OHSU Style Guide: Academic Degrees, Abbreviations, and Titles, Study notes of Medicine

Download OHSU Style Guide: Academic Degrees, Abbreviations, and Titles and more Study notes Medicine in PDF only on Docsity! OHSU style dictionary A abbreviations and acronyms In general, avoid alphabet soup. Do not use abbreviations or acronyms that the reader would not quickly recognize and do not use abbreviations or acronyms in headings and titles. Do not follow the name of a program or other formal nouns with an abbreviation or acronym in parentheses or set off by dashes. If an abbreviation or acronym would not be clear on second reference without this arrangement, do not use it. Names not commonly before the public should not be reduced to acronyms. Do not abbreviate department and specialty names for external audiences. For example, use: Hematology and Medical Oncology, not Hem Onc. Use Obstetrics and Gynecology not OB GYN. Caps and periods: Generally, omit periods in acronyms unless the result would spell an unrelated word. But use periods in most two-letter abbreviations: U.S., U.N., U.K., B.A., B.C. (AP, a trademark, is an exception. Also, no periods in GI and EU.) In headlines, do not use periods in abbreviations, unless required for clarity. Use all caps, but no periods, in longer abbreviations when the individual letters are pronounced: ABC, CIA, FBI. Exception: Abbreviations are sometimes desirable and even necessary in tabulations and certain types of technical writing. See also entry for academic degrees and titles. academic degrees Periods are always used when abbreviating academic degrees and certifications: B.S. F.A.A.N., M.S., M.D., etc. Even when an acronym/degree is long or unwieldy, the punctuation is still retained. (AP Style makes an exception for MBA where periods are not used. These guidelines do not follow that exception for consistency and to avoid confusion.) Periods may be used in databases where space is constrained. academic health center The preferred description for OHSU and the most encompassing because of its distinguishing make-up as a free-standing health institution that also conducts research and provides care. Do not add ‘public’ before this description as OHSU is the only academic health center in Oregon, whether public or private. acknowledgment No e after the g when adding a suffix. addresses Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues. All similar words (alley, drive, road, terrace, etc.) are spelled out. Capitalize them when part of a formal name without a number; lowercase when used alone or with two or more names. Always use figures for an address number: 9 Morningside Circle. Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures for 10th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St. Abbreviate compass points used to indicate directional ends of a street or quadrants of a city in a numbered address: 222 E. 42nd St., 562 W. 43rd St., 600 K St. NW. Do not abbreviate if the number is omitted: East 42nd Street, West 43rd Street, K Street Northwest. Use periods in the abbreviation P.O. for P.O. Box numbers. afterward Not afterwards. among/between Use between for two people or things. Use among for more than two: • Put the sign-in sheet between the name tags and the fliers. • I sat between Paul and Susan. • I found the book among the binders, folders and boxes. • Mark, Amy and I are among the newest employees. ampersand Uses in text always require spelling out and. The ampersand should not be used in place of and. Use an ampersand when it is part of a company’s formal name or composition title: House & Garden, Procter & Gamble, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. In limited instances some units with long names may receive permission to visually represent their unit name with an ampersand with the OHSU master brand logo, or in header space online. apostrophes Use apostrophes for possessives, not plurals, except with single letters. • She got straight A’s. Mind your p’s and q’s. • I’m at my wits’ end. • She learned her ABCs. He’s among the VIPs. • Doernbecher is an excellent children’s hospital. assure, ensure, insure (from the AP) Assure: to make sure or give confidence. She assured us the statement was accurate. Ensure: to guarantee. Steps were taken to ensure accuracy. Insure: refers only to insurance. The policy insures his life. attributions with quotes Use a consistent tense, says or said, throughout any given written communication. See also, entry under tense. Use the conversational Smith said instead of said Smith unless you have additional information to add after the name: “We won’t tolerate any more of these shenanigans,” said Jones. The words said and says suffice for most attributions. Next most common: added or adds. Words such as explained, commented and advised should be used