Reddit reviews Medical Terminology Fd, 2e (For Dummies)

This actually sounds like a pretty fantastic practicum. You'll get medical experience, cultural experience, and you won't have to deal with all the "bean counters" in a hospital or HMO like setting. It will provide you with a fantastic foundation.

After reading your more detailed explanation, I encourage you also to read up on various cultural differences, as well. You didn't mention your race/culture, but when I was in school, I didn't quite understand the absolute importance of cultural sensitivity. Yes, we Americans get that people are different, but we don't get that clients will literally shut down if you're not doing what is familiar to them culturally. I was pasty white, naive and I jumped in with both feet. But, I got out in the field and realized very quickly that if you don't conform to what they expect, you might as well be banging your head against the wall. For example, with elderly Asians, the family usually relies on the elder son to make all the decisions. If you spend your time talking to mom and dad and not the elder son (yes, I actually DID this one, and trust me, it was a spectacular exercise in frustration!), you will get no where fast. They don't understand that you don't know these things, because they don't understand the cultural differences yet either, and they think you're being incredibly rude, will not tell you that, and they will completely shut down and refuse to work with you. In my example, I had a client almost die in the home because the wife simply would NOT allow me to help her with basic life care stuff for her husband. Her husband was wasting away in a bed and I was flailing around trying to give her free interventions to help him, but she simply refused everything. An Asian coworker pointed out my error in a staffing and told me I needed to ask her son, not her. When I called the son to discuss the issues, he immediately instructed me to intervene and informed his mother what I would be doing. She allowed the interventions and acted like I hadn't been begging her for weeks to do these very same things. It was a sobering learning experience for me. Cultural issues are HUGE! When you find yourself hitting a brick wall like that, there is a good chance its a cultural issue.

As for medical terminology, no you don't need to become a medical student in it or anything, but if you are familiar with it, you'll have an easier time. The thing about terminology is that it is based in Latin and broken down into prefix, root, and suffix components. If you learn those components, even though you have never seen the word before, you can quickly figure out what the diagnosis means. This comes in very handy. For example, if you learn that "itis" always means "inflammation"...you will know that any diagnosis with "itis" in it means that area has inflammation. So when you see the diagnosis appendicitis, you can quickly figure out what it means without having to look it up. Don't worry, you will be able to look up things, and you'll spend a lot of time doing that in the beginning, but if you have some basic terminology down, it will make your life easier one on one with the clients.

Just go into a Barnes and Noble and look around in the health or RN section. You'll find books that dumb it down and help you learn it. Some of them even have flash cards that are really helpful.

Something like this would work:
https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Terminology-Dummies-Beverley-Henderson/dp/1118944046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468686079&sr=8-1&keywords=medical+terminology+for+dummies

As for the concern about service providers not speaking the language of the clients, yes, you will have that, but honestly, that was less of an issue than I thought it would be. Often, the service providers have translators, too. It is their responsibility to make sure they can communicate with their patients, just like it is yours to make sure you can communicate with yours. If they're not doing this, hold them accountable. I found that most of the time, the providers DO have someone that speaks their language. But, medical providers speak a different language than all of us, so even if they are talking in your client's language, they still have trouble understanding the concepts. If you have a translator, this will be easier, but keep in mind there will be times when you have a client in front of you and no translator. Happens to me ALL THE TIME, even now, and we DO have translators, as well. I've literally had to get on Google Translate and type in what I want to say and butcher out the words. Fortunately, thus far when stuff like that happens, my clients have found it hilarious. But obviously, it is not a long term solution, but you do what you have to do sometimes with limited resources.

As for complex health issues and explaining them, you'd be surprised. You also need to remember you're not a doctor and if you explain things WRONG, you're doing harm. So you always want to stay within your scope of practice and lets the doctors do the complicated stuff. Like with the CHF example I gave you, they don't have to understand all the technical chemical components of CHF and whats happening in their body at a cellular level. They just have to understand that if they start to gain weight (retain fluids), they need to get to a doctor so the doctor can stop the retention process, and if they don't, their heart will stop. That is not difficult to explain to them. Don't tackle the huge complicated explanations; patients don't understand all of that or will ask you for more information if they really do want it. They just want to understand the basic concepts to stay healthy. Even I, with my experience, don't want all that from my doctor. Just tell me what to do, when to take what, and how often to come in here to get this checked out...I do not need to discuss the molecular structure of a DNA molecule of the current years flu strain.

And yes, if you see those podcast ideas working, bring them up with your supervisor and discuss if something like that would work for the agency. That is one reason why I love interns. They're fresh out of the classroom, they're excited, they are learning all the newest stuff, and they have all these fantastic ideas!

You'd be surprised how much you pick up in general conversation. During my fiance's anesthesiology rotation, I could even tell you the proper dosages of Fentanyl and Midazolam to knock out someone my size. He's doing a nuclear medicine rotation in his radiology residency now and there's a lot I can tell you about half-lifes.

Do you have any old anatomy textbooks from high school or college? Even just knowing where things are in the body will help. I also just found this on Amazon, and there are a couple of other books in the same vein as well.

Medical Terminology for Dummies

Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies

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