NURSING -:- INFOTECH - worlds apart? Software testing

Another draft from over a decade ago ... duly revisited and updated:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/793628/worldwide-developer-survey-most-used-languages/

Reading up on Ruby and Rails and attending Scotland on Rails, I've been struck by the emphasis on testing. Testing in this context is about reliable software and building this into the 'product' from the outset. A book on Rails gets criticized because it leaves the chapter on 'Testing' until the end (even if the authors had their reasons - as they explained).

This take on testing is sufficient if (of course) it is appropriate and it is applied (as per the manual) to the application concerned. There are other more formal methods that extend to writing a specification for code which entails the use of formal specification languages such as Zed (as encountered in BA(Hons.) studies. This arises in situations were software is being developed for safety-critical situations. Clearly, robotic surgery, nuclear energy, and keeping an aircraft in the sky, take-off and landing are mission-critical. In the latter case a company is still dealing with life threatening loss of life that can follow, should the software system fail or more covertly introduce an error.

Reading about Rails, there are specific tests and these are provided as a result of scaffolding, a process whereby the bones of a web application are created within the Rails framework: with tests.

Rails creates a test directory for you as soon as you create a Rails project using bin/rails new application_name. If you list the contents of this directory then you will see:

$ ls -F test
application_system_test_case.rb  controllers/                     helpers/                         mailers/                         system/                          fixtures/                        integration/                     models/                          test_helper.rb

Source: https://guides.rubyonrails.org/testing.html

Rails uses a popular convention to organise and integrate the elements of a web application that includes a database, and dynamic interface. The approach is known as:

Models, Views and Controllers - MVC

MVC underpins several programming languages and frameworks. As displayed above, the tests that Rails creates have specific names and you can quickly see where they come from and how they encompass Rails (an essential property of course).

Today, I still wonder [ what's new! 😉 ] what is the equivalent to MVC in nursing? Models seems to fit! Over the years at many IT events, you can't help but reflect on nursing and its 'API' - application programming interface. Worryingly, in humanistic terms there is an instrumental potential in Hodges' model. If Nursing on Rails was a thing, what would the tests look like? Identity would be a feature, to demonstrate person-centredness, safety in medication and other treatment procedures. Is there a way to demonstrate the integration of care, and for a patient - the extent of holistic bandwidth? Of course, nursing comprises just a part of a clinical information system. It must be in sync in accord with other disciplines, medical and pharmacy and other multidisciplinary team members and yet ensure that 'nursing is visible'.

Previously: API : 'Waste not - want not'