Without evidence of benefit, an intervention should not be presumed to be beneficial or safe.

- Rogue Medic

Shaggy Comments on Some Research Podcasting Comments

In the comments to Some Research Podcasting Comments, Shaggy wrote,

I am beginning to think our definition of “why” in the educational arena is not the same. If it is, I will just conclude that either one of us is off our rocker. Explaining the importance of a certain treatment modality as well as anything else is considered very important as motivational.

Perhaps that is part of the problem with attaching questionable explanations to the results of research that was not designed to answer these questions.

Should we be more concerned with motivation, than with accuracy?

I could come up with many possible explanations for why something is happening. I would rather say, I don’t know.

Science is much better at showing what does not work, than what does work.

Science is much better at showing what does work, than at explaining why something works.

This was very important when I did occupational safety and health training for the Safety Council in Pa. as the “why” was part of Bloom’s three types of learning, and fell under the affective nicely. Why should you wear PPE?

Because people who do not wear PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) are over-represented in the morbidity and mortality statistics.

Why are safe work practices important?

Because going home to one’s family is more likely, when one follows these safe work practices.

Why is quick and continuous CPR necessary?

Research shows that without quick and continuous CPR, the resuscitation rate is significantly lower.

Maybe it is due to direct compression of the heart. Maybe it is due to increased intrathoracic pressure. Maybe it is due to a rebound effect after compressing the chest. Maybe it is due to some combination of these mechanisms. Maybe it is due to some other mechanism. Maybe it is due to a combination of some other mechanism and one or more of these mechanisms.

What do we need to know?

We need to know that quick and continuous CPR does work.

We do not need to make up stories that will likely be, at best significantly modified, and at worst completely discarded. Do we need to make up these stories just to motivate people to provide good treatment?

Maybe we will know what the mechanism is in a decade. Maybe in two decades. Right now, I think we are just spinning fairy tales to impress others with how smart we think we are. Or has there been research that conclusively shows the complete mechanism for CPR?

Regardless, the important point is that quick and continuous CPR works. How quick and continuous CPR works is not important in deciding whether we should provide quick and continuous CPR.

If you think these questions shouldn’t be answered, I may tend to think you finally went off the ledge.

How did I get on the ledge?

Why was I on the ledge?

How can I know if I fell off the ledge, if I don’t know the answers to the mechanism of my arriving on the ledge?

Then there is the question of whether I was actually on the ledge at all. Last thing I remember, I was nailed to a perch. Nice fish, the perch.

Maybe I just wasn’t motivated to stay on the ledge.

If you think we are talking about two different things, then perhaps you need to clarify for the intellectually challenged like myself.

I think we are talking about the same thing.

I think that we disagree.

On the other hand, I am confident that almost everyone agrees with you.

We need to become much more comfortable with uncertainty.

Narrative Fallacy –

Narrative Fallacy I

How did this happen? – Research

Narrative Fallacy II

CAST and Narrative Fallacy

C A S T and Narrative Fallacy comment from Shaggy

Some Research Podcasting Comments

Shaggy Comments on Some Research Podcasting Comments.

Spine Immobilization in Penetrating Trauma: More Harm Than Good?

EMS EdUCast – Journal Club 2: Episode 43

Education Problems, Autism, and Vaccines

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