Healthcare administrationWritten assignmentMedical terminology

ABC Medical Center progress note: layman's terms guide

A two-part medical terminology assignment: translate a hospital progress note into layman's terms for a family member, and complete a twenty-answer crossword of prefixes, suffixes, combining forms and abbreviations. This guide covers the two terms that differ by one letter, the ones that get over-translated, and a method for working the crossword.

Aug 6, 2026Updated Aug 10, 2026

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Last reviewed · August 6, 2026

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Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines

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Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

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Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
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Proposed outline
Research plan
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Final review

Dysphasia and dysphagia are not the same word

Two words in this progress note differ by a single letter and mean entirely different things. Deana Martens has both of them, and translating them the same way is the mistake this assignment is most likely to catch.

Dysphasia is a language problem — difficulty producing or understanding speech, arising from damage to the brain's language areas. Dysphagia is a swallowing problem. The note lists both, and the husband's account supplies the evidence for the second: she could not drink her coffee without it spilling down her face. In layman's terms those become two separate sentences — she is having trouble finding and saying words, and she is having trouble swallowing safely — and the second one carries an instruction, because someone who cannot swallow safely must not be given food or drink until she has been assessed. A translation that renders both as trouble speaking has lost the clinically actionable half. The one-letter gap is also why writing the two terms in adjacent sentences is worth avoiding in the translation itself: put them in separate paragraphs with their own consequences attached.

Two more terms in the note are routinely over-translated. Hemiparesis is weakness down one side; hemiplegia would be paralysis. Writing that her right side is paralysed when the note says paresis overstates the finding to a family already frightened, and precision in the other direction matters just as much — telling them her arm is a bit weak understates something that made her fall. Cephalgia is simply headache, and the correct move there is to write headache and stop, rather than reaching for another formal-sounding synonym. Layman's terms means the words a person without training already uses, not a different set of technical words. A useful test for the whole translation: if a sentence would need a second explanation to be understood, it has not been translated yet, it has been paraphrased.

The note also has a shape worth preserving, because the sequence is the point. Everything was normal until about ninety minutes before arrival; then facial drooping and headache; then the arm gave way while reaching; then she could not stand. Sudden onset, one side, face and arm and speech together — that is the pattern the reader needs to recognise, and the time stamp matters because treatment for this presentation is time-limited. A translation that reorders the note into topics loses the thing a family member most needs to take away: it started suddenly, at a known time, and that is why everyone moved quickly. Keeping the husband's own details — the coffee, the cupboard, the fall at the breakfast table — also helps, because those are already in plain language and they anchor the timeline to things the family remembers.

Part two rewards a method rather than recall. Every clue is asking for one of four kinds of thing, and identifying which kind narrows the answer immediately: a prefix, which modifies at the front and is where fast, normal and two live; a suffix, which names a condition or process and is where dissolution, cell and pertaining-to live; a combining form, which carries the root meaning; or an abbreviation. Clues phrased as "prefix for" and "suffix for" tell you outright, and the ones phrased as "medical term for" want the assembled word. Working the twenty by category rather than in numerical order is faster and produces fewer near misses. And the references are required for part one, in APA format, even though the deliverable is a translation. Working the down clues alongside the across ones that intersect them is the other efficiency, since a confirmed letter often settles a clue you were unsure of.

Term in the note	Layman's terms	What the loose translation gets wrong
Dysphasia	Difficulty finding, saying or understanding words	Merging it with the swallowing problem
Dysphagia	Difficulty swallowing safely	Merging it with the speech problem, and losing the eating instruction
Right hemiparesis	Weakness down the right side	Writing paralysed, which is hemiplegia and a different finding
Cephalgia	Headache	Substituting another formal word
HTN	High blood pressure	Leaving the abbreviation in place
Facial drooping	One side of the face is sagging	Already plain — do not formalise it

Likely learning objectives

Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.

01
Distinguish terms that differ by a single letter and carry different clinical meanings.
02
Translate clinical language into words a non-clinical reader already uses.
03
Preserve the degree of a finding rather than rounding it up or down.
04
Identify whether a terminology clue is asking for a prefix, suffix, combining form or abbreviation.

Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Assignment ABC Medical Center ABC Medical Center 7777 North West Street, Michigan 12345 – (555) 123-4567 ————————————————————————————————————————————————– PATIENT NAME: Deana Martens MEDICAL RECORD: 8888888 DATE OF BIRTH: 3/26/1947 DATE OF ADMISSION: 1/19/2015 PROGRESS NOTE HISTORY: Deana Martens is a 67-year-old Caucasian female who was brought to the hospital via an ambulance and subsequently admitted to the hospital on 1/19/2015 for dysphasia, dysphagia, and right hemiparesis. Ms. Martens has history of HTN, and High Cholesterol. Husband states that patient is taking medication daily. No problems have been noted prior to 1 ½ hours ago when she began to show signs of right facial drooping and complained of cephalgia. Husband states the patient was unable to drink her coffee without the liquid spilling down her face. Per the husband, the patient was reaching in the cupboard for a dish, when her right arm started to fall. After sitting at the breakfast table, the patient began to rise, when she fell to the floor, and was unable to stand up without help. She showed a steady decline within minutes developing ataxia, dysphagia, and dysarthria. OBJECTIVE FINDINGS: Physical examination shows the patient was alert, and oriented x 2. Mild confusion noted to place. Gait was not assessed at this time due to hemiparesis. Grips were unequal. Right pupil was sluggish to respond to light. Right lower extremity was flaccid. Blood pressure was 180/92 mm Hg. Pulse, 78. Respirations, 18. Temperature 98.7. Chest radiograph, Urinalysis, CBC, PTT, Basic Chemistry Panel and ABGs were obtained. ABGs showed low 02 saturation. CT scan showed negative for an intracerebral hemorrhage. A neurology consultation was obtained. Neurologist confirmed the diagnosis of an ischemic stroke after an MRI of the brain demonstrated an ischemic area of the left cerebral cortex caused by a cerebral embolism. IMPRESSION: Hemiparesis, HTN, Ischemic Stroke TREATMENT SUMMARY: The patient was given Alteplase 0.9 mg/kg IV infused over 1 hour for first bolus. Continued with 0.81 mg/kg as continuous infusion over 60 minutes. Mannitol was started IV post Alteplase infusion. Patient transferred to ICU. Neuro checks ordered q 2 hrs. On the second hospital day, the patient developed hypotension, N & V. Reglan given IV and normal saline was increased to 150 drops per minute for 2 hours, then titrated down to 75. After 5 hours, patient BP was within normal limits, N & V subsided. Aggrenox started one capsule bid. Third day inpatient stay was unremarkable. Patient was transferred to medical floor. PT/OT, speech therapy ordered. Neuro checks reduced to every 4 hours. No further decline noted. Fourth inpatient stay, patient responding to PT/OT well. Use of walker with one assist. Gait and grip improving. No further neurological deficits noted. Discharge planning started. Rehabilitation facility recommended for continued PT/OT and speech therapy. Family educated on treatment plan, patient transferred to extended care facility for rehabilitation. Continue antiplatelet therapy. Informed patient and family to follow-up with neurologist one week after discharge from rehab. PART 1: Using the information provided in Progress Note above, please complete the following information. In this Assignment, imagine you are a medical professional working at ABC Medical Center. Your patient is Mrs. Martens. Her daughter, Rae Sibley, has just arrived from Colorado. She is concerned about her mother’s well-being. You will be meeting with the patient’s daughter to update her on what has occurred during her hospital stay, the subsequent transfer to the rehabilitation facility, and a discharge plan. Use the information from the Progress Note to update Rae Sibley on her mother’s condition. You will be translating the medical information from the report into layman’s terms in order for the patient and patient’s daughter to understand. Please be sure use complete sentences, proper grammar, and spelling. You can use medical terms, however, you must also use layman’s terminology. Remember, it is your job to explain to the patient’s daughter what has occurred. You may need to use outside sources. Assignment ABC Medical Center Your explanation to Rae Sibley should be 500 words or more. Cite your reference(s) in APA format at the end of your explanation. Type your translation of the Progress Note below. Make sure to use layman’s terms in order for Rae to understand what has occurred. REFERENCE: (APA formatted references are required – list them below) PART 2 – For this part, you will be completing the crossword puzzle that is below the table. Instead of entering your answers into the crossword puzzle, enter your responses in the table provided. Part 2: Enter your responses to the crossword puzzle here. There are 20 answers No. Across No. Down 1 2 4 3 6 5 7 8 9 11 10 13 12 14 16 15 17 19 18 20 Across 1. Medical term for “fetus with a small head” 4. Region meaning “inferior to the umbilical” 6. Combining form for “urea, nitrogen” 7. Blood test used to determine the concentrations of oxygen-carrying components in erythrocytes 9. Prefix for “fast or rapid” 10. Medical suffix for “loosening, dissolution, separating” 12. Name of a skin lesion that is characterized as “flat, colored spot” 16. Medical term for “painful or difficult urination” 17. Medical term for “inflammation of the vein” 18. Medical term for “expelling matter from the stomach through the mouth” 20. Medical term for “rapid loss of blood” Down 2. Medical term for fingers and toes. 3. Suffix for cell 5. Abbreviation for white blood cell. 8. Another term for urinate or void 11. Abbreviation for abdomen 13. Prefix for “normal or good” 14. Medical term for “pertaining to vision” 15. Prefix for “two” 19. Origin term for “name of person”

Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation Hi Class, Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts. Contact me if you have any questions. Important information on Writing a Discussion Question Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references) There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article. Include in-text citations in your response Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information Follow APA-7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week. 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I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

What Part 1 and Part 2 each require

01
A translation of the progress note in layman's terms addressed to Rae.
02
APA-formatted references for Part 1.
03
Twenty crossword answers entered into the table provided, not into the puzzle grid.

Term list, translation, then the crossword by category

List every technical term before translating anything

Go through the note and pull out each term, abbreviation and root that a lay reader would not know.

Translate term by term, checking the degree

Give each a plain equivalent, and check that intensity words like paresis are not rounded up.

Rebuild the note in its original sequence

Keep the timeline: normal, then sudden onset, then the specific events, then arrival.

Read it aloud as if to Rae

Check that nothing needs a second explanation and that the swallowing point is unmissable.

Work the crossword by clue type

Sort the twenty into prefixes, suffixes, combining forms, abbreviations and assembled terms, then answer by group.

Where plain-language equivalents can be checked

Recommended databases

The course medical terminology text
MedlinePlus and NIH consumer health resources
PubMed / NCBI Bookshelf

Search sequence

1.
Confirm the difference between the two similar terms before writing either sentence.
2.
Check what degree of weakness paresis denotes against paralysis.
3.
Read a plain-language description of this presentation, since consumer health resources model the register the assignment wants.

Sources for the terms in this note

These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.

Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.

01
Aphasia
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, US National Library of Medicine · 2025
What a language disorder after brain injury actually involves — expression, comprehension, or both. It is the source for translating the speech problem as something other than difficulty talking.
02
Ischemic Stroke
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, US National Library of Medicine · 2023
The presentation this note describes and why the time of onset governs treatment. Use it to keep the timeline in the translation rather than treating it as background.
03
Acute Stroke
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, US National Library of Medicine · 2023
Complications including swallowing difficulty and the rehabilitation that follows. This is what makes the dysphagia sentence carry an instruction rather than a description.

Before both parts are submitted

Common mistakes

Translating dysphasia and dysphagia identically, which loses the swallowing warning.
Writing that the patient is paralysed when the note says paresis.
Replacing one technical term with another rather than with plain language.
Leaving abbreviations such as HTN in the translation.
Reordering the note by topic and losing the sudden-onset sequence and the timing.
Formalising language that is already plain, such as facial drooping.
Entering crossword answers in the puzzle instead of the table the brief specifies.
Omitting references because the deliverable is a translation.

Submission checklist

Dysphasia and dysphagia are translated as two different problems.
The swallowing problem carries a practical consequence for the family.
Weakness is described as weakness, not paralysis.
No abbreviations or technical terms remain untranslated.
The sequence and timing of onset are preserved.
The translation reads as something a person without training would follow.
All twenty crossword answers are entered, in the table.
APA references are included for Part 1.

Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.