In *Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions*, Gary Klein offers a case study about a baby who almost died in a neonatal intensive care unit. There were two nurses on duty: a shift leader with years of experience (I'll call her Mary), and a trainee (Jill). One night while they were both on duty, Jill noticed a subtle drop in a baby's temperature. She attributed the change to coldness in the room, so she corrected the temperature in the bassinet and forgot about it. A few minutes later, Mary looked at the same baby, noted the temp change, but also noticed the baby's subtle color change and reduced fussiness, which Jill had missed. From experience, Mary recognized the signs of onset sepsis and started the emergency protocol that would save the baby's life.
In the post review, Mary was angry at the Jill for missing the "obvious" signs of trouble. Later, however, Mary realized her own mistake: the underestimation of her own experience, leading to her over-expectation that someone else could "get it" in a few weeks. Was Mary not good at her job? Should Jill handle the NICU by herself? After all, it costs less to staff 2 people, and Jill seems reasonably smart and eager to learn. Maybe the question isn't so much "who's a better risk, an experienced person or an inexperienced person." Maybe the question is, "How does a person measure the depth of their experience, and market it appropriately". -Gloria Time magazine did a cover story once about the importance of the > "experience" argument in the presidential campaign. They cited studies > where > very experienced nurses fared no better than less experienced nurses in > making life or death decisions, and often fared worse. They found that > experienced practitioners relied more on habit while less experienced > practitioners were more prone to examine all the information available > (albeit quickly). > > As a result, either group was just as likely to kill a patient. > > -r- > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
