Dr Jargon Paediatrics: A Teaching Resource to Help Healthcare Professionals Improve Paediatric Communication Skills

Background: Medical students can expect to learn `upward of 10,000 new words` (Kagan, 2011); it is therefore not surprising that children do not always understand us. Children report feeling confused and frustrated by medical jargon, but when it is not used they feel better and more able to focus on recovery. Only 57% of hospitalised children above the age of 12 understand the information doctors give them regarding their care and treatment (Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection, 2007).

Objective: To create a teaching resource for healthcare professionals that will increase awareness and use of child-friendly language, and avoidance of medical jargon, and increase users` confidence in paediatric communication.

Methods: Dr Jargon Paediatrics, a teaching resource in the form of a card game, was created to address this need. Players must practise describing diseases, treatments and procedures to each other against a timer while avoiding medical jargon. Focus groups of healthcare professionals and students played the game and completed questionnaires before and after.

Results: The first focus group completed questionnaires before playing, rating their confidence in explaining a medical term to a child: of 13 participants, 69% reported feeling `slightly confident` and 31% `not at all confident`; none selected `very confident` or `confident`. All three focus groups completed questionnaires after playing: of 45 participants, 5% agreed and 95% strongly ageed that the game was a useful resource for practising jargon-free paediatric communication. 100% of participants reported that more teaching on giving medical information to children is needed in training programmes.

Conclusion: Dr Jargon Paediatrics is a `fun and innovative` resource which builds awareness and confidence in paediatric communication and avoiding medical jargon. It has now been commercially developed and has gained further positive feedback from users as well as press coverage.