FILIPINO NURSING STUDENTS' CHALLENGES AND

TECHNIQUES IN LEARNING JARGONS

Aljon Delmo Galang, LPT

Philippine Normal University – City of Manila
[email protected]

Elmer Santos De Guzman, RN, MAN, LPT

Bulacan State Univesity – City of Malolos
[email protected]

ABSTRACT Learning a jargon is indeed one of the most challenging facets in any field of
specialization such as nursing, especially to novices. As they face this challenge, they tend to
develop adaptive techniques vital in their studies. Nonetheless, being a practical source of learning
experiences, identifying these challenges and techniques is significant to improve the edification
process in the discipline. Hence, the study aims to narrate and analyze the challenges and
techniques of fifteen (15) Filipino nursing student participants in learning jargons. This qualitative
investigation used narrative research approach to retell the stories of the participants as they
overcome the language demands of the nursing studies. Findings reveal that the challenges
experienced by the participants are: (a) learning jargons, (b) word unfamiliarity, (c) schema
insufficiency, and (d) their phonetic and orthographic perplexities. To address those, they read
references, search on the Internet, and rely on memorization and familiarization through recall
techniques and with nursing interlocutors. The empirical exploration was done to provide
meaningful insights and inputs to clinical instruction through the lens of language learning,
benefiting both instructors and students of nursing.

Keywords: Learning challenges and techniques, language learning, nursing jargons

L
A. INTRODUCTION
inguistic edification does not only happen in the first, second, nor foreign language
classes; it also occurs in the different fields of human endeavor such as nursing
(Mitchell, Del Fabbro, & Shaw, 2017). As the students explore such science at the
tertiary level, they are educated with words that extrapolate the simplest to the most complex
concepts of nursing and other scientific fields. These expertise-exclusive words are called
jargons. Though useful in different disciplines in maintaining and synthesizing authentic
concepts from its existing knowledge reservoir, this technical lexicon frequently becomes areas
of both linguistic and learning barriers to the fields' novices (Sharon, & Baram-Tsabari, 2013).
As new sets of technical lexemes are supposed to be learned, the students are driven to absorb
those to become academically dexterous in nursing, entailing jargon bombardment. However,
though it may appear to be challenging, nursing students still manage to survive these perplexing
linguistic episodes. Nonetheless, the target is to know how they overcome such challenge.
As mentioned, learning language does not only happen in language classes; it extends in
other fields. Different disciplines use different jargons. These words are coined in social and
natural sciences to elucidate related abstractions (Hirst, 2003). New phenomena are also

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explained based on the existing technical terms. This leads to the realization of language
creativity (Bell, 2012). This is a linguistic particularly morphological phenomenon in which new
words are formed out of the existing words. For instance, in the exigency of describing a medical
condition in which there is an increased level of sodium in the blood, the words ‘hyper’
(increase), ‘natr’ (sodium), and ‘emia’ (blood) are combined to form ‘hypernatremia’. In
medicine, as varied conditions occur, the need to capture those in words increases (Henry,
Zaner, & Dittus, 2007). Hence, the nursing lexical reservoir expands. While this happens,
nursing students are affected since they need to learn more technical terms, increasing the
learning challenge level. However challenging it may seem, students still manage to go through
this process.
In such cases, studying learning adaptation patterns is indeed vital (Mendoza-Nápoles,
2020). When nursing students involve themselves in the process learning, they develop coping
mechanisms helpful to accomplish the targets of the curriculum and instruction. Aware and
unaware of learning techniques, they find ways to overcome the challenges of learning, including
jargon bombardment. Examples of such techniques are heavy memorization with mnemonics,
analysis of morphemic structure, and context clues. Heavy memorization is indeed one of the
techniques to make one’s word bank updated and expanding (Khamees, 2016). This allows
learners to remember jargons with their book-verbatim or keyword definitions. This goes with
mnemonics. These are creative, more often than not personal way of remembering numerous
related words (González, Goñi-Artola, & Campos, 2020). They may be in the form of acronyms
and sentences. For example in management of asthma, the acronym ASTHMA is used to recall
Adrenergic, Steroids, Theophylline, Hydration (IV), Mask O2, Anticholinergics. Furthermore,
in remembering the cranial nerves such as olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal,
abducens, facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharynx, vagus, accessory, and hypoglossal in
sequence when they are explored from the nose to the glottis, the sentence “Only Overgrown
Orangutans Try To Aggravate Fat Vagrants Getting Vodka And Hamburgers” is commonly
used. Another one is analysis of morphemic structure. This technique requires heavy
memorization since it is impossible to analyze the words without knowing the meaning of
individual Greco-Latin morphemes (Pookcharoen, 2007). Once they develop a strong morpho-
lexical foundation, understanding complex jargon formation becomes possible. The third is
context clues. Since words appear in references used with other commonplace words, the
students in language classes are able to identify their meanings.

