'Holistic reform of education' in Jordan (an eastern dose of serendipity)

View from The Citadel, Amman 23 April 2013

Yesterday morning I arrived back from Amman in Jordan, via Istanbul through to Manchester and full of new experiences and learning. I say 'safe and sound' because travel to the region is clearly not a matter of routine given ongoing events. Checking governmental advice in the UK it becomes a question of personal evaluation as was the unexpected trip to Colombia in 2011. Once the non-trivial decision is out of the way ... Jordan's nursing and educational communities provide a truly remarkable welcome and experience. Not only that, but the kingdom of Jordan and the people have so much to offer in their culture, history, hospitality and engagement.

Returning on Thursday from a full day's trip to Petra - amazing! - I asked for an English language paper to read at the hotel before leaving for the airport. I was provided with a copy of The Jordan Times to accompany a cappuccino^*. On page nine Mona Smadi,^# Asst. Professor, Al Balqa Applied University) wrote an opinion piece on Holistic reform of education. The opening sentence enabled my brain to reconnect with my legs (although I would have gladly walked back through the valley):

A holistic perception of reality means having a vision of the context of the constituent fragments and thereby gaining a clearer perception of the reality in its totality.

Prof. Smadi's focus is children's education and curriculum reform. The overlap between children's education, the professor's concerns and nursing is not limited to how curricula are designed and who owns them. Is, for example, the curriculum centered on the student as an individual nurse, or child? If nurses are to be able to integrate their learning and effectively negotiate the emotional and ethical spaces they find themselves in then when is this deeper thinking to start?

Petra 25 April 2013

Not surprisingly there was a lot of talk about this at the JNC conference. The theory - practice gap is not just alive and kicking there is an echo off the seemingly disparate walls. Given too the debate in the UK about student nurses spending time as a health care assistant before starting their formal nurse education. The word applied in the title of Prof. Smadi's university's is interesting. We are accustomed to applied mathematics, ethics, energy and of course applied nursing research and many other examples?

What of applied nursing - does that make sense? Or is there a circularity of sorts in nursing applied? I will check my notes as this point was raised in conference regards to evidence based care and evidence based practice.

Prof. Smadi's referring to a 'clearer perception' can also be extended to recognition of patterns, contexts and situations that are 'hot' in how they relate to values.

(There are a couple of points to add here which I will get too).


There was another serving of serendipity to add to that at Le Meridien, soon after rejoining the land of the virtual I came across the UK Department of Education's Preparing for Adulthood initiative on twitter. If you read the brief article by Prof. Smadi you will see how the two are closely related. Do lifestyles and family life today for many compromise the ability of families to teach moral values to children? As noted in the text this then becomes a critical role for education. In westernized cultures is this one of the qualities referred to in the saying of 'spending quality time' with the family? An acknowledgement of a deficit?

Source: http://www.preparingforadulthood.org.uk/

Vital and complex work in two senses. On the one hand cultures try to understand themselves; and on the other, they seek to understand the other others out there: now not so far away. The patterns that are realised be they mosaic, prayers, celtic knot, tartan, languages, landscapes - rock cut architecture - sculpture; these patterns work, that is 'make a difference' by virtue of both the detail and the whole.

"Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock ..." UNESCO.

^#If I have not used the proper name and title I will edit this accordingly asap upon advice.
 
^*Why not an Arabic coffee? Well I had one the day before. What can I say... It was different in the preparation, being an observation as in so many cultural patterns (tea). I would like to think I will have another one day. The key thing is I did not necessarily want to have the capability to run to the airport at 11pm, or back to Petra for that matter.

2013 Year of Piri Reis & Navigating the world of nursing care - in Jordan

The conference in Jordan is over it has been an intense and excellent two days, with a free day tomorrow. It has been a brilliant opportunity to share and learn not just about nursing, but travel, culture and some of the people that make up the global nursing community.

I am truly grateful to the Jordanian Nursing Council for accepting my abstract. The welcome and hospitality has been truly amazing.

In the flight magazine on the way here there was an article about Piri Reis, which reminded me of Paul Cunliffe's book about Pytheas.

From the UNESCO website:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has agreed to declare 2013 the year of Piri Reis on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of a map he drew up that included seven continents, reported the Anatolia news agency. 

“This map marks a significant event in the history of the country and has enabled its collective knowledge to be transmitted through generations. As a rare world map from the 15th and 16th centuries, Piri Reis World Map is an invaluable piece of the world's documentary heritage as it provides insight on the history of its time. It is therefore part of the Memory of the World and should be made better known,” stated UNESCO.

The world-renowned Ottoman captain and cartographer Reis is best known for world maps and charts collected in his “Kitab-ı Bahriye” (Book of Navigation).

Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=294065

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map

I have written before about Hodges' model as a map -

a cognitive periplus 

- for navigation through the complex world(s) of health and social care.

