Nurse Unit Vocabulary 2023

**Nurse Unit Vocabulary**

**Activities of daily living (ADL):** Daily activities necessary to meet basic human needs, for example, feeding, dressing, and elimination

**Acute:** Lasting a short period of time but relatively severe (for example, an acute illness)

**Ambulate:** To walk

**Blood pressure:** Measurement of the force exerted by the heart against the arterial walls when the heart contracts (beats) and relaxes

**Chronic**: Lasting a long period of time; reoccurring

**Diagnosis:** Determination of the nature of a person’s disease

**Diastolic pressure:** Measurement of blood pressure taken when the heart is at rest

**Edema:** Swelling; excess amount of fluid in the tissues

**Fever:** Elevated body temperature, usually above 100 degrees F

**Geriatrics:** The branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease in older people and the problems specific to aging.

**Hypertension:** high blood pressure

**Hypotension**: low blood pressure

**Malpractice**: Providing improper or unprofessional treatment or care that results in injury to another person

**Pediatrics:** The branch of medicine dealing with care and treatment of diseases and disorders of children

**Pulse**: Pressure of the blood felt against the wall of an artery as the heart contracts or beats

**Pulse Oximeter:** A device that measure the oxygen level in arterial blood

**Respiration:** The process of taking in Oxygen (inspiration) and expelling Carbon Dioxide (expiration) by way of the lungs and air passages

**Sphygmomanometer:** Instrument calibrated for measuring blood pressure in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg)

**Stethoscope:** Instrument used for listening to internal body sounds

**Systolic pressure:** measurement of blood pressure taken when the heart is contracting and forcing blood into the arteries

**Temperature:** The measurement of the balance between heat lost and heat produced by the body. (97-99 degrees F is normal)

**Vital signs:** Measurements of the body’s most basic functions that provide information of the body conditions (Temperature, pulse, respirations, and blood pressure)