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B. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Heavy memorization and mnemonics are indeed commonly used in learning unfamiliar
words in any languages. In fact, this is usually of great value in foreign languages especially when
the target languages are not of the same linguistic family as that of learners’ mother tongue.
Word memorization is challenging because this requires sharp memory. This becomes
problematic when learners are poor at memorizing. However, it can be aided with note-taking.
A Baconian notion highlights that if an individual easily forgets, one needs to be good at writing
at least. Furthermore, as mentioned, using mnemonics is very useful to learners to increase
retention and recall when there is a need to pull out unfamiliar or hifalutin words such as jargons.
In learning nursing jargons, memorization along with mnemonics is indeed evident.
Nursing students primarily rely on memorization. They see it as a way to overcome the challenge
of learning jargons. The habit of jotting down notes creates a way of journaling technical term
entries. Mnemonics are also helpful to the students since they serve as creative tools to recall
field-related jargons.
A morphemic analysis is a technique in language learning used to decipher word meaning
by analyzing the lexeme’s parts. The base, root words, and affixes are examined to identify the
meaning of the formed words. However, as mentioned, this technique is also dependent of the
heavy memorization. It may be challenging especially to those learners who have limited lexical
reservoir. Nonetheless, this is an edge to advance learners as it is easier for them to identify new
words as they know sufficient lexemes. Among nursing students, this technique is practiced.
Once they know the meaning of jargons’ morphemes, it becomes easier for them to decipher
the definitions of these words.
Another one is context clues. In learning reading, one of the things to remember is to make
use of what words surround the unfamiliar word to know the meaning. As such word is placed
with commonplace ones, the learner is guided as he or she reads the text at hand. In fact, this
technique is usually included in reading skill improvement classes. This is believed to improve
the reading comprehension skills of learners. The same as the first two presented techniques,
this is used by nursing students to enhance their ability to understand jargons.
Moreover, it must be noted that learning jargons is indeed important to nursing students.
As highlighted, this allows them to understand the complexities of their fields. The jargon lexical
insufficiency can lead to comprehension incompetence that may entail the inability to perform
nursing tasks appropriately expected of them. Thus, this must be addressed in the instruction.
Nonethless, this concern about nursing students and jargon learning is not highlighted even it

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is necessary in the program. However, there are studies in which nurses and/or nursing students’
language ability is emphasized.
In an Australian study, the performance of nursing students in the International English
Language Testing System (IELTS) and Occupational English Test (OET) was investigated. The
study was conducted to the two language tests in Australia. This also examined the relationship
between the educational background and language proficiency of the test taker nurses (Müller,
2016).
Furthermore, in an American study, the ability of the nursing students to deal with Latino
patients was checked considering their communication skills and Latino culture comfortability.
This study aimed to provide inputs to improve patient care (Sherrill & Mayo, 2014). In another
study conducted in the United States, a study claims that nurse educators need to provide
programs that will hone culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) nurses. This is to address
the apparent growing multicultural population in the country (Fuller, 2013). Moreover, an
empirical investigation was conducted among Mexican-Amerivan nursing students. The study
explored their language proficiency and academic performance mediated by academic networks.
In such exploration, it was found out that English language proficiency was not significant in
academic performance, but their network was (Torregosa et al., 2015).
Lastly, in another study conducted in Australia, a workshop on English as a second
language was implemented among nursing students. It targeted the students’ writing skills.
Eventually, this program was evaluated and found out that it effectively improved their writing
skills the same as their Australian counterparts (Salamonson et al., 2010).
In the previous studies reviewed, there has been no study conducted concerning the
challenges that nursing students face in learning jargons and how they overcome such challenges.
Hence, this study aims to narrate the challenges and techniques of the nursing student
participants in learning jargons. This investigation seeks to answer the questions: (a) What are
the challenges encountered by nursing student participants in learning jargons? (b) How do they
overcome these challenges?
This investigation is done to provide insights to clinical instructors and nursing students
on how these challenging words may be learned better as the experiences of the participants are
considered.

