Welcome To The Quad - Hodges model

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ERCIM news latest issue "The Digital Patient"
2007-05-07 22:24:00
Hello everyoneThis research publication c/o European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics is excellent - especially the latest issue:Introduction to the Special Theme: The Digital Patient View online.Enjoy! See you soon...
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Bits and Pieces II: Better put the kettle on...
2007-05-06 23:55:00
Well my tickets booked for Charleston, SC and the Society for Philosophy and Technology Conference in July. Still to sort the accommodation and conference fee. I've applied for funding from two organisations and hopefully the response will be positive on both counts, great news that I've £200 as a start.I'm on the final stretch too for the book chapter, which combines Hodges' model, Serres and informatics - fingers x'd and just a day or two until I need to send it off! Can't wait to have this (successfully) done and dusted. Must move on...The past month and evening I've really enjoyed the 50th birthday TV celebrations for the Sky at Night and Patrick Moore's contribution to astronomy. Absolutely - MEGA. April's Episode - Time Lord must be a TV prize winner - informative, funny and great entertainment. Looking forward to the next 50 years!I've read through David Mercer's - Drupal and yep I'm still keen to push to boat out. Home for over 2/52 and not even managed to log-i...
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Hodges' model - How many interfaces are there?
2007-04-27 23:00:00
If you were stood at the centre of Hodge s' model - the nexus - where exactly is that 'place'? Looking out from there what would you see?In a way from that vantage point our senses and imagination should encounter precisely whatever the model is capable of modelling?One of the four reasons for the creation of the model was to assure an holistic approach. Well consider this a mind experiment, a test. So, what do you think? Would you be at the heart of SOME-things, or the heart of ALL-things?You would certainly be at the heart-of and part-of an interface.This (possibly daft?) question needs to be asked. Why? Well, because an effective interface should be - at least - two-way.So what interface(s) does Hodges' model need to handle? If h2cm provides the scaffold, what are we then able to build?When Brian posed the initial questions when formulating the model he conducted a scoping exercise. The outcome determined the scope of the model, but what sort of scope? Is this scaffold suffic...
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Back Home Again, 1st birthday & Conference!
2007-04-24 00:00:00
Hi everyone. Home again.A day later due to a medical emergency which caused the flight from Manchester to Crete to return to the UK and be grounded at Gatwick. So our flight was cancelled for 18+ hours. We were looked after but it was quite late. The holiday was great, though as expected the pool and sea were on the cooler side. The season only starts proper in May; it was lovely to explore without the usual crowds and summer Med. heat.The resort Elounda in East Crete was magic. We managed to visit Knossos and Lato. In some respects Lato seemed the more impressive even though there was less physically there. The place had more 'presence' somehow.On BBC 2 last week a programme put forward the idea that Knossos isn't a palace, it's a temple. I could go with that.A jewel for Elounda was Spinalonga, bizarrely Christine my wife bought the book in Knutsford last September, before we booked the holiday and has yet to read it. Weird that. We crossed to the island from Plaka. Had lunch a...
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Buckets and Spades - Fit to Drupe...
2007-04-01 23:07:00
I'm away for two weeks from Tuesday on holiday with my wife and daughter. So you can have a break too! Never been to Crete before, but I believe the wild flowers and Easter time is very special. We plan to get into the mountains as well as the coast and ancient sites. I love the Med. Greece, Turkey, Italy... The people, history, food, climate and snorkelling great, although not sure it will be that warm for us. I think we are actually the first flight out for the season. Not sure if it will be possible so early on to visit Santorini - we'll see. BBC4 has featured some programmes on the Med covering geology and art.Holiday reading includes Drupal. I’ve downloaded files including text and screencasts. What I really need is a block of time to fully grasp the basics on my PC and in my head! As mentioned previously I had a bare bones Drupal site successfully installed using XAMP. When I went back to it - yep I'd lost the plot. In the end I scrubbed it all. It may have salva...
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Rag dolls and empty bottles
2007-03-30 00:37:00
Grief is a frightening character.A thief who can steal you away and get away with it....Why?Because grief cannot be denied. We must leave that small window ajar, the spare key under the mat, best wear your collar loose for when you're grabbed by the scruff of the neck...Sometimes he finds you 'in' when you wish he hadn't.Like when you're driving on the motorway and the windscreen wipers don't work somehow. He strikes and turns the sensible into a non-sensible rag doll.Spring last year I found myself with a choice - head North for home from the Midlands or head back in time. The time traveller with a penchant for the past won out.I headed West past Telford then Shrewsbury into and across mid-Wales. The weather was strange. There was lightening, but no thunder as I crossed the border and headed into Wales.Rain then sunshine. Through Welshpool, stopping in Aberdovey through Tywyn, I worked my way around the coast then inland towards Cadre Idris and Llanegryn.Another Home.It's no...
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HSJ Editorial 22 March 2007: Finance
2007-03-26 23:38:00
Before my son's bike race at Darley Moor on Saturday*, I picked up the latest Health Service Journal and flask of coffee. Reading the editorial I was struck by the sequence of the two items and my experience or lack of it.The first item 'Consistency and agreement are needed to spread success' concerned the Commons Public Accounts Committee report on financial management and its conclusions. These included the need to share lessons learned from successful financial turnaround programmes plus (paraphrased):The performance of the finance function is too patchy, inadequate in more than a quarter of organisations. There are recurring problems with recruitment, training and development with the central issue being the role of clinicians in financial management.The much desired engagement here is between senior clinicians and management. The recent BBC 2 series Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS? demonstrated the all-to frequent gulf between managers and senior clinicians.Returning to the H...
