Why are the left atrium and left ventricle shown on the right side of a diagram or image of the heart?

Answer 1

The position of everything in the body is considered from the perspective of the patient, or the person whose body it is - so the liver is actually on the right side of the body, and the spleen is on the left, but if you were to look at an x-ray or a picture of the body, it would seem as though the liver is on the left and the spleen on the right.

So when people refer to the left atrium and the left ventricle, they really are on the left side of the heart, but it's the left from your perspective. Someone who was standing and facing you might say that they were on the right side of your heart, but that's from their position.

The reason this system is used is to avoid confusion. If a surgeon decides to take out someone's left kidney, how would anyone know 'which' left kidney? Of course, it seems obvious that there is only one left kidney, but imagine if one doctor was using 'left' to mean 'left, from the perspective of the patient', and another was using 'left, from my perspective as I stand in front of the patient' (i.e. the right kidney of the patient).
the left atrium and ventricle are shown on the right side of the diagram because its like looking in a mirror, when you move your right arm, your reflections' left arm moves

Answer 2

You must mentally "reverse" to put yourself "into" the person's body. Every "R" and "L" is the patient's right and left, not yours. So if a nursing instructor told a nurse to touch the patient's RIGHT shoulder, from YOUR perspective you would need to reach out and cross the patient's body to the opposite side of YOUR right side.

It takes time to mentally learn to make this shift. It is not uncommon to see medical and nursing students momentarily turn their bodies to face the same direction as the patient is facing, so the student accurately remembers to reverse R/L sides. Just remember this: Your face must match the patient's face, or the way the patient is facing, whether standing or lying down. You cannot match your face to where the patient's face is if you are looking right at the patient's face---until you learn to mentally shift your R/L to the patient's R/L.

Answer 3

The left atrium and left ventricle are on the patient's left side. As you are looking at the patient from the front, they will appear to be on your right.