Patients' level of medical term recognition as estimated by healthcare workers

Abstract

To render risk communication between patients and healthcare workers more effective, gaps in the patients' level of medical term recognition as estimated by healthcare workers was examined. This was a cross-sectional study conducted via an Internet survey. A total of 244 nurses and 211 medical doctors were surveyed. We examined 90 medical terms, including 57 medical terms examined by the National Institute for Japanese Language and 33 newly added medical terms. Differences between medical doctors and nurses with respect to the estimation of patients' level of medical term recognition were assessed. The level of medical term recognition by patients was higher when estimated by nurses than when estimated by medical doctors. As members of team care, nurses must consider that patients find technical medical terms to be more difficult than anticipated and that patients are aware of these terms only to a certain extent while receiving healthcare information, such as drug information. Currently, nurses are expected to perform activities as clinical research coordinators and also are requested to work as home-visiting nurses. Therefore they also need ensure that patients understand the medical information provided to them.

Keywords: Perception gap; Regulatory science; Risk communication; Shared decision-making; healthcare.