Understanding jargon

By Admin Monday, June 8, 2015

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When you visit your doctor, do you understand everything he or she says or do you leave confused?  The medical field is full of jargon; sometimes the most precise and accurate way of describing is with a strange phrase, and all you need is a clear definition to make sense of it.  Are you having trouble wading through words that don't make much sense?

Some tips to improve your understanding of health information include:

• Talk to your doctor and speak up when something doesn't make sense.
• Take notes.
• Ask where to get more information.
• Bring a family member or a friend along: four ears are better than two, and someone else might ask questions that hadn't crossed your mind.

Here at the St. Louis Public Library, we have lots of resources to help you figure out what your doctor said and meant: medical dictionaries where you can look up definitions of unfamiliar terms, and encyclopedias where you can learn about symptoms and treatments of illnesses, as well as look up the uses and side effects of drugs.  We also have a database, Consumer Health Complete, which has articles, fact sheets, and encyclopedia entries, as well as a dictionary that you can search or browse.

While we can't give out medical advice (we're not doctors after all, and it's best for both you and us), we can help you navigate the sometimes tricky wording to figure out what your doctor says, or what advertisements are selling.

Being well informed is crucial to making intelligent decisions, and understanding terminology is a necessary first step.