The Role of Deliberate Behavior in Expert Performance: The Acquisition of Information Gathering Strategy in the Context of Emergency Medicine
F. Eric Robinson · Journal of Bioresource Management · 2011
Effective performance in dynamic domains requires experts to assess problems and implement solutions within the constraints of their work system, but these processes are not well accounted for in the expertise literature. I observed resident and attending emergency physicians to determine the behaviors that distinguish doctors as they manage patients and what contextual variables may affect these behaviors. Factor analyses revealed three types of behavior: goal establishment behavior, goal enactment behavior, and acknowledging uncertainty. Multilevel analyses indicated that doctors' experience and both the local and global context of care impact these behaviors. More experienced doctors appear to be more sensitive to contextual features when establishing goals. Less experienced doctors appear to be more sensitive to contextual features when enacting goals, which may be maladaptive. Doctors seem to acquire goal establishment and goal enactment skills at different trajectories, potentially due to differential emphases during training.