

My latest "aha" moment may be the biggest one of my health care career, and I want to share with it you!įor me, this "aha" moment did not occur while taking care of patients, and certainly did not hit me all at once. Scars do fade… But did you take anything away from the experience? Did your experience as a patient make you a better, more compassionate provider? We know the course of treatment and what to expect. It can be frustrating, humbling, and downright scary. Car accidents, broken bones, having a baby – we have all had to put on that gown from time to time.

We have all been a patient at one time or another. It is our collective desire to enhance how we care for our patients. These are moments of clarity that solidify why we do what we do every day, why we care so much, why we've chosen this profession, why we are good at what we do, why we are respected by our peers and patients, and why our passion for healing leads us to blogs like this.
WHATS A AHA MOMENT PROFESSIONAL
In our professional careers, there are often "aha" moments. We can often become better wound care providers just by being present and taking a few minutes to actually listen to the patient, read the situation, and show compassion. However, being "better" doesn't always mean reading articles or attending national conferences. We should all strive to be better and know more. You're reading this because you want to be a better caretaker for the sick and injured - you want to be a better provider. Medicine changes constantly, and we must stay up to date on the best options for our patients. Immediately following that gamma spike, the new idea pops into our consciousness, which we identify as the aha! moment.By Lindsay Andronaco RN, BSN, CWCN, WOC, DAPWCA, FAACWS

Gamma activity indicates a constellation of neurons binding together for the first time in the brain to create a new neural network pathway. Additionally, the flash of gamma waves stemmed from the brain’s right hemisphere - an area involved in handling associations and assembling parts of a problem. In the volunteers that experienced insight, Kounios and Beeman found a distinctive spark of high gamma activity that would spike one-third of a second before volunteers consciously arrived at an answer. As soon as participants thought of a solution word, they pressed a button to indicate whether the answer had come to them suddenly (through insight), or if they used a methodical hypothesis testing approach - in other words, a trial-and-error approach. Participants were presented with three words (e.g., crab, pine, sauce), and were instructed to think of a single word that forms a familiar two-word phrase with all three (e.g., apple can join with crab, pine, and sauce to form pineapple, crabapple, and applesauce). Mark Beeman of Northwestern University used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain-image scanning and EEG (electroencephalography) sensors to document the neural activity of volunteers as they worked to solve word problems.
WHATS A AHA MOMENT SERIES
In a series of experiments, researchers Dr. Findings also suggest that we require more neural processes operating at different time scales in these moments than we use when solving a problem analytically or methodically. By looking at images of the brain and recording brainwaves of individuals in experiments that generate insight, scientists have found that these sudden sparks are the result of a complex series of brain states. Lately, though, with recent advancements and tools of cognitive neuroscience, researchers are able to explain the inner workings of the brain during moments of insight. Laboratories and psychologists have attempted to study this phenomenon using behavioral methods for nearly a century, resulting merely in speculations as to where these ideas come from and how they form. In today’s fast-paced industries, everyone is eager to foster these sparks of creativity, and it’s no wonder why: From these aha! moments come world-changing breakthroughs - from the discovery of penicillin and the invention of the microwave and safety glass to prescriptions for eyelash growth and the invention of Velcro and Post-its. But what makes these moments so mystifying is that they usually materialize abruptly, without warning and seemingly out of thin air. There are many different representations we use colloquially to describe good ideas - sparks, flashes, light-bulb moments inspirations and innovations muses and visions. Behold the proverbial “aha!” moment - a key phenomenon that emerges in a range of situations, from offering a solution to a problem or a new interpretation of a situation to more simple feats such as understanding a joke or solving a crossword puzzle.
