Question

It’s your first day at your new job as a medical assistant in the hospital’s gastroenterology clinic. You come across some medical terminology in a patient’s chart that seem unfamiliar to you. What are the steps you take in order to interpret the terminology? How does this affect the care of your patient? What are some examples of prefixes and suffixes and words parts that are similar and can be confusing?

Answer 1

To understand the medical terminology I will take use of suffix and prefix used in terminology

For ex-

In mouth or/o means mouth

Stoma means mouth

Gnath means jaw

Labi means lips

Bucc means cheek

Glosso means tongue

In digestive tract

ESO means eshopahagus

Gastro means stomach

Pylor means pylorus

Ce means caecum

Sigm means sigmoid

By using this suffix she can interpret words

Importance of medical terminology

Understanding medical terminology can improve your job performance or make you a more competitive candidate for healthcare positions. Some of the top reasons to learn medical terminology include:

1 Speaking standardised medical terminology is important

Medical terminology allows all medical professionals to understand each other and communicate effectively.

2 improve patient safety Quality communication among all members of a healthcare team improves patient safety by reducing the number of mistakes

3 improve patient experience -When all members of a team know medical terminology, they can also help the patient learn what those terms mean

4 more efficient care -To provide more efficient care, physicians or nurses may write quickly and scribble common abbreviations. All members of the care team should be able to understand these abbreviations and terms to provide the best care.

Confusing word

Ab- and Ad-

These prefixes are opposites of each other, even though they only differ by one letter.

The prefix ab- means 'away from.' in medical terminology, this is used when describing what is happening with one part of the body in relation to another

The prefix ad- means 'toward' or 'increase.' Tihe term for this is 'adduct,' meaning 'toward the trunk of the body

Ante and anti

Ante- is a prefix that means 'before' or 'in front of.' It is used to tell the location of something in the body in relation to another part of the body

Anti -you will most likely see this being used to describe medications, such as 'antibiotics' or 'antiviral' drugs, meaning 'against bacteria' and 'against viruses,' respectively.

Brachy and Brady

The prefix brachy- means 'short' or 'little.' This is used to describe when something is abnormally little in the body

brady-, which means 'slow.' This prefix is used in terms to describe when something is happening slower than the normal rate.

Hemi-, and Semi- both have same meaning