C. METHOD

This qualitative study used the narrative research approach to re-tell the participants’ special
episodes in taking nursing subjects as they faced challenges in learning jargons and used

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techniques to overcome such struggles. This research method was employed in his study as the
process aims to capture specific realities of specialized language learning among nursing
students. Narrative research is utilized when the study pursues to re-story the important and/or
learning events in individuals’ lives, insightful to a field of study (Creswell, 2012).
Furthermore, the investigation used the purposive sampling technique as it targeted nursing
students. Purposive sampling is used when there are inclusive criteria to be satisfied in
participant selection (Fraenkel, & Wallen, 2009). There were fifteen (15) Filipino nursing
student participants chosen from different levels. Five (5) were chosen from each level, from
first to third-year level. During the conduct of the study, there was no participants from the
fourth or last year level due to additional two years in basic education.
The narratives of the participants were gathered through an online questionnaire. The story
responses were eventually analyzed, coded, and arranged into themes. Member checking was
also done to ensure that the data were re-storied appropriately. Out of the themes, the
challenges and techniques in learning jargons are identified.

D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This section of the study presents the themes that emerged from the nursing student
participants’ stories of challenges and techniques in learning jargons. Each theme highlights the
episodes of leaning technical such as the challenges in understanding jargons, unfamiliarity,
schema insufficiency, and their phonetic and orthographic perplexities, and their techniques
such as reading references, searching on the Internet, and memorization and familiarization
through recall techniques and with nursing interlocutors.

Challenge 1: Understanding Jargons

Understanding is indispensable in learning. Failure to understand the concepts of a target

lesson entails failure to achieve the optimal learning. Jargons are indeed vital in describing
medical conditions needed to improve the field, concretely in broadening of nursing knowledge,
skill and patient care. However, as much as these technical words help, they can also hinder
learning the existing indispensable concepts in nursing (Willoughby, Johnson, & Sterman, 2020).
As the participants confirm, understanding these words is challenge for them to overcome. In
fact, this is what Participant 1 said.

“It's difficult to understand every jargons in nursing subjects especially if you haven't read enough.
It is challenging for me as a first year nursing student to understand those jargons used in our

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discussions because I got easily overwhelmed with all the unfamiliar words and also I am still not
able to memorize and understand all of them in sit (Participant 1, Excerpt 1).”

Participant 1 also added that these words are intimidating and difficult for a first-year
nursing student to deal with especially, during discussions. This language alienation immediately
defeats the learners’ confidence in learning the subject matter and forces them to memorize
intensively (Fushino, 2010). As Participant 2 mentioned, there are numerous jargons to learn in
physiology and anatomy as the human body is very complex that its subparts must be labeled
and understood. The participant narrated, “As a first-yea, I find it hard to understand terms
only used in the medical field. There are terms that I have to search for when discussed
especially, in anatomy and physiology (Excerpt 2).”
Even Participants 4 and 13 agreed that understanding jargons is difficult. In fact, the two
even believed that having less knowledge of the terms can lower the level of confidence of the
students especially, in the first-year level and even in higher levels. Questioning one’s self if one
understands the word is also the result of such perplexity.

“Jargon for me as a freshman is difficult to understand since these are usually a specialized
vocabulary that will only understood by experiencing it or through studying. Thus, when I first
encountered various medical terms on which I'm not familiar with I felt confused because I do not
know if I comprehend it right (Participant 4, Excerpt 3).”

“Some jargons are difficult to understand especially when communicating with other
students in lower levels because some of them may not know the meaning of the jargons being used
by the higher level as well as the higher levels with their professors (Participant 13, Excerpt 4).”

Furthermore, Participant 3 confirmed that some familiar words can be encountered in

studying nursing subjects as they may be in daily mainstream conversations. Hence, they can
promptly be learned, but it is a struggle to fully grasp their meaning. Hence, the participant
resorts to tedious researching of the words and their definitions.

“Most of the words are unfamiliar and although I already heard of some terms, I still do not
fully understand them. There are many times where I would need to search the definition on Google
amidst discussion so I can keep up with it (Participant 3, Excerpt 5).”

In the Philippines universities and colleges, nursing programs are primarily taught in
English. Thus, if the learner is not good at he language, he or she may find studying the courses
challenging. Since jargons are extrapolated in English, the learning struggle intensifies. In fact,
Participant 7 highlighted that English is her waterloo. Hence, when the instructor discusses the
lessons in which jargons are used, she finds it difficult to understand the key concepts well. The

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participant said, “I’m not good in English generally. The clinical instructor often used medical
terms in teaching their lessons. So I find it hard to understand those words (Excerpt 6).”
In other words, these participants observe that understanding jargons, though vital to learn
the nursing courses, is challenging. As revealed, they struggle and exert a lot of effort to learn
these jargons as they know the importance of these words in their field of specialization.

