Healthcare administrationDiscussion postMedical terminology

Medical terminology DIS 11-15 discussion guide

Five textbook stories, one entry each, your choice of topic per story — which makes topic selection the real skill: across Mr. Davis's sight loss, an impetigo visit, Jacob's insulin lapses, contraception choices, and a diverted MS Contin script, pick the topic per story you can answer with terminology and substance.

Aug 11, 2026

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 11, 2026

Written by

Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines

Reviewed by

Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

Argumentation and thesis development

On this page

Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
Deliverables
Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

How should you pick your topic in each DIS story?

The instruction repeated five times — 'submit 1 entry in response to the Topics listed; you may answer a topic or reply to another student's answer' — is a choice architecture, and using it deliberately is what separates strong submissions. Each story offers four topics that differ in kind: usually one empathic-perspective topic, one workplace-procedure topic, one patient-education topic, and one systems-or-resources topic. Choose per story the topic where you can deploy the chapter's actual terminology and something checkable — the workplace-precaution topic for the impetigo story lets you use contact-transmission vocabulary and real infection-control steps; the agency-services topic for Mr. Davis lets you name what agencies for the visually impaired actually provide. The reply-to-a-classmate option is legitimate but harder to do well: a reply must add terminology or substance the original post lacked, or it reads as the low-effort route it usually is.

The five stories span the course's later chapters, and each carries its own trap. Mr. Davis (DIS 11) tempts generic empathy; the graded version connects his behaviour and others' treatment of him to the psychology of vision loss and names concrete accommodations a clinic can make. The impetigo story (DIS 12) is an infection-control and patient-education double — explaining the condition to a worried parent in plain language while the precautions answer stays clinically correct. Jacob's diabetes story (DIS 13) is developmental: the middle-school answer is about autonomy, peer visibility and the psychology of adolescent self-care, not just insulin facts — and its cost topic wants actual numbers. The contraception story (DIS 14) is values-laden; answers that argue respectfully from stated reasoning outperform answers that declare. The MS Contin story (DIS 15) is a pharmacy-diversion scenario where the strong answers know the real safeguards: identification checks, counselling requirements, and what escalation to a supervisor looks like.

Because the format repeats, the temptation is to write five interchangeable entries. Resist it structurally: each entry should name the story's characters, use that chapter's terminology, and end with something specific — a named service, a procedure step, a cost figure — that could not transplant to the other four.

Likely learning objectives

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

01
Use the topic-choice structure strategically: per story, select the topic where chapter terminology and concrete detail are available to you.
02
Apply each chapter's medical terminology naturally inside a discussion-register answer.
03
Answer patient-education topics in plain language without losing clinical accuracy.
04
Ground resource and procedure topics in real services, precautions and safeguards rather than plausible inventions.

Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Read the Critical Thinking story on page 367 of your textbook. Submit 1 entry in response to the Topics listed. You may answer a topic or reply to another student’s answer to a topic. Topic 1 Discuss how Mr. Davis’s loss of sight is affecting the way he treats others and is treated by them. Topic 2 Mr. Davis is a patient at the clinic where you work. Discuss the ways you would adjust your usual routine to accommodate his needs. Topic 3 Discuss why cataract surgery would be scary to Mr. Davis and what Dr. Hsing and his staff could do to ease his apprehension. Topic 4 If Mr. Davis does not go ahead with the surgery, what help might he receive from an agency for the visually impaired? What other services might be available to help him deal with his grief and depression? DIS 12 Read the Critical Thinking story on page 398 of your textbook. Submit 1 entry in response to the Topics listed. You may answer a topic or reply to another student’s answer to a topic. Topic 1 Discuss why the school wants Michael to have completed treatment before he returns to class. Topic 2 You work in Dr. Gaines’s office and you know that the Boulay’s appointment today is about a potential contagious rash. What precautions should you take when the family arrives? Topic 3 Discuss how you might explain to Shaylene what impetigo is, how it spreads, and what she can do to prevent her other children from getting it. Topic 4 Shaylene is in a very difficult, and all too common situation. Discuss possible answers to her question “What am I gonna do?” BW Medi Term 11-15 Assignment DIS 13 Read the Critical Thinking story on page 425 of your textbook. Submit 1 entry in response to the Topics listed. You may answer a topic or reply to another student’s answer to a topic. Topic 1 Why is it more difficult for Jacob to maintain his injection routine in middle school than it was in elementary school? Topic 2 Knowing that missing an insulin injection could cause a diabetic coma and possibly death, why do you think Jacob is not more conscientious in his self-care? Topic 3 Do you think Jacob’s schoolmates talk about him, or does he just think they do? Discuss the possibilities. What steps can Jacob take to help his classmates understand his condition? Topic 4 Consider the cost of managing Jacob’s diabetes for 1 year, for 10 years, for his lifetime. What if Jacob did not have insurance? What would happen if his mismanagement of his condition resulted in a hospital stay? DIS 14 Read the Critical Thinking story on page 461 of your textbook. Submit 1 entry in response to the Topics listed. You may answer a topic or reply to another student’s answer to a topic. Topic 1 In a sexual relationship, which partner is responsible for birth control and why? Topic 2 If a couple cannot agree about family size or birth control methods, what options are available to them? Topic 3 Discuss how cultural differences and religious beliefs influence choices like family size and birth control. Topic 4 Some cultures value male children over female children. Discuss why you think this is so and how the changing cultural role of women may affect these values. DIS 15 Read the Critical Thinking story on page 498 of your textbook. Submit 1 entry in response to the Topics listed. You may answer a topic or reply to another student’s answer to a topic. Topic 1 What precaution had James taken in case the pharmacist asked questions? Topic 2 Suppose Terrance was suspicious about allowing James pick up the prescription. Discuss the steps Terrance might have taken, including involving his supervisor. Topic 3 Terrance appears to blame himself for what happened with the MS Contin prescription. What might the pharmacy have done to ensure that medicine is always given to the right person, no matter who is on duty? Topic 4 Ms. Tirendale is obviously suspicious of her son’s actions regarding the prescription. Discuss the steps she might take to help him if she thinks he is abusing drugs.

