Meaning of knowing process and clinical pathway

April is the beginning of fiscal year in Japan. In addition, most schools are also opened in April. Thus, we meet many new faces in this month every year.

I often tell them about the history regarding several rules and procedures in our organization, as well as the regulation itself. The reason is to let them understand more deeply for the work. These stories include some anecdotes, some of them are suggestive, and others are boring. More or less you would be able to imagine the process to establish today's figure from understanding its history.

For example, some PCs are not connected to the internet. I guess you would make a complaint for its inconvenience. However, if you knew that computer virus invaded the system the other day to destroy all personal information of customers, you would be able to accept the labor to distinguish the secure PCs from others to be connected to the internet.

Knowing the process is sometimes more important than knowing the rule itself. You know the words "Clinical Pathway." It is a clinical tool to provide standardized care in some medical situation. It looks like a flowchart and includes several description of the most typical treatment such as explanation, examination, medication, surgery, regulation of daily activity, and so on. Clinical pathways are created based on a comprehensive analysis of clinical case samples. It is tuned up so that approximately 70% of the patients are applicable to the clinical pathway. Even young doctors can know what to do for the patients using the clinical pathway. It is a remarkable advantage of creating clinical pathways.

However, it should not be forgettable that you can learn about patient care the most during the creation of clinical pathways. Through its process, you look into a large amount of medical case records. It would let you understand deeply about those cases. Instead, memorizing a clinical pathway automatically would let you know only how to deal with typical cases. And there are no cases completely typical.

Again, the process is more important than the conclusion in some occasions. I dare to tell the rookies about it, without being too conservative.