Sticks and stones: Changing terminology is no substitute for good consultation skills
Open accessAbstract
Letters p 1081 As children many of us learnt the old rhyme “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” As we grew older we discovered that the adage was untrue. For most of us whose profession involved interacting with other people it became obvious that clumsy or inapposite use of language could cause pain. An attempt to avoid such pain has provoked Hutchon and Cooper to suggest that distress in women who have miscarried would be reduced if changes were made in the language used by their professional carers (p 1081).1 The writers recommend that the word “abortion” should be avoided because the lay public interprets it as applying to a termination of preg- nancy. The authors cite alternatives that could be adopted in journal papers …
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It will take more than words to truly improve patients' experiences and the use of the 'correct terminology' may make some health professionals complacent in their provision of care.
“However, ‘it will take more than words to truly improve patients’ experiences’6 and the use of the ‘correct terminology’ may make some health professionals complacent in their provision of care.17”
From Parents’ experiences of care following the loss of a baby at the margins between miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death: a UK qualitative study (2020) · cites this paper as [17]
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Smith, L., Dickens, J., Bender Atik, R., Bevan, C., Fisher, J., & Hinton, L. (2020) · BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology · doi:10.1111/1471-0528.16113 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Moscrop, A. (2013) · Medical Humanities · doi:10.1136/medhum-2012-010284 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
- Authors
- Freeling, P., & Gask, L.
- Affiliations
- St George's, University of London (GB)
- ORCID
- Gask, Linda
- Venue
- BMJ
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 1998-10-17
- Volume
- 317
- Issue
- 7165
- Pages
- 1028-1029
- ISSN
- 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
- 0959-8138
- 1468-5833
- PMC
- PMC1114059
- OpenAlex
- W1526491996
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2020: 1 · 2013: 1
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.bmj.com/company/legal-information/terms-conditions/legal-information/tdm-licencepolicy (tdm)
- Locations
- BMJ (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Medical Terminology › Medical Research and Practices
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Keywords
- miscarriage, terminology, abortion, professional caregivers
- MeSH terms
- Clinical Competence, Communication, Humans, Terminology as Topic, Physician-Patient Relations, Referral and Consultation
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