Surgeon use of medical jargon with parents in the outpatient setting.
A R Links, W Callon, C Wasserman and 3 others
PMID 30744965WHAT IT FOUND
Pediatric surgeons used a mean of 28.9 medical jargon terms per consult.
Jargon use varied significantly between clinicians. Surgeons used more jargon when they believed parents were more involved in decision-making or when parents used jargon themselves.
Key findings
01Clinicians used a mean of 28.9 medical jargon terms per consult, but the amount varied significantly between the eight participating clinicians.
02Surgeons were more likely to use medical jargon when they perceived parents as having greater involvement in final decision-making and when parents used more jargon themselves.
03Parents introduced a mean of 2.4 jargon terms per consult, which is substantially fewer than the 1,912 terms uttered by clinicians across all consults.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, with only 64 parents and 8 clinicians. The study lacked demographic variation within each clinician's practice, meaning some clinicians saw only patients with public insurance or only white or African-American families. There was significant overlap between race and insurance status in the sample, which limits the ability to separate the effects of these factors. Clinicians and parents knew they were being recorded, which may have influenced their behavior. Researchers could not measure parents' existing knowledge of the condition before the consult. The study measured the total number of jargon terms but did not account for the length of the consultation.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that parents who use medical jargon or appear to be driving the decision-making process understand the clinical information. The study found that clinicians actually used more jargon with these parents, but parents may be repeating terms from prior visits without true comprehension.