Reflection: programming and caring II

Reflection: (Ruby Pocket Reference, O'Reilly, 2007, p. 147.)

The ability of a language such as Ruby
to examine and manipulate itself.
For example, the reflection method class from Object
returns an object's class ("hello".class # => String).

Reflection within health and social care - is there a further definition ...?

Well yes, there are several, but there may be another ...?

The ability of a health and social care model such as Hodges' model
to examine and manipulate itself ^*
in response to an individual's (and family's)
care situation and context.
For example, the reflection method class from Object
returns an object's class (Intrapersonal.class # => Domain)^#.

^*This would require of course that Hodges' model is represented as a programming language or formalised conceptual space of some sort....
^#Or something like this....

Composability: programming and caring

Composability: (Ruby Pocket Reference, O'Reilly, 2007)

The degree to which you can express logic
by combining and recombining
parts of a language (p. 136).

Composability within health and social care - is there a further definition...?

The degree to which you can express care situations
by combining and recombining
the parts of a language encompassed within a health and social care model,
(a dedicated conceptual space).

"...the most general and greatest concepts..."

But, although they
[i.e., the most general and greatest concepts]
may not have meaning,
they do make sense,
and it is very sensible
to awaken this sense from
time to time.

Robert Musil
Derr Mann ohne Eigenschaften - 'The Man without Qualities'
(first book), 1924
(translation by Jelke van der Pal)

Knowledge site 'Pass It Along' [IBM] & 6 New Scientist Autumn Specials

There is a new beta site for software and systems developers... by IBM 'Pass It Along' for sharing knowledge and expertise:




Also received - news of 6 weeks of New Scientist Autumn Specials:

Starting this week and running until 25th October issue, New Scientist will be featuring a series of special reports:

Sept 20th - Future car: electric or hydrogen?

Sept 27th - The seven biggest mysteries about the Earth

Oct 4th - Outer limits of the brain

Oct 11th - What would a world run on renewable energy look like?

Oct 18th - Excess: why we need a new economic model

Oct 25th - Defeating cancer

To blog or not to blog - that is the question?

Much has been written - blogged about even - as to whether clinicians should blog or not. In a recent HSJ article and the Health Service Journal's new blogs this question has been raised.

As the cogs turn, I'm a very small one; but even as a nurse and blogger I am acutely aware that being on the web is the equivalent of the old town square. That square is increasingly global (at the month's end).

The stocks sit there plainly visible, prompting pause for thought ...

Blogging on the HSJ Nadeem Moghal made the point about the risks of being a clinician, a blogger AND being tired and frustrated to boot. Mr Moghal also references a source which advises that clinicians should not blog.

There are reasons not to blog as a health service employee. Like everyone I get tired and frustrated too. You have to remember your contractual and professional obligations, plus your relationship (actual and potential) with the people in your care.

That said, the government, NHS, Connecting for Health and others need to consider what they want in terms of the skills and experience of the professionals it employs. Using nurses as an example - is it enough that nurses are 'IT users' and 'web-savvy'? Or should nurses, academics and other professionals be capable of critiquing the hardware on their desks, ward trolleys, the software they use (and help develop) and the associated issues that arise? In the sense that we are professionally accountable, then a given level of insight and understanding of new media and technology forms is vital. There are a lot of issues: take for example Rod Ward's recent post on access to records.

Perhaps some established journalists are worried about the changes in the(ir) business? I am part of that media demographic that Sir Michael Grade must worry about over at ITV. Being on the web means you watch less TV, amongst other things...

To agree that clinician's should not blog and close-up shop is to consider and respond to the situation in purely political terms.

Despite the dangers of being online - in person - I believe there is a case to demonstrate that this new media can provide a marvellous and effective outlet for new (and old) perspectives on what it is to care. Whether wearing a white coat, driving around the community or writing your latest post if you have a message then surely it can be delivered in a professional manner?

For me here on W2tQ
I've some help in not just having a message
but also having a mission.

To focus on the politics alone, is to ignore the role we also have in teaching and mentoring others. This should include not only students, but members of the public too: see Healthspace and personal health records. ... IT literacy, political literacy, health literacy, media literacy - there's no end to the 21st century skill set ....

So if you blog,
tread carefully,
listen and pay attention to the constantly breaking glass.
Politics (and your job) does count!

And yet blogging can be about more than just politics:
it can be about creativity and exploration.

h2cmuk at yahoo.co.uk

"Let us put our minds together
and see what kind of life we can make for our children."
--Chief Sitting Bull (1823-1890)

Image source: Tony Woof.com

Butterflies make the news go-round

In health, social care and the news media at large there are themes that recur. While every summer has its silly season, there is a strange irregular-regularity in the way the light is re-cast on issues important to us all. It may be triggered due to a tragic incident involving a child, older person, or a whole family. At other times the stimulus for further exposure and prompt for debate is found when different coloured papers have their political say. The political opposition can force or be forced into a reaction.

Chaos is hardly a new kid in town, but there are many groups such as Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences who are trying to understand and apply this infant science to specific disciplines and even conjoin and create new ones. I mention chaos due the question of migration.

Where do the various items of news head to when they disappear off the media's smörgåsbord?

Maybe they are still there, they just merge into the background noise? This movement is not just a binary, metronomic tick-tock, in and out of the media's eyes. It's more complex than that.

Like the butterflies beloved of chaoticists everywhen, perhaps these issues travel an unpredictable and yet inevitable course through the four fold space of Hodges' model? They travel together and yet in separate lanes, like the horses racing at an amusement arcade. When one reaches the socio-cultural-political boundary, that is when things happen and the volume is ramped up.

Events may frequently have their origin in the intrapersonal domain (it takes a person to find a tango partner), but one way or another - either heading south through the social domain or east and south through the sciences domain - news worthy items will and do repeat themselves.

Original image source: http://10outof10.blogspot.com/2008/04/lorenz-father-of-chaos-theory-died-at.html

Mental health survivors create evolving timeline of the UK survivor/user movement

From: Jill Anderson
To: MHHE AT JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Sent: Monday, 15 September, 2008 17:08:22
Subject: Survivor/User movement timeline

The survivors history group has created an evolving timeline of the UK survivor/user movement. It can be viewed online at:

http://studymore.org.uk/mpu.htm#Manchester2008

Will be an invaluable resource for teaching.

Best wishes,
Jill
----

Here is one entry of particular note for 1894:
A short story Passed is the first known published work of Charlotte Mew. The writer, walking in a poor area of London (Clerkenwell?), visits a church. She sees a gospel that the priest at the alter does not:

"Two girls holding each other's hands came in and stood in deep shadow behind the farthest rows of high-backed chairs by the door. The younger rolled her head from side to side; her shifting eyes and ceaseless imbecile grimaces chilled my blood. The other, who stood praying, turned suddenly (the place but for the flaring alter lights was dark) and kissed the dreadful creature by her side. I shuddered, and yet her face wore no look of loathing nor pity. The expression was a divine one of habitual love. She wiped the idiot's lips and stroked the shaking hands in hers, to quiet the sad hysterical caresses she would not check. It was a page of gospel which the old man with his back to it might never read. A sublime and ghastly scene."

The description may shock (See also 1916), but compare with Jayne Eyre in 1847 and the Care of Children Committee in 1946. The outstanding difference is the compassion.
The partner web resource of the survivors history timeline the - Mental Health History Timeline - is also well worth exploring.

Jobs, the Specifics of care and feeling Special

Recently in applying for jobs - left, right and further off-centre - the penny drop is long confirmed: it is not sufficient to include statements such as - "I have very good communication skills". Would-be employers need specifics.

Patients and the public
(as the two previous posts reveal)
need specifics too.
They do not just want to be "one of the crowd".

A key quality of a 'good' nurse is that they can anticipate a patient's needs. Of course the whole care team are engaged in this activity. Foresight has always had a mystical quality to it, and no less today on wards, in clinics, even corridors ... community and occupational settings. ...

Anticipating care needs increases comfort, job satisfaction, saves time, money(?) and leaves people feeling better; even if they are far from 80-100%.

Good (effective) staff can use their knowledge, skills and experience plus that of colleagues AND the patient to head calamity off at the pass, whether in the form of emergency intervention, or a much needed bedpan and fan (you figure it out).

The key bit is what makes these special staff stand out. How they communicate this to the patient, the family and colleagues. This is why most staff and yet some staff in particular can make a world of difference.

Even if the patient is a member of the crowd,
the quality of the care interactions make them feel unique,
cared for -
a person who matters.