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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES |
The Power Elements In The Language Used By A Physician Represent-ing An Institution
Ömür ELÇİOĞLU,a Seyyare DUMAN,b Nurdan KIRIMLIOĞLUa
aDeontoloji ve Tıp Tarihi AD, Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, bAlman Dili Eğitimi AD, Anadolu Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi, ESKİŞEHİR
Objective: Communication holds a multidimensional and specific position in medical services offered to women throughout pre-delivery, delivery and post-delivery processes. The objective of communication is to ensure mutual dialogues. The absence of dialogue is certainly the indicator of failure in all aspects. The objective of this study is to find out and discuss the power elements in the language used by a physician who represents an institution. The study discusses and describes a certain case. The criticisms are not addressed at the physician, but concern the language he/she uses.
Material and the Methods: The data of the study were collected from 2 hospitals and 14 health centers. The voice records pertaining to the examination of 212 pregnant women were used, after obtaining the required permissions, in order to tackle patient-physician relations. The study involves the voice records of medical intervention on 174 patients in labor rooms and on 105 patients in delivery rooms, including 6 cases of epidural anesthesia. Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) was used to evaluate the voice records. The analysis was based on the selection, exemplification and interpretation of physician words which were transcribed to find out what type of words they were. In this case study, the language of the physician was tackled and described without any intervention. The starting point of the description is the content of the words.
Results: The language of the physician abounds in the linguistic behavior characterized as “demands”. It is a normal linguistic behavior that the physician makes some demands from the patients and gives utterance to these demands. However, the form of these demands is significant. Furthermore, it is obvious that the physician makes use of language as an element of violence intentionally or unintentionally.
Conclusion: In a majority of physician-patient relations, the balance of power is generally in favor of physicians. All medical service providers, including physicians, have to be mindful of their linguistic behaviors when defining and fulfilling the patient expectations concerning the examination and all other interventions in the field of gynecology and obstetrics.Keywords: Power, doctor-patient relationshipTurkiye Klinikleri J Med Ethics 2007, 15:19-29
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