Would a new mariner take to the sea without a clear sky, a compass, map, or satnav? What then of our students?


Additional link: Please see the entry for Iran -

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/anniversaries-celebrated-by-member-states/2013/

A sentence in a word - precarity - and a bad spell of 'whether'

In the past couple of months I've acquired three books to review. One of them is:

Philosophical And Theoretical Perspectives For Advanced Nursing Practice, Cody.

I'm pleased to say that over half the book now has extra notes (in pencil). Within the text and my reflections there are a great many potential posts. In chapter 18 though Doane and Varcoe write:

Subsequently, there has been little discussion about what is required to develop and enact that sensitivity and/or the knowledge, capacities, and skills required for ethical and responsive nursing relationships within the complexities of current health-care milieus. For example, as social inequalities deepen and neoliberal ideologies hold individuals responsible for their own health and well-being regardless of how poverty, disability, remote geographical locations, or other inequalities determine health, notions of obligation, responsibility, accountability, and efficiency are as vital to nursing relationships as are notions of compassion, responsiveness, trust and respect. Thus, nurses require a broader understanding of relationships and their significance to ethical nursing practice. p.204.

The sentence in (my) italics can be summed up in one word - a recently discovered concept for me - that of: precarity.

Here the definition on Wikipedia (c/o the above link):

Precarity is a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. Specifically, it is applied to the condition of intermittent or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the precariat.

Nursing is bound to be affected by the socio-economic environment. Caution is needed as the weather impacts, puts pressure on nursing's values.

Doane, G.H., Varcoa, C. (2013). Relational Practice and Nursing Obligations. In Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives for Advanced Nursing Practice (5th ed.), by W. K. Cody (Ed.). (Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Jordanian Nursing Council 4th International Nursing Conference “The Tipping Point: Creative Solutions to Health and Nursing Challenges”

Well, I arrived in Amman for this conference at midnight and have not been this far east before. It is certainly different and there is much to look forward to.

I panicked slightly in Istanbul briefly reading the boarding time on my e-ticket as the flight time. So, I was looking for 1920, but the flight was 2020 and not yet displayed.

The hotel Le Meridien is excellent, my driver last night and the staff are very friendly. I was told on the 35 minute trip from airport to hotel that events nearby have impacted on tourism. People have had to seek other work as many tourist offices have closed. At breakfast it does give you pause to wonder about what is happening not all that far away.

I've not checked the conference venue yet. There's a reception this evening and workshops ongoing through today. I opted for:

4

15:00-18:00

Nicola McHugh, MSc, MA, RN

Understanding and Using Research in clinical Nursing Practice

In preparation we've been asked to read:

Seers, K. et al., (2008). A randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a single session of nurse administered massage for short term relief of chronic non-malignant pain. BMC Nursing, 7:10 doi:10.1186/1472-6955-7-10. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6955/7/10

Two workshops are recorded - an approach to consider for the future - as with using Skype.

Although only two days long there are a great range of concurrent sessions, amongst them:

• Differences in Perception Between Nurses and Patients Related to Patients’ Health Locus of Control Ayman M. Hamdan-Mansour
• Fostering Global Citizenship in Nursing Education: The Role of the United Nations Mary E. Norton 
• Aptitude Towards Nursing: Is it Measurable? Maxie Andrade 
• Comparison of Structure, Process, and Outcomes of Healthcare Service Provision between Advanced Community Nurse Practitioner and General Nurse Practitioner Noppawan Piaseu
• Development of a Multimedia Computer -Assisted Learning with Integrated Content of Anatomy and Physiology for Enhancing Nursing Students’ Skills on Physical Examination in Adult: Head and Neck Examination Chularuk Kaveevivitchai
• Assessment of Nursing Students' of Azad Islamic University of Saveh' Perception about Importance of Caring Behaviors Based on Caring Model of Watson Lida Nikfarid

My presentation is tomorrow afternoon and on Wednesday I'm chairing a session.

More to follow on this and some reading ...

HSJ: The NHS and fundamental change ...

 ... governments typically try to will the end but not the means: they try to shift the habits of the NHS while protecting buildings and people; or in Lord Darzi's pithy phrase, they change "the anatomy of the NHS rather than its physiology". p.16.

Finding the pith in Hodges' model (and the problem of refactoring - where would you like to start?):

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual

PURPOSE cognitive geography (the 'physiology' of mindsets)	Anatomy & Physiology PROCESS  structure, buildings,geography time, events, space
(habituated - ) PRACTICE (collective purposes) team integration	the NHS (organisation) POLICY workforce, funding  local, regional, national, global

group - population

Seddon, N. (2013) Opinion: Learning from international innovators, HSJ, 12 April. 123: 6346; 16-17.

