Abstract
Maslow's humanistic model of cognition would suggest that the most thoughtful physicians have acquired more than conceptual skills; they also have learned to get a direct, preconceptual sense of how the patient is feeling through personal interactions with the patient. To explore this possibility, we asked 5 highly regarded attending pediatricians, as well as some pediatricians still in training (14 interns and 9 residents), to report all their thoughts and feelings as they conducted their usual evaluations of children under the age of two years brought to an emergency room with a chief complaint of fever. The findings generally indicated that the attending physicians did make the greatest effort to form preconceptual impressions of the children through warm and personal interactions with them. A second, questionnaire study indicated that as students and physicians-in-training gain experience, they increasingly appreciate the preconceptual, interpersonal approach of the advanced attending pediatrician.
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