Hospice Glossary of Medical Terms

Abnormal: Not normal. Deviating from the usual structure, position, condition, or behavior. In referring to a growth, abnormal may mean that it is cancerous or premalignant (likely to become cancer ).
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Access: 1. In general, a means of approaching something. 2. In health care, the opportunity or right to receive health care. 3. In dialysis , the point on the body where a needle or catheter is inserted to gain entry to the bloodstream.
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Acute: Of abrupt onset, in reference to a disease. Acute often also connotes an illness that is of short duration, rapidly progressive, and in need of urgent care.
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Aging: The process of becoming older, a process that is genetically determined and environmentally modulated.
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Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread).
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Condition: The term "condition" has a number of biomedical meanings including the following:

1. An unhealthy state, such as in "this is a progressive condition."
2. A state of fitness, such as "getting into condition."
3. Something that is essential to the occurrence of something else; essentially a "precondition."
4. As a verb: to cause a change in something so that a response that was previously associated with a certain stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus; to condition a person, as in behavioral conditioning.

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Constipation: Infrequent (and frequently incomplete) bowel movements. The opposite of diarrhea , constipation is commonly caused by irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulosis , and medications (constipation can paradoxically be caused by overuse of laxatives). Colon cancer can narrow the colon and thereby cause constipation. The large bowel (colon) can be visualized by barium enema x-rays, sigmoidoscopy, and colonoscopy. Barring a condition such as cancer, high-fiber diets can frequently relieve the constipation.
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Curable: Amenable to a cure , capable of being cured, to being healed and made well. Most skin cancers, fortunately, are curable. From the word cure, from the Latin cura meaning care, concern or attention.
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Depression : An illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts, that affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be wished away. People with a depressive disease cannot merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people with depression.
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Grief: The normal process of reacting to a loss. The loss may be physical (such as a death), social (such as divorce), or occupational (such as a job). Emotional reactions of grief can include anger, guilt, anxiety , sadness, and despair. Physical reactions of grief can include sleeping problems, changes in appetite, physical problems, or illness.
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Hospice: A program or facility that provides special care for people who are near the end of life and for their families. Hospice care can be provided at home, in a hospice or another freestanding facility, or within a hospital . See also: Hospice care .
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Hospice care: Care designed to give supportive care to people in the final phase of a terminal illness and focus on comfort and quality of life, rather than cure. The goal is to enable patients to be comfortable and free of pain, so that they live each day as fully as possible. Aggressive methods of pain control may be used. Hospice programs generally are home-based, but they sometimes provide services away from home -- in freestanding facilities, in nursing homes, or within hospitals. The philosophy of hospice is to provide support for the patient's emotional, social, and spiritual needs as well as medical symptoms as part of treating the whole person.
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Hospital: It may seem unnecessary to define a "hospital" since everyone knows the nature of a hospital. A hospital began as a charitable institution for the needy, aged, infirm, or young.
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ICU: Intensive Care Unit.
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Incurable: Not amenable to a cure . Incapable of being cured, healed and made well again. Many pancreatic cancers are incurable. From the word cure, from the Latin cura meaning care, concern or attention.
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Injury: Harm or hurt. The term "injury" may be applied in medicine to damage inflicted upon oneself as in a hamstring injury or by an external agent on as in a cold injury . The injury may be accidental or deliberate, as with a needlestick injury . The term "injury" may be synonymous (depending on the context) with a wound or with trauma .
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Inpatient: A patient whose care requires a stay in a hospital . As opposed to an outpatient . The term inpatient dates back to at least 1760. The case of an inpatient was referred to an incase.
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Intensive care: See critical care .
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Kubler-Ross: See: Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth .
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Living will: A living will is one form of advance medical directive. Advance medical directives pertain to treatment preferences and the designation of a surrogate decision-maker in the event that a person should become unable to make medical decisions on their own behalf.
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Medicare: The United States government's health insurance program for:

• "senior citizens" -- people 65 years of age or older,
• certain younger people with specific disabilities, and
• people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) -- permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant.

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Morphine: A powerful narcotic agent with strong analgesic (painkilling) action and other significant effects on the central nervous system . It is dangerously addicting. Morphine is a naturally occurring member of a large chemical class of compounds called alkaloids.
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Music therapy: The use of music in therapy; the therapeutic use of music. There are many different definitions of music therapy ranging from the trivial (a form of distraction that uses music as an aid to relaxation) to the lofty (the prescribed use of music to restore, maintain, and improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual health and well-being).
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Nausea: Nausea, is the urge to vomit. It can be brought by many causes including, systemic illnesses, such as influenza , medications, pain, and inner ear disease. When nausea and/or vomiting are persistent, or when they are accompanied by other severe symptoms such as abdominal pain , jaundice , fever, or bleeding, a physician should be consulted.
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Nurse: 1) A person trained, licensed, or skilled in nursing. 2) To feed an infant at the breast .
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Nursing: 1) Profession concerned with the provision of services essential to the maintenance and restoration of health by attending the needs of sick persons. 2) Feeding a infant at the breast .
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Nursing home: A residential facility for persons with chronic illness or disability, particularly older people who have mobility and eating problems. Also called a convalescent home, long-term care facility.
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Nutritionist: 1) In a hospital or nursing home , a person who plans and/or formulates special meals for patients. It can also simply be a euphemism for a cook who works in a medical facility but who does not have extensive training in special nutritional needs. 2) In clinical practice, a specialist in nutrition . Nutritionists can help patients with special needs, allergies, health problems, or a desire for increased energy or weight change devise healthy diets. Some nutritionists in private practice are well- trained, hold a degree and are licensed. Depending on state law, however, a person using the title may not be trained or licensed at all.
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Opioid: 1. A synthetic narcotic that resembles the naturally occurring opiates. 2. Any substance that binds to or otherwise affects the opiate receptors on the surface of the cell.
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Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia . Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.
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Palliative care: 1) Medical or comfort care that reduces the severity of a disease or slows its progress rather than providing a cure. For incurable diseases, in cases where the cure is not recommended due to other health concerns, and when the patient does not wish to pursue a cure, palliative care becomes the focus of treatment. For example, if surgery cannot be performed to remove a tumor, radiation treatment might be tried to reduce its rate of growth, and pain management could help the patient manage physical symptoms. 2) In a negative sense, provision only of perfunctory health care when a cure is possible.
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Pediatrics: "Pediatrics is concerned with the health of infants, children and adolescents, their growth and development, and their opportunity to achieve full potential as adults." (Richard E.Behrman in Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics)
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Pharmacy: A location where prescription drugs are sold. A pharmacy is, by law, constantly supervised by a licensed pharmacist.
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Primary: First or foremost in time or development. The primary teeth (the baby teeth) are those that come first. Primary may also refer to symptoms or a disease to which others are secondary.
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Sleep : The body's rest cycle.
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Taste: Taste belongs to our chemical sensing system, or the chemosenses. The complicated process of tasting begins when molecules released by the substances stimulate special cells in the mouth or throat. These special sensory cells transmit messages through nerves to the brain where specific tastes are identified.
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Therapy: The treatment of disease .
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Tubes: The "tubes" are medically known as the Fallopian tubes. There are two Fallopian tubes, one on each side, which transport the egg from the ovary to the uterus (the womb). The Fallopian tubes have small hair-like projections called cilia on the cells of the lining.
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