A patient is any recipient of health care services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physiotherapist, physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse, psychologist, podiatrist, veterinarian, or other health care provider.
The word patient originally meant 'one who suffers'. This English noun comes from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb, patior, meaning 'I am suffering,' and akin to the Greek verb πάσχειν (= paskhein, to suffer) and its cognate noun πάθος (= pathos).
An outpatient (or out-patient) is a patient who is hospitalized for less than 24 hours. Treatment provided in this fashion is called ambulatory care. Sometimes surgery is performed without the need for a formal hospital admission or an overnight stay. This is called outpatient surgery. Outpatient surgery has many benefits, including reducing the amount of medication prescribed and using the physician's or surgeon's time more efficiently. More procedures are now being performed in a surgeon's office, termed office-based surgery, rather than in a hospital-based operating room. Outpatient surgery is suited best for healthy patients undergoing minor or intermediate procedures (limited urologic, ophthalmologic, or ear, nose, and throat procedures and procedures involving the extremities).
In linguistics, a grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out. or the thematic relation such a participant has with an action. Sometimes "theme" and "patient" are used to mean the same thing.
When used to mean different things, "patient" describes a receiver that changes state ("I crushed the car") and "theme" describes something that does not change state ("I have the car"). By this definition, stative verbs act on themes and dynamic verbs act on patients.
Typically, the situation is denoted by a sentence, the action by a verb in the sentence, and the patient by a noun phrase.
For example, in the sentence "Jack ate the cheese", "the cheese" is the patient. In certain languages, the patient is declined for case or otherwise marked to indicate its grammatical role. In Japanese, for instance, the patient is typically affixed with the particle o (hiragana を) when used with active transitive verbs, and the particle ga (hiragana が) when used with inactive intransitive verbs or adjectives. Although Modern English does not mark grammatical role on the noun (but does through word order), patienthood is represented irregularly in other ways; for instance, with the morphemes "-en", "-ed", or "-ee", as in "eaten", "used", or "payee".
Patient is the name of a 192-page memoir by musician Ben Watt. It was published May 1, 1997 by Penguin Books (ISBN 0-8021-3583-8). The book dealt largely with Watt's experience with a rare disease, Churg-Strauss syndrome, and his recovery.
The book was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Sunday Times Book Of The Year chosen by William Boyd and Village Voice Literary Supplement Favorite Book of the Year, and was also a finalist for the Esquire-Waterstones Best Non-Fiction Award in the UK.
Superpower is a word used to describe a state with a dominant position in international relations and which is characterised by its unparalleled ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined-means of technological, cultural, military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers (e.g., as the United States is today).
The term first applied to the British Empire, the United States, and the Soviet Union. However, following World War II and the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United Kingdom's status as a superpower was greatly diminished; for the duration of the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union came to be generally regarded as the two remaining superpowers, dominating world affairs. At the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, only the United States appeared to fulfill the criteria of being a world superpower.
Year Zero is the fifth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on April 17, 2007, by Interscope Records. Frontman Trent Reznor wrote the album's music and lyrics while touring in support of the group's previous release, With Teeth (2005). In contrast to the introspective style of songwriting Reznor used on previous records, Year Zero is a concept album that criticizes contemporary policies of the United States government by presenting a dystopian vision of the year 2022. The album is part of a larger Year Zero project which includes a remix album, an alternate reality game, and a potential television or film project. The Year Zero alternate reality game expanded upon the album's fictional storyline by using media such as websites, pre-recorded phone messages, and murals.
Upon its release in April 2007, Year Zero sold over 187,000 units in its first week, and it reached number two on the Billboard 200 chart. The album also received generally positive reviews, many of which were favorable toward the accompanying alternate reality game. Year Zero produced two singles, "Survivalism" and "Capital G", the latter released as a promotional single. Disputes arose between Reznor and Universal Music Group, parent company of Interscope Records, over the overseas pricing of the album. Year Zero was the last Nine Inch Nails studio album released on Interscope. In October 2007, Reznor announced that Nine Inch Nails had fulfilled its contractual commitments to Interscope, effectively ending the band's relationship with the label.