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The Philippine General Hospital: An Observation of Different Relationships

The Philippine General Hospital is the Philippine’s largest public hospital catering to the health needs of sick Filipinos nationwide. Due to its wide span of clientele, the hospital is regarded to be a host to different microcultures in the Philippine culture. With this, the institution is a great place for observing cultural relationships. Our observations are divided into three levels: Communication Style: How do patients, doctors and different personalities communicate with each other? Possible Conflicts: What are the possible conflicts that may arise due to the usage of these different communication styles? Possible Solutions: With these conflicts at hand, what are the possible solutions so that these conflicts could be avoided?

Communication Style

• The doctors use a rather informal communication style when dealing with patients. They use the lingua franca of the context this situation is in: Tagalog. We heard doctors asking their patients in a polite, caring tone about how they feel, how they take medications, etc.

• The hospital staffs, including the nurses, also use an informal communication style when dealing with patients. The communication style actually resembles with that of the doctors’. We think that it is vital to communicate with the patients in an informal way. Some doctors and nurses say that they do use the informal style because of two reasons: 1) Understandability: The patients, mostly from the provinces, would understand more an informal style. 2) Sense of Sympathy and Belongingness: The patients would feel more welcome and cared for in an informal style of communication is used. This would also avoid some conflicts in communicating.

• On the other hand, the doctors use a relatively formal communication style when dealing with fellow doctors, nurses and/or other medical staff.

Possible Conflicts

• Although the doctors employ an informal style of communication, a possible conflict may arise. This is when the microculture a specific patient belongs to seem to go against the attributes of the culture of a hospital. Just for example, a patient might find it aggressive when given medical treatment. Due to this reason, the patient might reject the doctors’ orders.

• Moreover, patients may find it insulting when diagnosed with a certain disease. Because some believe that only God has the power to decide their fate.

• In this line, some patients argue with the doctor about the diagnosis. They believe that the diagnosis is wrong.

• Another thing that we noticed was the hospital administration finds it difficult when asking for hospital fees. This is because that majority of the patients have the belief that the government should subsidize