An Anglo-American medical lexicon
BMJ 2017; 359 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j5567 (Published 08 December 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;359:j5567All rapid responses
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Having previously trained and worked in India and South Africa, it was quite natural for me to ask for a torch when I needed to examine my patient's pupils on my first day in an American hospital. With horror, the nurses wondered if I was planning to burn the place down. After some further discussion, we established that a flashlight would do the trick just as well!
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I will never forget the look of horror on my US trained colleagues face after I asked her very kindly to "bleep" me when the patient arrived.
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Good article but an otherwise innocent typo in the UK-US lexicon might cause US doctors some difficulties if they come here to work. GMC is explained as 'General Medical Counsel'. US doctors could be disappointed if they turned to the GMC for wise advice.
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Monolingual but unequal, and fluent but incongruent, British and Yankee accents are metrical opposites. Brits use iambic meter (short-long), while Yanks use trochaic meter (long-short). Take for example, the words "corollary" and "controversy". Brits say co-ROL-la-RY and con-TROV-er-SY, while Yanks say COR-ol-LAR-y and CON-tro-VER-sy. British iambs and Yankee trochees convey accents with both cadence and character. Brits sound cultured, while Yanks sound common, because iambs sound lambent, while trochees sound truculent. Accents are poetic, and prosody is noetic, if not prophetic.
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Re: An Anglo-American medical lexicon
An excellent article, however one particular pitfall American juniors may encounter when bleeding (?leeching) a patient in the UK should be mentioned. When I was still a medical student a visiting student from the US told me about his embarrassing morning in "the OR". Apparently when inserting a cannula he had not used the traditional british warning of "sharp scratch coming up!" but instead informed them that they would "feel a small prick", which means something rather different here! Everyone except him found it absolutely hilarious.
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