A.4 Clinical decision making Flashcards
Explain the processes of clinical decision making and diagnositic/therapeutic strategies.
What does the term ‘clinical’ refer to?
The symptoms and course of a disease.
Definition based on Farlex, 2012.
Define clinical reasoning.
The process of explicitly thinking through a clinical scenario systematically.
What is clinical judgement?
The process of reaching a conclusion about a clinical scenario, using clinical reasoning and other information like intuition.
What is clinical decision making?
The application of clinical reasoning and judgement to develop definitive action steps in a specific clinical scenario.
What are diagnostic/therapeutic strategies determined through?
Clinical decision making.
Who generally participates in clinical decision making?
Clinicians and patients.
What is health decision making?
Patient or citizen decision making about the symptoms and course of a disease.
List the steps involved in the clinical decision-making process.
- Using cues and gathering patient data
- Making judgements on potential scenarios
- Making decisions on actions
- Evaluating outcomes
What is patient-centricity in clinical decision making?
Ensuring that clinical decisions are based on the patient’s needs, desires, capabilities, and support networks.
Define accountability in the context of clinical decision making.
Taking ongoing responsibility for clinical decisions made and their implications.
What does transparency in clinical decision making ensure?
Full disclosure to maximize the patient’s ability to participate.
What is the role of collaboration and communication in clinical decision making?
To ensure a respectful patient-clinician relationship where information is understood and both parties can contribute.
Identify common constraints in clinical decision making.
- Regulation
- Standards of professional practice
- Organisational policies and standards
- Cost
What is pattern recognition in clinical decision making?
Immediate hypothesis formation based on significant features recognized in a case.
What are heuristics?
Rules of thumb, educated guesses, or mental shortcuts used in decision making.
Define hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
A reasoning process characterized by generating hypotheses, followed by data search/investigation to evaluate them.
What is a potential issue with the hypothetico-deductive model?
Reluctance to discard an initial hypothesis even when subsequent data challenges its validity.
What types of errors can occur in clinical decision making?
- Incorrect information
- Cognitive errors
- No-fault errors
What is a representation error?
Judging the probability of disease based on how closely findings fit the manifestations of a disease.
What does premature closure refer to in clinical decision making?
Making a quick conclusion without collecting additional data.
What are anchoring errors?
Adhering to an initial impression despite conflicting further data.
Define confirmation bias.
Selectively accepting clinical data that supports a desired hypothesis and ignoring data that does not.
What are attribution errors?
Being influenced by stereotypes, prematurely narrowing considerations.
What is cognitive overload?
When too much information is available at once, impairing decision making.