Turn the brief into deliverables

01
One entry for each of the five stories (DIS 11-15), per the repeated instruction.
02
Each entry answering one listed topic — or replying substantively to another student's answer, as the format permits.
03
Answers reflecting the assigned Critical Thinking stories on the textbook's stated pages.

What does a strong entry look like, story by story?

DIS 11 — Mr. Davis and vision loss

Pick between the behavioural, accommodation, surgical-fear, and agency-services topics; the accommodation and services topics reward concrete knowledge of low-vision support and clinic adjustments.

DIS 12 — the impetigo visit

The precautions topic wants real contact-precaution steps for a suspected contagious rash; the education topic wants impetigo explained to Shaylene in plain words with prevention steps for her other children.

DIS 13 — Jacob's insulin routine

The developmental topics ask why adolescence disrupts self-care (autonomy, peer visibility, invincibility) and what Jacob can do about classmates; the cost topic wants year, decade and lifetime figures with the uninsured contrast.

DIS 14 — contraception and culture

Values-heavy topics on responsibility, disagreement, culture and religion: answer with argued positions that acknowledge the other reading, since the topics are built for legitimate disagreement.

DIS 15 — the MS Contin diversion

A pharmacy-safeguard scenario: the strong topics concern verification steps, escalation to a supervisor, systematic dispensing safeguards, and what a worried parent can do about suspected drug abuse.

Which clinical sources make the entries checkable?

Recommended databases

The course textbook's chapters for each story (primary)
National Eye Institute
MedlinePlus
NIDA

Search sequence

1.
Reread each story on its stated textbook page before choosing a topic — the choice is only strategic if you know all four options.
2.
For the chosen topics, pull one authoritative source each: cataract basics for DIS 11, impetigo transmission for DIS 12, prescription-opioid misuse for DIS 15.
3.
Collect the chapter's key terms per story and check each drafted entry uses them.
4.
Where the topic wants figures or named services, find them before writing rather than gesturing.

Reference shortlist

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
Cataracts
National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health · 2023
The authoritative basics behind DIS 11 — what cataract surgery involves and its outcomes — for the fear-easing topic, and the vocabulary for the vision-loss discussion.
02
Impetigo
MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine · 2024
Transmission, treatment and prevention in plain language — the model for the DIS 12 parent-education answer and the source behind the precautions topic.
03
Prescription Opioids DrugFacts
National Institute on Drug Abuse · 2021
The misuse and dependence facts behind DIS 15 — why MS Contin diversion matters and what help for suspected abuse looks like — for the safeguard and parent topics.

Review before submission

Common mistakes

Writing five entries in the same empathic register when the topic sets are built to let you vary — procedure, education, resources — and sameness across entries is visible in a gradebook view.
Choosing the feelings-topic in every story because it needs no checking, which caps each entry at sympathy without substance.
Answering the impetigo precautions or pharmacy-safeguard topics with invented procedure — these have real, findable answers and graders in health programs know them.
Using the reply option as the low-effort route; a reply that adds nothing the original lacked earns what it adds.
Dropping the chapter terminology entirely — this is a medical terminology course, and entries that never use the vocabulary miss the course's point.
Forgetting the cost topic in Jacob's story wants arithmetic: a year of diabetes management has estimable components, and naming them is the answer.

Submission checklist

Five entries submitted, one per story.
Each entry names its chosen topic and the story's characters.
Chapter terminology used correctly in every entry.
Education-topic answers written in parent- or patient-appropriate language.
Resource, precaution and cost claims each carry something checkable — a named agency, a real precaution, a figure.

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