17-14
To make the most of new ‘scientific’ approaches, it is important that instructors,
health workers, and the people they work with learn to:
• Question advice or instructions that come from outside the area (and also
advice that comes from inside).
• Try to understand the reasons behind the advice given.
• Modify advice or instructions to fit the local situation.
• When teaching or advising others, admit it openly if you find that advice you
have given is wrong or needs to be changed.
It is essential for health workers to develop a critical, questioning attitude-
especially when it comes to advice from outsiders.
The need to be honest about mistakes and changes in knowledge
Everyone makes mistakes, including experts, instructors, and health workers.
Because our own advisers sometimes change their minds about certain health
recommendations, we sometimes find ourselves giving advice that is the opposite
of what we have said in the past.
Such situations can be embarrassing. But usually the easiest way to handle
them is to be completely honest. Explain to people that you have received new
information, and that scientific knowledge is continually growing and changing. That
is how we make progress.
By being open and honest about mistakes and changes in knowledge, you as an
instructor can set an example for the student health workers.
There is another important reason for discussing changes in scientific knowledge
with health workers during training. It helps take some of the magic out of what we
teach and are taught. It helps us all to weigh everything new we are told against
our own experience. This can be one of the most basic lessons health workers can
learn-and teach!
Practice in openly admitting mistakes and explaining changes in advice should be
a part of health worker training.
To learn is to puestion.