Is it really a prick?

[Tooobvious]

Why are healthcare workers trained nowadays to say "just a little scratch" when they’re about to give an injection or take blood? It’s not a scratch at all, it’s a prick, which is what they used to call it.

AIBU to think they’re just too scared to say "a little prick" because they think it sounds rude or the start of a coarse joke?

YABU - it’s perfectly OK to call it a scratch even though it isn't one really
YANBU - they’re being over-sensitive and should call it a prick

Never feels like a scratch to you. To some people it doesn’t feel like a prick either….but that’s far more likely to generate an uncomfortable conversation with the GMC. Honestly, we literally can’t win some days.

Sharp scratch is what I was trained to say 18years ago 🤷‍♀️

I’m surprised your DD has never pricked herself on a pin or a bramble.

Do they actually need to say anything? We know what injections are, and anyone old enough to understand the words has had them before.

I was never keen on the word prick because it never felt like one to me. A scratch is more like it to me.

Nurse who did mine recently told me that they're not allowed. Scratch is the only way can be described.
Edit, she did say some other words they're not allowed to use but menopause brain of mine can't remember.

I do understand why they might not want to use "prick" because of possible sniggering, but it does annoy me that they use the word "scratch", which has a completely different meaning. A needle has just one focused point of entry into the skin, a scratch doesn’t.

I recently had to have some blood taken for routine tests and it actually did feel more like a scratch when the needle first went in.

I've had to have blood taken on numerous occasions and I've never noticed that before. Maybe it's a new technique. Whatever the reason, it was very painless and didn't bleed or bruise, which has sometimes happened in the past.

Well I graduated in the 80s and I don't recall being specifically taught to say anything in particular, but what I have always said is "sharp scratch" or, if I'm injecting local anaesthetic "sharp scratch and a sting". The purpose of saying anything is really only so that the patient knows what you're about to do and is less likely to pull their hand or arm away. I've never had anyone complain about the accuracy or otherwise of the description.As a PP said, we can't really know how any individual will perceive the sensation but "I'm now going to insert a needle/cannula into your vein/muscle" is a bit of a mouthful and "sharp scratch" seems to convey the message well enough to the vast majority of people in my experience.

Same 😂

How far back are you going? That film was from the late 50’s so if it’s the reason they stopped saying
prick it was over 60 years ago!

Because it sounds rude, which is exactly why I'd say it 😂There's no humour anymore, someone's got to keep it alive.

I would snigger. I'm 46. I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old boy 😂

Worked in NHS from early 80s, don’t think I ever said just a little prick, sharp scratch was definitely the norm

It’s a wee jag.

People are wimps. There’s far worse pain than a needle.

Did nursing training in the 70s, suddenly in the 90s not allowed to mention pricks with needles. Became a "sharp scratch", because people were offended.

Obviously she knows what it means, but she doesn't get the visual in her head when they use the euphemism apparently

Not very recently it hasn't; the pun is there in Shakespearean English! (The bawdy hand of time is on the prick of noon.) It is just that everybody "naice" politely ignored the double meaning for several centuries . . . .

But that is exactly what it often feels like.

I can’t look, so I don’t know if that’s what they do. But it definitely feels like it.

Seriously?
who is ‘offended’? 😂
especially as most hcps doing injections and taking blood are women so the old joke ‘just a little prick with a needle’ is irrelevant.

its silly - scratches have length to them. Needles prick.

This exactly!

Surely no need to say anything.

I can give local analgesia , I normally say , "Okay , breathe normally , you'll feel a scratch then it'll sting a bit . That's it working "

That would be me. Juvenile. Then my arms would jiggle and there'd be no chance of hitting the target.

I was told it's a consent thing not a discriptive statement as you can change your mind right up until the needle breaks the skin. I always ask them not to say it as it makes me jump and I'm there for the bloods anywag