Nursing Care Method Summary

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The first step of the CARE method, communicate, could potentially reduce the estimated 80% of “serious medical errors” resulting from communication breakdowns between physicians during patient transfers (Rush et al.) The researchers say that communication between doctors is essential to make sure each physician caring for the patient is apprised of the situation, the patient’s needs, and the patient’s symptoms. Equally important, though, is that communication between the patient and the doctor is clear, “open,” and gives the patient a chance to tell their “story.” Rush et al. stated that “Inadequate history taking” was the cause of approximately 40% of diagnostic errors in a study of 6400 physicians (as cited in MacDonald, 2011). Asking questions that actively involve the patient, not interrupting the patient, and refraining from asking “streamlined” yes-or-no questions can all solicit a more complete and thorough response from the patient, as well as an improved “doctor-patient” relationship (Rush et al., 2017). …show more content…

Anchoring, attribution, availability, and visceral biases are the most common “flawed heuristics,” but a simple list of 4 questions can potentially eradicate these issues. Rush et al. suggest that doctors can dramatically reduce biases by asking themselves “Did a colleague or patient suggest the diagnosis?”, “Am I stereotyping the patient or presentation?”, “Did I consider causes other than what appeared to be the obvious one?”, and “Do I perceive this patient as difficult or as a VIP?” (Rush et al., 2017). By doing this, doctors are consciously reminding themselves of bias, and therefore reducing its

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