https://pixabay.com/photos/cat-feline-sleep-rest-nap-nature-7995160/
When I first heard the name of this German-Russian-American psychologist, I didn't even realize how to pronounce it correctly. But the most important thing was not how correctly or incorrectly I pronounced the name, but how it would affect the outcome or learning.
There is a tendency and even a desire for human beings to finish tasks they have previously started.
Is this effect felt by everyone in the same way?
The other day, I was working on a written report for an imaging exam that had been requested. The exam was complex, and I was a little scared because I didn't know how to start the report.
At the end of my shift, I hadn't even managed to get much further than the purely descriptive part of the technique used to obtain the images for the exam. In other words, just technicalities that anyone could answer, with greater or lesser difficulty, as they are data or values that can be consulted by the elements entered in the DICOM system.
I got home and prepared my dinner. It's usually a simple salad of lettuce and tomatoes, with a little cucumber and a sliced grilled chicken breast.
Shortly afterwards, I was completely exhausted... I couldn't explain it, but I had no energy left. Although not as often as I would like, some nights after dinner are particularly difficult, especially when I'm on the afternoon shift.
After a shower, I went to bed. I can't say that I had trouble falling asleep, because I was so tired and exhausted that I think it only took me two minutes to drift off into the world of Morpheus!
Strangely, the time I remember from that night was almost exclusively dreaming about the images from the exam... I literally couldn't get it out of my head!
What a struggle. It wasn't like the usual nightmares, where we are constantly walking without leaving the same place, with the monster getting closer and closer to us... I don't even know if it can be classified as a nightmare. It seemed more like a second night shift. As if I were trying to understand and familiarize myself more with how I should describe it. With the terms I should use, in the simplest and most direct way possible.
That's my job. To ensure that whoever reads the report has the most accurate idea possible of the changes, and that they also form an opinion based on the evidence and the most likely differential diagnoses.
I confess that this is sometimes the most exhausting part of my job. Thinking about how to write down everything that is important and simply excluding anything that will only cause more confusion, doubt, or will not even contribute to the final clinical decision.
I remember perfectly well the first years I worked in this field. The exams consisted of only a few dozen images, as that was technically all that was possible. The information was there. It might not have been easily discernible. Simple.
But technology has evolved. A CT scan now has thousands and thousands of images. There are exams with about 3 or 4 thousand images. It is a laborious process. And when there are changes in many of the organs, this task is almost Herculean!
The next morning, I woke up and the idea that came to me as soon as I opened my eyes was a way to elegantly describe the changes. I couldn't believe it. Something that seemed almost “impossible” to me at the end of the previous afternoon turned out to be something that was right there... Right in front of me!
I got out of bed and went through my usual routine... Washing my face. Brushing my teeth. Drinking a large cup of freshly brewed tea... And then I went to the gym. That morning, I felt so motivated that I didn't even need to drink coffee or eat anything... The night seemed to have passed in a flash. But I felt rested. It was as if I had strangely entered a dance, in which I saw myself dancing, but at the same time, I was sitting down. For a moment, I smiled, realizing how funny this idea was, and the reality it conveyed.
After training, I arrived home, took a shower, and had a hearty breakfast. I packed my lunch in my lunchbox and left for work.
I managed to pick up the report that had been bothering me so much, and now, little by little, I felt like I was chiseling away at it... just like a sculptor who begins his piece with a shapeless block of stone.
Have you ever had a similar experience?
Bem Hajam🍀
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Source for the post: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovsiankina_effect
