John Williams remarks triggered a recollection that may be tangentially
interesting. In the early 90's the health care community in the U.S.
sponsored a study on the relative effectiveness of hospitals as measured by
outcomes (such as morbidity) as related to length of stay, diagnosis, etc..
The results were quite illuminating, consequently suppressed and funding
for further study was withdrawn.
Nevertheless the initial findings showed significant differences in
morbidity rates between hospitals associated with academic institutions
(the worst) versus large metropolitan hospitals versus smaller private
hospitals. The study conjectured that the academically inclined
practitioners seemed more concerned with their research than with the
ultimate wellbeing of their patients.
On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, John Williams <
J.N.Williams@SHU.AC.UK>
wrote RE: Subject: Scholarly Practitioner Thread
>
>The idea of a 'scholarly practitioner' has been around for a long time
>in parts of the public sector, particularly in Health and Education. It
>links with ideas such as evidenced based practice, teacher- researcher
>and so forth - is the notion any different from the idea of a
>reflective practitioner? except, of course that reflection has never
>been any guarantee of effectiveness.
>
>Itseems to be part of a wider trend that is connected with a decline in
>the academy's preeminent position as the originator and disseminator of
>knowledge for use by others. Nowadays there is much more emphasis on
>co-production and practitioners investigating their own practice
>
>On the other hand professional education has always occupied the
>netherworld of Higher Education trying to avoid the 'dialogue of death'
> - the need to escape the criticisms of academics that it isn't
>rigourous enough and the criticisms of practitioners that it isn't
>relevent enough -
>or maybe different cultures experience this issue in different ways.
>
>
>John Williams
>Sheffield Hallam University
>UK
Jack Ring
32712 N. 70th St., Snottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
sendmail:
jring@amug.org
602-488-4615, Cell) 602.369.4615, Fax)602-488-4616
Better make your New Year's Eve reservations early.