“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in every respect grow up into Him who is the head, the Messiah.  Under His control, the whole body is being fitted and held together by the support of every joint, with each part working to fulfill its function; this is how the body grows and builds itself up in love.”  (Ephesians 4:15–16)

An Israeli study confirms the power of the tongue and the importance of “speaking the truth in love.”

Even “moderate” rudeness toward medical professionals dramatically affects their ability to provide high quality healthcare and to diagnose diseases, according to a study co-conducted by Tel Aviv University (TAU), Haifa’s Bnei Zion Medical Center and the University of Florida.

“This study demonstrates that rudeness impairs patient safety, all the more so in neonatal intensive care units and intensive care departments, where the slightest error could cause tremendous damage,” said Prof. Arieh Riskin of TAU’s School of Management, a collaborator on the study.

“The teams that were exposed to rudeness displayed lower capabilities in all performance metrics,” Riskin added.

Professor Peter Bamberger also of TAU’s School of Management led the rudeness research study to analyze 24 medical teams (72 nurses and physicians) from four of Bnei Zion’s neonatal intensive care units.

As part of a training simulation, all 24 teams were responsible for treating a “preterm infant whose condition acutely deteriorated” from the inflammation and death of intestinal tissue.  Meanwhile, a “foreign expert” was assigned to oversee their work.

Medical staff discuss a patient.

The control groups were exposed to “neutral comments” from a US expert — who was actually a part of the study team, while the test groups were exposed to “mildly rude statements completely unrelated to the teams’ performance,” according to the study.

Before the study began, the “rude” expert observer told the test team, “I’ve observed a number of groups from other hospitals in Israel, and compared to the participants observed elsewhere in the past, I can’t say I’m impressed with the quality of medicine in Israel.”

The judge’s conclusions found that this type of rudeness alone was responsible for 12% of the variations in both diagnostic and procedural performance.  In addition, information sharing and requests for help among team members were greatly reduced, showing an even worse effect of rudeness.

“Rudeness had adverse consequences on the diagnostic and procedural performance of the NICU team members,” while, “Information-sharing mediated the adverse effect of rudeness on diagnostic performance, and help-seeking mediated the effect of rudeness on procedural performance,” the study said.

These findings are in keeping with Scripture’s contention that the power of life and death is in the tongue.  Coarse, rude speech can have far-reaching, unforeseen side effects, demotivating people, creating discord, and causing damaging results.

“Love is patient and kind, … not proud, rude or selfish.”  (1 Corinthians 13:4–5)

A nurse cares for a premature infant in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

The study only assessed external sources of rudeness and not the extent to which rude patients or hospital colleagues might affect a healthcare worker’s performance.  (2MM)

A 2014 survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 90 percent of nurses have been attacked on the job, and that attacks on health-care workers account “for almost 70 percent of all nonfatal workplace assaults causing days away from work in the US.”  (Scientific American)

In Israel last January, the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) held a strike resulting from “an ugly wave of ongoing violence against doctors by patients and their families.”

“The public has largely remained silent during this wave of shocking and shameful violence,” the IMA said in a statement.  (TOI)

“It is absurd, that we, the men and women of the medical community in Israel, have sworn to save human life and to treat all who need medical treatment, while our lives are abandoned to fate,” stated IMA chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman in an interview with the Times of Israel.