This study investigates the clinical problem-solving among Western-trained and traditionally trained acupuncturists. Fifty-six subjects with varying clinical experience were divided into four groups: physicians without acupuncture training (control), physician-acupuncturists, non-licensed physician-acupuncturists, and traditionally trained acupuncturists. Three clinical cases (two routine and one non-routine), were given to the subjects to provide diagnostic and treatment plans. The data were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Subjects' diagnostic and treatment plans were evaluated against reference models for Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). / The results indicate that acupuncturists were influenced by their initial medical training. Physician-acupuncturists and non-licensed physician-acupuncturists' practices were greatly influenced by the training in Western medicine, regardless of their exposure to traditional Chinese medicine. The traditionally trained practitioners outperformed the other groups of subjects in the non-routine case. Accuracy in diagnoses and treatments for the non-routine case was also positively related to the length of clinical experience. The findings support theories of expertise that experts use forward reasoning when coping with familiar cases, and backward reasoning when encountering difficult cases.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28477 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Lam, Siu-Yuk Rebecca |
| Contributors | Eisemon, Tom (advisor), Patel, Vimla (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001425130, proquestno: NN00106, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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