Nursing InformaticsSoft System

1
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Problems are constructs of the concerned mind,
  defined by the perceptions of the individuals who
  are troubled by them- People differ on what the
  problem is?
• People have different appreciation of situations
• Solutions are also intellectual constructs which
  are determined by perceptions- Different views of
  the actual state and the desired state
• Improvements in complex problem situations are
  most likely to be brought about through the
  sharing of perceptions and through persuasion and
  debate

2
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Stage 1
• have first encounter with the problem situation
• resist attempts to impose a particular structure
• recognise that if you decide to become involved-
  you are part of the situation
• Clarify your own objectives
• Do some thinking about the roles of client,
  problem owner, problem solver in the particular
  situation

3
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Client-The person who causes the study to happen
  in the first place
• Problem-owner- Could be a variety of different
  people in the situation
• Problem-Solver-The person who hopes to do
  something about the situation which is perceived
  to be problematical

4
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Stage 2-Rich Pictures, Issues, Primary Tasks
• It is the action stage to improve the situation
• Some way of summarising or representing the
  situation is building a Rich Picture.
• Rich Picture-Cartoon like representation of the
  situation
• Hard info- factual data-e.g. Depts,individuals,
  organisation structure, reporting channels
  involved etc..
• Soft Info-Subjective info about aspects of the
  situation-summaries of the perceptions of the
  actors-gossips,rumours,friendship, hostilities etc

5
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Scrutinise the rich picture
• Look for two important aspects of the situation
• Primary Tasks-the tasks an organisation must
  perform to survive
• Issues- topics or matters of concern which are
  the subject of the dispute

6
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Stage3 Relevant Systems their root definitions
• Relevant Systems- Relevant to the process of
  improving the situation- An abstract idea- does
  not exist in reality-It is not a system to solve
  the problems inherent in the situation
• Refining the relevant System- one way of doing
  this is to develop a precise verbal description
  of the essences of the processes implied by the
  Relevant System- This is known as a Root
  Definition

7
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• The CATWOE checklist-How do I know that my root
  definition is complete?
• customers of the systems-victims or
  beneficiaries of the system, Actors- Who would
  actually carry out the activities envisaged in
  the notional System, Transformation process- what
  does the system do to inputs in order to
  transform them to outputs, World view, Owners-
  Power over the system to cause it to cease to
  exist, Environmental constraints

8
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Stage 4-Conceptual Models
• having described your system precisely- you now
  have to describe what the system does- This is
  done by building an activity model of the system

9
Nursing Informatics-Soft System

• Stage 5- Comparison Of Model with Rich Picture
• The similarities and differences are noted.
• Stage 6 -debate with people involved in the
  situation
• Stage 7- Implement the change