When patients don't understand what the doctor says (Article)

This seems to be an unlikely problem for us, as we here on this forum are, likely most of us anyway, pretty sophisticated in understanding, when the doctor explains them to us, the medical descriptions and terminology that apply to our situations.

But according to the article below, which reports the results of a UK study, it's true that

"... many patients just don’t understand the terms used in cancer consultations by doctors."

"... almost two thirds of people just don’t understand their doctor at this crucial moment [of cancer consultation] ... [and] ... over half of all patients simply do not understand "Doctor-speak."

We need to remember that not all patients dealing with cancer have the education or the background to understand easily the terminology or the medical descriptions which the doctor is using, in his attempt to explain to the patient the patient's situation.

And the doctor himself may not realize that he is not communicating with the patient when he uses "indecipherable acronyms," or "cancer euphemisms," as the article states.

The article does not go on to suggest solutions to this problem, it just states the problem. And the problem could certainly be serious. The doctor may be advising the patient to do certain things, but if the patient is not understanding, then those things don't get done. The doctor may be laying out a proposed treatment plan, but, again, if the patient isn't realizing that, then there could be serious misunderstanding and confusion later.

Solutions? Well, the patient having someone along, such as his spouse, to be a second pair of ears, could help. The doctor inquiring at intervals "Do you understand what I'm telling you?" could also help. And as a follow-up to that, the doctor asking the patient to summarize in his own words what he thinks he has just heard the doctor say, with the doctor correcting him if he has got it wrong, could also help.

It would seem that it should be he doctor's responsibility to realize when a patient is just nodding his head when the doctor speaks, only giving the appearance of understanding what is being said. And the doctor should then take steps to assure that communication with the patient is actually being achieved.

(This doctor-patient "failure-to-communicate" situation, BTW, would seem to be part of a larger phenomenon that is pretty common in all sorts of areas, and one we've all seen. It's when an authority figure with considerable knowledge of a given subject just seems totally incapable of communicating that knowledge to others, especially when he is attempting to do so as an instructor. It's as if he is thinking subconsciously to himself, "Well, this is so obvious, why can't you just see it, why do I even have to explain it?," or, because it's so clear to him, he just assumes, again likely subconsciously, that if he just says a few words, probably overusing jargon as he does so, then surely everyone will quickly understand. Some doctors are guilty of this).

Again, not a problem that many of us here are likely to face, but one that would seem to occur for some patients.

(Sorry, can't get the link to work. Copy-and-paste and call up in your own browser, if you wish, to see article)
https://www.canceractive.com/article/doctor-speak-in%20plain%20english

BTW, have any of you ever had a doctor who just seemed to have difficulty in making it clear what he was trying to say to you? Did you stay with him?

This definitely happens. I would say my parents would be one of these people who many a times don't understand what the doctor recommends - rather i would say they do understand it and take it at the face value rather than question it then and later on have multiple questions about it. Now, they are well educated and sophisticated so to say and when my dad was diagnosed both my parents ended up on google reading about prostate cancer but the statistics and prognosis for advanced cases like him (stage 4 with mets) is so poor, it causes them dismal and just adds to the stress of dealing with such a disease. For them i think taking things as they come helps in lowering the anxiety - their approach is to choose a good MO and then let the doctor do his job. So as a caregiver i am here for them. I do all the reading and research work - it does overwhelm me and there are some good days and some bad ones but it is certainly helpful. Like the urologist told us to continue with first line hormone therapy of Casodex and when that fails to go to second line treatment such as Zytiga but it was from what i had read here and with the help of many of you guys that i realised that it was an earlier approach - the latest standard of treatment is to attack the beast with zytiga as the first line of treatment and we decided to ditch the uro's old school approach and go with the MO's latest std of care. Now, there may be many people like my parents who are educated, tech savvy but would not really want to get into the anxiety provoking details themselves and leave it to their doctors whom they trust. Another example where reading/researching helped us is since my dad has distant lymph node mets and a single bone met with no pain - the MO while prescribing Zytiga with pred. mentioned casually i may give you a Zometa inj./IV later on - now he dint plan to do it immediately so giving him the benefit of doubt but he dint mention anything about getting dads dental treatments done before it - but since i was aware about it i asked him should we get it done ? and he said yes you should complete it and then we will get the zometa as the dental wounds then take time to heal and we don't want that.

It definitely is a problem and i know before finding this forum i was in a depressed mode - with no hope - google search showed dismal stats, yananow stage 4 met stories, barring a few, were also like you have to be one in a million to be that lucky kind for whom the treatment would work- Maybe that is the harsh reality of this dreaded disease but when diagnosed the C word itself scares everyone, so hope is what they need to live the present to the fullest without worrying about dying within 5 years, so even though things should change with the patient being proactive in learning about their disease i can empathize with them as to why they don't make that effort.

It's not just medical issues. Many, maybe most, people don't grasp the difference between statistical probabilities and anecdotal reports. To be informed patients or informed citizens we don't need advanced courses in statistics, but we do need to grasp the concept that for example a) "clinical trials showed improved long-term results from a procedure or treatment" is very different from b) "my uncle Phil did x, y, or z and got better." Doctors think and speak in terms of example a).