Doctor dictating next to me: "The patient complained of frequent urination. She said she woke up multiple times during the night to urinate. However, during the day, she only urinated a smaller amount. She is not on any medications that would cause her to urinate more frequently."
Me: "You're saying 'urinate' a lot."
I don't know why, but the word "urinate" just seems weird to me. I always say "void" in my job and at home, I say "pee." Actually, at work I say "pee" a lot too when I'm talking to patients. Anything I can do to avoid saying "urinate."
I always liked micturate or in less formal arenas, take a leak. You are right, pee, works best in patient care situations.
ReplyDeleteKinda like avoiding the word coitus.
ReplyDelete"Sheldon Cooper"!
DeleteLong ago in med school a urology attending told us that Greeks Pee and Italians Piss (or maybe it was the other way around) and we needed to ask about urination with the right terms based on ethnicity. I guess that means asking Brits if they Wee.
ReplyDeleteHa, ha, it used to irritate my mom to no end when her Dr. would say "pee". My mom would say, "Can't you say urinate' " and her Dr. replied, "I don't think most of my patients would know what 'urinate' means".
ReplyDelete