y tá

Sino-Vietnamese word from 醫佐, composed of 醫 (“medicine; doctor; physician”) and 佐 (“to help; to assist”).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔi˧˧ taː˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɪj˧˧ taː˨˩˦]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɪj˧˧ taː˦˥]

• Audio (Hà Nội)

  (file)

y tá

1. a medical assistant
2. (dated or informal) Synonym of điều dưỡng viên (“nurse”) (person trained to provide care for the sick)

điều dưỡng viên and y tá used to be synonyms, and are in fact still treated as such (by the Vietnamese Wikipedia, for instance), but there are technical differences between these job titles, such as qualifications and duties. In informal, especially sexual or pornographic, contexts, y tá is used more often for "nurse".