Evidence Network Newsletter [II]

I posted about this over two years ago. Here is a revisit, prompted by the arrival of the April Evidence Network e-Newsletter c/o Alan Gomersall at the Centre for Evidence & Policy, King’s College London:

Founded in 2001 as part of an ESRC-funded initiative, the Evidence Network is an information resource aimed at anyone concerned with evidence-informed policy and practice (EBPP) in the broad field of social and public policy.

You have to join but it is very worthwhile for those as noted above.

This issue includes an invitation for submissions to the Research Synthesis Methods Journal:

... Papers may address any aspect of research synthesis, including information retrieval aspects such as searching for studies to incorporate into evidence syntheses such as systematic reviews, health technology assessments and guidelines.

Papers on topics in fields such as the health and social sciences are welcome if they can also demonstrate relevance to general research synthesis.  Papers reporting the results of a particular research synthesis are not, however, appropriate unless the focus is exclusively on an innovative or instructive methodological feature.  To promote widespread dissemination that will enhance methodological innovation and synthesis practice, the articles in this journal must be accessible to a broad and interdisciplinary audience. ...

In addition there's a new website for The Alliance for Useful Evidence, systematic reviews, information for practice and much more across seven-eight pages.

Exoplanets, exobiology, exocortex, exocare ...?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/may/14/godvsatanindeepspace

Exoplanets

planets outside the solar system

An exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is a planet orbiting a star different from the Sun (the "exo" prefix means "outside" in Greek). Up until now, one has found mainly gas giant planets, which are easier to detect than telluric planets. However, due to the increasing sensitivity of the detection methods, one already begins to observe the first planets of sizes comparable to the Earth.

Source: http://media4.obspm.fr/exoplanets/pages_definition/questce.html

Exobiology

The term exobiology ... covers the search for life beyond Earth, and the effects of extraterrestrial environments on living things.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology

Exocortex

-noun
An artificial external information processor that augments the brain's high-level cognition. Julia used her exocortex to access the memory of her tenth birthday.
Source: Fleming, N. The next wave. New Scientist, 14 May 2011. 210, 2812, p.33.

Exobuilding

ExoBuilding explores the novel design space that emerges when an individual‟s physiological data and the fabric of building architecture are linked. In its current form ExoBuilding is a tent - like structure that externalises a person's physiological data in an immersive and visceral way. This is achieved by mapping abdominal breathing to its shape and size, displaying heart beat through sound and light effects and mapping electro dermal activity to a projection on the tent fabric.
Source: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~hms/pdfs/SchnadelbachEtAl_ExoBuilding_CameraReady_AuthorVersion.pdf

(8 April 2013 #DTMD13)

Exoskeleton

http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/top-10-robotic-exoskeletons.html

n.
ex·o·skel·e·ton ( k s -sk l -tn). n. A hard outer structure, such as the shell of an insect or crustacean, that provides protection or support for an organism.

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/exoskeleton

exoskeleton: A medical device that allows individuals with severe spinal cord injury to walk and enhances rehabilitation for stroke victims.
Source: http://tagdef.com/exoskeleton

Exocare: Depends on your perspective - context / situation sensitive

Care exercised by a planet, or that planet's representation (on Earth the UN) towards life on other worlds, includes ethics, protocols and first contact.
See also: https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/seti-and-policy

Care not delivered by statutory health services. Care delivered by the individual also described as self-care.

Care directed at specific celestial objects, often as a result of long held ethnocultural beliefs and customs, the moon for example.

Care that extends 'human ecosystems' to what is external to the physical self, to encompass Gaia - the Earth and biosphere. Love directed not at a single person, or thing but the sense of what is whole.

Also refers to the use of a conceptual framework to frame reflections on health and social care - individually, socially or globally. Provides a means to integrate concepts of care according to the situation and salience incorporating the individual-group (population); the local, global and glocal.

"The Deprofessionals" BBC radio4: nursing, teaching and social work

Driving to Milton Keynes late afternoon for DTMD2013 Mon-Weds, I listened to a BBC radio 4 programme about the political assault on several public professions - The Deprofessionals

What does it mean to be a professional today, at a time when the public services are in a state of turmoil?
Time was when a professional was easily recognised for what he or she did by virtue of their qualifications and experience, when their competence could be measured against ...

It should be available for the next week.

When I think about community mental health nursing since 1985 I can identify with many of the points raised. How the role has changed, the former therapeutic skills focus, the change in skill mix, the advent of Agenda for Change and the existence of staff who may miss being clinically 'banded' altogether.

