Health care and soaps thrive on acronyms, says Rosemary Cook

摘要

It is not just the NHS that loves an acronym, though it has to be said the NHS is good at them. CRAs [commonly recurring acronyms) are the stuff of every conversation. You can tell how important they are Prom the way they are used in the uniformly dreadful and strangely compulsive television series that purport to come from the A&E and hospital wards in Holby.What a model provider unit that is. [t does maternity, cardio-thoracic surgery, transplants, neurosurgery, stroke care and paediatrics - and mostly on the same ward.The essential NHS acronyms are so self-consciously included in the script, a few carefully placed ones required in every scene. 'His bee pee is falling,' they enunciate carefully. 'He's in 'ess vee tee.'Real NHS staff, of course, are well beyond spelling out every initial like this. They have developed a whole language, using acronyms as verbs, nouns or adjectives, nestling them in a new grammar all of their own.,He's DNA'd twice', "She's doing theTPRs', 'CPR stat' The ODP's OD'd on MST.' I like to think that, with the advent of e-learning, students are at home listening to a CD, repeating words and phrases from the wards as though they are teachingthemselves Spanish. Meanwhile, acronym of the month in charity land is SORP. We are currently SORPing our accounts. I had better explain: it stands for "statement of recommended practice'. Granted, it will never catch on with the public like CPR.