Nigerian hospital setting discourse

Nordic Journal of African Studies, 2006

This study describes discourse tact in diagnoses in doctor-patient interactions in English in selected hospitals in South-western Nigeria. Using recorded conversations between doctors and patients in those hospitals as data, the mutual contextual beliefs of participants, speech act patterns, including linguistic patterns, and other pragmatic features are analyzed from the perspective of the pragmatics of discourse.

2019

Discourse is an integral part of diagnostic activities in medical settings as it is one of the fastest ways by which practitioners get to know the ailments patients suffer from. It is also medium by which practitioners talk about treatment management plans. Stubbs (1983:1) defines it as the organization of language above the sentence or above the clause, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, joke, or narrative. Given the importance of human wellbeing, both the doctors and the patients must be able to understand each other so that the doctors should be able to diagnose the patients appropriately, thereby achieving the objectives of medicine.

Journal of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics, 2020

The study undertook a critical analysis of the discourse of doctor-patient interaction under the ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) clinic of Gondar Hospital. Specifically, the study investigated the recurrent interactional features in the doctor-patient interactions, the manifestations of power relations through language use, as well as the ideological assumptions which are held by doctors and patients. To achieve these objectives, qualitative methods were used during data collection and analysis. Purposeful sampling was used to select the clinic where the study took place. Data were gathered through audio-recording and field notes. Before analysis, the audio recordings were transcribed using and then translated. The translated data were analyzed thoroughly using Fairclough's (1992) three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. The study, thus, showed that interpersonal relationships between discourse interactants could be an indicative of their social and power relations. Therefore, institutional discourse, specially, that of doctor-patient, could be a place for power struggle.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 2015

This paper explores power relations in clinical interactions in Nigeria. It seeks to investigate the use of power between doctors and patients during consultations on patient-centred approach to medicine in selected public and private hospitals in Lagos State, Nigeria. The objective is to establish how doctors' projection of power, using the discourse resources of transitivity, affects positively or negatively their relationship with patients. This study employs triangulation as its methodology. A judicious mix of quantitative and qualitative methods has been utilized to give the study a scientific shape. Proportionate stratified random sampling and purposive sampling procedures were employed. The study employs the theoretical and analytical paradigms of Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings revealed that doctors predominantly use this process to the benefit of the patients. Minimal level of intrusive and cooperative interruptions was als...

Joiurnal, 2013

Existing studies on doctor-client interactions have largely focused on monolingual encounters and the interactional effects and functions of the languages used in the communication between doctors and their clients. They have neither, to a large extent, examined the several codes employed in single encounters and their pragmatic roles nor given attention to communication at doctor-client first meetings in a bilingual or multilingual setting. This paper catalogues the generic structure of the interactions at first meetings in Nigerian hospitals and examines the pragmatic features and functions of the codes used by doctors and clients at the different units of the generic structure. Seventyfive audio recordings of doctor-client interactions were randomly made in selected state-government owned and private hospitals in Southwestern Nigeria in 2002, 2007 and 2009. Analysis of transcripts was based on theoretical aspects of code alternation, Levinson's notion of activity types and Sarangi's concept of discourse types. Four discourse stages characterise doctor-client interactions at first meetings in Nigerian hospitals: Opening, Diagnostic Interaction, Announcement and Closing. Two code selection types run through the generic structure of the interactions: non-strategic and strategic. Non-strategic choices are necessitated by cultural, institutional and linguistic routines. Strategic choices are characterised by context-shaping and context determined acts. Codes are selected at the non-strategic level to express phatic communion, indicate deference and display personal styles. At the strategic level, they are employed to accommodate dispreferred code choices, relax tension, flaunt competence, assure, save face, joke, reformulate and warn.

CALEL, Currents in African Literature and the English Language, 2016

Medical case notes (MCNs), like other forms of medical discourse provide information on a patient's health condition and its treatment. However, previous studies on medical discourse have focused more on doctor-patient interaction than on doctor's written communication, predominant of which is the medical case notes (MCNs). This study therefore, examined the exploration of cooperation in selected MCNs with a view to establishing the observance and non-observance of the conversational maxims; and the implicit meanings in MCNs. The study adopted the Gricean theoretical notion of implicature as its theoretical framework. Twenty medical case notes were purposively sampled from five privately owned hospitals in Ibadan and subjected to pragmatic analysis. The study revealed that the way language is employed by medical practitioners does not reflect an indiscriminate deployment of linguistic resources, but deliberate discursive practices that have definable shapes and implications for the profession. Our findings also showed that conversational maxims were both flouted and obeyed in the selected medical case notes. The study further observed that the recovery of implicatures was based on the non-observance of some maxims. A study of implicatures in medical case notes should assist in understanding medical discourse, and aid access to the intended meaning of the writer vis-à-vis the overall interpretation of the text. For adequate understanding of these texts by other medical personnel or any other authorized body, the study recommended the utilisation of contextual features in the interpretation of MCNs.