Challenge 2: Jargon Unfamiliarity and Lack of Schemata

It is indeed apparent that familiarity is necessary for anguage learning. If the words are
familiar to the ears of the learners, they are most likely easier to learn especially, those in the
language mainstream (Brouwer, 2012). Nonetheless, it is going to be hard for the learners to
count in the words in their lexicon if the words are too hifalutin to them. This is true among
the nursing student participants. The unfamiliarity of words is indeed a challenge to them. In
fact, Participant 4 said, “Unfamiliarity is one of the challenges I encountered in learning jargons.
Sometimes, some words and phrases are very unfamiliar to me that it is hard to remember and
understand (Excerpt 7).” This also claim is made by Participant 3. She further elucidated that
unfamiliarity was her problem as there was a misalignment between her senior high school
strand and nursing. Hence, she was unfamiliar with nursing jargons.

“Learning jargons is quite hard for me especially because I did not take STEM strand on SHS
(Senior High School). Instead, I took ICT (Information Communication Technology) and the
terms we use there are completely different from the jargons in nursing. Most of the words are
unfamiliar and although I already heard of some terms, I still do not fully understand them
(Participant 3, Excerpt 8).”

Moreover, as jargons are unfamiliar to the learners, this may entail that they cannot use
them to understand wider contexts. These words are the fundamental elements to grasp a simple
to a complex medical condition and/or phenomenon, they may hamper learning instead.
Furthermore, the words may be subtly different, but they appear to be the same in meaning.
This leads to confusion among learners, as confirmed by Participant 4.

“Unfamiliarity is one of the challenges I encountered in learning jargons. Some words and phrases
are very unfamiliar to me that it is hard to remember and understand sometimes. I also have a
hard time to learn new words because of it sometimes have a very close definition in some jargons.
It is hard to distinguish and differentiate because it is almost the same (Participant 4, Excerpt
9).”

Schema is indispensable in learning any target knowledge or skill as this acts as the
foundation of more complex concepts. Without such, the learner cannot bridge from the lower
to higher level of proficiency (Van den Bosch, & Daelemans, 2013). This is also evident in

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nursing jargon learning. The absence of schema on technical terms hampers the fluidity of the
edification process. As Participant 5 asserted, the probability of learning jargons is gradual when
there is no enough schema.

“Jargon for me as a freshman is difficult to understand since these are usually a specialized
vocabulary that will only understood by experiencing it or through studying. Thus, when I first
encountered various medical terms on which I'm not familiar with I felt confused because I do not
know if I comprehend it right. Also, when you doesn't have an enough knowledge about the jargon
used in a sentence, it is very difficult to understand the whole scenario or the concept or an idea
that is being implied (Participant 5, Excerpt 10).”

This forces two (2) nursing student participants to rely heavily on the available references
on the Internet. They search for the definitions to know them. This is very tasky for them as it
eats up so much of their time. However, this is still common among the participants.

Most of the words are unfamiliar and although I already heard of some terms, I still do
not fully understand them. There are many times where I would need to search the definition on
Google amidst discussion so I can keep up with it (Participant 3, Excerpt 11).

As a student who is studying nursing, it is given that I will encounter a lot of nursing
jargons. Since it is a medical field, there are lots of words that I need to learn and understand.
There are words that I am not familiar that I need to search on Google to deeply understand what
it is (Participant 10, Excerpt 12).

However, Participant 14 also affirmed that though it is challenging to do so, it can still be
learned across time. She said, “At first, I find it hard since I'm not quite familiar with the word/s,
but as time goes by, I got used to it since I get to hear and use it in my daily life as a student
nurse (Excerpt 13).” Exposure to language is indeed one of the best ways to learn it. As years
of studying go on, nursing students learn these jargons as observed by the participant.

Challenge 3: Phonetic and Orthographic Perplexities

Aside from the semantics and pragmatics of jargons, two of their concerns are their
phonetics and orthography. De facto, most medical terms originate from Greek and Latin
(Wulff, 2004). This begins another challenge for nursing students unfamiliar with the phonetic
and orthographic systems of both languages. Participant 8 even said, “The challenges that I
encountered in learning jargons in mu nursing subjects are: sometimes there is a lack of source
in knowing the meaning of the jargon; too hard to pronounce. It is sometimes confusing to
spell it out (Excerpt 14). The learners are challenged to acquire these words as these are the
kernel languages of medicine. Participant 2 said that she tried repeating the video-recorded

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lectures, but still, she seemed forgetful of the terms, resulting in poor performance in learning
assessment.

