title: Broadening our understanding of clinical quality: from attribution error to situated cognition.
abstract: The tendency to overestimate the influence of personal characteristics on outcomes, and to underestimate the influence of situational factors, is known as the fundamental attribution error. We argue that medical-education researchers and policy makers may be guilty of this error in their quest to understand clinical quality. We suggest that to truly understand clinical quality, they must examine situational factors, which often have a strong influence on the quality of clinical encounters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Artino
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Durning
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Waechter
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Leary
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Gilliland
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome