Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This study explores medical professionals" attitudes towards using metaphors in medical discourse. Firstly, the benefits of using metaphors in medical communication include improving patient understanding, reducing inquiries, increasing treatment consent rates, and simplifying explanations of complex topics. Additionally, metaphors can enhance doctor-patient rapport, making physicians seem more approachable. However, they can also distort factual information, induce misconceptions, complicate explanations of adverse outcomes, and alienate patients if not used contextually. Lastly, the study highlights effective metaphor usage in medical communication, stressing alignment with patients" knowledge and age, fostering empathetic connections, using familiar and simple metaphors, and evaluating their suitability based on disease severity and stage.
Hyunju Song (Sun,) studied this question.