Passive Voice In Health Care

To the masses, the education required to become a physician often grants such people an otherworldly status as the majority have little education or specialize in an unrelated field. When this consideration is combined (passive voice) with the stigmatization of mental illness, it is obvious the stakes of accurate diagnoses are high. As language is built (passive voice) on categorization and generalization the question is not, should they be used (passive voice) in healthcare but how? (Charon 2004:17) To illustrate stereotyping in mental health diagnosis examples will be pulled (passive voice) from an experiment in which sane participants gained entry as patients to psychiatric hospitals and Monte Bute’s experience of being wrongly diagnosed

Bute’s humor. In the case of the pseudopatient’s family history, the pseudopatient talked openly about his relationship with his wife, which was warm with the occasional heated disagreement and admitted to occasionally spanking his children. (Rosenhan 1973:215) Although these family relations are typical, they were interpreted (passive voice) by hospital staff to be abnormal and used to support the inaccurate

For example, the pseudopatient gave testimony of his average family dynamics, only to have this evidence of normalcy manipulated to “fit” his misdiagnosis. (Rosenhan 1973:217) As for Dr. Bute, it is reasonable to speculate he, his wife, family and friends were quick to vouch for his dark sense of humor. Furthermore, the eccentric quality of social science professors alone should have provided evidence enough (Great line!). However, whatever proof Bute and his family provided to the physician was dismissed (passive voice) and chaos followed. In these cases, the physicians expose their methods as unscientific as “generalizations in social science are tentative and subject to change because evidence is constantly being examined,” yet; evaluation was abandoned (passive voice) in favor of ridged commitment to a stereotype. (Charon 2004:22) If the various physicians involved in these situations had been willing to accept new evidence they would have greatly improved their odds of professional accuracy and, in one instance, saved them from the considerable hassle of Bute’s justified contempt. Accepting new evidence is not only a fair practice it is also a superior scientific method in evaluating information, a quality these physicians lacked in practice