Tag: when doctors use words that hurt

Words that hurt: which ones should be deleted from medicine – and why?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

I love this list. When Johns Hopkins University asked healthcare professionals to weigh in with their own lists of hurtful words that should no longer be used in patient care or medical charting, the responses were brilliant and thoughtful. Dr. Colleen Christmas, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has this to say on why words matter so much to the patients hearing them.

“”Our medical language is filled with negativity and dehumanization.”

Here are some of my favourite examples of widely-used words that healthcare professionals themselves wish would go away – along with the thoughtful reasons these words can hurt patients (with thanks to the JHU Lifelong Learning in Clinical Excellence program):      .
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How blame-ridden language betrays patient-centred health care

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

A recent editorial in the medical journal The Lancet (coincidentally, celebrating its 200th anniversary milestone this year) revisited a subject that’s been niggling at me and many others for years: what the authors called blame-ridden language – which they describe as being “pervasive throughout medicine.”(1)

Unintentionally hurtful words tripping lightly from the lips of physicians seem to be a routine part of medical life. For example, when doctors say harmless-sounding things like “Patient claims her pain is 10/10” , it implies that the patient is lying. In the real world, we would say “She is experiencing 10/10 pain”.

Or consider the word deny:  “Patient denies having fever or chills.”  In the real world, that word also hints at this patient being untrustworthy. As one patient clearly explained to researchers in 2021: (2) “I did not DENY these things.  I said I didn’t feel them. Completely different!  Language matters.”              .
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Heart FAILURE vs. heart FUNCTION

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters   

A number of cardiologists seem to be revisiting the warnings of their late colleague Dr. Bernard Lown, who often cautioned physicians against using “words that hurt“ – specifically, the name heart FAILURE * (what he termed “doom forecasting”).  Imagine being a patient hearing for the first time the words, “You have heart FAILURE.”  A terrifying – and worse, often inaccurate – name.  I’ve been told that changing the name of this condition would be impossible. But a recent editorial in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has suddenly offered a glimmer of hope. 

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