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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Clinical Terminology for International and U.S. Students by University of Pittsburgh

4.8
stars
3,009 ratings

About the Course

Understanding the clinical terms and abbreviations commonly used during verbal or written communication in U.S. hospitals is challenging. This course is designed for U.S. health care profession students and for international students and practitioners who want to become more familiar with the language of the U.S. clinical setting. Others, such as caregivers and medical interpreters, who wish to develop a better understanding of terms and abbreviations used by health care providers will find this course helpful. The course provides visual and auditory learning experiences to enhance the understanding of terms and abbreviations commonly encountered on a general U.S. hospital unit. All content including quizzes are available at no cost to the learner. If you need a certificate, you can apply for financial aid or pay the fee. To find out more, click Learn more and apply next to the information about Financial Aid. (Use a computer, not a mobile device, for this step.)...

Top reviews

FB

Jan 1, 2018

This course was really helpful. I took notes and will review them often to keep abreast with the medical terms. These will also help me communicate clinically with my PCP. I truly enjoyed this course!

ER

Apr 15, 2019

The instructor's calm and clear explanations make this a joy to watch.

This course is very useful for me as a medical product translator to get an understanding of the actual clinical environment.

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1 - 25 of 791 Reviews for Clinical Terminology for International and U.S. Students

By Amsal A

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May 14, 2020

This course gave me an opportunity to improve my medical abbreviations as I am a medical student. This course is awesome. Not only medical students but also other students should enroll this course.

By Charliemagne B

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Apr 5, 2019

This course is highly recommended not only for the beginner-medical students but also for the people who are non-medical student like me who has a husband currently on chemo therapy every other week for 6 months (ends on May 2019). I am now more familiar and knowledgeable enough with the clinical terms, mobile equipment, laboratory tests, diseases, understanding the abbreviations and route of administration and with the aid of Clinical Terminology Dictionary for Beginning

International and U.S. Health Care Providers and the Nursing Simulation Scenario Library,

that made me easy to comprehend with the course. Thank you Valerie Swigart, PhD, RN, CRNP and her team and thanks to University of Pittsburg!

By Carla D C M C

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May 23, 2019

Although this course was more aimed at nursing and medical students, and not so much at linguists, it's still a valuable resource for both. I like that I can study at my own pace in the comfort of my home. The course was very well organized, with a small hiccup where certain practice quiz content had not been covered yet but was covered in the following chapter. Good resource materials provided. Engaging videos.

By MJ P B

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Apr 9, 2017

I have been trying to get a job at largest hospital here in PA. I went through an interview process and I let the parties involved know that I was taking a course on medical terminology from PITT. I believe this was a plus and I would like to thank you for such a wonderful course. It was very challenging since I am not familiarized with the healthcare vocabulary but you guys made it easy with the many resources that were provided. I had fun and spent lots of time researching the internet as well.

The good news is I got the job and I finished the course just in time because I will be starting my new job soon. Thank you Mrs. Swigart and Mr. Gold.

By Cristina S

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Aug 13, 2019

It was a pleasure to take this course. I've learned that it is very important to understand the context in which an interaction occurs, I have improved my clinical language skills and now I can understand and use the abbreviations related to patient care, treatment, diagnosis.

As you've said, positive experience builds confidence! That is how I feel now! Thank you for this opportunity!

By josue v g

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Mar 9, 2018

I am an IMG and recommend this course as preparation if you are going to do an observership, and English is your 2nd or 3rd language. s you may know all the medical stuff, but abbreviations are indeed a big part of the US clinical setting.

I also recommend the list of medical abbreviations published on ECFMG web page; I leave you the link https://www.ecfmg.org/echo/resources.html

By Gita

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Jun 16, 2019

While interning at UPMC Susquehanna Muncy for the summer, this course really helped me understand what was happening in the ER at any given moment. Even though not all of the terms were used, it was helpful to know when they'd be used and under what context.

I'm not a student at University of Pittsburgh, but I definitely recommend this course to anyone who wants to get more acquainted with medical terminology. The course is still worth the effort because even though I didn't buy a certificate, I feel more confident working in the ER than before. Plus, I was able to finish the course in 3.5 weeks, not 6.

The course is very manageable and definitely a great place for beginners to start.

By Pierre R L

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Aug 25, 2019

For the six weeks of class by Dr.Valerie Swigart along with Michael Gold & Zhang Liang, I have learned a lot regarding Medical Terminology. It was a great experience for me and I hope everyone enjoyed that class. Kudos to Dr. Valerie Swigart for her great desire to teach US and International Students during the six weeks. I do appreciate your method and people will continue learning from you. God bless you. Pierre R Lafond

By Fatima B

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Jan 2, 2018

This course was really helpful. I took notes and will review them often to keep abreast with the medical terms. These will also help me communicate clinically with my PCP. I truly enjoyed this course!

