Medical Chart Malapropisms & Funny Errors

• "We will watch her diarrhea closely"... (Whatever floats your boat, Doc.)


• On discharge instructions: "Drink plenty of urine"... (More proof that hospital food should be avoided at all costs.)


• Indication for flex sig - "blood when whipping himself"... (If you bleed when you do that, then don't do that.)


• Order "Please feed patient only when awake."... (I'm glad that that's clarified.)

• "The patient will remain hospitalized until the day of discharge"... (A lifetime of schooling to get a knack for the obvious.)


• "He had surgery for an unbiblical hernia"... (Prophesied in the scrolls of old.)


• "Seashore disorder"... (That would be "seizure". I'm sure you learned about seizures in nursing school.)

OK... so I'm not known for going with the establishment on everything.

I love & respect tradition, however, and I certainly value the contributions of the people who preceded me.  And this is especially the case with medical knowledge.

However, I do have one major point of difference with established norms in the health professions.  And that is learning and education.

Sure, there's a tried and true way of learning through medical school, nursing school, etc.  And sure, there's value to medical journals and the so-called "Literature".  But reading through medical journals is not the best method of continued learning for a lot of us.

Furthermore, there are people within healthcare who can benefit from evidence based medicine, but are not doctors or nurses.

I happen to think there's a role for medical humor in education.  It is easier to read or look at it.  It is memorable.  And it does not require an advanced degree to understand it.

Medical humor can be an awesome teaching tool.  Medical jokes can serve as great pattern interrupts (important for learning) during conferences, etc.  Medical humor can be viral (in a good sense of the word).

Take GiggleMed.com's latest book, for example.  Bugs on Scrubs.  It's a medical humor book with evidence-based principles in it regarding infection control.  See for yourself http://GiggleMed.com/bugs - it's great for doctors, nurses, infection control programs, hospital environmental services, techs, students, & administrators (although the suits won't like the ending :)

Have you ever thought of using humor as a medical education tool or as part of your hospital's initiatives to influence behavior?

Well, you might want to consider it...

In hypnosis, they often look to create what's called a "pattern interrupt" before getting someone to learn, believe, or act on something.  Basically, a pattern interrupt is something that is sort of out of the ordinary pattern of things, that's may be shocking, funny, or just unexpected in that setting.

In the healthcare setting, especially in the middle of a hair-pulling, stressful day, humor can offer that very interrupt of the stressful pattern.  And BAM! at that moment, that's when you want your message to get across.

Take Got Foley? buttons or mousepads for example.  If you're trying to do some QI project where you reduce catheter-related infections, consider using this GiggleMed design as an awesome pattern interrupt... it's humorous, it's unexpected, and it's consistent with the message you want to get across.  Check it out.

So, medical humor can be an awesome teaching tool.  Medical humor can be viral (in a good sense of the word).

Take a look GiggleMed.com's medical humor store

Nurses Week gifts are pretty easy to find. But what about gifts for that nurse that has everything?  Or what about getting a gift that the word "cute" is not used?  And where "LOL" really does mean "laughing out loud"?

Well, you might wanna take a look GiggleMed.com's medical humor store or at some of the books available, like Bugs on Scrubs, Hello Agency Nurse, JCAHO is Coming!, and others.

This year, for Nurses Week, why not check out Hello Agency Nurse... it's funny for staff nurses and agency nurses alike.  There's also a quick video tour of the book on GiggleMed.com's YouTube channel.  Check it out.