Mentor: Sorry my friend where were we up to?
Student: I am still puzzled as to how we can define and represent person centered care? Where does person centered care fit in h2cm (Hodges' health career model)?
Mentor: This is a good question and you are right to ask it. As our previous discussions have illustrated our models are idealised and yet they should reflect the real world and experiences they seek to model and re-present for us:
Student: but in this case....?
Mentor: Well, not so quick...
As we noted the World's governments get the citizenry they deserve and vice-versa. If peace, political engagement, legitimate government and contentment are not a given but have to be earned then is person centred care any different?
Student: So, you are saying that peace, being a citizen, and mm... well-being I suppose are in a sense similar to person centered care?
Mentor: Perhaps?
Student: That seems quite a leap.
Mentor: Well your question prompts exercise - a certain gymnastics even - and with that a daily requirement we'll save this point for another time.
For now though... I know we don't necessarily need a precise definition of person centered care at the moment, but humour me and see what you can come up with in terms of this model of care. As you have mentioned it includes the INDIVIDUAL, the GROUP. And with the interpersonal and science domains the person's mind and body are literally in the frame.
Student: Well unless we are talking medical emergency then person centered care is about ensuring the individual is taken into account across all the domains of care.
That is - intra-interpersonal, physically - through the sciences, socially and politically.
Oh - and spiritually too of course.
Mentor: So person centered or being person centered concerns domains of care?
Student: No. It's the content that matters. Take the interpersonal and myself as an example - what are my beliefs, previous experiences, writing skills and interests, my mood, disposition and attitude towards others. That only scratches the surface.
Mentor: I see. Can you go on from there...?
Student: Well I suppose each domain is visited according to various cues - and this is where context and situation come in. These supply the cues. They determine what is significant, what counts as information. For experienced nurses and health care practitioners this travel within and across the care domains comes as second nature.
Mm... I suspect that even if someone was not using h2cm explicitly their cognitive - conceptual movement could still be traced through the model, like passes on a football pitch.
Mentor: Very poetic! So if these care domains are being reflected upon does that mean person centered care is a consequence?
Student: Well I suppose it could if you take your mention of 'reflection' literally. Yes, picture the patient - the person - in the center of the h2cm matrix. We might even argue that our reflections place them there? Within the model what is the position of the person? If our deliberations could be measured - and practically that would be quite a task given patient engagement and dialogue - then is there an average across the domains? And is that the center - hence person centered?
Mentor: An interesting idea. And yet as you questioned initially the INDIVIDUAL in the model is at the top, at the top of an irregular continuum, so...?