By William C

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May 16, 2018

Pretty good class for people brand new to the healthcare world, a little too easy for those who have been in the healthcare field for awhile and are now looking to advance further, like myself. The material could've been somewhat harder or more challenging. Some of the test questions need to be looked at and adjusted to make better sense, some of the questions were misleading in what the correct answer should be. But overall, a very good class that helped reinforce a lot of what I already knew and enlightened me on some things I did not.

By Melisa

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Aug 7, 2019

I can't continue with the course because there are audio issues in the quizzes that no one bothers to solve. There are several threads on the forum about this issue, and no response or solution is given. It's a real shame, because the course contents are interesting and useful.

By Edward R

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Apr 16, 2019

The instructor's calm and clear explanations make this a joy to watch.

This course is very useful for me as a medical product translator to get an understanding of the actual clinical environment.

By chiara g

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Jun 5, 2020

A very professional and accurately arranged course. Although I don't have a background in healthcare and I needed to attend the course only for purposes related to my translation profession, I found the modules very helpful and fairly arranged, so you don't have to take in too much information at once. Memorizing all the abbreviations is of course challenging, but I enjoyed the process. Oh, and the quizzes are fun to take!

By valerie s

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Aug 17, 2017

Fabulous course. Emphasizes real clinical talk. Lots of audio. Clinical cases were so interesting and felt like a real patient experiences. The mini lectures focused on medical terminology are short and to the point. I am already using the PRS list as I am studying anatomy and physiology. This is a must for every nursing student about to start clinical.

By Hakob M

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Sep 19, 2021

As a beginner in Medical Terminology, this course was very useful in general comprehension of the clinical setting, and I already use my knowledge in my medical translation work. Thank you so much!

By shriyadixit

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Apr 20, 2020

i complete all course not get certificate soo annoying this thing i dont like it !

By alaa s

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Dec 5, 2022

why certificate does not include my name!!!!!!

By PHAM A V

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Mar 9, 2023

I must say that it was an incredibly helpful experience.

As a non-native English speaker, I found understanding clinical terms and abbreviations used in clinics, hospitals or medical facilities to be quite challenging. However, this course provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the language used in the clinical setting. I learned about various essential terms and abbreviations that I had struggled with before, and the course made it easy for me to integrate this knowledge into my practice.

One thing that I appreciated about the course was the use of visual and auditory learning experiences. The videos and interactive exercises made it easier for me to understand the terms and abbreviations and helped me retain the knowledge I learned. I also found the practice quizzes at the end of each module to be helpful in assessing my understanding of the material.

Overall, I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to improve their understanding of clinical terminology. It was an excellent resource for me as a medical interpreter, and I believe that other health care students, practitioners, and caregivers will find it equally helpful.

By palitoybombon

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Jul 26, 2020

An excellent course, seriously. The way it is structured so that you can get progressive exposure to the subject matters, terms and all, without feeling overwhelmed but being challenged enough to actually acquire a lot of new knowledge is really fantastic. All the videos are super natural and crucial to help you memorize new words in context, and also to understand the real dynamics of a US hospital, specially how nurses and doctors work in relation to their patients. I strongly recommend this course. It is a wonderful immersion, very good as a first step into the medical vocabulary. Thank you so much to all the team at the University of Pittsburgh that created it and made it available to everyone through Coursera.

By Carmalita W

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Jul 15, 2020

Everything was very useful, educational, and was still positively challenging, and required more in depth research to acquire more understanding. I love how it had clinical simulations. and open source to write your answers in transcribing, and creating clinical notations. This whole combination and layout of visuals, videos, audio, open source ,interactively challenges, encourages and strengthens comprehension, understanding , memory recalls. Significantly noted that ultimately this course helped me to to verify my own retained and new knowledge, and achieve mastery again when taking real life clinical scenario quizzes and tests.

By Yasmin S

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Apr 20, 2019

This was a wonderful course which I will recommend to others. As a non-health care professional already familiar with some medical terminology, I learnt many new terms and clinical scenarios, while reinforcing and expanding on what I already knew. I also appreciated the resources that came with the course and I will be utilizing them in the future. Thanks to Coursera and their partners for this excellent course!

By Suzanne M L

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Jul 6, 2020

Excellent class & experience. I really enjoyed taking this beginner's course. It was challenging but also extremely informative. I can't wait to take more in this subject.

Thanks for everything!

By Caetano R P J

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Sep 24, 2020

The curso is very important in my opinion because I´m a international student and with this curse a learn a lot new words and how they work in US clinical unit. Thanks. This curse is very helpfull.

By Izuku M

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Jul 30, 2021

The course gives me great information, help me improve my knowledges so much in my medical career. I have buried myself in studying during the summer. Thank teacher Valerie Swigart so much.

By william

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Jul 29, 2021

for the audio recording is better to have alternative as some issues that the audio disappear or cant work after loading or reloading. Excellent course will recommend more people to join.