observe and report

observe and report

The Importance of Observing and Reporting

1. The Role of Observation in Decision Making

Unfortunately, many in the medical field have missed a diagnosis because an error occurred in defining the patient’s problem. Usually, this is because the patient’s problem is not well understood. In the emergency room, a patient may display signs of discomfort, sweating, vomiting, etc. The assumption from the onlooking eye would be that the patient is physically ill from something. An emergency resident may order medical labs in hopes of finding an illness that matches the patient’s symptoms. A mistake such as this can result in a diagnosis that is not well associated with a patient’s problem. In fact, the patient may actually have a mental ailment and the physical symptoms were anxiety-related. This is equivalent to a Type I error in which an assumed null hypothesis is true. In order to prevent such errors, it is necessary to observe and identify all symptoms related to the patient and to not make any assumptions about the problem until all facts are checked.

Sometimes we don’t realize how significant the role of observing is in our decision making until we understand what the word “observe” means. Merriam-Webster states that “observe” means to “conform one’s action or practice to (rule, trend, or condition) what observation has shown to be the usage.” It goes on to mention “to inspect or take note of or perceive.” Now when making a decision, we do our best to understand the situation that is going on, which is what observing essentially is. It is hard to solve a problem if it can’t be defined. A problem can’t be defined unless the situation has been observed. Once we have defined a problem, we then proceed to analyze how or why that problem occurred and finally what can be done to resolve it.

2. The Benefits of Accurate Reporting

Accurate reporting’s importance continues to extend past immediate intervention potential and into the realms of prevention and long-term forecasting. Bolstering an accurate data set attached to any individual forecast or event can only add to the potential of correctly identifying similar circumstances in the future and the most appropriate method for dealing with them. Realizing the likely future uses of today’s data is also an important point when considering the wide-ranging temporal aspects of health and medical research. While data may be most frequently used to identify short-term treatment or management issues, it is not uncommon for epidemiologists and public health professionals to use similar methods to the following fictitious example, to identify long-term trends and develop public policy. In this case, we have a 25-year-old male cab driver with a two-week history of lower back pain who receives an incorrect diagnosis of muscular pain and is prescribed anti-inflammatories with no follow-up. If this individual eventually develops chronic renal failure, an accurately studied event such as the reaction to his medication and its effects on his underlying pathology may be compared to a more effectively manage similar patients in the future.

3. Best Practices for Effective Observation

Effective observation does not happen by chance. It requires careful and thoughtful planning. There is a high rate of children’s activity and the interests that motivate it. Children choose what they want to do and then do it. They do not wait for an adult to direct them. If our observation is to be successful, we need to design it to fit into the flow of children’s activities. When we interrupt or distract children, we usually miss their whole purpose for doing something. If children are painting with watercolors, building with blocks, or playing a game, and we ask them to be the focus of our observation to do something else, we are setting them up for failure and falsifying what they can really do. If children are very involved in an activity, it may be best to postpone our observation of them until another time. Going back to do a second observation instead of pushing them to do something else with losing their interest retent makes our observation more valid. By writing down some specific information or quotes that later I can’t recall, I am more likely to remember and record my observations soon after I have made them. Keeping a small notebook with me is useful, or sometimes I make a few cryptic notes on a piece of scrap paper and write them up more fully as soon as I have a chance. If I wait too long, I often forget some of the things that I saw or heard, or their exact sequence, and lose the subtleties of my own reactions to the events.

4. Strategies for Clear and Concise Reporting

Simply passing along information from the source to the LIS is not sufficient. Let’s use a relevant example here to illustrate this point. If an LIS is advised by the Fire Chief that “Joe has been having severe headaches”, the Fire Chief is actually reporting what he has observed, not merely passing along a complaint. The appropriateness of this communication style is another issue, but considering again our obligation in the above example, the meaning we have to try to attach to this is that Joe is suffering from head pain. The only way we can verify that this is the same impression that Joe has communicated to the Fire Chief is by contacting Joe and asking him the specific questions about our signs. When we are on the right track with obtaining information from the source, using Joe as the patient in this example, it is not out of line to have Joe return to the Fire Chief in a week or so and report any new or worse symptoms related to the headaches. Our concern here, of course, would be to get back in touch with Joe to find out whether or not he has indeed seen Joe, and this may ultimately affect our impression of the case. The final method of verifying the information with the source is seen when using the Fire Chief to communicate the patient’s response to therapy or referral. At this point, the Fire Chief is re-establishing communication between the patient and the healthcare provider, and we must follow-up again to find out how effective the treatment was and if there were any changes in the patient’s condition. This will allow us to compare the new information with our original impression and determine whether to continue or modify the PTA. Note that while these methods of verifying information with the source provide excellent opportunities for our patients to continue to report information back to us, they are not useful if we have lost contact with the specific source and should not be applied indefinitely. In such a situation, it may be unrealistic to expect that a patient with a severe head injury had continued communication with the healthcare provider, and the above-mentioned methods would be impractical for a chronic condition of the elderly.

5. The Impact of Observation and Reporting on Success

The idea of knowing and observing the enemy is basic to all military operations. Simply reading intelligence summaries or gazing at photographs cannot convey the feel of the situation so keenly as first-hand information. When General Sir Harold Alexander, as a divisional commander on the British Expeditionary Force of 1914, was in doubt whether to attack a force which was reported to be digging in, he spent several hours crawling about on the back of a horse less than half a mile away from the German lines, in hopes of better judging the enemy’s intentions. This led to his being wounded. Alexander should have learned that motivation is only an aspect of the subject that is difficult to. Myopic Devotees of Mechanical Intelligence. Doctrines, strategies, and tactics invariably seek to provide the specific and concrete guides for action. Yet they must always be changed in the light of the new information since no plan can fit all possible contingencies. Failure to realize this often leads to formalism, the devotion to a prescribed form in method rather than to the purpose for which the method evolved. During the days of Charles I, dysentery was a disease not to be fought by taking arms against a perishing: but the political considerations which determined the taking arms for perishing led to a campaign that brought suffering and death to many an English cavalryman. The early part of the Boer war saw the employment of the British army to the tactics learned in the Zulu and Xhosa wars; with the result that the poor Boer farmer, curious and overconfident regarding the objective, attacked imperial forces on problems of belligerent risen that were meant to force them from his country. Diese verge leads to runs of knowledge at act en. Terms of knowledge are useful only insofar as they provide the framework for buoyed action. Any intelligence bearing upon the success-seeking action may be considered in the same light as scientific knowledge which determined the practical beings of ends in technology or art. Any inspection or experiment aimed at better technique, crude trial and error, a poor beginning with beginning in painting or in production of small high explosives; ridicule can come only from hindsight as a result of comparison with knowledge of what is better or there can be no ridicule can knowledge of method of production. Difficulty measuring psychological situation may be simply expressed by inquiring whether it is worthwhile to report it. The ills of modern democracy have been thought to be all products of recognizance or too much to often an influence unfavorable against the various earmarks of despotism. Failure to understand and foresee evolution. Seventy now calls a speech wistfully remembered from his dear thing sound came from the prime. Dirty finger that was called the Dog mar Wick weary is the man his merits for but we need not suffer in reported history can be too much punish the speaking of my reader venture to try. Long gone is it task after a work in professional historian changed from our digging in an intruding past had said that if a French soiree fill with tragic contemplation of the next war. French people in that class occasion back to the country. All these are social actions with some kind hoped the viewer. Must be fully deduced and conscientiously explained in order to produce a better accomplished result.