Editor’s Note: Dr. Earl Chism (he/him/his) is a resident physician in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a member of the Pediatric Leaders Advancing Health Equity (PLUS) Program, and his interests include medical education and improving health outcomes by increasing representation in healthcare. -Rachel Y. Moon, MD, Associate Editor, Digital Media, Pediatrics
“Low key, it’s giving skibidi rizz because they’ve been mewing, not gonna lie.”
I imagine most readers had some trouble deciphering that first sentence (and frankly I’m not exactly sure what I just wrote).
Now, imagine how children feel when we say things like “the CAT scan was negative for any significant pathology” or “I would like to draw a CBC and BMP from you once we get to the floor.”
I suspect it’s a similar feeling. We have a significant amount of jargon in our practice and, after years and years of training and practice, it often slips into discussions with patients without us noticing.
In their article entitled “Children’s Understanding of Commonly Used Medical Terminology” being early released in Pediatrics this month, Dr. Rheanne Maravalas and colleagues in the Clear Clinical Communication research group discuss the role of jargon in our medical practice and how children respond to it (10.1542/peds.2024-067871).
The authors introduce the phrase “jargon oblivion” to describe the phenomenon above: our use of jargon despite our desire to avoid it. In their study, 100 children ages 4–12 were surveyed about what they thought different commonly used medical phrases meant, and these responses were analyzed. Some examples include:
- 86% of children surveyed understood what “results were negative” meant when it was said about COVID testing, and 83% understood this when it was said about strep throat testing.
- “We will need to put you to sleep” was correctly understood by 63% of children to mean anesthesia prior to a procedure; however, 13% misunderstood, including one incorrect response of “I’ll be put down like I’m going to die.”
- “Put in an IV now” was understood by one child to mean “international vaccine,” and was only correctly understood by 23% of children surveyed.
- Being “transfer[red] . . . to the floor soon” meant sleeping on the floor to several children, and it was misunderstood by 69% of respondents.
These responses highlight how easy it can be for the seemingly simplest of common phrases to be misunderstood by our patients.
The authors ask us to take the time to think through concepts from a child’s perspective, and really seize on opportunities for their engagement. The concept of “teach back” has been proven time and again to be effective in multiple ways, from reducing rates of hospital readmission to helping families independently care for central lines at home, and there is an incredible opportunity to use it here to improve patient understanding.
While we can’t really control the jargon that we let slip into conversation, we can definitely check in with patients for their understanding and use teach-back methods to further ground their sense of understanding. I agree with the authors of this article that we, our patients, and patient care in general will be all the better for it. No cap!
