Special Terms of Health and Nursing

Special Terms of Health and Nursing

Nursing: The protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.

Medicine: Science of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease.

The word also refers to any drug used to treat an illness or injury.

Physician or Doctor: Person trained and licensed to practice medicine; one who treats the entire body is a general practitioner.

Epidemic: Contagious disease which spreads rapidly throughout large portions of the population. The bubonic plague is a famous example of an epidemic which ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages. Modern medical science has found means of preventing most epidemics.

Skeleton: Bony framework of the body, including the spinal column, the rib cage, the skull, and the bones of the arms and legs.

Anatomy: Science of the structure of organisms, including the human body; can be studied by dissecting, or cutting into, organisms.

Disease: Pathological condition which causes abnormal body functions and presents certain symptoms or signs; can be caused by a germ, such as a bacterium or a virus.

Diagnosis: Identification of a disease or ailment after careful examination and analysis. A doctor always diagnoses the patient's ailment before treatment.

Biopsy: Portion of tissue removed from the living body by an operation and examined to aid in diagnosing a disease.

X-ray: Form of radiation used to create photographic images of bones and internal organs and, in some cases, to treat them when they are diseased; overexposure can be dangerous.

Nurse: Person trained to care for the sick, infirm, or injured, often under the direction of a doctor.

Patient or user: Person who is undergoing medical treatment for sickness or injury.

Health insurance: Form of protection against the high costs of health care. Payment of a premium guarantees medical coverage to the insured person.

Hospital: Place where medical and surgical care is provided for sick and injured persons.

First aid: Emergency medical treatment given when professional medical advice is not available.

Vocabulary Practice

1. Explain the term medicine.

2. Name the medical specialty that involves operations.

3. What is another name for a doctor? What is the term for a sick or injured person under medical care?

4. What is the method of curing disease that was developed in China?

5. What term describes a disease that spreads widely and rapidly?

6. Define a skeleton.

7. What is the study of the structure of organisms called?

8. Give three names for a place to buy prescription drugs.

9. What is a disease?

10. What is an antibiotic? Name some.

11. Who uses a microscope? What can it do?

12. A doctor cannot cure an illness unless he has made a diagnosis.

What is it?

13. Name one familiar communicable disease. Do you know others?

14. How can x-rays help doctors make more accurate diagnoses?

15. What does a nurse do?

16. What is a patient?

17. What is the purpose of health insurance?

18. What is a hospital used for?

19. When is first aid given?