Klemola and Norros (1997, 2001) observed and interviewed anesthetists (n = 16, 8 respectively) to explore the role of the patient monitor in their operating room practice and to understand how they thought about their anesthetized patients and responded to infor- mation they received while caring for them. Their findings suggested two distinct approaches to practice, or ‘‘habits of action’’: the ‘‘interpretive orientation’’ guided by a belief in an unpredictable world, and the ‘‘reactive orientation,’’ guided by a belief in a predictable world. The authors suggested that the interpretive orientation contributed to the development of reflective and critical capabilities, but the reactive or objectivistic orien- tation hindered their.
