Demystifying the Privacy Myth: Navigating around Gate Keepers in Male Reproductive Health Clinic

Abstract

Successful doctor-patient interaction in a medical setting heavily relies on negotiating communication practices in terms of language use. To the outsider, the medical setting is shrouded in the mystery of what happens inside and how near impossible it is for a non-medical practitioner to get access to a health facility for research purposes abound. Emanating from a recent successfully concluded linguistic study, aiming to determine the features of the language and strategies employed by doctors and patients in a male reproductive health clinic, this paper explores the procedures of gaining access from an outsider’s perspective. Thus responding to the existing myths about privacy and confidentiality of the medical profession vis a vis social science researchers. The paper provides an overview of how the researcher navigated around the gatekeepers and how patients’ consent, privacy, and confidentiality were taken care of during the study. Critiques and questions of methodology that arose in the academic genre are adequately addressed in this paper. The paper answers questions such as if reproductive health is sensitive and data in the medical setting problematic, how will the data for this particular study be collected? Will participant observation be convenient? Will patients allow the researcher to record the doctor-patient interaction despite the anonymity and privacy of the data?