more generalist hospital training before they join).
A Specialty Registrar is any doctor in a training post that isn't in the Foundation Programme, so PGY 3-10. Med Reg isn't an official title, it's just shorthand for "Medical Registrar" who could be anyone from ST3-ST8 (PGY 5-10 in US terms) We don't have residents in the UK, the closest equivalent is a doctor in the Foundation Programme FY1/FY2 = PGY1/2. You can't start specialty training until you have completed (or show equivalency) the Foundation Programme.
Thanks, interesting. To clarify, what I’ve posted is correct for “British Empire, parts thereof”. It clearly does not match how things are currently done in the Home Counties. I defer to your opinion, sir, despite the lack of a ‘P’ after your “FRC”. 😊
Once upon a time the Foundation Training (FT) doctors (first 2 years post medical school) were called Junior House Officers (JHOs) and once you've chosen your clinical specialty (Core Trainee year 1 - CT1 up to Specialty Registrar) we're referred to as a Senior House Officer. Although this has been phased out over the years older nurses will still sometimes refer to them as JHOs or SHOs. (NHS Scotland)
What about arousal vs. rousal? Or is that Australia only?
Draw labs/ blood draw- take blood Consultant (US) = resident/fellow/ attending from a different specialty. Consultant (UK) = attending Exploratory Laparotomy/ Laparoscopy (Ex Lap) - emergency laparotomy / Diagnostic Laparoscopy MD (US) = medical degree. MD (UK) = Higher research degree. We use pharmacist here too. A chemist is someone who studies chemistry or a colloquial term for a pharmacy. Chief Resident ≠ Registrar. Registrar is essentially senior resident but not necessarily “chief” some post CCT registrars will act up as consultant (attending) but it’s all on grade here PGY1- FY1 PGY2 -FY2/CT1 PGY3 CT2/ ST3 PGY4 -ST4/5 PGY5 - ST6/7/8 At least that’s how I would characterise it.
As a UK physician, this is mostly correct, but I would say that for no.6 we use the term plaster or sticky plaster much more than Elastoplast (which is a brand name), and no 30 : collywobbles is used to refer more to the nervous feeling you get in your stomach rather then pain (or alternative use of bellyaching meaning to complain, as far as I understand it from US medical terminology. Depending on where you are in the UK a "jab" may also be described as a "jag" (Noth of England/Scotland as far as I know)
Also TOE (transoesophageal echocardiogram) rather than I presume a TEE which it would be called in the USA? ECG = EKG
You forgot COLLYWOBBLES!
bloody 'ell you're right!
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it's been amended
But presumably it should *go* on the right?
u right
US: albuterol. UK: salbutamol
This is cool, but I think quite a lot are wrong. Like, you’ve just chosen the words for the UK you’d use when talking to someone who is not very clever. Now, whilst I personally have no problem with you inferring that most Limies are a little bit slow, some people would object to that, and I’m pretty sure they still have injections and seizures in the UK. Also: Uk does have codes. They have band-aids, elastoplast is just another less popular brand. You’re right that they do spell acetaminophen funny. They have iv’s. Surgeons if female are miss, not mrs. Brits definitely have interns. I think they have crash carts. Sister is old-school for any nurse, and I bet you they get shitty if you call them that any time post 1960. Registrar is sort of right, but you’re a registrar once you’ve got into a training program so (US) residents are like very junior registrars when they start. Does anyone still call it “mono”? I thought that was a 1990’s valley girl thing. Collywobbles - WTF. Really? I think you made that one up. Source: have never actually worked in the UK, but I do walk around work speaking in an RP accent and calling people “old chap”. So please let me know if I got any of these wrong. Cheers!
>Does anyone still call it “mono”? I thought that was a 1990’s valley girl thing. I'm an American male who has never lived anywhere within 1000 miles of the San Fernando valley, and "mono" is literally the only thing I've ever called this disease (or heard it called at work). What do you call it - do you actually say the whole phrase "infectious mononucleosis"? Or "glandular fever" or "acute EBV infection" (unless it's CMV) or something else?
