Mind your pees and Qs! The NHS opts for earthier language as it argues that replacing words such as ‘nausea’ with ‘feeling sick’ could help to save lives
- NHS is making its wording more user-friendly based on a poll of 10,000 people
- Content designer Sara Wilcox said that using simpler language could save lives
- Words like pee and poo could now be used instead of urine and faeces
- Ms Wilcox said: ‘If someone with poor literacy understands blood in your poo, it might just save their life’
Language used on NHS websites is being made more understandable for patients.
The word nausea has been replaced by feeling sick, while a haemorrhage is to be referred to as a very heavy bleed.
The move is part of a drive to make NHS literature more user-friendly by September 2020. The writing guide was created based on feedback from more than 10,000 people who were polled on word use.
A new drive to make NHS websites more user-friendly has seen the word ‘nausea’ be replaced with ‘feeling sick’
In a blog post on the NHS Digital website, content designer Sara Wilcox argued that using simpler language could save lives.
She wrote: ‘We found that everyone understood pee and urine. People with higher literacy skills were slightly more likely to use urine and people with low literacy were more likely to prefer pee.
‘We know some people think we shouldn’t use words like pee and poo, but we haven’t seen anyone have problems knowing what we mean.
‘If someone with poor literacy understands blood in your poo, it might just save their life.’
Lee Monks of the Plain English Campaign told The Sun: ‘While we might be a little squeamish about certain terms, or consider them too simplistic, we’ve found that on occasion, terms like poo and vomiting are more useful to a particular audience.’