LO in Hospitals LO22767

Vana Prewitt (vana@praxislearning.org)
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 10:33:15 -0400

Replying to LO22748 --

John Gunkler wrote:

> So, if the hospital begins to see itself as a site where learning can
> occur -- even if nothing more -- could it not ask questions such as, "How
> can we structure this site to maximize the opportunities for clinical
> learning?" "What services can we provide so that the informal learning
> that happens here can be made more readily available to others?" (etc.,
> etc.)

I would agree that clinicians do not "look to" the facility (hospital or
clinic) to provide LO experiences and environment, but that does not
preclude a clinical setting from pursuing LO practices in an intelligent
way. I suppose the best examples I have seen are technology-driven and do
not require technological savvy by the practitioners. I have seen "palm
pilot" type devices that permit a doctor to make clinical notes
electronically and literally plug the device into the mother system for a
download. This makes clinical information available to every care
provider (x-ray technician, nurse, doctor, specialist, radiologist, lab
technician, anesthesiologist, etc) who needs access to the most current
orders, procedures, and patient stats.

However, in another case, antibiotic-resistent hospital infections were
out of control and the institution implemented a feedback loop process to
find out why. The decidedly nontechnical solution was to treat the
hospital as if it were bacteria. The solution "learned" from the problem
how best to control disease by "following" the bacteria through the
hospital in an epidemiological game of Clue. A task force, formed of
various hospital staff (not all doctors) traced and observed until they
identified significant infection control issues, including the doctors not
washing their hands. They tore out the drinking faucets and installed
washing stations in their place. In hopsital infections have decreased
dramatically.

kind regards,

Vana Prewitt
Praxis Learning Systems
Chapel Hill, NC

www.PraxisLearning.com

-- 

Vana Prewitt <vana@praxislearning.org>

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