| Course | HCS 120 Medical Terminology for Health Care Professionals (HCS/120) |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Terminology application paper |
| Length | about 1,028 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Health Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HCS 120 Week 2
Twelve Words From One Discharge Summary: Breaking Down Cardiovascular and Respiratory Terms and Rewriting Them in Plain Language for a Patient Going Home With Heart Failure
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
HCS/120: Medical Terminology for Health Care Professionals
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The patient and the discharge summary are composites written for a model paper.
A discharge summary is written by clinicians for clinicians, yet it often ends up in a patient's hands. This paper uses a composite summary for a 71-year-old man leaving the hospital after treatment for heart failure. The summary reads, in part: "Patient admitted with acute decompensated heart failure secondary to dilated cardiomyopathy, presenting with dyspnea, orthopnea and bilateral lower extremity edema. Chest radiograph showed cardiomegaly and a small right pleural effusion. Tachycardia and hypoxemia resolved with diuresis." Twelve terms from this summary are analyzed below by body system, each followed by a plain-language version for the patient and his daughter.
Cardiovascular Terms
Cardiomyopathy: cardi (heart) + my/o (muscle) + -pathy (disease). A disease of the heart muscle; in the dilated form, the heart's main pumping chamber stretches and weakens (Ehrlich et al., 2021). Plain language: "The muscle of your heart has become stretched and weak, so it does not pump as strongly as it should."
Cardiomegaly: cardi/o (heart) + -megaly (enlargement). An enlarged heart, seen here on the chest X-ray. Plain language: "Your heart looks larger than normal on the X-ray."
Tachycardia: tachy- (fast) + cardi (heart) + -ia (condition). A heart rate faster than 100 beats per minute at rest. Plain language: "Your heart was beating too fast."
Edema: from the Greek for swelling. Fluid collecting in tissues, here in both lower legs, which the summary calls bilateral lower extremity edema. Bi- means two and later- means side. Plain language: "Both of your lower legs were swollen with extra fluid."
Decompensated: de- (removal or reversal) + compensated. The heart can no longer make up for its weakness, so symptoms appear or worsen. Plain language: "Your heart could no longer keep up, and that is why you felt so sick."
Diuresis: di- (through or complete) + ur (urine) + -esis (condition or process). Increased production of urine, usually caused by medication, to remove extra fluid. Plain language: "We gave you medicine to make you pass more urine and get rid of extra fluid."
Secondary to: not a medical word part, but a common phrase meaning caused by. Plain language: "because of."
Respiratory Terms
Dyspnea: dys- (difficult or painful) + -pnea (breathing). Difficult or labored breathing. Plain language: "You were short of breath."
Orthopnea: orth/o (straight or upright) + -pnea (breathing). Shortness of breath when lying flat that improves when sitting up, a typical sign of fluid in the lungs in heart failure. Plain language: "It was hard to breathe when you lay down flat."
Pleural effusion: pleur (the membrane around the lungs) + effusion (escape of fluid). Fluid collecting in the space between the two layers of the pleura. Plain language: "Some fluid had collected around the bottom of your right lung."
Hypoxemia: hyp- (below normal) + ox (oxygen) + -emia (blood condition). A low level of oxygen in the blood. Plain language: "The oxygen in your blood was lower than it should be."
Radiograph: radi/o (X-ray) + -graph (instrument or record). An X-ray image. Plain language: "X-ray picture."
Testing the Plain-Language Versions
Federal guidance on plain language recommends short sentences, common words, active voice and addressing the reader directly (National Institutes of Health, n.d.). Each version above uses words a reader would hear in everyday speech, speaks to the patient as "you" and stays under 20 words. None of the plain versions tells the patient what to do; they explain what happened, and instructions stay with the nurse and the discharge teaching sheet, which keeps an administrative writer from giving medical advice.
Why Translation Matters
The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that 14% of American adults had below basic health literacy and another 22% had only basic skills, while just 12% were proficient (Kutner et al., 2006). An adult at the basic level can follow simple written instructions but would struggle with a sentence like the one that opens this summary. In that same survey, the oldest group of adults, those past 65, scored below every younger age group on average. A patient going home with heart failure has to weigh himself, watch for swelling and recognize worsening breathlessness, so understanding the words in his papers is part of staying out of the hospital.
Where the Two Systems Meet
The summary's terms show why the cardiovascular and respiratory systems are often studied together. When the weakened heart muscle cannot move blood forward, pressure backs up into the vessels of the lungs, and fluid leaks into lung tissue and the pleural space. That explains why a heart disease produced breathing symptoms: dyspnea, orthopnea and hypoxemia. It also explains why diuresis, a treatment aimed at the kidneys, relieved them. Seeing the chain of cause across systems helps an administrative reader understand why a heart failure patient might be scheduled for both a cardiology and a pulmonary follow-up, and why daily weights appear in the discharge instructions. Terminology is easier to learn when each word is attached to the part of the body where the problem happens and to the part where it shows.