sparingly. Attributions should be included after the first sentence of a quote when possible, for readers to know who’s talking. The balance of attributions should be either before the quote: Said Smith, “We’re very confident.” Or, very rarely, two sentences into the quote when an earlier attribution would spoil the flow of the quote. D Dashes/hyphens Take care to use an em dash, not a hyphen, when you’re setting off a phrase. Include a space before and after an em dash. If your keyboard doesn’t have an em dash, insert one from the Symbols menu in Word. • Phone listings: Use hyphens after area code and prefix. Do not use parentheses around area code. For example: 503-494-8311. • An em dash ( — ) with a space on either side is used to indicate an abrupt change in thought or an emphatic pause in a sentence. • A hyphen (-) is a word joiner. Use it to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words. dates and times Capitalize every month in all uses. When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out months when using alone, or with a year alone: The lectures will be held Feb. 16 and March 22 this year. Next year, both lectures will be held in February. When listing time of day: 11:30 a.m., 11 a.m. (not 11:00), 12 p.m. or noon, (never 12 noon). AP Stylebook encourages “noon” over 12 p.m. despite Preferred over “in spite of.” It means the same thing and is shorter. Doernbecher Children’s Hospital On first reference, call it OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. It can be Doernbecher Children’s Hospital or Doernbecher in later references. Never use DCH for an external audience. Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation Use full name or the acceptable shorter variation, the Doernbecher Foundation. The “the” is not capitalized except, when it begins a sentence. The Doernbecher Foundation is not a division within OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. It is a 501(c)(3) organization that exists to secure private philanthropic support for Doernbecher. doctor, physician In peer-to-peer communications, the term “physician’ is the preferred umbrella term for medical doctors, clearly distinguishing them from those who hold a doctoral degree in nursing, dentistry and research areas (Ph.D., D.N.Sc., D.D.S., D.V.M., etc.) but not a medical degree. Or consider using a physician specialty designation when appropriate: psychiatrist, surgeon, pediatrician, etc. Note: in patient communications, the term “doctor” is preferred as it is more universally understood as long as it will not be confused with other care practitioners with doctorate degrees in the narrative. On second reference, only the last name is used. See also, entry under academic degrees and titles. Down syndrome Do not refer to as Down’s syndrome. E each other/one another Use each other for two people or things. Use one another for more than two. • Chocolate and coffee were made for each other. • The five friends shared the candy with one another. email This is an acceptable term in all references for electronic mail. Use a hyphen with other e- terms: e-book, e-business, e-commerce. It’s redundant to refer to contacting someone “by email at joe@schmuck.com”. This also applies to telephone contact information. For example: Contact her at 503-494-8311 or Jane@ohsu.edu.” When writing for printed communications, do not underline e-mail addresses and URLs. Such formatting helps call attention to a hyperlink on the Web, but it serves no comparable purpose in print. employee Employees cover everyone who is employed at OHSU. If you are referring to students, volunteers or contractors, you should call them out separately. The term faculty is appropriate when referring to clinical, academic and/or research faculty, but faculty should not be used as a category distinct from employees; faculty is one category of employee. Likewise, staff is appropriate in many circumstances, including medical staff, nursing staff and clinical staff. Staff is also appropriate when referring to any other defined group of employees. An exception is on the Tuality campus, where medical staff are considered a separate category. exclamation point Use to make an emphatic point: to express a high degree of surprise, incredulity or other strong emotion. Avoid overuse: Use a comma after mild interjections. End mildly exclamatory sentences with a period. For placement within quotes: Place the mark inside quotation marks when it is part of the quoted material: “How wonderful!” he exclaimed. “Never!” she shouted. Place the mark outside quotation marks when it is not part of the quoted material: I hated reading Spenser’s “Faerie Queene”! F face-lift fewer/less Use fewer for individual and indivisible items, such as people. Use less for divisible and bulk quantities, such as time and money. • We