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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was the gynecologist from Ohio who subjected hundreds of women when they had been anesthetized for other procedures to bizarre disfiguring procedures that he called the Surgery of Love?

2. How many salespeople attended the surgeons convention?

3. How long after Bryce Shouldice left medical school did he begin performing hernia operations at Shouldice?

4. How much money did Goodman make in a year when he was doing well?

5. At the beginning of Chapter 1, how many weeks had Gawande been in training?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the secret of Shouldice Hospital's success with hernia repairs?

2. What one study did Gawande find that linked increased traffic accidents to Friday the thirteenth?

3. Why do many experts believe that the M&M is a shabby approach to analyzing error and improving performance in medicine?

4. What type of complications had occurred from residents putting in a central line?

5. What did Gawande have in his pockets during his first weeks of surgical training?

6. What was it like at Gawande's hospital when it was time for the annual surgeons convention?

7. What was Hank Goodman's reputation before he lost his license?

8. Why did Gawande recommend removing the appendix of a thirty-nine-year-old woman who did not fit the pattern for appendicitis?

9. Are doctors usually superstitious?

10. What is an EKG?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast diagnosis of illness and evaluation of tests using machines and using humans. Use examples from Complications.

Essay Topic 2

Using examples from the book, discuss what happens when the simplicities of science come up against the complexities of individual lives.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the pros and cons of having doctors agree in advance what should be done in the uncertain situations that arise (spell out actions ahead of time to remove the guesswork and get some advantage of group decision). Use examples from the book.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,024 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample