Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: June 2013

Hodges' model is a conceptual framework to support reflection and critical thinking. Situated, the model can help integrate all disciplines (academic and professional). Amid news items, are posts that illustrate the scope and application of the model. A bibliography and A4 template are provided in the sidebar. Welcome to the QUAD ...

Friday, June 28, 2013

Visual representation of nature - energy ASEH2014

I subscribe to quite a few mail lists including the H-ENVIRONMENT list at H-NET. The post below caught my attention being always intrigued by diagrams and how they are applied. Caleb Wellum's post - copied below with thanks - stood out, not so much for the panel and being there (San Francisco!) as the theme.

By Mdd at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38159397
Dear Colleagues,

I am organizing a panel about the visual representation of nature (and the politics of different representational forms) for ASEH 2014. My paper will examine H.T. Odum's energy diagrams in his popular 1970s works "Environment, Power, and Society" and "Energy: Basis for Man and Nature."

Michael Clemens will discuss nature documentaries at the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s and 1970s and Duygu Kasdogan will be doing a visual ethnography of biofuels. We are looking for a 4th person to round out our panel. Your paper can be about any period, region, or form of visual representation.

Sincerely
Caleb Wellum
PhD Candidate
University of Toronto

Monday, June 24, 2013

Nursing Informatics 2014 - Call for Submissions


Please forward this message via to your own networks and contacts.

We are pleased to announce that NI 2014, the 12th International Congress on Nursing Informatics, will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, June 21-25, 2014.

The theme of the conference is “eSmart + ” where “e” stands for eHealth, “S” implies simplicity, “m” represents mobility and meaningful use, “a” denotes advanced leadership, “r” indicates revolution, “t” means translational technologies, and “+” symbolizes People Leading uCare Safely. The acronym is also used to convey the idea of adopting smart technology to help health providers deliver higher quality care.

The online submissions system is now open and will remain open until mid-September 2013. Decisions on manuscripts will be made by mid-December 2013.

You can find more information at the conference website: ...

We very much look forward to seeing your submissions and to meeting you in Taiwan next year.

With best wishes

Nick Hardiker & Heimar Marin

Co-Chairs, Scientific Programme Committee, NI2014


Saturday, June 22, 2013

Opaque

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual
anxiety, mood, anger, frustration, coping abilities, vulnerability, personal communication - masks, poor sleep, helplessness, apathy, personal memory, personal ethics 'Blaze season' - June to September, Smog - duration?, geography, fires, public health, asthma, respiration, bronchitis, conjunctivitis, vision, eye care, cardiovascular system, weather, create rain, environment, daily physical activities of living, ecosystem impact, elderly, young, measures, monitoring,
pollution standard index: 400 1100hrs, stay indoors, building workers, Loss of Habitat
public opinion, quality of life, media, social media, public perception, communication - advice to population, 
(public anger in China over that country's appalling environmental record)
Illegal forest fires, Indonesia, Singapore, Politics,
Commerce, Globalization, Governments, Governance, Diplomacy, Corporations, Regulation, Law, Enforcement, Tourism, Employment, Economic impact, Health Care System Burden, Political Tension, Accountability, Trust, Companies involved? Ecocide (not in Europe)
group - population

Additional source: The Independent Friday 21 June 2013

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Mental Health at NWHealthHack Knutsford - Prof. Lewis (thank you)

NWHealthHack began with several briefings. These were all excellent in providing both technical and health care insights before projects were pitched in 60 seconds.

Prof. Shôn Lewis set the health agenda in the context of mental health. I'm really grateful to Prof. Lewis to be able to share two slides here. The first speaks volumes not only in the research spend across health care domains but the disability-adjusted life year (DALY):


Over the past 25+ years I'm aware of the change within community mental health nursing. I can summarise this as follows:
  • 1985 one of six new community psychiatric nurses - CPNs
  • Early 1990s newly built community mental health resource centers
  • Mid-late 1990s CPNs criticised for not meeting the needs of the enduring mentally ill
  • Early 2000s early intervention services, role of psychosocial interventions
  • Mid-late 2000s reduction and closure of mental health day hospitals
  • Early 2010s former community mental health resource centers turned to primary care (mental health)
I have mentioned here previously about the need to put the 'mental'' into public - health and the need to put mental health literacy on the map. It will be interesting to watch what happens now that this has landed in a very 'local' way within Local Authorities. Prof. Lewis reviewed the situation in mental health conjoining serious mental illness, services and self-care, making a critical point for those readers working in community mental health teams. This should also give pause for thought for those (like me) working in related services:
Prof. Lewis also shared an app - ClinTouch and reflections on the professional's response to the apps potential and the findings in practice. It's never easy being open to what is new and being ready as a consequence to re-invent yourself. If that's a problem for individuals then for professional groups and multidisciplinary teams it's an even greater challenge. ...

