Answer to Question #97412 in Sociology for larry

Question

During a continuing education seminar, a nurse learns about the idea of patient-centered language. As part of this concept, the person giving the seminar notes that instead of calling a patient who drinks an above-average amount an "alcoholic," the patient should be given the medical diagnosis of "substance use disorder." Which concept does this portray?

Answer 1

The SORT Concept in Medicine

One of the emerging concepts in the medical field is SORT. This is the acronym for Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy. SORT is a patient-centered method of ranking evidence in medical communication. Using this approach, a nurse may not just indicate that a patient is an “alcoholic”, but may diagnose “substance use disorder”. The substance abuse disorder may then be classified as mild, moderate or severe. The main motivation for using SORT is that it is more specific and accurately captures the medic’s assessment of the patient’s condition. Another reason is that, SORT is a newly widely accepted way of expressing medical conditions that is understood across the field of medical practice. The reason for this acceptance is that other people referring to a particular health assessment report will get a clearer picture of the patient’s condition. This eases communication between two or more medics, like a nurse and doctor for instance.