Summary of nomenclature responses 1
Custom Prosthetic Services Ltd
Description
Collection
Title:
Summary of nomenclature responses 1
Creator:
Custom Prosthetic Services Ltd
Date:
6/29/2004
Text:
Thank you to all who replied to my posting regarding nomenclature. A summary, in several parts, of the responses follows:
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Original Post:
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I am wondering if there is a general consensus among the P&O community that the terms Prosthetics and Orthotics refer globally to the complete nature of our respective professional practices, or do they refer only to the actual appliances that we fashion and fit to our clients?
Your thoughts, please!
Geoffrey Hall, C.P. ( c)
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Responses Part 1:
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While I would like to try and educate people about the correct use of the
terms prosthetics and orthotics it's a battle that I fear we won't win.
There are simply not enough people who take the time to elaborate on
correct terminology. Because of this, prosthetics and orthotics, I feel,
have become synonymous with the whole field. On a daily basis I hear
doctors, physios, OTs using words incorrectly so we might as well accept
the reality that the language is set up to communicate. If people
understand and accept the words then we've communicated. The sign at our
office says custom orthotics. It used to say foot orthoses but the vast
majority of people didn't know what that meant. We'd get phone calls asking
if we did foot orthotics. This whole thing reminds me of the movie Wag the
Dog, where Robert DeNiro says hey, if it's on TV it must be true. If
people are using prosthetics and orthotics it must be ok?!
Good luck with your research.
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Good question! I think a lot of people get this confused. My understanding is that the word prosthetic is an adjective, not a noun. A person wears a prosthesis, not a prosthetic, and likewise for orthosis and orthotic.
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My thought has always been that Prosthetics and Orthotics covers the field. Our company is named Great Lakes Prosthetics and Orthotics. If we are speaking about the devices specifically, we attempt to say prosthesis, prostheses, orthosis, orthoses. When dealing with specific patients/clients we may occasionally revert back to brace or artificial leg. But I even tactfully attempt to educate the patients as well. Why perpetuate ignorance by speaking at a third grade level?
I especially try to use the Queen's English when speaking to other members of the medical community. A sure fire way to have physicians and therapists look down their noses at us and roll their eyes when we're not looking, is to continue speaking in non-anatomical terms like up, down, top, bottom, over, and under. I certainly notice an elevated level of respect when using proximal, distal, superior, inferior, prone, and supine. When I hear my esteemed colleagues in clinic use terms like appliance, device, equipment, limbs, stumps, nubbins, and such I cringe and feel like I've been transported 30 years into the past.
Since the field does not even require a bachelor's or an advanced degree these days to be considered a credentialed practitioner it is increasingly more difficult to overcome these obstacles. The field will never be a profession unless we increase (not decrease) our minimum standards. Oh I understand the need to stand together as one voice, for the common good of the entire field blah, blah, blah. But I see no reason to stand together as one bunch of buffoons. Unfortunately, we have decided, (excuse me, it was decided for us) that if my daddy's daddy learned him how to make a good leg and my daddy learned me leg makin' too then we don't need no stinkin' school to show us leg makin'.
Disclaimer follows: I use the previous example as merely an exaggerated illustration directed at no individual, group, practice, religious preference, political party affiliation, or sexual orientation. I have heard and read discussion on this very list serve that is very close to the sentence above. Good leg makin' may be home-schooled, but unfortunately a proper command of the English language, problem solving skills, biomechanics, materials science, physics, mathematics, chemistry, ethics, business, physiology, and anatomy is still best taught at the university level.
I'm sorry about the rant and rave answer to your simple question about nomenclature Geoffrey, but this is just one man's long winded opinion.
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Original Post:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am wondering if there is a general consensus among the P&O community that the terms Prosthetics and Orthotics refer globally to the complete nature of our respective professional practices, or do they refer only to the actual appliances that we fashion and fit to our clients?
Your thoughts, please!
Geoffrey Hall, C.P. ( c)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responses Part 1:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While I would like to try and educate people about the correct use of the
terms prosthetics and orthotics it's a battle that I fear we won't win.
There are simply not enough people who take the time to elaborate on
correct terminology. Because of this, prosthetics and orthotics, I feel,
have become synonymous with the whole field. On a daily basis I hear
doctors, physios, OTs using words incorrectly so we might as well accept
the reality that the language is set up to communicate. If people
understand and accept the words then we've communicated. The sign at our
office says custom orthotics. It used to say foot orthoses but the vast
majority of people didn't know what that meant. We'd get phone calls asking
if we did foot orthotics. This whole thing reminds me of the movie Wag the
Dog, where Robert DeNiro says hey, if it's on TV it must be true. If
people are using prosthetics and orthotics it must be ok?!
Good luck with your research.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good question! I think a lot of people get this confused. My understanding is that the word prosthetic is an adjective, not a noun. A person wears a prosthesis, not a prosthetic, and likewise for orthosis and orthotic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
My thought has always been that Prosthetics and Orthotics covers the field. Our company is named Great Lakes Prosthetics and Orthotics. If we are speaking about the devices specifically, we attempt to say prosthesis, prostheses, orthosis, orthoses. When dealing with specific patients/clients we may occasionally revert back to brace or artificial leg. But I even tactfully attempt to educate the patients as well. Why perpetuate ignorance by speaking at a third grade level?
I especially try to use the Queen's English when speaking to other members of the medical community. A sure fire way to have physicians and therapists look down their noses at us and roll their eyes when we're not looking, is to continue speaking in non-anatomical terms like up, down, top, bottom, over, and under. I certainly notice an elevated level of respect when using proximal, distal, superior, inferior, prone, and supine. When I hear my esteemed colleagues in clinic use terms like appliance, device, equipment, limbs, stumps, nubbins, and such I cringe and feel like I've been transported 30 years into the past.
Since the field does not even require a bachelor's or an advanced degree these days to be considered a credentialed practitioner it is increasingly more difficult to overcome these obstacles. The field will never be a profession unless we increase (not decrease) our minimum standards. Oh I understand the need to stand together as one voice, for the common good of the entire field blah, blah, blah. But I see no reason to stand together as one bunch of buffoons. Unfortunately, we have decided, (excuse me, it was decided for us) that if my daddy's daddy learned him how to make a good leg and my daddy learned me leg makin' too then we don't need no stinkin' school to show us leg makin'.
Disclaimer follows: I use the previous example as merely an exaggerated illustration directed at no individual, group, practice, religious preference, political party affiliation, or sexual orientation. I have heard and read discussion on this very list serve that is very close to the sentence above. Good leg makin' may be home-schooled, but unfortunately a proper command of the English language, problem solving skills, biomechanics, materials science, physics, mathematics, chemistry, ethics, business, physiology, and anatomy is still best taught at the university level.
I'm sorry about the rant and rave answer to your simple question about nomenclature Geoffrey, but this is just one man's long winded opinion.
Citation
Custom Prosthetic Services Ltd, “Summary of nomenclature responses 1,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 5, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/223300.