“Some of the them are hard to spell as well. There are also times that I have to reread terms.
When I don't understand the meaning, I also re-watch recorded lectures. There are also times that
I forget about them and suddenly, they are included in quizzes and cannot answer them
(Participant 2, Excerpt 15).”

Nursing includes a lot of medicine branches, entailing that there are a lot of jargons to deal
with. Hence, pronouncing and spelling out jargons require a lot of effort to learn. This doubles
the task of the nursing students to focus more on studying as there are a lot of words to
remember.

“Some of the jargons are not easy to pronounce, so I will search for the proper pronunciation. In
addition the spelling is important, because some words can easily understand by knowing the root
word. The nursing subject that has a lot of jargons that I encountered is the pharmacology
(Participant 10, Excerpt 16).”
There are indeed a lot of challenges that a nursing student may encounter in terms of
learning jargons as he or she takes the program. In summary, the learners need to overcome the
challenges of understanding jargons’ meaning as they address their unfamiliarity of the terms
brought by lack of schemata and their phonetic and orthographic complexities. However, as
they experience such challenges, they develop techniques to overcome those.

Technique 1: Reading to Learn Jargons

Reading contributes a lot to learning new words. By nature, this skill is receptive. Through
it, words, simple ideas, and even other complex concepts are learned as it provides avenue for
a better sense of spelling and meaning. When done aloud with pronunciation guides, the
phonetics of these words can be learned better (Fowlert, Swainson, & Scarborough, 2004).
However, this also allows the learners to achieve better retention as they continue re-reading
these words along with using them in daily conversations.
Participant 1 claimed that she had overcome the challenge of learning jargons by
continuously reading these words from time to time to get familiarized and eventually learn
them. She said, “I overcome these challenges by simply reading enough and trying my best to
understand those jargons in nursing subjects (Excerpt 17). Furthermore, Participant 4
mentioned that reading allows her to improve her nursing jargon lexicon. As mentioned, this
skill is a way to improve both specialization expertise and vocabulary. The participant affirmed,
“ I also read some nursing books to learn and enhance my vocabulary (Excerpt 18).

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Along with the terms, it is also vital to be educated with their definitions. This can be
achieved by saying them repeatedly, regularly. In fact, Participant 6 said, “AfterI learned about
jargons I always try to read it and while reading it, I also state the meaning so that it will retain
on me (Excerpt 19).” Furthermore, Participant 14 narrated, “Like I've said, I used it on my daily
life as a student nurse and advance reading has also helped me adapt with those jargons (Excerpt
20).” When this skills develops into a habit, it can serve as an edge for learners. This allows
them to cope up with the challenges they face in studying nursing subjects with numerous
jargons.
In addition, as the words are used in the context, it becomes easier for the learners to
their meanings. Hence, they also use context clues to identify the meaning of the jargons.
Participant 3 shared, “However, in some instances, I find it difficult to understand with just a
simple definition. I had to find context ideas so I could understand more (Excerpt 21).” In this
way, the learner can identify the meaning instantaneously.

Technique 2: Searching on the Internet

Undeniably, the Internet is a source of an insurmountable volume of knowledge reservoir
that can edify especially the novices of various fields especially, in nursing (Gilmour, Scott, &
Huntington, 2007). It provides researchers with the information they need to accomplish any
academic endeavors. This allows them to view an extensive range of information that can add
to the students’ existing learning. As they explore the information they look for, they are also
exposed to the way these words are used in the context of nursing. Hence, this builds better
retention.
Participant 3 said, “I mostly search about its definition whenever I do not know a certain
term. It is a good method because it somehow gets retained on my brain whenever I do so
(Excerpt 22).” Searching for the jargons on the Internet help her develop better retention as
she is exposed to the textual context of the words. Furthermore, Participant 4 further shared,
“To overcome those challenges, I searched on the Internet for the jargons I have encountered.
I reviewed them and understood them (Excerpt 23).” She emphasized that in order to surpass
the challenge of jargon learning, it is important to constantly review those as words may be
forgotten when they are not used. However, though these words may be deciphered through
morphemic analysis, their uses in the context must still be learned. Participant 14 also had the
same technique.