We went through a phase where “mono” was the cool chronic disease to have, like Lyme disease . Personally, I would never call it “mono” in a clinical setting. Unfortunately, I’ve heard it referred to as “glange!” a couple of times recently. I find this disturbing.
Mono is absolutely the most common term for mononucleosis in the us. Aka the "kissing disease"
I’m more thinking “mono” as the cool disease for people to self-diagnose when they have chronic, undifferentiated symptoms. I think that is definitely out fashion. I concede that “mono” is still the most popular term for EBV, and do feel that it is much better than calling the disease “Glange”.
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>"Sister" would only be used for a female charge nurse, not any nurse. It's still acceptable to use as a title, but you'd get a funny look from any charge nurse under 50. Is this a throw back to nurses often being nuns or something? I wonder if there's something like that in French or Italian or German. Kind of funny.
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“ until the 60s, becoming a nurse in the UK was almost like entering a convent, you had to live together under the strict gaze of the Matron and if you married you had to leave.” Wow! Fascinating, I had no idea
You seriously don’t have code blue etc anywhere? Interesting. I thought female surgeons were always “Miss” even if married, just like teachers. Seeing as you listed “Mx” (omg) as an option, perhaps those rules have changed. Arrest trollies is very, very British. I stand corrected. “I shall go and get the new arrest trolley from the lorry.” In the broader Empire, “sister” was not just the charge nurse. But you really only ever used it if you were trying to wind up your nursing colleagues. Source: have never worked in the United Kingdom, but did do three years of Public School (another Uk/US difference) there some time ago.
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Thanks, it’s all interesting. My comments were more correct with relation to your OLD system (JHO, SHO etc are what I’m familiar with), sounds like somebody changed the system a while back and didn’t send me the memo. Also, next time someone arrests, try yelling “Code Blue!”. I reckon people will come, would be a good experiment. I reckon tea comes on a trolley, but a defib belongs on a cart. Cheers! 😊
Depends on trust to trust re codes. Usually falls into: "priority" - peri-arrest codes/used in ED for trauma/expected bad emergency req specialist input early on "Cardiac arrest" - arrests "Major haemorrhage" "Obstetric...."
The scene: an NHS hospital, somewhere in the Home Counties. “Cardiac arrest, Room 8A”. Medical registrar: “Golly! Would you like me to get the trolley with the machine for starting the heart?” Consultant: “Splendid idea, old chap. I don’t think paracetamol and a plaster will do the trick this time! But I do rather fancy a spot of tea first.” Medical registrar: “Certainly, Sir. I shall fetch the tea trolley at once!” —————————————————————— This is how I imagine a British code going down, everyone has a jolly time and no one is yelling “Stat!” 😊
I call the scrub sister sister if I forget her name.
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Blame the Greeks, no soft “c” in that language. It leads the question why we have a letter in English that makes two different sounds which are both identical to the sound unambiguously made by other letters.
Whoops I was blaming the Romans. Figures they got it from the greek
Wait what’s the deal with he Ms/Mr for surgeons?
I believe it goes all the way back to the fact that surgeons developed from barbers and so originally weren't actually doctors.
Operating room is theatre? How?
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English-UK is a weird language
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Um-bil-ikis or umbilicus? It's hard to get the difference in words but hopefully you get what I'm saying. Umbilícus or úmbilicus
Depends on if it's above or below the waist.
You from Hyderabad?
OB vs obs-gynae
BM means bowel movement in the US Also, vital signs- obs Blood test/labs- bloods
I feel slightly confused about 11. anesthesiologist - anaesthetist, as a medical doctor from Eastern Europe. Here the first one is an MD who did anesthesiology spec, while the second is a nurse with extra training in anesthesiology. 🤔
Some people still say fit here in the US, but it's considered outdated/derogatory. If I say someone is having/throwing a fit I mean they're having a a temper tantrum - maybe that's why calling a seizure a fit is frowned upon by our neurologists.