{"id":2496,"date":"2014-02-06T18:32:49","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T18:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=2496"},"modified":"2014-05-09T21:33:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T21:33:46","slug":"using-soap-notes-in-forensic-engineering-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/06\/using-soap-notes-in-forensic-engineering-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Using SOAP notes in forensic engineering investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I see making SOAP notes (<strong>S<\/strong>ubjective <strong>O<\/strong>bjective <strong>A<\/strong>ssessment <strong>P<\/strong>lan) as a way\u00a0for\u00a0all of us, regardless\u00a0of our field of practice, <strong>including law<\/strong>,\u00a0to organize\u00a0our notes on an investigation.\u00a0 We would\u00a0record our notes in the following format at each stage\u00a0of\u00a0an investigation.\u00a0\u00a0I believe\u00a0we would\u00a0carry out more thorough, objective,\u00a0and\u00a0reliable investigations as a result,\u00a0and communicate more effectively with others:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gather, sort, and categorize <em>subjective(S)<\/em> and <em>objective(O)<\/em> information and data on an issue.<\/li>\n<li>Next, analyse, <em>assess(A)<\/em>, and interpret the evidence implicit in the data\u00a0and relevant to the issue.<\/li>\n<li>Then develop a <em>plan(P)<\/em> based on the assessment\u00a0to address the issue.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, document\u00a0what you did in the manner you did it &#8211; the SOAP outline, for\u00a0reliable communication to\u00a0others.\u00a0 Including yourself at a later stage in an investigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the health care fields, where it first developed in the &#8217;70s,\u00a0this style of documentation\u00a0is used to standardize entries made in clinical records.\u00a0 This format is\u00a0followed to facilitate improved communication among all those involved in caring for a patient or client and to display the data, assessment, problems, and plans in an organized way.<\/p>\n<p>The process is followed in medicine &#8211;\u00a0both human and veterinary, pharmacy, nursing, counselling, therapy, athletic training, etc.\u00a0 In fact, it&#8217;s written into the standard of practice for pharmacists.\u00a0 And I&#8217;m sure in other fields as well.\u00a0 The SOAP process is sufficiently widely adopted that templates can now be purchased.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00a0can be applied\u00a0in all fields of applied science, including forensic engineering.\u00a0 I`m certain it\u00a0can be applied\u00a0in the practice of law.<\/p>\n<p>I thought of this process &#8211; rather excitedly, I must admit, and it&#8217;s relevance to forensic engineering investigation when a vet friend for whom I was doing some engineering work mentioned it as we discussed his problem.\u00a0 That triggered a memory of one of my daughters mentioning it years ago when she was first introduced to the process in vet school in the late `80s..<\/p>\n<p>I quickly realized I do this in engineering investigation, make and document this kind of assessment, but it doesn&#8217;t carry a label like this &#8211; SOAP.\u00a0 I guess we in engineering just get on with doing it and don&#8217;t bother with too many labels and acronyms.\u00a0 Gather data, sort it\u00a0as to subjective and objective, assess\u00a0the data,\u00a0formulate a hypothesis (a diagnosis in medicine), then plan an investigation to test the hypothesis (a treatment to &#8211; in a sense,\u00a0test the diagnosis).<\/p>\n<p>An important element is that SOAP notes are made during each\u00a0stage of a person&#8217;s treatment.\u00a0 The standardized process improves communication and reduces\u00a0 misunderstanding between the different specialties involved at the different stages.<\/p>\n<p>Also, as treatment progresses the data becomes more objective, more quantitative,\u00a0and more in the nature of test results.\u00a0 There is less focus on the <strong>S<\/strong>ubjective part of a note.<\/p>\n<p>Applied to forensic engineering\u00a0SOAP notes\u00a0might develop\u00a0like this:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0Gather subjective data together and\u00a0write\u00a0the Subjective Part (S)<\/p>\n<p>This is information that counsel and the client report directly to\u00a0the expert\u00a0in a\u00a0briefing.\u00a0 It is largely narrative and qualitative in nature, and not necessarily factual in an engineering sense.\u00a0 It\u00a0should include the history of the problem or failure &#8211; set out in a comprehensive timeline, and details about the damage experienced by the property owner or accident victim.\u00a0 The history is an important part of\u00a0the subjective part of\u00a0a\u00a0SOAP note.<\/p>\n<p>In sorting information for this part of the note you would carefully\u00a0identify all data that is subjective in nature.\u00a0 Separate out\u00a0any that\u00a0might happen to be\u00a0objective and\u00a0include in the next part.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>2. Gather objective data together and write the Objective Part (O)<\/p>\n<p>This part of a SOAP note is more quantitative in nature,\u00a0 It consists,\u00a0in the early stages of a forensic\u00a0investigation,\u00a0of notes on\u00a0data gleaned from documents provided by counsel.\u00a0 Also\u00a0the forensic engineer&#8217;s\u00a0observations\u00a0during a visual examination of\u00a0the failure or accident site.<\/p>\n<p>During later stages of an investigation this part would include notes on field and laboratory test results and\u00a0what was found during follow-up investigations.<\/p>\n<p>3. Carry out and\u00a0record the Assessment (A)<\/p>\n<p>All data would be analysed at this point and the likely cause &#8211; or revised hypothesis during a later stage of an investigation, is\u00a0identified and recorded\u00a0in this part of a note.\u00a0 How the cause was arrived at would also be noted &#8211; the reasoning that led to an identification of the cause.<\/p>\n<p>Other possible causes arising from the assessment could be listed too, from most likely to least likely.<\/p>\n<p>The assessment may also identify\u00a0additional tests and investigations that should be done.\u00a0 These would also be recorded in the assessment part of a SOAP note.<\/p>\n<p>4. Write a\u00a0Plan (P)<\/p>\n<p>In forensic engineering &#8211; from the beginning and during each stage,\u00a0this part\u00a0would\u00a0record notes on the investigation(s) that would be carried out to confirm, modify, or refute\u00a0the most likely hypothesis of the cause of a failure or accident.<\/p>\n<p>In medicine,\u00a0notes\u00a0would be made on\u00a0the treatment plan for the most likely diagnosis of the patient&#8217;s condition.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless the\u00a0field of practice, the plan might be revised several times from the beginning through the\u00a0various stages of an investigation\u00a0and notes made\u00a0about a plan at each stage.\u00a0\u00a0SOAP notes made of the s<em>ubjective(S) <\/em>and o<em>bjective(O) <\/em>data gathered at each stage, the a<em>ssessment(A)<\/em> carried out, and the revised <em>p<\/em><em>lan<\/em>(P) noted.<\/p>\n<h1>Sources<\/h1>\n<p>I Googled &#8220;SOAP notes&#8221; to\u00a0learn about\u00a0this style of documentation\u00a0and\u00a0then considered based on my experience how\u00a0the process\u00a0is inherent in forensic engineering investigation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I see making SOAP notes (Subjective Objective Assessment Plan) as a way\u00a0for\u00a0all of us, regardless\u00a0of our field of practice, including law,\u00a0to organize\u00a0our notes on an investigation.\u00a0 We would\u00a0record our notes in the following format at each stage\u00a0of\u00a0an investigation.\u00a0\u00a0I believe\u00a0we would\u00a0carry &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/06\/using-soap-notes-in-forensic-engineering-investigation\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}