Stop Insulting Patients and Start Helping Them: Top 5 Medical Euphemisms

Dr. Van goes over the top 5 ways healthcare professionals use disrespectful, offensive, or ignorant language. Then in contrast, she offers her top 5 alternatives for these terms so healthcare professionals can be not only more respectful, but also more helpful to anyone dealing with medical issues.

[Thumbnail Description: Dr. Van, a young Vietnamese woman with long black hair sits with her eyes wide and lips pursed as if leaning away from an uncomfortable subject. She’s wearing a black sleeveless blouse and dangling silver earrings. The text next to her reads “differently abled” with a big red X through it, and below that, the text reads “Disabled” with a big green check mark through it.]

Table of Contents:
0:00 Intro
1:09 Part 1: Disrespectful terms and why they have no place in medicine
1. Fat 1:09
2. Stupid 2:06
3. Waste of Time 2:44
4. Sloppy or Smelly 3:06
5. Special Needs 3:44

4:37 Part 2: Euphemistic Terms and their importance
1. High BMI 4:58
2. Limited Insight 6:23
3. Tangential or Requires Frequent Redirection 7:13
4. Not Well Groomed 7:44
5. Specific Needs 9:35
10:30 Outro

Mayo Clinic study on waist circumference and health risk: www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(1…

Waist to Height Ratio is better than BMI:
www.practicalpainmanagement.com/resources/news-and…