I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and since then I have been paying more attention to my instinctive reaction to certain wounds. I saw a patient getting a compression bandage change (who was not my patient), and the first thing that popped into my head was, “He needs prednisone.” I didn’t know anything about him except for the brief look I got of his wound, but it was SCREAMING that he needed systemic steroids. I am not even sure how I know that, except that I know it. There’s some algorithm we have in our head that we aren’t even aware of. It makes me realize that most of what I do in wound care is pattern recognition. I don’t think I am particularly intelligent – but I do recognize patterns. I wonder if it is like the cowboy working with my daughter’s horse, who knew he didn’t like the bit on his bridle.
Wounds “talk” to us, and lately I have been wondering how we could help practitioners “listen” to them better. I thought from time to time I might point out some of those.
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
The opinions, comments, and content expressed or implied in my statements are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Intellicure or any of the boards on which I serve.
