GLOSSARY

Activities of daily living (ADLS)

daily personal care tasks such as bathing ;caring for skin, nails, hair and teeth; dressing; toileting; eating and drinking; walking; and transferring.

Acute Care

24-hour skilled care for short-term illness or injuries; generally given in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.

Advance Directives

Legal documents that allow people to choose what medical care they wish to have if they are unable to make those decisions themselves.

Alzheimer’s Disease

a progressive, incurable disease that causes tangled nerve fibers and proteins deposits to form in the brain, eventually causing dementia.

Ambulation

Walking

Ambulatory

Capable of walking

Aspiration

The inhalation of food, fluid, or foreign material into the lungs.

Atrophy

the wasting away, decreasing in size, and weakening of muscles from lack of use

Autoimmune illness

an illness in which the body’s immune system attacks normal tissue in the body.

Bipolar disorder

a type of depression that causes a person to swing from periods of deep depression to periods of extreme activity; also called manic-depressive illness.

Blood borne Pathogens

microorganisms found in human blood, body fluid, draining wounds, and mucous membranes that can cause infection and disease in humans.

Body mechanics

the way the parts of the body work together when a person moves.

Body prominences

áreas of the body where the bones lies close to the skin.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( CPR)

medical procedures used when a persons hearts or lungs have stopped working.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

a government agency under the U.S. Deparment of Health and Human services that issues information to protect the health of individuals and communities

Confidentiality

the legal and ethical principle of keeping information private.

Cognitive

related to thinking and learning

Chain of infection

way of describing how disease is transmitted from one being to another

dehydration

a serious condition that results from inadequate fluid in the body

dementia

the serious loss of mental abilities, such as thinking, remembering, reasoning, and communicating

Dirty

in health care, a condition, in which objects have been contaminated with pathogens

Disinfection

process that kills pathogens, but not all pathogens: it reduces the pathogens count to a level that is considered not infectious

disorientation

confusion about a person, place, or time

Constipation

the inability to eliminate stool, or the infrequent, difficult, and often painful elimination of hard, dry stool

Cultural diversity

the different groups of people with varied backgrounds and experiences who live together in the world

Cyanotic

skin that is blue or grey

How does social security work?

it provides retirement benefits and disability income to qualified individuals and their spouses.

How does medicare work?

medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 and over. Ur covers most part of their medical bill

genome

set of information about an organisms DNA

Superbug

strain of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics

Microbiologist

a scientists who studies microorganisms under a microscope