1. MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY IN THE WORKPLACE
Interview with my Aunt the
RNA/ USAF Flight Nurse Commander
By
Michael Matteo
6/9/15
BIO100 – 451 – Summer 2015

2. Last week I was fortunate to reconnect with my Aunt Terry, a very important person in
my life, and she allowed me to interview her about her healthcare career. In this summary, we
will look at what she says and connect it to the importance of proper medical terminology in the
workplace. She has had a rather long nursing career, providing healthcare to those in the Air
Force, then sporadically in hospitals as a civilian between multiple tours in Afghanistan and
various other locations. She was stationed in places like Alaska and Germany for most of my life
so I only got to see her once in a while. Although I aspire to become a Radiation Therapist, I
chose to interview Terry because she is an inspiration and has a story I have always wanted to
learn more about.
We started the conversation about the basics. I wanted to know about her exact job title
when she started her career, the education required and how her title changed over time and
differed in her civilian and military life. She was in the Air Force for a number of years, doing
something similar to nursing, but not exactly. Nothing in the military is ever exactly like civilian
life, I gathered after speaking with her. She started as a registered nurse (RN) after getting her
bachelors of science in nursing (BSN). Over the years, in and out of her tours with the United
States Air Force, she moved up in her field gradually taking on more and more responsibilities.
In the Air Force, she started off as a flight nurse, and later became a military flight commander.
After long years working hard in hospitals and for the military, she achieved the title of nurse
manager.
We then got into a little more detail on the training/shadowing required to get her foot in
the door of her career as a nurse. There was a lot of on the job training, and she acknowledged
how instrumental it is utilizing the proper medical terms was to appropriately communicate and
the properly provide healthcare to her patients. Going to school, taking tests, learning the basics

3. was only the beginning of what was necessary to succeed in her field. To get where she was
when she began her career, a lot of on the job training was necessary. It is one thing to test well
and get the concepts in theory, but something else entirely to utilize said concepts and apply the
principles in real life with real patients.
Further into our conversation, I asked about her daily responsibilities, both as civilian
nurse, and a flight nurse in the Air Force. In both worlds, she was tasked with “precept in new
nurses,” which is an industry term that could be best likened to ‘training’. When not serving as a
mentor and trainer for new nurses, she mostly dealt with triaging of the patients, which is another
industry term meaning prioritizing the needs of each individual so everyone was taken care of
with appropriate levels of urgency. As a nurse in the Air Force, her biggest accomplishment was
training a team of 34 Afghani nurses over a six month period. She made great friends and saved
lots of lives through it all.
When I asked her if she ever had to go above and beyond the responsibilities outlined in
her job description, she laughed and said that nurses are always expected to perform extra duties.
For example, at the Dover Air Force base, although she was a Flight Nurse, when not on tour,
she was tasked as an “Infection Control Officer.” She wasn’t a huge fan of that responsibility.
However she volunteered for it as with most of the other tasks she was eventually expected to
perform, which made her superiors very happy, which in turn, got her where she wanted to be.
To sum it up, medical terminology is key to success and communication in the medical
field. Terry is retired now, and is very happy and satisfied with what she achieved – both as a
civilian nurse manager, and as a military flight commander/ nurse. When I asked her if she could
sum up nursing in a nutshell – she said “Nurses are the eyes and ears for the doctors that spend

4. only a few minutes with the patients.” When I asked if she had any wise words for those seeking
a career in the industry she said “[Medical] programs can be challenging. Keep your eye on the
prize and you will reap the benefits!”