Medics have been warned not to say they “send” patients home over fears they are treating people like children. A new opinion piece published in The BMJ suggests that language that “belittles or blames patients” is overdue for a change.
Phrases such as “poorly controlled” illness or “treatment failure” should be scrapped, according to Caitriona Cox and Zoe Fritz from the University of Cambridge. They argue that simple words and phrases used by medics can affect the relationship between doctors and patients.
This includes language that makes patients feel “passive or childlike” while emphasising the medic’s position of power, including to “take” a medical history or “send” a patient home. Language that suggests a patient is childlike is particularly common with conditions like diabetes, they said, adding: “There is an authoritarianism, for example, in talking about patients not being ‘allowed’ certain foods by their doctors. Although patients can find such language upsetting or frustrating, some also adopt a childlike narrative, describing the effect of being ‘naughty’ or ‘good’ on their blood sugars, or recounting being ‘scolded’ by healthcare professionals.”
