Secrets and Gossip—Staff Communication

Abstract

We get in a muddle about responsibility and in our communications. Doctors are not the only ones who can discharge patients from hospital—patients can do that themselves (Teeling-Smith, 1979) and the myths about medical responsibility (as if patients are not responsible for themselves) exacerbate feelings of inequality. We are responsible for ourselves and our work; not for our patients or colleagues, much as we may care for them.