Medical Terminology: A Word Association Approach

About This Course

This course teaches medical terminology from an anatomical approach. Root terms are divided by each body system. The origin, a combined form, and an example of non-medical everyday usage is provided for each root term. Word Associations are provided as a learning tool. Unusual and interesting information is provided in regards to each term. Root terms are combined with prefixes and suffixes as your learning will culminate in the interpretation of several paragraphs of medical notes.

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Douglas Best.

Douglas Best first began working as a field medical instructor in the US Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in 1980. He has worked as a nurse in such medical specialty areas as Pediatrics, Newborn Intensive Care, Home Health, adult cardiac, surgical and medical intensive care units, the emergency room, heart catheterization, burn intensive care and the morgue. He has been a CPR instructor, EMT, Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Neonatal Advanced Life Support certified. He is also a curriculum specialist and has developed such workforce training programs as Medical Specialty Training for displaced workers, Medical Assistant, Certified Nursing Assistant in Spanish, and Medical Transcription for the University of Texas at Brownsville. He has also overseen research projects in the development of nurses from Mexico and Sri Lanka. He currently is a trainer working with Humana Military.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Welcome to the first lesson of medical terminology! We'll begin the course by exploring root terms, which represent the main meaning of a combined medical term. A combined medical term consists of a root, a prefix, and/or a suffix. As we progress through each lesson of this course, you'll see that we proceed by "body system," and in this first lesson, we'll go over root terms that are associated with the musculoskeletal system, so we'll be talking a lot about the muscles, bones, joints, and tendons of the body in this lesson.

Friday - Lesson 02

In today's lesson, you'll learn a variety of terminology relating to the integumentary and digestive systems. The integumentary system includes the skin, connective tissues, and some loosely associated structures such as nails and teeth. When we discuss the digestive system, you'll learn medical terminology relating to the digestive tract from the mouth, to the pharynx, to the esophagus, and so on, all the way out to the exterior of the body.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

In this lesson, we'll go over terminology related to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The cardiovascular system includes the heart, arteries, veins, and blood, while the respiratory system includes the lungs and assorted chest structures.

Friday - Lesson 04

Today's topic areas are the urinary and reproductive systems. When we go over the urinary system, you'll learn terminology related to the kidneys, bladder, urine, and even some chemistry terms. When we go over the reproductive system, you'll learn root terms that refer to both male and female anatomical structures.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

In this lesson, we'll finish up our discussion about root terms. You'll learn root terms that are associated with the neurosensory system, including nerves, the eyes, ears, brain, and spinal cord. Then we'll begin doing something a little different—at the end of the lesson, we'll do a little review session to help you remember all of the root terms that you've learned up to this point.

Friday - Lesson 06

In today's lesson, you'll learn about prefixes and suffixes that are common in medicine and start with the letters A through H. Starting today, we won't be going through the word associations that we did in previous lessons. By now, you'll find that you can recognize many of these terms as they're used in our normal, everyday language.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson, we'll continue to progress through the prefixes and suffixes commonly used in medical terminology. Our objective for today is to identify the common medical prefixes and suffixes that begin with the letters I through O.

Friday - Lesson 08

Today, we'll complete our tour through the alphabetical listings of the most common prefixes and suffixes used in medical terminology by focusing on prefixes and suffixes that begin with the letters P through Z. You'll find that there are many more terms that medical professionals use less often, and you'll even discover that sometimes a root that you already know is used as a prefix or suffix.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

In previous lessons, you learned about common prefixes and suffixes. In today's lesson, we'll study specific prefixes and suffixes that pertain to color. Color is used quite a bit in the medical field because it helps everyone to describe various signs and symptoms. In this lesson, we'll also go over medical abbreviations that are specific to the various occupations and titles of the medical industry. Your assignment in this lesson will change a little as your research becomes a bit more challenging.

Friday - Lesson 10

The medical community uses an abundance of abbreviations. Some medical facilities don't allow them, but you should still learn the meanings of the most common abbreviations so you'll know them when you see them. For this lesson, we'll study the abbreviations that start with the letters A through R. Your assignment for this lesson will be a bit different—you're going to find words in a medical note that you can replace with the abbreviations that you learned in the lesson.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, we'll finish our study of medical abbreviations as we explore the abbreviations that begin with letters S through Z. We'll also go over specific abbreviations that refer to hospital areas, laboratory tests, chemistries, and medical symbols. In today's assignment, it's up to you to find the abbreviations that correctly relate to each sentence in a medical note.

Friday - Lesson 12

Here in our final lesson, it's time to put everything you've learned together. We'll look at our roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and see how they create combined medical terms from body system to body system. You'll also learn some directional terms that are commonly used in medicine. You'll find that your assignment for this lesson provides you the opportunity to decipher a complete medical note.

Requirements

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). No medical background is necessary.