What is the word that means the discrepancy between the official
posture or stance on an issue and the actual practice; e.g., the
official guidelines for carrying out a surgical procedure as taught in
lectures to residents vs. what they learn in practice? My recollection
is that the word was derived from Greek

Greetings, diggerjr!

I'm certain that the term which you are seeking is "credibility gap".

From Answers.com, under "Idioms" from the Houghton-Mifflin Company:

"credibility gap

Distrust of a public statement or position, as in 'The current
credibility gap at City Hall is the result of miscommunication between
the mayor's office and the press.' This term originated about 1960 in
connection with the American public's disinclination to believe
government statements about the Vietnam War. It soon was extended to
individuals and corporations as well as government agencies to express
a lack of confidence in the truth of their statements, or perception
of a discrepancy between words and actions."
http://www.answers.com/credibility+gap

From Merriam-Webster Online:

"Main Entry: credibility gap...
2 : DISCREPANCY <the credibility gap between the professed ideals...
and their actual practices..."
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

According to Dictionary.com, the roots of the word "credibility" are
"[Middle English, from Latin crdibilis, from crdere, to believe. See
kerd- in Indo-European Roots.]"
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=credible


You can read more information about the term "credibility gap" at the
above links, as well as at many links in the following Google Search:

"credibility gap"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22credibility+gap%22


Search Strategy

dredged from the murky depths of my
multiple-cross-country-flight-addled brain, confirmed by Google
searching


Before Rating this Question, if you have any questions about this
information,  please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you.

I hope that I have provided exactly the information which you are seeking!

Regards,

aceresearcher

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Request for Answer Clarification by diggerjr-ga on 01 Dec 2005 17:59 PST

I meant to give this the lowest rating - it totally misses the mark.

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Request for Answer Clarification by diggerjr-ga on 01 Dec 2005 18:02 PST

you missed the example I gave which is key - policy or stated
guidelines of a discipline vs. actual practice of that discipline

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Clarification of Answer by aceresearcher-ga on 01 Dec 2005 18:58 PST

Hello again,

I am sorry that you did not find my Answer satisfactory. However,
since the word "discipline" does not appear anywhere in your original
Question, I could only go by the description which *did* appear in the
original Question.

I did say:
"Before Rating this Question, if you have any questions about this
information,  please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you."

If you had done so, I could have continued to work to find the Answer
you were seeking.

If you wish to apply for a Refund, you may do so by following the
instructions here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/help.html

the answer ignored the example I gave and ignored the context
(science) - coming up with a political answer.
I heard the word used years ago in the context of training orthopedic surgeons

this is a phrase not a word, it is not a greek word and it has
virtually nothing to do with what I was asking

Nonconformance is a failure to meet a standard or policy,
noncompliance is a failure to follow an instruction or procedure.

Ian G.

dissonance (first choice)
divergence
departure

all fit somewhat, but I don't think any are of Greek origin.

The word "dichotomy" is often used when describing the discrepancy
between theory and practice.

I know it is the wrong part of speech for what you are describing, but
I thought it might help our collective brain power get closer to the
answer:
hypocrisy
from Greek hupokrisis