I’d do more than just “complain” if I had just broken my leg. Why is this term “complaining of” used in the medical field? That terminology seems to belittle the suffering of the sick or injured patient.
What word would you suggest as an alternative?
For what it’s worth, the same word is used in the legal field as well, e.g. complainant
Note that a legal complaint includes anything that a person might sue for, including a wrongful death suit, for instance. Is the term “complaint” belittling a plaintiff as well, in your opinion?
Once upon a time, long ago, folks never went to the doctor unless they felt something was wrong. That something was generally communicated as a complaint.
“Doc, it hurts when I do this.”
“Stop doing that.”
Eventually doctors noticed that sometimes when a guy complained of a pain in his arm, he dropped dead shortly after that. So, the complaint is a report of a symptom, and certain diseases are well defined by the exact nature of the complaint.
Tris
I suppose not. It’s simply archaic language I guess.
It’s just that today, “complain” seems synonymous with “whine”. As in “all he ever does is sit around and complain”. There’s a guy in the ER writhing in agony and the staff tells the doctor that he’s “complaining” of a broken leg. I just imagine the doc going in and in a scolding voice, saying “now stop your complaining, it’s just a compound fracture for chrissakes”.
It’s by no means archaic language! Legal complaints, medical complaints, service complaints, product complaints – these are all current usage. It’s by no means synonymous with whining, although someone who is complaining about too much may very well be said to be whining. To complain (“complaining”) is to express a complaint.
I like the use of the phrase “patient presented with (symptom)”
“A sucking chest wound! Just what I always wanted. Aw, you shouldn’t have.”
Complaining also denotes that the condition hasn’t been verified by medical person yet. I don’t think it would be used in most cases, if the bone was protruding 6 inches from the skin.
Terms like “complaining of” “admits” and “presented with” are not diagnoses.
There’s a world of difference between a doctor charting that a patient has chest pain vs a patient complaining of chest pain. If things go badly, it’s an out against malpractice charges: “You said he had chest pain, but his appendix burst” - the doctor can say “No, he complained that his chest hurt. While we were making sure he wasn’t having a heart attack, his appendix burst.”
Same thing goes when nurses are charting - the triage nurse at the ER can legally write down “complaining of broken leg” or “apparent ETOHism.”
In the first case, it may be absurdly obvious that his leg is shattered and bone is sticking out, but generally, nurses can’t make a diagnosis. In the second, ETOH is chemical shorthand for alcohol. The nurse can write “ETOHism”, but they can’t write “alcoholic” or even “drunk” or “intoxicated” as that’s a diagnosis.
“Sucking chest wound” is itself a rather unfortunate phrasing. After all, all chest wounds suck.
Figuratively, perhaps.
But some literally do.
In our charting for ambulance calls, the chief complaint usually indicates why the patient called 911. We also document our field diagnosis, which can often be significantly different from the actual chief complaint (not entirely unlike the appendix example given by gotpasswords.
St. Urho
Paramedic
I read medical reports for a living. Our reports have a line called “Clinical Data” where it lists the reason why the patient came to the doctor. It may say something “possible fx arm,” or “flank pain,” or “unk head trauma,” or a bunch of abbreviations like CP, SOB, N/V, possible COPD, GLF, GSW, MVA, possible CHF, possible ESRD, and so on (hopefully not all at the same time!).
On occasion the patient gets creative and tries to self-diagnose. That doesn’t mean the patient is right, but you could put down “pt complains of kidney stones,” because you’re establishing the situation in the patient’s own words and making it clear that it’s just the patient’s unmedical opinion.