Dr.N.P. van Duijn was brave enough to write:
> This epidemic is contraproductive to international professional
> communication. Often it is jargon that is limited to one country, one
> culture, within the scientific community. And that is definitely not
> the function of professional jargon. Professional jargon is meant to
> form a bridge between cultures as the carrier of all professional
> jargons, the english language, hase evolved to the basis of all
> international communication.
Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with all of the above, there
is another, potentially more damaging consequence of
jargonism, from my professional point of view.
Whilst particularly UK (and overseas?) health professionals
are increasingly supposed to be working closer with
community members, and indeed encouraging community
participation in health decision-making, the use of jargon,
abbreviations, acronyms, and other special, exclusive 'code
words' means that we are always in danger of further
alienating ourselves from these community members and
making this task ultimately unachievable. Then we blame
the communities for not being interested!
I strongly would urge all health professionals whose role
includes contact with community members, especially through
new bodies such as the PCGs (Whoops! That's Primary Care
Groups), to constantly monitor their own behaviour and use
of exclusive terminology. It's easy to lapse into this
usage, but it's something that can be solved through being
self-aware and self reflective. If someone else is being a
a bore with this behaviour, please challenge them!
Martin.
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Martin Westerby
Research Associate
Dept. of Public Health & Primary Care
The University of Hull
College House
East Riding Campus
Willerby
HU10 6NS
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