Preconference Tidbit #5 - Conceptual Models

by Paul Uhlig

During our meeting we will explore three models that are useful for understanding collaborative care.

The models are:

·         Complexity Model
·         Relational Coordination Model
·         Social Field Model

The Tidbits for the next three days will consider each model. However, tonight’s Tidbit emphasizes how all three models are similar. They are similar because they all consider care as happening in a context.

A visualization exercise may be helpful. For this exercise, imagine an ecosystem—let’s say trees in the distance, a meadow of green grass, and a field of purple flowers close by. In your mind, zoom out first and notice the soil, the water, the wind, the sunlight, and all the plants and wildlife in the ecosystem; next, zoom in a little and look at the meadow; finally, zoom in even more and look at just one flower.

If you want to grow some truly beautiful flowers, and hope to figure out how to do that, it would be wise, of course, to think about the entire ecosystem where the flowers are growing. To understand the flowers, you would want to consider many factors in an interrelated, ecological way, not just the flowers themselves.

The wisdom of the three models is that they all consider care from this kind of ecological perspective. The models help us see and account for the contexts that surround care, and how attributes of these contexts can be intentionally modified to improve care for all patients in that ecosystem. The models are hopeful like that—they were all developed to help make care even better.

The illustration attached with this Tidbit can help you think about this. Enjoy it, and take a minute to imagine your own care environment. Ask yourself, “What is our environment like when care is really great?” For the next three days we will consider answers to that question from the perspective of each model.