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Lancet: Several articles on health in China and HIFA2015

As well as highlighting some very useful papers, the post below c/o HIFA2015 is also an appeal as follows:

HIFA currently has only eight members in China (compared with 510 in India and 655 in Nigeria), and we would welcome more. If you have contacts with health professionals, researchers and/or policymakers in China, please invite them to join us at www.hifa2015.org


Dear HIFA members,

This week's Lancet includes several articles on health in China. One of them explores the challenge of evidence-based public health policy. Here is the citation and selected extracts:

Fan Jiang, Jun Zhang, Xiaoming Shen. Towards evidence-based public health policy in China.
The Lancet, Volume 381, Issue 9882, Pages 1962 - 1964, 8 June 2013 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61083-1
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61083-1/fulltext?_eventId=login

'In China, most biomedical and even public health research stops at publication. We believe that completing a public health study is not the end of the process, but, in many cases, marks the beginning of the next phase in which research results are applied to solve real-life problems. Efforts are warranted to raise such awareness among researchers and policy makers.'

'A clear, streamlined system is crucial to promote evidence-based public health policy at a large scale. Several mechanisms might be useful. First, a platform for bilateral communication between researchers and policy makers is needed to improve mutual understanding and to establish an effective and efficient dialogue channel. In addition to informal public meetings and knowledge brokers, rapidly spreading social media has been shown to be a very useful means to obtain feedback.11, 12 [...] Although still early in a long journey, China is moving towards evidence-based public health policy.4 With the right knowledge, attitude, and practice, adequate investment in the capability and capacity of implementation, and an efficient system, this goal will be reached.'
[The editor of HIFA2015 also mailed the following to the list]

A Comment in The Lancet makes an observation that is highly relevant to global health professionals, and especially those who undertake systematic reviews (which are often limited to papers in English):
'Any attempt to analyse global data needs to access work published in Chinese. This need is not straightforward to address, but the east-west collaboration of Chan and colleagues is exemplary. The western, anglophone hegemony in the generation and dissemination of research is coming to an end. This change creates challenges for peer review and synthesis of knowledge, but western investigators should no more assume that their Chinese counterparts have published high quality research in English than vice versa.'
Martin J Prince. Dementia in China: east-west collaboration bears fruit. The Lancet, Volume 381, Issue 9882, Pages 1967 - 1968, 8 June 2013. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60770-9 Cite or Link Using DOI
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60770-9/fulltext

The full text is freely available, after free online registration.

Best wishes,
Neil

HIFA2015 profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network

Sunday, June 09, 2013

New Scientist: Article on Cotard's syndrome [ and Hodges' model ]

Nine years ago, Graham woke up and discovered he was dead.

He was in the grip of Cotard's syndrome. People with this rare condition believe that they, or parts of their body, no longer exist.

... more
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual
Cotard's syndrome
Belief    "I am dead"   delusion (or?)
depression      self                                   suicide
 "I have no brain"    theory of mind         consc
psychotherapy           
                senses - taste smell
PET - positron emission tomography
ICD 11 - classification?
 attempts               'default network mode'
iousness          body (parts)        brain function
frontal and parietal lobes  anaesthesia
 low metabolic activity   physiology 
social impact, family, friends, carers
sense making  social understanding
stigma      interview
Jules Cotard (1840–1889), a French neurologist
media      unemployment
quality of life   autonomy   control
research funding      access to treatment
specialist services     referral processes
group - population


Source: New Scientist, 1 June 2013.
Mindscapes: First interview with a dead man

Wikipedia: Cotard delusion

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Tiles, gates, gems and beds

 

Hansje van Halem

'On a tile just by the head of my bed, I have placed a list of the ancient gates. It looks like a gold ring, with gems set into it, each a different kind of stone'.






Part of: Memory Palace exhibition at V&A 

More to follow.

Monday, June 03, 2013

Book: Thomas Keneally - The Daughters of Mars

http://www.welovethisbook.com/reviews/daughters-mars
An interesting novel in light of the military metaphor in nursing mentioned in the previous post. In February I visited Hay-on-Wye which was a great experience - book shops galore! Keneally was interviewed on Sky Arts - Hay Sessions, and by The Telegraph:
In the circumstances, he could be forgiven for turning out the odd finely wrought novella. Instead, the last six years have seen seven new Keneally books – his most recent novel weighed in at 520 pages and has a serious claim to be the best he’s ever written. The Daughters of Mars, about Australian nurses in the First World War, once again pulls off the miraculous Keneally trick of being both epic and intimate. It’s also packed with great phrase-making – an aspect of his work too often overlooked.
Hay Festival

Source: Sky Arts & The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/10078501/Hay-Festival-2013-Thomas-Keneally-discusses-his-new-novel-The-Daughters-of-Mars.html

Saturday, June 01, 2013

Review: Philosophical And Theoretical Perspectives For Advanced Nursing Practice

If you are a miner for insight, a pearl diver for knowledge or seeking blue sky wisdom this book can deliver and sign-post in plenty through its references. In summary: this book is a history book that nods at futurology.

