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The last word
rn If you think your job is stressful, you are right. In a study conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, nursing ranked 27th of 130 occupations based on admission rates of mental health centers. Of all occupations represented,hospital and health-related workers had the highest incidence of mental health problems. At the bottom of the list were tailors, salesmen, auctioneers, stock handlers, and ticket takers. The study was reported in the Journal of Human Stress. The researchers suggestedthat health care workers may have a high incidence of mental health problems because of "particular stressors" in the hospital environment and the "emotionally demanding" responsibilityof caring for sick people. But if you feel stressed, you might take the advice of Herbert Modlin, MD, who says that "stress as a life experience is as inevitable as pain or anxiety and as useful." Only excessive stress is distressful, and it is usually caused by major changes in life patterns, not work. On the biographical data sheet we send to authors, we ask all the expected questions including other titles. When Wilhelmina Fernsebner sent back her form for her contribution to the new "Opinions" column, under "other titles," she wrote "Mom." No doubt about it. it is one of the best. Editors question words, look up words, argue about words, and occasionally get excited about them. We recently receiveda communicationfrom Frank Campion, director of public relations at the American Medical Association. It started out, "I want to correct a factoid. . . ." We stopped. A what? We quickly checked our dictionariesWebster's unabridged. the American Heritage, Random House-but found no factoid. We knew that "oid" meant resembling or like, and
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the meaning seemed-apparent, but was there really such a word? When we called the editorial offices of Merriam-Webster, we learned that yes, there was such a word. They told us it was first used by Norman Mailer in his biography of Marilyn Monroe. It means nonfact, something that has been produced by manipulation and is generally believed to be true. The dictionary people were sort of excited about the word because although it had been in existence for several years, they had no record of its use except in interviews with Norman Mailer. They wanted to know where the word had been used and in what context. The context of the factoid was this. Victor M Zink, director of employee benefits and services for General Motors (GM) Corp, told a Senate subcommittee on health that GM paid $825 million for one year for hospital, medical, prescription drug, and dental expense coverage of its US employees and retirees and their families. He then added, "Another way of looking at it. . , is that the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, if considered together, are by far our largest supplier, Metropolitan Life is second, and US Steel is a distant third." The factoid that emerged from this is "The cost of health insurance for the company employees is higher than the cost of the steel in an automobile." Campion points out, however, that GM buys steel from many suppliers other than US Steel. Based on 1975 figures, the cost of all employee benefits for every car and truck sold is $575, but that includes pension plans and life insurance. Health benefits alone would be about $200. He adds that there is considerably more than $200 worth of steel in an automobile. All of which gives you an idea of how a fact becomes a factoid-a little distortion, a little simplification,and presto-from fact to factoid. There are probably a great many factoids around. Maybe even an epidemic.
AORN Journal, December 1977, V o l 2 6 , No 6
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the meaning seemed-apparent, but was there really such a word? When we called the editorial offices of Merriam-Webster, we learned that yes, there was such a word. They told us it was first used by Norman Mailer in his biography of Marilyn Monroe. It means nonfact, something that has been produced by manipulation and is generally believed to be true. The dictionary people were sort of excited about the word because although it had been in existence for several years, they had no record of its use except in interviews with Norman Mailer. They wanted to know where the word had been used and in what context. The context of the factoid was this. Victor M Zink, director of employee benefits and services for General Motors (GM) Corp, told a Senate subcommittee on health that GM paid $825 million for one year for hospital, medical, prescription drug, and dental expense coverage of its US employees and retirees and their families. He then added, "Another way of looking at it. . , is that the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, if considered together, are by far our largest supplier, Metropolitan Life is second, and US Steel is a distant third." The factoid that emerged from this is "The cost of health insurance for the company employees is higher than the cost of the steel in an automobile." Campion points out, however, that GM buys steel from many suppliers other than US Steel. Based on 1975 figures, the cost of all employee benefits for every car and truck sold is $575, but that includes pension plans and life insurance. Health benefits alone would be about $200. He adds that there is considerably more than $200 worth of steel in an automobile. All of which gives you an idea of how a fact becomes a factoid-a little distortion, a little simplification,and presto-from fact to factoid. There are probably a great many factoids around. Maybe even an epidemic.
AORN Journal, December 1977, V o l 2 6 , No 6