have fewer than five pediatric neurosurgeons. • I need to hear fewer excuses. • I have less than $5 in my pocket. • We have to leave in less than an hour. forward Not forwards. fund-raising, fund raising, fund raiser Hyphenate when used as a modifier. No hyphen when you’re using as a noun or to indicate the individual doing the fund raising. “Fund-raising campaigns should never be launched without careful planning” (as adjective). “Fund raising is harder than it looks” (noun indicating act of raising funds). “Fund raisers have great people skills” (noun indicating person doing the fund raising). H headings Use title case for headings. Capitalize the principal words, including verbs, prepositions and conjunctions of four letters or more. See also the capitalization entry. health care Two words except in the use of proper nouns, as in Tuality Healthcare or OHSU Healthcare. Health care provider Use the term health care provider to generally refer to physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and other providers of clinical care to patients. HIPAA HIPAA refers to the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. A common error is to spell this term “HIPPA” – be sure it has one ‘p’ and two ‘a’s. OHSU communications that are patient-focused should include the following statement: OHSU protects the privacy of its patients’ personal health information. If you would like a copy of the OHSU Notice of Privacy Practices, please ask for a copy at your next visit or call 503-494- 8849. When appropriate, the following statement should be included on all patient-focused research materials where clinical trial participation may be requested: OHSU protects the privacy of its patients’ and research participants’ personal health information. If you would like a copy of the OHSU Notice of Privacy Practices, please ask for a copy at your next visit or call 503-494-8849. hyphen See the dashes/hyphens entry. I in, of Professor of obstetrics and gynecology, but instructor, research assistant or senior scientist in obstetrics and gynecology. J The Joint Commission Use The Joint Commission in place of its former designation as The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. judgment The e is dropped when adding a suffix. practice See clinic, practice entry. R rebut/refute Rebut means to argue against. Refute means to prove wrong. • Incorrect: She refuted his argument that cats make better pets than dogs. • Correct: He rebutted the idea that a higher minimum wage would cost jobs. • Correct: DNA evidence refuted the defendant’s claim that he wasn’t in the apartment. recur, recurred, recurring, recurrence Not reoccur. referring providers When writing for referring provides, refer to the relationship as a collaboration (not a partnership; that term has legal ramifications that would need to be vetted by Legal Affairs before use). Refer to a referring provider’s patient as “your patient.” This shows our respect for referring providers’ relationships with their patients, recognizing they remain their patient’s health care provider even after referral. S safety belt, seat belt Two words. Shriners Hospital The Portland Shriners Hospital is part of Shriners Hospitals for Children, a network of pediatric specialty hospitals founded by the Shrine fraternity. Use the Portland Shriners Hospital on first reference and “Shriners Hospital” on subsequent references. Avoid calling the hospital simply Shriners to prevent confusion with the fraternity itself. Shriners is not a part of OHSU although some faculty members have joint appointments there. size OHSU is Portland’s largest employer and one of the largest employers in Oregon. OHSU is not the largest employer in the tri-county or Portland metropolitan area. See also entry on boilerplate language. staff See employee entry. subheadings Use sentence case. Only the first word and proper nouns start with a capital letter. Subheadings can be slightly longer than headings if needed, but shorter is better. Think of them as headlines, not complete sentences. See also the capitalization entry. subsite suspensive hyphenation When both items in a pair of hyphenated phrases have a common element, the first instance of that element can be omitted, without erasing the connection; the incomplete phrase is implied to have the same form as the complete one. For example: Only 3- and 4-year-olds are eligible for the new preschool. T telephone numbers Use figures and hyphens, not parenthesis: 212-621-1500. For international numbers use 011 (from the United States), the country code, the city code and the telephone number: 011-44-20-7535-1515. Use hyphens, not periods. The form for toll-free numbers: 800-111-1000. If extension numbers are needed, use a comma to separate the main number from the extension: 212-621- 1500, ext. 2. On ohsu.edu, phone