I heard this ICU medical slang today. You can dramatically increase your hospitalist vocabulary by just keeping your ears open on a daily basis. According to this nurse, she speaks trachonese. Trachonese: The art of understanding the language of trach patients. Similar to vent speak, but without the ventilator.
So I asked my patient's ICU nurse if my vented and trached patient speaks. "Yes, but you have to be able to speak vent to understand him", she says. Vent speak? Is this something nurses learn in nursing school? Is this something the MARTI interpreter system is capable of providing? Is vent speak a variation of trachonese. Many important questions to ponder!Vent speak and trachonese are variations on the same theme. Here's trachonese used in a sentence: "Holly soon realized the only way she would survive as an ICU nurse was to learn trachonese." Someday the MARTI interpreter may be able to provide translation for this population of patients, but until then, we have nurses who speak vent and trachonese! Yes, folks, that there is some mighty fine medical slang that you won't find anywhere else but here on The Happy Hospitalist. This ICU someecard helps to explain.
