Air carrier first officer reported confusion about combining the term visual with RNAV and suggested...

Narrative:

We were assigned the grnpa 1 RNAV arrival into las and after passing bce; we were cleared direct to trrop. While with approach control; we were assigned the RNAV visual to runway 19R. We were a little unclear as to what that meant and we assumed we were cleared for a visual approach after joining the approach course for the RNAV GPS 19R and turned away slightly from our course to trrop. We then remembered that we had the special RNAV approaches and within 10 seconds were back to direct trrop for the charted course. Approach control queried us that we were indeed still going to trrop and we confirmed that we were. The remainder of the flight was normal and no separation issues with other traffic occurred.the use of the word 'visual' in the approach is somewhat confusing; especially after a long duty period. Since this approach is an actual IFR approach; perhaps renaming it RNAV 19L/right 'victor' and eliminate the word visual or something along those lines would reduce the chances of crews making the same error.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier First Officer reported confusion about combining the term VISUAL with RNAV and suggested eliminating VISUAL and label a RNAV with a visual segment using a letter with the RNAV Runway combination.

Narrative: We were assigned the GRNPA 1 RNAV arrival into LAS and after passing BCE; we were cleared direct to TRROP. While with Approach Control; we were assigned the RNAV Visual to Runway 19R. We were a little unclear as to what that meant and we assumed we were cleared for a visual approach after joining the approach course for the RNAV GPS 19R and turned away slightly from our course to TRROP. We then remembered that we had the special RNAV approaches and within 10 seconds were back to direct TRROP for the charted course. Approach Control queried us that we were indeed still going to TRROP and we confirmed that we were. The remainder of the flight was normal and no separation issues with other traffic occurred.The use of the word 'Visual' in the approach is somewhat confusing; especially after a long duty period. Since this approach is an actual IFR approach; perhaps renaming it RNAV 19L/R 'Victor' and eliminate the word visual or something along those lines would reduce the chances of crews making the same error.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1069298
Time
Date	201302
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	LAS.Airport
State Reference	NV
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR GRNPA
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Air carrier first officer reported confusion about combining the term visual with RNAV and suggested eliminating visual and label a RNAV with a visual segment using a letter with the RNAV runway combination.