Say What? Quantifying and Classifying Jargon Use During Inpatient Rounds

Area of Science:

• Medical communication
• Pediatric healthcare
• Linguistics in medicine

Background:

• Effective communication is vital in healthcare, yet medical providers often use jargon misunderstood by patients.
• Limited research exists on the specific types and frequency of medical jargon used in pediatric inpatient settings.
• Understanding jargon prevalence is crucial for improving patient comprehension and engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the use of medical jargon by healthcare team members during pediatric inpatient family-centered rounds (FCRs).
• To identify and categorize the most common types of jargon employed during these rounds.
• To assess the feasibility of measuring and providing feedback on jargon usage.

Main Methods:

• Trained medical students audited 70 FCR patient encounters over 12 weeks.
• Jargon instances were recorded, categorized using a published framework, and quantified.
• Descriptive statistics were used to calculate jargon rates per encounter and per minute.

Main Results:

• A total of 443 jargon terms were identified across 70 encounters.
• 70% (309 instances) of jargon were not explicitly defined for patients or families.
• Undefined jargon averaged 4.3 instances per patient encounter and 0.4 per minute.
• Top jargon categories included technical terms (34%), medical vernacular (30%), and abbreviations/acronyms (17%).

Conclusions:

• Undefined medical jargon is prevalent during pediatric FCRs, impacting patient communication.
• Measuring provider jargon use and providing real-time feedback using a classification scheme is feasible.
• Interventions to reduce jargon are needed to enhance patient understanding and family-centered care.