Surgeon use of medical jargon with parents in the outpatient setting
•Clinicians use jargon consistently, although extent of use varies between clinician.•Use of statistical language occurs but is less frequent than medical terminology.•Parents use jargon sparingly, both independently and in repetition of clinicians.•Clinicians are more likely to use jargon if they b...
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| Published in: | Patient education and counseling Vol. 102; no. 6; pp. 1111 - 1118 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ireland
Elsevier B.V
01-06-2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | •Clinicians use jargon consistently, although extent of use varies between clinician.•Use of statistical language occurs but is less frequent than medical terminology.•Parents use jargon sparingly, both independently and in repetition of clinicians.•Clinicians are more likely to use jargon if they believe parents are more engaged in decision-making.
Objective: Unexplained medical terminology impedes clinician/parent communication. We describe jargon use in a pediatric surgical setting.
Methods: We evaluated encounters between parents of children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB; n = 64) and otolaryngologists (n = 8). Participants completed questionnaires evaluating demographics, clinical features, and parental role in decision-making via a 4-point categorical item. Two coders reviewed consultations for occurrence of clinician and parent utterance of medical jargon. Descriptive statistics established a profile of jargon use, and logistic regression evaluated associations between communication factors with jargon use.
Results: Unexplained medical jargon was common (mean total utterances per visit = 28.9,SD = 19.5,Range = 5–100), including SDB-specific jargon (M = 8.3,SD = 8.8), other medical terminology (M = 13.9,SD = 12) and contextual terms (M = 3.8,SD = 4). Parents used jargon a mean of 4.3 times (SD = 4.6). Clinicians used more jargon in consults where they perceived parents as having greater involvement in decision-making (OR = 3.4,p < 0.05) and when parents used more jargon (OR = 1.2,p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Jargon use in pediatric surgical consultations is common and could serve as a barrier to informed or shared parent decision-making. This study provides a foundation for further research into patterns of jargon use across surgical populations.
Practice implications: Results will be integrated into communication training to enhance clinician communication, foster self-awareness in language use, and create strategies to evaluate parental understanding. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Contributor’s Statement Authors confirm that all patient/personal identifiers have been removed or disguised so the patient/persons described are not identified, and cannot be identified through the details of the manuscript. Carly Wasserman, MS designed the study, conducted qualitative coding of the data, performed qualitative coding, and reviewed and revised the manuscript Jonathan Walsh, MD designed the study and reviewed and revised the manuscript Anne Links, MS, MHS, conceptualized and designed the study, collected data, conducted qualitative coding of the data, carried out analysis and interpretation of the data, drafted the initial manuscript, and reviewed and revised the manuscript Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH and Wynne Callon, MD designed the study, contributed to qualitative coding of the data and reviewed and revised the manuscript Emily Boss, MD, MPH conceptualized and designed the study, supervised data collection, contributed to qualitative coding of the data, and reviewed and revised the manuscript |
| ISSN: | 0738-3991 1873-5134 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.pec.2019.02.002 |