numbers should be coded for users to access from a smartphone: that, which See the essential clauses, nonessential clauses entry in the AP Stylebook for rules governing the use of these words to introduce clauses. tense Tense is an inflectional form of a verb expressing a specific time distinction. See more at Websters dictionary to understand future tense, past tense, perfect tense, present tense. Be consistent in your writing and avoid changing the tense in the middle of your work. times See entry in dates and times. titles (professional) Most faculty in the schools have an academic appointment to a department and a corresponding academic title. The order of rank from top to bottom is: professor, associate professor, assistant professor, senior instructor, instructor. Clinical professor (associate or assistant) is a faculty title that means the individual is a volunteer faculty member who is not an OHSU employee but has clinical practice privileges at OHSU. Adjunct may be used for part-time faculty (less than .5 FTE) and for faculty whose primary affiliation is not with OHSU. Faculty who have a clinical appointment (“chief of cardiology,” for example) usually have an academic appointment as well; for example, professor of medicine (cardiology). Faculty with an academic appointment, however, do not necessarily have a clinical appointment. When writing faculty names and titles: • Order of doctoral degrees: Doctoral degrees are listed in the order earned after the faculty member’s name. • Order of credentials: name, academic degrees, department appointment (followed by a division, if relevant, in parenthesis): Jorge Murch, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine (cardiothoracic), School of Medicine, and chief of surgery, OHSU Hospital. • Multiple titles: Use the title most relevant to the topic first. Example: “The research results surpassed expectations, said John Carry, M.D., an associate professor of medicine (cardiology) at the School of Medicine.” But: “Smith’s heart condition is not life threatening, according to his cardiologist, John Carry, M.D.” If there are multiple titles and it is cumbersome to mention them all at once, consider using a shorter version highlighting the person’s area of expertise (... “according to orthodontist Steve Snapple, D.M.D.”) and adding the formal title and/or an additional appointment in a subsequent reference: “Such complications are rare, added Snapple, professor of orthodontics and the Hershey Professor of Orthodontia at the OHSU School of Dentistry.” • Academic titles: The use of academic titles is recommended in most cases (including name of school and department and division if applicable): If the title is long and cumbersome to use in the communication, put it at the end of the story with a note: “Details, Joe Smith, M.D., professor of medicine (cardiology) in the OHSU School of Medicine; head of the Division of Cardiology.” • Computer science titles: The three broad categories are software engineers, computer engineers (who concentrate on hardware) and computer scientists. The latter, however, may be either of the previous two, or they may work at the intersection of hardware and software, or they may devote themselves to theoretical issues. Best to ask for the individual’s preference. • Courtesy titles: In peer-to-peer publications (e.g. scientific publications), do not use courtesy titles, e.g. Dr. In other publications (particularly, patient-facing communications), it is appropriate to use courtesy titles as long as it will not be confusing that they are not another classification of employee with a doctorate degree such as nurse practitioners, scientists and dentists. • Capitalization of titles: See entry under capitalization. Titles of leaders in academic areas: OHSU’s major units are divided into departments. The Schools of Dentistry and Medicine have basic science and clinical departments. An academic department is accountable to a chairman or chairwoman. A division is accountable to a head. A clinical department is accountable to a chief. Most academic departments are divided into divisions, which are overseen by division heads. Divisions may have further sub-divisions, which are divided into programs, labs or sections. Titles of leaders in clinical areas: Clinical departments have clinics and other patient care activities. Some units have other designations other than department, including divisions, sections and centers (e.g. Alzheimer’s Center, Parkinson’s Center). Sections, labs, centers, institutes and clinics are led by directors. See also, entry on centers and institutes. total, totaled, totaling Do not double the t when adding a suffix. Tourette syndrome Not Tourettes. toward Not towards. U use (v.) Always preferred over utilize. It means the same thing and is shorter. V voicemail