Glossary
Plain-language care and AI terms.
The words we use across AskLight, explained simply.
- Call light
- The light and tone, usually above a resident's door and at the nursing station, that signals a resident has pressed their call bell.
- Distress wording
- Words in a resident's speech that may indicate distress, such as “help, I fell”.
- Escalation
- Raising an unanswered request to a supervisor after a set time.
- Human in the loop
- A design where people review or approve an AI system's uncertain decisions instead of letting the AI act alone.
- Long-term care home
- The Canadian term for a facility providing 24-hour nursing and personal care to residents who can no longer live independently.
- Nurse call system
- The system of call bells, lights and alerts that lets residents and patients summon staff, often required in nursing homes.
- Response time
- How long a resident waits for help — measured to acknowledgement, arrival or completion, depending on the definition.
- Skilled nursing facility (SNF)
- A US facility providing 24-hour nursing care and rehabilitation, commonly called a nursing home.
- Task ownership
- Which staff member has explicitly taken responsibility for a request.
- Voice activity detection
- Technology that detects when someone is speaking, so a device can ignore silence and background noise.