IMPACT OF LANGUAGE MISUSE AND VIOLATION OF MEDICAL ETHICS ON PATIENTS

Abstract

Every profession has its ethics additional to that of the host community. Professionals ought to act, operate, and carry out their duties within the confine of the permissible ethical principles guiding them in their profession. Regrettably, many professionals do not. This study is aimed at exploring the impact of language misuse and violation of ethics among medical professionals on patients. Relying on secondary data from library and the internet, the study qualitatively and evidently shows that most medical professionals in Nigeria and many other developing nations most often violate the ethics of their profession and misuse language while treating, communicating and interacting with patients. It also shows that the medical profession has a lot of statutory ethical principles, which physicians pledge allegiance to but largely disregard and violatemany of them. The study submits that by using language negatively with patients, medical professionals violate the core principles of medical ethics and aggravate the ill-health of patients. It recommends attitudinal change, mass sensitisation, enacting of operational legislations, and increased inter-agency and interdisciplinary collaboration and efforts as the panacea for proper use of language to enhance medical professionals’ efficiency in the management of their patience.