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Holistic care No. 2: Definitions - pushing the envelope checking the corner
2007-03-24 19:36:00
Last month I posted about holistic care; where was I up to? Yes, of course definitions...I came across this article that includes reference to Jan Smuts (1926) who is generally attributed with coining the term holism. The article also highlights that holism is often associated with alternative medicine. I'd like to suggest here that holism extends far beyond any specific school of medicine or new ageist theme. A conclusion reached from contemplating the state of the World and using Hodges' model. So let's consider holism as a feature, characteristic or principle of care theory, practice and policy. What follows may well apply generally.To begin, if health and social care (plus pastoral) is to be person-centred and situated then agency (who) must be a central factor in defining holism - holistic care. Then I would add the concept of information followed closely by knowledge. Stepping back slightly 'holistic' in h2cm denotes openness, inclusiveness and comprehensiveness.AGENCY: I...
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Professor Enid Mumford
2007-03-24 00:50:00
I am very saddened to hear of the death of Enid Mumford.In February 2004 Prof. Mumford responded to my email about her website and sociotechnical design explaining her work and offering help if needed.This was then and remains a great encouragement to me.Now I wholly appreciate her situation, response and kindness as she stated - having joined the health care community for older people herself.Bless you Enid and your family...
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What Complex Threads We Weave
2007-03-20 22:44:00
Two thoughts spring to mind when I look at h2cm's axes - INDIVIDUAL-GROUP and HUMANISTIC-MECHANISTIC. I wonder where they end and what does where mean exactly?These questions prompted the combination of the model's axes and the care domains into a 5th domain: the spiritual. Could there be another view of this? Is it sensible to consider that a care concept lies at certain point on the individual axis for example? How does this relate to the mechanistic axis? Maybe this asks too much of what is a model to simplify complexity? Do these axes run-off forever? Do they join up at infinity?When we think of 'where' we tend to think in concrete (literally) terms. But where are you on this image?Although this marvellous picture of the analemma helps extend our (physical) notions of where, this photo has its limits in that it captures the view from a certain latitude (a specific context). There are others. Our Earth bound sense of place takes on S-N-E-W, but if we travel far enough ....?Th...
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'Nursing' label: can I get away with it?
2007-03-14 22:45:00
Next month this blog Welcome to the Quad is 1 year old. If you haven't noticed so far there is no 'nursing' label.Many people (understandably) reason that:Hodges' model is a model of nursingmodels of nursing are 'old-hat'therefore - Hodges' model is 'old-hat'.That's a great pity and a rather short-sighted view at a time when long range vision is crucial. If you work in health and social care, but are not a nurse - you are most welcome here! If you work outside of health and social care a big welcome to you also. I'd love to hear who is visiting the blog (mum is that you?).Hodges' model can be applied universally. Although multidisciplinary working is the mantra for all workers there are few cognitive tools beyond the usual suites of office applications.So while Hodges' model owes much to and has much to offer nursing and learning disability, I would like to continue to stress the multidisciplinary label; for the time being anyway ;-)Take care - holistic care (definition...
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an·a·gram: "Nursing Politics" = ...
2007-03-12 23:00:00
"nursing politics" = "counting lips sir" (no comment)"Health career model" = "cremated, hello Hera ...""nursing care" = "cures rang in"or better still "curing nears"or "curing earns" (really?)or "incurs anger" (yep, nursing's a great job, but frustrating at times)or "sun care ring" (Holistic care - New Age tendencies?)"nursing theory" = "hurrying notes"or "syringe hurt on" ( - entry?)or "gunnery hot sir" (... then stop using depleted uranium!!)or "hungry in store" (whatever happened to basic nursing care?)
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Human Ecology (and East Manchester)
2007-03-11 00:47:00
This afternoon I had the great pleasure of meeting four people in Manchester who are alumni or currently studying with the Centre for Human Ecology . The CHE is based in Edinburgh and so we met to explore the possibility of a NW England CHE group.My connection with CHE is limited to finding and linking to CHE many years ago. I've an interest in ecosystem health and the effects of urban and rural environments on mental health. I've also pondered a while on the mental health impact of global warming.Before the meeting Andy took us from Piccadilly Station around the Ancoats - New Islington area part of historic East Manchester. Many former cotton mills are being regenerated. We were able to go into Royal Mills - 198 Historic & New Build Apartments; a stunning building and one of the first mills. No surprise there since Ancoats was the first industrial suburb. We were shown the show apartment, remarkably quiet, warm, stylish ... an award winning example of regeneration, although I'm ...
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Apple Store: enter with Charles - leave with Charlie
2007-02-24 01:39:00
Home from London 0030hrs. After posting that last message standing in the Apple Store I’d noticed a lady standing next to me was looking at a Drupal site. We’d exchanged a few Q&As, like how to open the web browser and using the built-in camera on the iMac monitor. Me being me - I asked her about Drupal and how the h2cm site needs an update using a content or learning management system. It works out she was on the way to a Drupal meeting at the BTR internet café near Goodge St tube station. OK...!Please believe me I don’t usually leave stores with women other than my wife (and daughter) I explained this to Charlie , whose work is on cause-based medicine; exchanging interests, names, jobs and activities we found the cafe.I introduced myself to the organiser Robert, plus Ian, Peter and others as people arrived. Groups like this really help, just listening to what people were doing, the problems they were wrestling with and their successes proved a real inspiration. Some good adv...
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