Berger-Cartmill2017

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Berger-Cartmill2017
BibType ARTICLE
Key Berger-Cartmill2017
Author(s) Israel Berger, John A. Cartmill
Title Correcting malapropisms: strategies to bridge cultural and socioeconomic gaps
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, CARM
Publisher
Year 2017
Language English
City
Month
Journal International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare
Volume 10
Number 2
Pages 84–94
URL Link
DOI 10.1108/IJHRH-12-2015-0040
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Purpose Although patients and lay people are often more knowledgeable about medical conditions than their predecessors, the dominant culture’s increased involvement in understanding their health and making treatment decisions does not translate into consistently more informed patients. High health literacy is associated with both improved health outcomes and receiving better quality-of-care. Low health literacy disproportionately affects people from marginalised ethnic and language groups. Regardless of how a particular clinician feels about a patient, malapropisms and mis-attributions may cause patients to appear less intelligent or to have lower perceived health literacy, potentially affecting their healthcare experiences with other clinicians.

Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses the evidence for ‘up-skilling’ patients and uses principles from conversation analysis to demonstrate how malapropisms can be corrected sensitively. Clinician training in skilled communication using the Conversation Analytic Role-play Method (CARM) is also addressed.

Findings Malapropisms are best corrected through modelling rather than calling attention to the error directly, as this allows the patient to save face. Explanations using drawings and clearly written materials may also be useful.

Originality/value Helping patients to improve their communication with clinicians may lead to improved health outcomes through improved quality-of-care.

Notes