Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: Health, social care and informational emaciation

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 ...

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Health, social care and informational emaciation

We hear a lot about information and how important it is, being in what is described as the information age, the information economy. ...

Nurses, patients and carers (plus managers) would instantly recognise that if a care plan and subsequent care delivery was based on the following assessment:


oriented, not depressedhypertension, falls, dizziness, headaches, pyrexia
carer due hip operationadmitted 1st May 2010 1200hrs
to clinical decisions unit

- we would be acutely concerned.

Clinically this is a case of informational emaciation. The information above is rather thin on the ground, this in turn affects the knowledge that can be gleaned in formulating, negotiating and agreeing actions. Even in the information sparse example above each of the care domains has some content; is that always the case?

Use of the word emaciated in this context is not intended to diminish the plight of people who are physically emaciated, poorly nourished.

This post is intended to highlight another aspect of poverty.

As the Global Healthcare Information Network (HIFA 2015) argues and campaigns - information is a means to emancipation - a way to overcome information emaciation.