Medical Terms, Instruments, and Hospital Equipment

Common Medical Abbreviations

• RSI: Repetitive Stress Injury
• SAD: Seasonal Affective Disorder
• SIDS: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
• GP: General Practitioner
• HAV: Hepatitis A Virus
• MD: Medical Doctor

Medications and Treatments

• Decongestant: Decreases nasal stuffiness and relieves a runny nose.
• Anticoagulant: Prevents or delays blood clotting.
• Sedative: Relieves symptoms of stress, irritability, or excitement.
• Laxative: Relieves constipation.
• Digitalis: Strengthens the failing heart.
• Diuretic: Removes excess fluid from the body.
• Antibiotic: Treats infections caused by bacteria and other microorganisms.
• Insulin: Regulates the level of sugar in the blood, used to treat diabetes.

Common Symptoms and Their Causes

• Fainting, dizziness: Anemia
• Headache: Sinus infection
• Fever: Infection
• Cough: Ailments of the respiratory tract
• Nausea and vomiting: Food poisoning
• Itching and rashes: Insect bites or allergy

Medical Instruments

• Handling sterile instruments: Cheatle's forceps
• Handling sterile dressing: Dissecting forceps
• Cutting bandages: Bandage scissors
• Taking out stitches: Suture scissors

Medical Equipment

• A pincer-like instrument designed to grasp an object so that it can be held firmly or pulled: Forceps
• A small, straight, thin-bladed knife used especially in surgery: Scalpel
• A shallow, kidney-shaped bowl, used especially for the collection of body discharges: Kidney dish
• An instrument used to explore a wound: Wound probe
• A patient who is in bed will need to use this to urinate and defecate in: Bedpan

Other Medical Instruments and Equipment

• They are normally used to stop bleeding: Artery forceps
• It is an open-top: Vessel bowl
• It is a small pot used for medicine: Gallipot
• It is a kidney-shaped bowl used in medicine and surgical wards to receive soiled dressings and other medical waste: Kidney dish
• It has two shelves. The sterile equipment is put on the top shelf and the unsterile equipment is put on the bottom shelf: Dressing trolley

More Medical Instruments

• For taking out stitches: Suture scissors
• For giving injections: Syringe and needle
• For exploring a wound: A wound probe and sinus forceps
• For handling sterile dressings: Dissecting/dressing forceps
• For cutting bandages: Lister's bandage scissors
• For removing clips: Michel clip-removing forceps
• For handling sterile instruments: Cheatle's forceps / Instrument-handling forceps

Synonyms

• Instrument handling forceps: Cheatle's forceps
• Covered: Bandages
• Contains: Bandages
• Stitches: Suture
• Small bowls: Gallipots
• Some scissors: A pair of scissors

Hospital Equipment and Furnishings

• This covers the bed to keep off the dust: Bedspread
• To rest their head on: Pillow
• A patient confined to bed will have to use this to urinate and defecate: Bedpan
• Patients use this when they need to call a nurse: Call button
• For identification, this is worn by patients around their wrist: Name band
• A narrow bed for transporting patients: Trolley
• Wash your hands here: Basin
• A mechanical device for lifting and moving patients: Hoist
• Drawn around a patient's bed to provide some privacy: Curtain
• Two of these on the bed are straightened regularly and washed every two days: Sheets
• Meals are brought to the bed on this: Tray
• These keep the patient warm: Blanket
• Male patients confined to bed use this to urinate: Urine bottle
• Suspended above the bed. This can be used by the patient to pull themselves up: Monkey pole
• Patients lie on this. It is sometimes hard and sometimes soft: Mattress
• Intravenous fluid bags are suspended on this: Drip stand
• Patients who can sit up comfortably can be transported in one of these: Wheelchair
• A patient with a broken leg will need two of these to get around: Crutches
• For flowers: Vase
• A mask and tube from this will supply oxygen to the patient: Oxygen point
• The patient's condition is recorded here: Observations chart

Grammar: Sentence Construction

Present Simple: make/makes is/are made.

Present Continuous: is/are making is/are being made.

Past Simple: made was/were made.

Past Continuous: was/were making was/were being made.

Present Perfect: has/have made has/have been made.

Past Perfect: had made had been made.

Future Simple: will make will be made.

Future Perfect: will have made will have been made.

Conditional Present: would make would be made.

Conditional Perfect: would have made would have been made.