noncompliance vs. nonadherence
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:02 pm
My sister is an RN in a privately run dialysis clinic in the Northwest, and she just told me that they have recently been instructed to change their vocabulary when referring to or dialoging with patients. In every situation where the word 'noncompliance' would have been appropriate, they are instructed to use the word 'nonadherence' instead.
I was puzzled. She said it was considered pejorative to use the former term. The following was the best explanation I could find on the 'net' for this:
Some years ago, diabetes educators argued that the term ‘adherence’ be used preferentially instead of ‘compliance,’ and the term ‘nonadherence’ be substituted for ‘noncompliance.’ The rationale for this proposal was that the term ‘noncompliance’ implies a series of negative value judgments about patients as people. Instead, the term ‘nonadherence’ was thought to imply a description of a failure to follow the medical prescription without any bias toward the patient as a person.
Can someone out there attempt to explain this reasoning to me, because I am missing something.
Thanks,
Sardith
I was puzzled. She said it was considered pejorative to use the former term. The following was the best explanation I could find on the 'net' for this:
Some years ago, diabetes educators argued that the term ‘adherence’ be used preferentially instead of ‘compliance,’ and the term ‘nonadherence’ be substituted for ‘noncompliance.’ The rationale for this proposal was that the term ‘noncompliance’ implies a series of negative value judgments about patients as people. Instead, the term ‘nonadherence’ was thought to imply a description of a failure to follow the medical prescription without any bias toward the patient as a person.
Can someone out there attempt to explain this reasoning to me, because I am missing something.
Thanks,
Sardith