IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i4p1084-1096.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

'When I first came here, I thought medicine was black and white': Making sense of medical students' ways of knowing

Author

Listed:
  • Knight, Lynn Valerie
  • Mattick, Karen

Abstract

Personal beliefs about what knowledge is and how we understand, integrate and apply knowledge (known as personal epistemologies) are entrenched in the process of decision-making. Evidence-based medicine in all its forms brings with it the need for an ever more sophisticated appreciation of individual patients' perspectives and 'scientific' perspectives within the clinical encounter. However, current theoretical perspectives on personal epistemology focus more on scientific ways of knowing where knowledge is abstracted and logical. We conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate medical students' personal epistemological thinking towards the end of their second year of training at a new medical school in the South West of England. Whilst responses were varied, students appeared to express predominantly simplistic levels of epistemological thinking according to current developmental models of personal epistemology. However, the process of professional identity formation together with epistemological thinking brought together both scientific and experiential ways of knowing in a way that has largely been ignored by current theorists in the domain of personal epistemology.

Suggested Citation

  • Knight, Lynn Valerie & Mattick, Karen, 2006. "'When I first came here, I thought medicine was black and white': Making sense of medical students' ways of knowing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1084-1096, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:4:p:1084-1096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00045-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robinson, Elizabeth J. & Kerr, Cicely & Stevens, Andrew & Lilford, Richard & Braunholtz, David & Edwards, Sarah, 2004. "Lay conceptions of the ethical and scientific justifications for random allocation in clinical trials," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 811-824, February.
    2. Clark, Jack A. & Potter, Deborah A. & McKinlay, John B., 1991. "Bringing social structure back into clinical decision making," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 853-866, January.
    3. Lingard, L. & Garwood, K. & Schryer, C. F. & Spafford, M. M., 2003. "A certain art of uncertainty: case presentation and the development of professional identity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 603-616, February.
    4. Dobrow, Mark J. & Goel, Vivek & Upshur, R. E. G., 2004. "Evidence-based health policy: context and utilisation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 207-217, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ferlie, Ewan & Crilly, Tessa & Jashapara, Ashok & Peckham, Anna, 2012. "Knowledge mobilisation in healthcare: A critical review of health sector and generic management literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(8), pages 1297-1304.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alison Bullock & Zoё Slote Morris & Christine Atwell, 2013. "Exchanging knowledge through healthcare manager placements in research teams," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(13-14), pages 1363-1380, October.
    2. Mandy Ryan, 1994. "Agency in Health Care: Lessons for Economists from Sociologists," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 207-217, April.
    3. Deng, Chung-Yeh & Wu, Chia-Ling, 2010. "An innovative participatory method for newly democratic societies: The "civic groups forum" on national health insurance reform in Taiwan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 896-903, March.
    4. Tolib N. Mirzoev & Andrew Green & Ricky Van Kalliecharan, 2015. "Framework for assessing the capacity of a health ministry to conduct health policy processes—a case study from Tajikistan," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 173-185, April.
    5. Deas, L. & Mattu, L. & Gnich, W., 2013. "Intelligent policy making? Key actors' perspectives on the development and implementation of an early years' initiative in Scotland's public health arena," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-8.
    6. Davenport, Nancy H.M., 2011. "Medical residents' use of narrative templates in storytelling and diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 873-881, September.
    7. Dickert, Neal W. & Kass, Nancy E., 2009. "Patients' perceptions of research in emergency settings: A study of survivors of sudden cardiac death," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 183-191, January.
    8. de Goede, Joyce & Putters, Kim & van Oers, Hans, 2012. "Utilization of epidemiological research for the development of local public health policy in the Netherlands: A case study approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 707-714.
    9. Lange, Isabelle L. & Feroz, Ferozuddin & Naeem, Ahmad Jan & Saeedzai, Sayed Ataullah & Arifi, Fatima & Singh, Neha & Blanchet, Karl, 2022. "The development of Afghanistan's Integrated Package of Essential Health Services: Evidence, expertise and ethics in a priority setting process," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    10. Montesanti, Stephanie Rose & Abelson, Julia & Lavis, John N. & Dunn, James R., 2015. "The value of frameworks as knowledge translation mechanisms to guide community participation practice in Ontario CHCs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 223-231.
    11. Senier, Laura & Smollin, Leandra & Lee, Rachael & Nicoll, Lauren & Shields, Michael & Tan, Catherine, 2018. "Navigating the evidentiary turn in public health: Sensemaking strategies to integrate genomics into state-level chronic disease prevention programs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 207-215.
    12. Hodgetts, Katherine & Elshaug, Adam G. & Hiller, Janet E., 2012. "What counts and how to count it: Physicians’ constructions of evidence in a disinvestment context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2191-2199.
    13. de Leeuw, Evelyne & Skovgaard, Thomas, 2005. "Utility-driven evidence for healthy cities: Problems with evidence generation and application," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1331-1341, September.
    14. Marschall, Paul, 2018. "Evidence-oriented approaches in development cooperation: experiences, potential and key issues," IDOS Discussion Papers 8/2018, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    15. Lessard, Chantale & Contandriopoulos, André-Pierre & Beaulieu, Marie-Dominique, 2010. "The role (or not) of economic evaluation at the micro level: Can Bourdieu's theory provide a way forward for clinical decision-making?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 1948-1956, June.
    16. Carman, Kristin L. & Mallery, Coretta & Maurer, Maureen & Wang, Grace & Garfinkel, Steve & Yang, Manshu & Gilmore, Dierdre & Windham, Amy & Ginsburg, Marjorie & Sofaer, Shoshanna & Gold, Marthe & Path, 2015. "Effectiveness of public deliberation methods for gathering input on issues in healthcare: Results from a randomized trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 11-20.
    17. Kurko, Terhi & Silvast, Antti & Wahlroos, Hannes & Pietilä, Kirsi & Airaksinen, Marja, 2012. "Is pharmaceutical policy evidence-informed? A case of the deregulation process of nicotine replacement therapy products in Finland," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 246-255.
    18. Lin, Shu-Jou & Jan, Kuan-An & Kao, Jen-Tse, 2011. "Colleague interactions and new drug prescribing behavior: The case of the initial prescription of antidepressants in Taiwanese medical centers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(8), pages 1208-1213.
    19. Schubert, Samantha & Buus, Niels & Monrouxe, Lynn & Hunt, Caroline, 2023. "Interrogation in clinical supervision sessions: Exploring the construction of clinical psychology trainees’ professional identities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    20. Baumann, Lisa Ann & Reinhold, Anna Katharina & Brütt, Anna Levke, 2022. "Public and patient involvement in health policy decision-making on the health system level – A scoping review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(10), pages 1023-1038.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:4:p:1084-1096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.