Although communication in medical practice is reputed for exactitude and objectivity, many doctors in several countries make equivocal, concealing utterances in certain situations when relating with clients. This phenomenon, despite its importance in doctor-client interaction, has received little attention from language scholars who have discussed concealment mainly as a strategy in news delivery. The present study examines concealment items in the interaction between doctors and clients in South-western Nigerian hospitals and their pragmatic implications for medical communication in Nigeria. Fifty conversations between doctors and clients on several ailments were tape-recorded in the six states of South-western Nigeria. Structured and unstructured interviews were conducted with selected doctors and clients. The corpus was examined for the linguistic and pragmatic resources deployed by doctors in concealing information, and was analysed using Jacob Mey's theory of pragmeme and insights from the literature on news delivery strategies. Concealment was found to take place between doctors and clients in a two-phase mode: Referential and pragmatic. Utterances which have descriptive forms at the referential level assume subjective and divergent shades in the context of concealment at the pragmatic level. Nine concealment strategies (jargonisation, veiling, forecasting, mitigation, stalling, normalisation, dysphemisation, euphemisation and doublespeak) were found to be employed to achieve four broad goals: Preventive, palliative, culture-compliant and confidential with respect to 25 diseases /medical procedures. Concealment in consultative encounters takes into account the socio-psychological security needs of clients and attends positively to clients' cultural expectations.

2012

Although communication in medical practice is reputed for exactitude and objectivity, many doctors in several countries make equivocal, concealing utterances in certain situations when relating with clients. This phenomenon, despite its importance in doctor-client interaction, has received little attention from language scholars who have discussed concealment mainly as a strategy in news delivery. The present study examines concealment items in the interaction between doctors and clients in South-western Nigerian hospitals and their pragmatic implications for medical communication in Nigeria. Fifty (50) conversations between doctors and clients on several ailments were tape-recorded in the six states of South-western Nigeria. Structured and unstructured interviews were conducted with selected doctors and clients. The corpus was examined for the linguistic and pragmatic resources deployed by doctors in concealing information, and was analysed using Jacob Mey’s theory of pragmeme and ...

Pragmatics, 2011

Although communication in medical practice is reputed for exactitude and objectivity, many doctors in several countries make equivocal, concealing utterances in certain situations when relating with clients. This phenomenon, despite its importance in doctor-client interaction, has received little attention from language scholars who have discussed concealment mainly as a strategy in news delivery. The present study examines concealment items in the interaction between doctors and clients in South-western Nigerian hospitals and their pragmatic implications for medical communication in Nigeria. Fifty conversations between doctors and clients on several ailments were tape-recorded in the six states of South-western Nigeria. Structured and unstructured interviews were conducted with selected doctors and clients. The corpus was examined for the linguistic and pragmatic resources deployed by doctors in concealing information, and was analysed using Jacob Mey's theory of pragmeme and insights from the literature on news delivery strategies. Concealment was found to take place between doctors and clients in a two-phase mode: Referential and pragmatic. Utterances which have descriptive forms at the referential level assume subjective and divergent shades in the context of concealment at the pragmatic level. Nine concealment strategies (jargonisation, veiling, forecasting, mitigation, stalling, normalisation, dysphemisation, euphemisation and doublespeak) were found to be employed to achieve four broad goals: Preventive, palliative, culture-compliant and confidential with respect to 25 diseases /medical procedures. Concealment in consultative encounters takes into account the socio-psychological security needs of clients and attends positively to clients' cultural expectations.

This study investigates healthcare communication at Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital (YBSH) Gusau in Zamfara state, focusing on the use of the Hausa language. A quantitative approach was employed through a self-administered survey questionnaire distributed to both patients and staff (n=200) at YBSH. The survey explored language preferences, dialect variations, challenges, and communication strategies. Purposive sampling ensured a representative sample of staff (doctors, nurses, etc.) and patients with diverse backgrounds. Data analysis focused on the prevalence of Hausa use, dialect variations, and staff perspectives on communication strategies and medical terminology. The study found Hausa as the dominant language (77% of staff, 64% of patients). However, dialect variations within Hausa (particularly Zamfarci) pose the challenges. The study identified a gap in using Hausa medical terminology. While staff primarily rely on interpreters (50%) and simplified explanations (45%), limited resources and knowledge restrict the use of medical terms in Hausa (5%). To improve communication, the study recommends developing a Hausa medical dictionary (focusing on Standard Hausa and Zamfarci dialects) and staff training programs on medical terminology. Additionally, a multi-pronged approach that includes interpreters, simplified explanations, and Hausa medical terminology is recommended for effective communication.