What actually is the difference between a caregiver and a registered nurse? And what exactly is palliative care? Because of the nature of the industry, sometimes we get carried away with some medical terms and acronyms that not even our Marketing Manager understands. Which is good, because  it alerts us, because  if he doesn't understand (with no medical background), how can we expect others to?

Some of these terms you may hear all the time when talking to, say, the district nurse, but you  thought everyone should know them so  you didn't ask. This is why we thought we'd put together a list of commonly used terms in plain English so even our Marketing Manager can understand. In fact, he wrote the plain English after we explained to him what they meant. So here we go:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z 

A

Analgesic: A drug that relieves pain

Antiemetics: A drug to help you stop feeling sick

Anti-inflammatory: Medication that helps treat inflammation

Apnea: A period of time during which breathing stops or is significantly reduced.

Ascites: An abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen

B

Bowel movement or motion (or even BM) : You may have heard this be asked by a nurse or doctor when you’ve been in hospital. It’s when you have relieved yourself by number 2. Hey, what can we say, it’s a PC term and we thought we would have to explain it as PC as we can.

And here’s some useless information. The word bowel originated from the Latin botulus which means sausage!

C

Caregiver: A person who can help with household jobs and personal care.

Care Plan: A guide of how to care for an individual. It covers everything from their medication to what they like to do and when (i.e. go for walks in the morning for 20 minutes). It’s generally put together by the district or hospice nurse with the help of the individual and their family.

 Cheyne-stoking: a particular pattern of breathing that happens as a person gets closer to dying.

D

District Nurse: A registered nurse, employed by the District Health Board, to work in the community. They are employed to go into people's homes to provide nursing assistance. 

Dyspnoea (pronounced diz-nee-a): This is the technical term for when you have shortness of breath or laboured breathing.

DHB: District Health Board

G

GP: General Practitioner or better known as the family doctor. 

H

Hospice Nurse: A registered nurse who works in the community for a hospice.

Healthcare Assistant: See Caregiver

I

Incontinence: The inability to control when you want to go to the toilet.

N

Nausea: When you feel sick

P

Palliative Care. If a person is very ill with a progressive incurable disease and the condition cannot be cured, their comfort and quality of life will take priority. Care, at this stage, will aim to help improve quality of life by reducing the severity of symptoms and manage pain. It also aims at meeting a persons social, emotional and spiritual needs.

Pressure Area: This is pretty much what it sounds like. A pressure area is a sore area of the skin that develops when the bloody supply to it has been cut off  from either pressure of lack of movement This can progress to a very severe type of sore if not relieved. Some common ways to prevent pressure areas are frequent ( 2 to 3 hourly) turning   of the individual or sleeping on an air mattress.

R

Registered Nurse:  A person  professionally trained and who has passed  the New Zealand Nursing Council exam and placed on the  register monitored by the Nursing  council . A registered nurse has a code, ( rules) of practice and ethics which she/he must adhere to.

Respite Care is short, temporary relief or time out, either by someone coming in to do  the caring for a time  or by the palliative patient going into care.  For the  person who is caring for someone at home who is ill it can be tough both mentally and physically. Respite care can help relieve the stress and enable' batteries' to be re-charged.

S

Subcut Injection ( subcutaneous): Medication given just under the skin. Generally the medication given by subcut injection is pain relief or anti-nausea medication but can also include other medications.

Subcut Pump: Similar to a Subcut Injection, but is a small machine to provide the medication automatically over a given time. It involves a small needle being placed under the skin, which is connected to a syringe in the machine by a tube. 

Sub Lingual:  Under the tongue, some  particular medications are given by placing them  under the tongue where they dissolve and are absorbed.

Supra-pubic catheter:  a tube placed through the lower abdomen into the bladder to drain urine. Sometimes used when it is not possible to get to the bladder through the usual outlet.

Syringe Driver: See Subcut Pump

T

Thrombosis: A blockage of blood or clot in an artery or vien.