I had high expectations for the text, also anticipating an exacting read. After all, as a 5th edition this is a well established text. The expectations were not wholly realized, however; many of the papers are quite dated being published originally in the 1990s.

The book is an important collection and can certainly be regarded as essential reading for advanced nursing practitioners and those pursuing post-graduate nursing studies. Several chapters hail from the same journal publisher and perhaps - as a positive - this contributes to the readable and accessible style throughout the book. The text format and size are also easy to read. I found one spelling mistake within the index entry for 'diagnosis' p.387. In addition to the historical development in part 1 the book's division into five parts - 31 chapters in total - acknowledges the reliance on the past and from it appears from a previous edition the arrival of the 21st century. Apart from the current date of issue 2013 I cannot accurately place the most recent additions to the volume. The contents listing and preface are limited in this respect. Judging from the references they are not that recent. 2010 is one of the most recent references I could find, and this, the 75ed of Toby & Mariner.

Many of the papers are seminal and include an overview of particular aspects of nursing thought - analysis and synthesis. Unsurprisingly, there is philosophy and ethics in great abundance, together with ecocentricism, several forms of feminism, aboriginal peoples and their world views, evidence, health, beliefs, art, professionalism, research, patterns, advanced practice, theory and much more. The distinction between evidence based theory and evidence based practice is something of which all nurse students should be aware.

There is specific reference to Advanced Nursing Practitioners. There could obviously be some variation in how this professional group are considered as opposed to Advanced Nursing Practice. Having just returned from Belfast and the University of Ulster there is ongoing currency in McCormack's chapter 17 A Conceptual Framework for Person Centered Practice with Older People. While dated 2003 McCormack's work was emphasized at a recent conference in Ulster I was able to attend (and there are plans for another). I am sure other chapters may be enlivened by such reviewer found co-incidences as this.

I wonder if the scope of the book and acknowledgement of the passing of time seems to shout for a two-volumed approach. As suggested above, the previous acknowledgement of the future seems to have hailed from the 20th century and got lost. We are now after all more than a 1/10 of the way into the 21st century.

Having started my nursing career in the RN, chapter 22 on military metaphor in nursing and the need for another. A researcher contacted me several years ago about using Hodges' model (a conceptual framework) in a study on bullying in nursing. I've never heard anything since, but Hodges' can help in such research in two respects. The inclusion of a political domain and the organization of groups of people, emphasizes process, procedure, protocol, routine, and may proceed to regimentation, discipline, hierarchy so to a degree language games will follow. As this chapter notes, several professions, including nursing are said to eat their young. A commentary after the chapter provides a useful balance and makes this point. The chapter is nonetheless a reminder of the role of language and how professionalism arises and is sustained (disciplines too?). The proposal of frontier as a new metaphor is fitting as Hodges' model identifies five conceptual fronts - frontiers that must be integrated. 

As a frontier - Chapter 21 on rapture and suffering with technology in nursing holds many lessons and insights. Heidegger's "standing reserve", the human-technology interface, what it means to live like a human being and the distinction of being a human being. Mobile technology, m-health, e-health are making a huge contribution to global health and need a place here. I found Macurdy's four principles 326-327 on what patients need to assume power and control over their care very illuminating, especially in highlighting information access and the importance of health literacy.

In the text and the index I could not find specific reference to capacity, as in mental capacity, informatics, global health, information (access), justice, law, legal, management, human rights, literacy, mental, political, psych-, long-term medical conditions and recovery. While the book would become incoherent if a disease/diagnosis-based approach was adopted, we might ask: does dementia deserve specific inclusion? This is an interesting (and potentially vociferous) debate in itself - to what extent should such a book record change through several decades? Of course the book is not an encyclopedia and it is easy to critique according to omission. These are pressing times demographically, however; while there is a population focus: global communities and aboriginal communities in chapter 23 and 24, this merely scratches the surface of very large world.

This book is a valuable asset and has stimulated many ideas here (and potential blog posts). I am very pleased to have read it and would recommend it to students and practitioners alike. I am grateful to the publishers for the review copy.