'Show your work' to learn the real patient story

by Jeffrey Cohn
Many of us probably recall from high school the exhortation from our math/science teacher to "show your work" on test problems. I remember being irritated about that, thinking if I could come up with the correct answer what was the necessity for showing how I got there.
Looking back I believe that this was in my best interest. In the linear world of high school math and science, there truly is a best way to get to the correct answer, and showing the work allowed the teacher to determine whether I'd learned that pathway accurately.
Moving into college, I'm reminded of my first Introduction to Philosophy exam. When I told my roommate I only filled up 2/3 of a blue book he said I'd get no better than a C+. And he was right.
I was again disappointed, but my professor considered my thinking process just as important as my conclusion. He was trying to help me think in a more expansive way than I was used to. The challenge for me was converting my rapid, tangential, non-linear thinking process into writing.
Showing my work felt redundant--if I actually did think broadly, the way my professor was training me to think, why did I have to convert that to words? The solace was that my roommate's words were a valid interpretation of the professor's perspective: It takes a lot of writing to document an expansive thinking process on a complex topic.

Now let's shift into how this applies to healthcare. Medical school taught me the value of showing my work in my ...

Source: hospital impact - August 8, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs