Childbed Fever Case Study Daniel Garland Please read the case study Childbed Fever and answer each question as you go through each section. Each question is worth 3 pts. ______/30pts. Part 1 1. What were Semmelweis' initial observations? The doctor observed that 20% of the women in Division I where doctor colleagues and male medical students worked were dying after childbirth. This was 4 to 5 times higher than Division II which was where the female midwife students were. 2. What was the problem at hand? The male medical students were not cleaning their hands prior to contact with the patients. The germs were getting on the patients which caused them to get sick and die. 3. What possible explanatory story might Semmelweis come up with? That the male students were not as sanitary as the female students. They were coming in to contact with them patients without washing their hands. 4. How might Semmelweis test his suspicions? The doctor can test this by having all the students start washing their hands before they come in to contact with their patients. Part ll 1. What might Semmelweis now propose as an explanatory story? He may propose that in fact the medical students in Division I were not washing their hands prior to contact with the patients and this was causing the patients to become sick and die shortly after childbirth. 2. How could Semmelweis test his new hypothesis? He could test this by recording the number of students in each division that washed their hands and those that did not. He can re-test to see if the end result increases, decreases, or stays the same. Also, he can make sure that all colleagues and students wash their hands prior to any contact with the patients. PART III 1. What conclusions can be drawn from Semmelweis' experiment? Conclusions to this experiment are that when the medical students in Division I started to wash their hands the patients were not dying shortly after childbirth. 2. How might Semmelweis revise his original hypothesis or his experiments to gain additional information? He might consider re-testing multiple times to see if the mortality rate increases, decreases, or stays the same. He can also test this with other divisions as well that may not have such a high mortality rate. He can record and show that those students that washed their hands versus those students that did not had a lower mortality rate. He can also test the physicians to show that they did or did not practice hand washing prior to contact with the patients. PART IV 1. When presented with what appears to be unequivocal evidence in support of hand washing, why might Semmelweis' colleagues have dismissed his ideas? Maybe they thought that he was more in favor of the female students than the male students. They may have thought there was not enough proof or evidence showing that this was in fact the cause of the high mortality rate. 2. How else might Semmelweis have approached the problem of disseminating his research findings in order to ensure their acceptance? He could have approached the problem by writing it in a newsletter to his colleagues and let them know what was happening. Ask for their support as well as show them that there are other colleagues that were observed and recorded as well so this would not just look as though it was directed at the male medical students.