“I analyze the situational question, or analyzing some familiar part of the word, for
example if the word is hematemesis I'll use the word ‘hema’ means blood then analyze the situation

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to know what ‘temesis’ is then after a quiz I'll search the meaning of the jargon on a browser
(Participant 14, Excerpt 24).”

Participant 7 also added, “In case that I don’t know or not familiar with that word, I used
Google to search for its meaning for me to understand it (Excerpt 25).” She narrated that along
with the terms, the meaning of the words is also searched as a word alone is not enough.

Technique 3: Memorization and Familiarization through Recall Techniques and with

Nursing and Other Interlocutors

As mentioned in the previous discussions, one of the least things that may be done to
overcome the challenge of learning jargon is memorization (Yusuf, 2010). It is tedious as it
requires sharp memory that may be challenging. However, though it may appear to be a serious
perplexity, it is essential to perform word structure and meaning analysis which is useful to learn
these jargons. In fact, Participant 10 shared, “Some words that have root word can help me to
understand the word. For example, the hyperthermia: ‘hyper’ meaning high, while ‘thermia’
means the temperature. These are the techniques that I used to analyze and understand the
nursing jargons (Excerpt 26).” Nonetheless, with some recall techniques such as noting,
mnemonic devices, listing difficult words, watching videos, and even collecting photos,
memorization leads to familiarization. As they memorize using the techniques, they also become
familiarized.

Furthermore, Participant 2 said that, “I write them in my reviewer and give their meanings.
I search for examples and where to use them. I also search for their pictures to have an
understanding of what they look like (Excerpt 27).” The participant does a combination of
techniques to learn jargons. Noting and listing down the challenging jargons along with their
meanings are also helpful. Since the words are sorted, focusing on them is not confusing
anymore. This is the habit that Participant 3 developed.

“Sometimes, I also list down the words that I don't understand. Then, I write down some
key words along with them so I could have a clue to whatever the term is. This technique also
helps me greatly especially when we need to memorize certain topics that are full of jargons
(Excerpt 28).”

As learning takes place better when most of the senses function, watching videos which
includes the sense of sight and hearing, is a good tool to learn more about the jargons. This
allows the learners to enjoy being educated with these words. Participant 5 shared, “I read some
resource books, watching learning videos and having lecture notes on lessons and concepts that

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having various jargon in order to familiarize to its uses and functions (Excerpt 29).” This is also
true wit Participant 2. She highlighted, “When I don't understand the meaning, I also re-watch
recorded lectures (Excerpt 30).”
However, familiarization can also be best achieved when these jargons are always used.
Word adeptness depends on the frequency of interlocutor use (Gablasova, 2014). When a field
novice interlocutor uses words with people who belong to the same discipline, they become
used to the words and the more chances that they use those. This is what Participant 6 narrated,
“Whenever I speak with my classmates or friends from CON (College of Nursing), we speak
using that so that we always familiarize ourselves on those jargons (Excerpt 31).” Participant 11
also shared, “I just tend to enjoy knowing such words, and also sharing it to my sister since I
remember things more when I share it to someone (Excerpt 32).” The more an individual
becomes exposed to the language, the more one deals with such and becomes knowledgeable
of it. The optimal jargon learning and acquisition can be achieved when these words are used
in class discussions and conversations with classmates and friends.

D. CONCLUSION

Nursing students encounter a lot of challenges as they learn in the subjects of their program,
especially in terms of jargon learning. They find it perplexing to learn jargons especially, those
that are not yet part of their schemata. Hence, if the students lack required lexemes, extra effort
is needed to learn jargons and this begins the challenge. Unfamiliarity and lack of schemata
become the main concerns of these learners. Another challenge that has been identified is the
difficulty in spelling and pronunciation. However, as discussed these can be overcome as years
of studying pass by.
Though there are some challenges to address, there are some techniques that the nursing
student participants use. Reading is still the best one for them as these provide extensive and
contextual examples in which the jargons are used. Another is the use of the Internet s a search
engine and information reservoir that provides the needed knowledge for the learners. They
also memorize and familiarize themselves with words through recall techniques and with
nursing interlocutors.
As the challenges and techniques emerge from the responses of the participants, they
become insights to improve the language facet of nursing studies. Clinical instructors may
consider and even highlight this matter as they teach in their classes. The nursing-field
curriculum developers may consider including a course in which students solely focus and learn

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about jargons. Through these in consideration, the improvement of nursing academics will be
possible.

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