Students learning medicine must learn a whole new language to allow them to express their clinical impressions to others accurately. In time, this becomes second nature, and soon, they can be heard babbling away confidently and sounding quite the part.
Communication skills are a standard part of medical education, and the teachers take great care to ensure that these newly found linguistic skills don’t impinge on their communication with patients. Most seem to take this on board and do their utmost not to confuse patients.
With all of this good education going on, why is it that we hear of misunderstandings between doctors and patients? Do doctors really throw up verbal smokescreens to confound others? A recent paper from the University of Minnesota would suggest so….