Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Has Novelty In Healthcare Gone A Little Stale?, Ray Moynihan

Ray Moynihan

Extract: Although drugs are essential, the roar of their marketing distorts decision making in favour of the newest and most expensive pills at the expense of older ones or of non-drug approaches. New diagnostic technologies offer undreamt of opportunities to detect ever earlier signs of illness, but they have also brought the increasingly recognised risk of overdiagnosis. Much has been written about how promotion can drive inappropriate use of valuable technologies, but does our deep love affair with novelty deserve more scrutiny?

Techne Or Artful Science And The Genre Of Case Presentations In Healthcare Settings, Catherine Schryer, Lorelei Lingard, Marlee Spafford

Lorelei Lingard

This paper presents a qualitative study that investigated the role of case presentations in the socialization of medical and optometry students. Using the debate from classical rhetoric around the term techne (art or science), we observed that genre theory helps explain the way case presentations mediate the development of professional identity through the interaction of certain knowledge (techne 1), “savvy” knowledge (techne 2), and ethical reflection (phronesis). We noted that these mediated scenes of learning are necessary but problematic because they can lead students to yearn for certainty and to exclude outsiders (other healthcare providers, patients). Finally, our research challenges …

Towards Embracing Clinical Uncertainty: Lessons From Social Work, Optometry And Medicine, Marlee Spafford, Catherine Schryer, Sandra Campbell, Lorelei Lingard

Lorelei Lingard

Summary: The oral transmission and transformation of client information in an apprenticeship setting provides a rich environment in which to observe students and their expert supervisors managing uncertainty. In this Canadian-based study, we examined the communicative features of 12 social work supervisions involving social work students and their supervisors and enriched our observations with subsequent interviews of the participants.

Findings: Social work students viewed the acknowledgement and examination of uncertainty as a touchstone of competent social work. This observation contrasted with our past study of medical and optometry students who focused on personal deficit and a distrust of …