Expertise- Development and Loss

Kersi Taraporewalla
Deputy Director, Department of Anaesthetics and Perioperative Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Womens' Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland & Senior Lecturer, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland

In all forms of human endeavour requiring either physical or cognitive skills to be developed and used, expertise can be created. Beginning with a simple definition of expertise as relatively stable outstanding performance, models can be constructed to show how such expertise can develop. Of the models constructed the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model suits our purpose. In their model five stages of development are described; novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert. The expert is intuitive, seems to move seamlessly, and is able solve problems at a deeper level. The expert is also different in the way memory is utilised and appears to use subconscious processing. Most experts are unable to state how they use their expertise and run into problems if asked to vocalise their thoughts.

The creation of expertise requires three essential factors motivation, optimal environmental conditions and deliberate practice. Although expertise is domain specific it seems to take about the same time to develop expertise in any domain. While there are models for development of expertise, there are none to explain maintenance or loss of expertise. It is known that the expert requires continuous, deliberate practice with reflection and motivation. However this may not be enough as both physical and cognitive competence decline with age. The aim of the presentation is to consider how as anaesthetists we can continue to develop and maintain our expertise.

Time of Presentation
Sunday 8 May 2005 - 1030-1200