ERCIM News No. 93 Special theme: "Mobile Computing"

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 93 has just been published at
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en93

Special Theme: "Mobile Computing"
Guest editors: Edgar Weippl (SBA Research, AARIT, Austria) and Pietro Manzoni (Universitat Politècnica de Valéncia, SpaRCIM)
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en93/special


Keynote:  "Strategies of the European ICST Public Research Organisations towards Horizon 2020" by Domenico Laforenza
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en93/keynote

This issue for download in pdf:
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN93/EN93-web.pdf

Next issue: No. 94, July 2013 - Special Theme: "Intelligent Cars"

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News.
Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor

------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme
ERCIM offers fellowships for PhD holders from all over the world. The next round is open!
Next deadline 30 April 2013
http://fellowship.ercim.eu/

Dem@Care Summer School on Ambient Assisted Living

Dem@Care SUMMER SCHOOL ON AMBIENT ASSISTED LIVING (DemAAL 2013)
16-20 September 2013, Chania, Crete, Greece
http://mklab.iti.gr/demaal2013/

We are pleased to announce the 1st Dem@Care summer school on Ambient Assisted Living. The DemAAL summer school is primarily intended for postgraduate (PhD or MSc) students, postdocs and researchers investigating clinical and technical aspects related to Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies for remote health management, ageing well and independent living. Leading researchers from academia and industry will cover theoretical and practical aspects pertinent to pervasive and ubiquitous computing technologies for Ambient Intelligence (AmI) applications, while special focus will be given on the role and opportunities of such technologies for dementia management.

Lecture material will be augmented with hands-on practical sessions. Participants will be provided with electronic versions of all programme lectures and all necessary tools and environments for the hands-on sessions. PC access with all tools pre-installed will be available on site as well. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to present their work and obtain feedback during a dedicated poster session intended to further facilitate interactions and the exchange of ideas.

TOPICS
=======
- Dementia and ICT for staging, enablement, and support
- Wearable and pervasive computing
- Sensor networks
- Sensor correlation and fusion
- Context modelling
- Activity monitoring and recognition
- Semantic Complex Event Processing
- Contextual reasoning in AmI
- Assistive technologies for cognitive support and well-being
- Video & voice-based analytics for symptomatic assessment of dementia

SPEAKERS
==========
- Assoc. Prof. Panagiotis Bamidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)
- Prof. Jenny Benoit-Pineau (University of Bordeaux 1, France)
- Prof. Claudio Bettini (University of Milan, Italy)
- Dr. Antonis Bikakis (University College London, UK)
- Dr. Francois Bremond (INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France)
- Dr. Ceyhun Burak Akgül (Vistek Isra Vision)
- Prof. Cem Ersoy (Boğaziçi University, Turkey)
- Dr. Kate Irving-Lupton (Dublin City University, Ireland)
- Dr. Laura Klaming (Philips Research, The Netherlands)
- Prof. Chris Nugent (University of Ulster, UK)
- Assoc. Prof. Mounir Mokhtari (CNRS/Institut Mines-Telexom, France)
- Prof. Adrian Paschke (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
- Dr. Daniel Rogen (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
- Prof. Stefan Sävenstedt (Luleå University of Technology, Sweden)
- Prof. Alan Smeaton (Dublin City University, Ireland)
- Dr. Alex Sorin (IBM Research Haifa, Israel)
- Prof. Kåre Synnes (LTU, Sweden)
- Prof. Magda Tsolaki (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)

HOW TO APPLY
=============
Please visit and follow the instructions at ....
The deadline for applications is May 30th, 2013.
The summer school fee, including lectures, accommodation, meals and social events is 450 €.

VENUE
=======
The summer school will be held in Chania, Crete, a beautiful land brimming with natural beauty, history, and culture, at the Conference Center of MAICh. For more information about Chania, transportation and accommodation please visit...

DTMD 2013 & Three different perspectives on a model

I am really looking forward to next week's the Difference That Makes a Difference an interdisciplinary workshop on Information: Space, Time, and Identity at the The Open University and the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK. 

There's a session of instant interest to me as it refers to Peter Gärdenfors' work on conceptual spaces -

Session 1: Information and Space

Spacification: How to design and construct spaces
that can enhance artistic experiences

Ambjörn Naeve (KTH, Sweden) and Carl Smith (London Metropolitan University, UK)

Naeve and Smith provide a further reference:

A (conceptual) model is a description of the most important concepts and their respective relationships within a certain domain of interest. Whatever domain of interest that you focus on, your model will consist of (conceptually simplified) parts that interact with each other in some way. This leads to three different types of models:

1. The static model describes WHAT the (most important) parts are about.
2. The dynamic model describes HOW these parts interact with each other.
3. The intentional model describes WHY they display this behavior.

As we will see, these modeling types can often be mixed into a single model, and then these different types should be thought of more as “aspects” or “perspectives” of the model.

Ref: Ambjörn Naeve. 2011-01-31. A Modeling Primary on Methods and Techniques for Communicative Modeling and Disagreement Management. European Commission Seventh Framework Project (IST-257822).