Self-study
A year ago Support several regional hospitals attempted to reduce the number of patient injuries resulting from staff errors by implementing a plan to systematically record all such errors. ███ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ █████ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████████████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that hospital staff have become more careful in their patient care because they know their errors are being monitored. This is based on the observed phenomenon that patient injuries have decreased significantly at hospitals that have started to monitor staff errors that result in patient injury.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the incidence of injury at these hospitals was not affected by another change that happened around the same time. The author also assumes that the staff at these hospitals knew that they were being monitored during the last year.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Before the plan ███ ███████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ████████████████ ██████ ██ █ ████████
This is irrelevant, because it only applies to life-threatening injuries, whereas the author is discussing patient injuries in general. This pre-existing policy doesn’t tell us anything new about why overall patient injuries have decreased with the new monitoring plan.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
b
The incidence of ███████ ████████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████████
This weakens by making it more likely that there is an alternative explanation for the decrease of patient injuries that is unrelated to the consequences of the plan. After all, the other hospital saw the same outcomes without the plan as a possible cause.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
c
The plan did ███ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ████
This is irrelevant, since the argument already tells us that the plan specifically records staff errors that do cause patient injuries. This doesn’t help us figure out whether the plan was the true cause of the decrease in injuries.
d
The decrease in ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███ █████ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ █████████
This strengthens the author’s hypothesis by more closely correlating the staff’s knowledge of their being monitored with the decrease in patient injury, making it more plausible that the former is a direct cause of the latter.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
e
Under the plan, ███ ██████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ █████ ███████
Without more information, it isn’t clear how the plan’s policy toward reprimanding or otherwise punishing staff members might have affected the incidence of patient injury, so this doesn’t give us more reason to believe that the plan succeeded.