Medical Discourse (medical + discourse)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social-linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish-English medical discourse

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2000
Brad Davidson
Increases in immigration have led to an enormous growth in the number of cross-linguistic medical encounters taking place throughout the United States. In this article the role of hospital-based interpreters in cross-linguistic, internal medicine ,medical interviews' is examined. The interpreter's actions are analyzed against the historical and institutional context within which she is working, and also with an eye to the institutional goals that frame the patient-physician discourse. Interpreters are found not to be acting as ,neutral' machines of semantic conversion, but are rather shown to be active participants in the process of diagnosis. Since this process hinges on the evaluation of social and medical relevance of patient contributions to the discourse, the interpreter can be seen as an additional institutional gatekeeper for the recent immigrants for whom she is interpreting. Cross-linguistic medical interviews may also be viewed as a form of cross-cultural interaction; in this light, the larger political ramifications of the interpreters' actions are explored. ,Interpreters are the most powerful people in a medical conversation.' Head of Interpreting Services at a major private U.S. hospital, May 1999. [source]


Students' perceptions of race, ethnicity and culture at two UK medical schools: a qualitative study

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2008
Jane H Roberts
Context, Globalisation has profoundly affected health care by increasing the diversity of clinicians and their patients. Worldwide, medical schools highlight the need for students to understand and show respect for patients and peers of different ethnicities. Yet a sound theoretical approach and robust methods for learning about cultural awareness are lacking. The reasons for this are unclear. Objective, To explore Year 2 medical students' understanding of the concepts of race, ethnicity and culture. Methods, This study was set in 2 universities in the north of England. The student population of each was of a similar ethnic mix but the universities differed in terms of local demography (a wide patient ethnic mix versus a predominantly White patient population with experience of social deprivation) and curricula (a curriculum involving problem-based learning and paper-based cases versus a curriculum involving early contact with patients). Participants comprised 49 Year 2 medical students (mean age 20·8 years), 40% of whom came from ethnic minority groups. Seven focus groups were held across the 2 universities to explore students' understanding of cultural awareness. Students were asked to discuss the terms ,race', ,ethnicity', ,culture' and ,cultural diversity'. Interviews were transcribed and analysed qualitatively using grounded theory. Themes were identified and validated by an independent researcher. Results, Four overarching themes emerged: ,White fears' at discussing race-related issues; ethnic minority discomfort at being viewed as ,different'; difficulties in relating to professional boundaries, and barriers against talking about race beyond legitimate disease-related discourse. Conclusions, For students, discussion of race beyond the confines of medical discourse was problematic. If students are to develop professional holistic values towards patient care, they need more support in understanding their own personal values and uncertainties. [source]


Augmenting the Cartesian medical discourse with an understanding of the person's lifeworld, lived body, life story and social identity

NURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2009
Helena Sunvisson RN PhD
Abstract Using three paradigm cases of persons living with Parkinson's Disease (PD) the authors make a case for augmenting and enriching a Cartesian medical account of the pathophysiology of PD with an enriched understanding of the lived body experience of PD, the lived implications of PD for a particular person's concerns and coping with the illness. Linking and adding a thick description of the lived experience of PD can enrich caregiving imagination and attunement to the patient's possibilities, concerns and constraints. The work of Merleau-Ponty is used to articulate the middle terms of the lived experience of dwelling in a lifeworld. Examining lived experience of embodied intentionality, skilled bodily capacities as highlighted in Merleau-Ponty's non-mechanistic physiology opens new therapeutic, coping and caregiving possibilities. Matching temporal rhythms can decrease the stress of being assisted with activities of daily living. For example, caregivers and patients alike can be taught strategies for extending their lived bodily capacities by altering rhythms, by shifting hyperactivity to different parts of the body and other strategies that change the perceptual experience associated with walking in different environment. A medical account of the pathophysiology of PD is nessessary and useful, but not sufficient for designing caregiving in ways that enrich and extend the existential skills of dwelling of persons with PD. The dominance of mechanistic physiology makes caregivers assume that it is the ,real discourse' about the disease, causing researchers and caregivers alike to overlook the equally real lived experience of the patient which requires different descriptive discourses and different sources of understanding. Lack of dialogue between the two discourses is tragic for patients because caregivers need both in order to provide attuned, effective caregiving. [source]


,ALL CHILDREN ARE DWARFS'.

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2008
MEDICAL DISCOURSE AND ICONOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN'S BODIES
Summary. Ancient medical discourse conveys a mainly negative view of children's bodies. From Hippocrates to Galen, newborn children are defined as imperfect and ugly beings, associating an excessive softness and weakness with various anomalies. Aristotle links their physical disproportions with those of dwarfs and animals. These disproportions induce physiological troubles and mental incapacities. Hot-tempered and moist, children are dominated by their emotions and sensations. Often authors group them with other beings regarded as inferior, such as women, the old, the sick, the insane, the drunk. How are mythical and human children rendered in iconography? Do their characteristics correspond to the medical discourse? The image of children's bodies changes with the passing of time; the miniature adult of archaic Greece gradually turns into the plump toddler of the Hellenistic period. How can we interpret these transformations? Does the evolution of iconography reflect the transformation of society or does it mirror the progress of medical knowledge? [source]