In this narrative recounting call-shifts at two separate points in his training, a pediatric resident reflects on the evolution of his heuristic thinking. Developed through pattern recognition and illness scripts, heuristic thinking enables clinicians to perform timely assessments and formulate organized diagnostic and management plans. However, beyond efficiency, the resident discovers-first in observation and later in practice-the benevolence that emerges with refined heuristic thinking.
Hartley Perlmutter (Tue,) studied this question.