Evidence-based care: The original Gordian Knot

or - Choose your audience carefully.

Within health and social care (and other - safety-critical - academic and professional fields) evidence-based care is pivotal as proof of safety, reproducibility, effectiveness, efficacy, professionalism, and benefits for the subjects of care and public. How best then to prove the scope, scale, relevance and safety of Hodges' model? How to demonstrate in theory and practice the utility and increasing relevance of Hodges' model? There are times I have to temper my belief, passion and enthusiasm for h2cm; am I too ardent, and at risk of coming across as preaching? There is a further tension. The one that is constant: language.

As a nurse, attention to language and terminology is vital to effective communication, establishing and sustaining rapport and empathy. This concern applies across situations, contexts and encounters; with patients, patient and carer (family), and colleagues. We are encouraged to avoid jargon, abbreviations  and technical terms. I use Hodges' model implicitly (aide-mémoire, assess, plan, evaluation, prioritise) and explicitly - sharing the model on some occasions but not all.

In the role of researcher / author, the audience, especially - editors, reviewers, and readers have expectations in how concepts, ideas, theories are expressed and explained. To a degree, the very title of a publication, preempts the language to follow. As I present, or write, sources must be declared and  referenced. Again, resort to jargon is discouraged. Clarity and brevity are strengths. And yet how likely is it that at least 1/3 reviewers will demand more technical rigour and explanation? If terms are used from other disciplines, the expectation follows that their cross-disciplinary application is explained and argued for, and meanings differentiated.

With potential theoretical underpinnings for Hodges' model to be found in Gärdenfors's Conceptual Spaces, and Meyer & Lands's Threshold Concepts and others (nursing and healthcare no-less); John D. Cook provides additional pause for thought - as I look even further afield:

"When I was in college, I sat in on a communication workshop for Latin American preachers. ...

Another lesson from that workshop, the one I want to focus on here, is that you don’t always need to convey how you arrived at an idea. Specifically, the leader of the workshop said that if you discover something interesting from reading the New Testament in Greek, you can usually present your point persuasively using the text in your audience’s language without appealing to Greek. This isn’t always possible—you may need to explore the meaning of a Greek word or two—but you can use Greek for your personal study without necessarily sharing it publicly. The point isn’t to hide anything, only to consider your audience. In a room full of Greek scholars, bring out the Greek.

This story came up in a recent conversation with Brent Yorgey about category theory. You might discover something via category theory but then share it without discussing category theory. If your audience is well velrsed in category theory, then go ahead and bring out your categories. But otherwise your audience might be bored or intimidated, as many people would be listening to an argument based on the finer points of Koine Greek grammar. ...

Some things may sound profound when expressed in esoteric language, such as category theory or Koine Greek, that don’t seem so profound in more down-to-earth language. Expressing yourself in a different language helps filter out pedantry from useful ideas. (On the other hand, some things that looked like pure pedantry have turned out to be very useful. Some hairs are worth splitting.) 

Sometimes you have to introduce a new terms because there isn’t a colloquial counterpart." ...

 Category theory and Koine Greek: John D. Cook. 

 

Category theory and Koine Greek: John D. Cook. 
https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2016/06/27/category-theory-and-homiletics/

See also: Applied category theory: John D. Cook

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/applied-category-theory/