What Managers Can Do
Health administrators control much of what patients read. A manager can ask that discharge summaries given to patients include a plain-language section, review patient education materials for reading level before they are printed, and train front-line staff in teach-back, where the patient repeats the key points back so staff can hear what landed. Each step reduces the distance between the language of the chart and the language of the kitchen table. None of these changes requires a clinician to stop using precise terms with other clinicians; it only asks that the version handed to the patient be written for the patient.
Conclusion
Twelve terms from one discharge summary cover the heart, blood vessels, lungs and fluid balance. Breaking each into its parts makes it understandable to a health care worker; rewriting each in plain words makes it understandable to the patient. Both skills belong to health administration, where the language of the body shows up in records, bills and letters to patients every day.
References
Ehrlich, A., Schroeder, C. L., Ehrlich, L., & Schroeder, K. A. (2021). Medical terminology for health professions (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Kutner, M., Greenberg, E., Jin, Y., & Paulsen, C. (2006). The health literacy of America's adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NCES 2006-483). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf
National Institutes of Health. (n.d.). Plain language at NIH. https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-office-director/office-communications-public-liaison/clear-communication/plain-language
What the HCS 120 Week 2 instructions ask
HCS 120 Week 2 usually asks students to apply medical terminology to body systems. Common versions include a vocabulary exercise on anatomy and physiology terms, a worksheet that matches terms to systems and defines them, or a short paper that analyzes terms from a medical record or article and explains them in plain language. The prompt typically expects students to show word-part analysis, not only definitions, and to connect terms to the structure and function of the body system involved. Some sections ask students to explain why patients need terms translated, linking terminology to communication and health literacy. The expected length is usually one to three pages, with the course text and at least one other credible source cited in APA style.
How this HCS 120 Week 2 example is built
The sample starts with the discharge summary in a few sentences so the reader sees the terms in context. The twelve terms are grouped by system, seven cardiovascular and five respiratory, and each is handled the same way: word parts, meaning, the structure or function involved and a plain-language version. Terms include cardiomyopathy, tachycardia, edema, dyspnea, orthopnea and pleural effusion. A section then tests the plain-language versions against a short checklist for patient materials drawn from federal guidance. A health literacy section uses national assessment data to explain why about a third of adults would struggle with the original summary. The paper closes with three things a health care manager can change in written materials.
HCS 120 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
Faculty usually grade this assignment on accuracy first: correct word-part analysis, correct definitions and correct placement of each term in its body system. A second block of points goes to application, meaning the terms are used in a realistic health care context and explained clearly for the intended audience. Organization matters because a list of terms can become hard to follow; grouping by system and using the same pattern for each term helps. APA formatting and citations account for the rest. Papers that define terms correctly but never connect them to the body system, or that translate terms into language that is still technical, tend to lose points. Accurate spelling of terms is checked closely in this course.
HCS 120 Week 2 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often lose points in HCS 120 Week 2 by defining terms without breaking them into parts, which is the skill the course is teaching. Show the prefix, root and suffix every time. Another common error is confusing similar terms, such as dyspnea and dysphagia or hypertension and hypotension; check each against the course text. Plain-language rewrites sometimes keep jargon, such as saying fluid in the pleural space; test your version by asking whether a neighbor would understand it. Avoid giving medical advice in patient versions. Keep terms grouped by system so the grader can follow. Finally, spell every term exactly, since one letter can change the meaning, and cite the source you used for definitions.
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HCS 120 Week 2 questions, answered
What does HCS/120 Week 2 usually ask for?
Many sections ask students to apply medical terminology to body systems, often by analyzing and defining terms from a record or article and explaining them in plain language.
Where can I find a free HCS 120 Week 2 sample paper?
The complete Week 2 sample on this page translates twelve cardiovascular and respiratory terms from a discharge summary, with notes beside each step. Send your own list of terms and the desk will build a first custom sample free.
What is the difference between dyspnea and orthopnea?
Dyspnea is difficult or labored breathing in general, while orthopnea is breathlessness that comes on when lying flat and eases when sitting or standing up.
Why translate medical terms for patients?
National data show that many adults have limited health literacy, so written materials full of medical terms can leave patients unsure how to care for themselves at home.
What does the suffix -megaly mean?
It means enlargement, as in cardiomegaly, an enlarged heart, or hepatomegaly, an enlarged liver.
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