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By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd

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• Saying a patient’s name in the emergency room will almost ensure that person comes in that day.
• A code cart next to an unstable patient is said to ward off evil spirits.
• Traditional healers usually use superstition in their practices to manage human health problems and diseases.
• Such practices create a conflict with the medical profession and its evidence-based practices.

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So, what exactly is a Superstition? Does superstition change a measurable patient outcome, such as decreased anastomotic leak rate, surgical site infection, or mortality? Hard to say. But does it improve the surgeon’s confidence, thereby improving their performance? Likely so.

Science is not the opposite of superstition; it is the result of superstition, the result of humans trying to make sense of the world and prove each other wrong. We keep doing the things we do to maintain some semblance of control. In further defense of superstition, ritualistic behaviors ensure that the necessary boxes are checked and that we pay attention to the details. In surgery, details matter.

“Superstition is the irrational belief that an object or behavior has the power to influence an outcome, when there’s no logical connection between them. Most of us aren’t superstitious – but most of us are a ‘littlestitious.’”
– Gretchen Rubin

So, until there is evidence to the contrary, I will keep tearing off the little patient labels and keeping their names with me in hopes that they do well after surgery.

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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Ethics, Experts Invited, LifeStyle, Marcinko Associates, mental health | Tagged: beliefs, Gretchen Rubin, healthcare superstitions, life, Marcinko, medical superstitions, mental health, nursing superstitions, superstition, superstitions |