Risk Management and Quality Assurance in Healthcare

Summary 

Simpkin and Schwartzstein (2016) reveal that while uncertainties exist in healthcare practice, the culture of medicine adopts a position that encourages its stakeholders not to acknowledge its presence as an issue concern to quality assurance and risk management. The researchers base their arguments on the premise that the case based modules adopted in medical schools emphasize presenting patients with medical solutions based on a collection of laboratory results, signs differential diagnoses and symptoms. However, there are tendencies that a physician will continually implement operational decisions that may result in diagnostic uncertainties based on the imperfect pieces of data and limited knowledge considered. Tolerance of uncertainty must be inculcated to prevent the work-related stress revealed by doctors in their lines of professionalism due to the maladaptive responses depicted, as a way of teaching the medical art of probability.

Key Issue 

Tolerating uncertainty

Resolution 

The article by Simpkin and Schwartzstein (2016) addresses the issue of difficulty in medical practice by proposing a revolutionary initiative aimed at fostering tolerance for ambiguity. In their perspectives, educational curricular used to train healthcare professionals in formal and informal settings must be tailored in such a way that they are emphatic of the unpredictable nature of treatment outcomes. Further, the researchers propose that stakeholders in the healthcare sector must focus their assessment criteria on vetting the efficacy of the clinical reasoning cues as well as the ability of their workforces to demonstrate higher degrees of tolerance for uncertainty.

Tie-in 

There is an excellent connection between the propositions made by Simpkin and Schwartzstein (2016) on the importance of tolerating uncertainty in my personal life as a student in the field of medical sciences. I have realised that physicians put a lot of emphasis on certainty and accuracy. In my perception, operation by probability is the only specific practice in medicine.

Reference

Simpkin, A. L., & Schwartzstein, R. M. (2016). Tolerating uncertainty—the next medical revolution?. New England Journal of Medicine , 375 (18), 1713-1715.