9: Medical Professionals and Specialties
- Page ID
- 150577
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- Describe the major specialty areas of medicine and the education requirements for physicians and surgeons in these areas
- Name medical professionals and healthcare providers
- List the combining forms relating to each medical specialty
- Name the types of units that are commonly found in the hospital environment
- Describe common hospital terms and combining forms
- List the common abbreviations for medical professionals and hospital units
There are a number of different specialties and medical professionals involved in any medical setting. This chapter will give you an overview of the most common physician specialties and other medical professions that are involved in the everyday care of patients. Some professionals are more active in patient care, whereas others are only called in when needed, which means their involvement may be limited. This chapter will also provide you with a list of common units in hospitals. Throughout the chapter, you will encounter new combining forms and abbreviations. There are, of course, other professionals and hospital units that you may encounter, especially in more specialized practice areas; however, the overview in this chapter will hopefully provide you with a foundation from which to learn more during your future professional practice. There are exercises throughout, as well as scenarios that will help you apply the knowledge you have learned.
- 9.1: Physician Training and Specialties
- This page outlines the education and training pathway for physicians, highlighting the progression from a bachelor's degree to medical school, residency, and licensing. It details the varying lengths of residency programs by specialty and the distinctions among physician titles such as intern, resident, and attending.
- 9.2: Healthcare Practitioners
- This page outlines the roles of various regulated healthcare practitioners, such as chiropractors, dietitians, nurses, and physiotherapists, who contribute to patient care in hospitals and communities. It emphasizes the importance of each professional in collaborative efforts to provide specialized assessments and interventions, ultimately aiming for comprehensive health outcomes.
- 9.3: Additional Healthcare Providers
- This page details the roles of various healthcare providers in a hospital, emphasizing their crucial contributions to patient care and overall hospital operations. It highlights professionals such as MRI and cardiology technologists, environmental services staff, health information managers, and administrative support.
- 9.4: Hospital Units
- This page of the textbook discusses various hospital units, outlining their specific functions and the types of patients they typically serve, including Burn, Cardiology, Intensive Care, Rehabilitation, specialty clinics, Surgery, and Urology units. It emphasizes the specialized care offered within these units based on diverse medical needs and highlights the variations in unit availability between rural and urban hospitals, underlining their importance in patient recovery and care management.
- 9.5: Hospital Scenarios
- This page offers practice scenarios to apply medical terminology from the chapter, integrating knowledge from previous lessons. It features three patient journey scenarios in a hospital setting, where readers fill in blanks with relevant medical terms and concepts, enabling self-assessment of their understanding. The page also credits its source material and emphasizes licensing.
- 9.6: Review Exercises
- This page provides review exercises to strengthen understanding of medical terminology, healthcare professionals, and concepts from Chapter 9. It emphasizes the importance of doing these exercises alongside reviewing the chapter content for comprehensive learning. The page includes sections for reviewing combining forms and abbreviations to aid information retention, with material sourced from a medical terminology foundation resource.
Attribution
Unless otherwise indicated, material on this page has been adapted from the following resource:
Carter, K., & Rutherford, M. (2020). Building a medical terminology foundation. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/medicalterminology/ licensed under CC BY 4.0