The Checklist Manifesto #3

Gawande did a project for WHO, developing and putting into place in 8 hospitals around the world a 19-item surgical checklist. Over a 3-month experimental period and for all surgeries in these 8 hospitals, a member of the surgical team (not the lead surgeon) walked the team members through a series of questions or procedural steps, including checking information about patients' allergies and potential blood loss. There were basic questions that asked for verification of patient consent to the surgery and equipment checks to verify the working order of the operating room machinery. After the 3 months the experiment's results revealed a 47% decrease in deaths and an almost 50% drop in the number of infections. Serious complications as a result of surgery fell 36% after the introduction of the checklist! The operating rooms in hospitals in rich countries experienced the same results, pretty much, as those in poor countries, though admittedly the starting points were different. This is amazing and leads me to think about a checklist for teaching. Of course many such checklists exist, but how about something as simple as writing goals on the board so that students know what we want them to learn? We teachers can do that!