In her project with the neonatal intensive care unit, Beth Crandall had asked the experienced nurses how they detected the early signs of sepsis. They told her it was experience and intuition. They did not know what they knew, because what they knew was perceptual—how to see. The only way Beth was going to find out anything useful was to have the nurses tell their stories of specific instances, each tied to a different set of perceptual cues. At the end of the interviews, Beth could draw all the stories together and compile a master list of cues to sepsis.
