Systems Thinking with Small Changes Essay Discussion Paper

A systems thinking approach is necessary when leading a public health initiative in a culturally and economically diverse community. On the other side, it is important to not ignore the individual aspects of health. Given the influence of political or economic systems, reflect on how focusing on broad social, political, and economic factors might blind us to the interpersonal aspects of health and the small individual impacts that can change a person\’s world. In a 500-word reflection, comment on how a systems-based approach helps bridge gaps in providing necessary public health services but needs to be balanced with a personal holistic approach to transform communities. View the \”Start Small, Change the World: Lori DiPrete Brown at TEDxUWMadison\” video on YouTube to provide additional perspective. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HE9SypCzXU)

Systems Thinking with Small Changes

Systems thinking can be considered as a holistic approach to analysis. It is focused on how the constituent parts that make up the system are interrelated, work over time, and relate to the larger system context. Unlike traditional analysis that breaks the system down into separate elements, systems thinking considers the whole system as a whole with a focus on evaluating and predicting how the system and its constituent parts would perform if different processes are balanced and reinforced. Balancing the processes seeks to maintain equilibrium while reinforcing the processes seeks to increase certain components. Systems thinking makes use of balancing and reinforcement to ensure that the system does not collapse (Skochelak et al., 2020).

Attention to feedback is an important aspect of systems thinking. In fact, applying a systems based approach helps to bridge the gap between the needs by ensuring that the available resources are balanced between the pressing needs as identified by the stakeholders. Attention to the relevant feedback is considered important since it ensures that other solutions are evaluated rather than wasting resources on a solution demonstrated to be less effective or counterproductive (Skochelak et al., 2020).

System based approach has grown in popularity as it takes a systematic perspective in figuring out how different solutions work, and how resources can be more proactively applied within them. In adopting the approach, it is possible to anticipate what will happen so that the outcome is shaped as desired and system controlled. Ultimately, the approach focuses on understanding the behavior of key processes within the system thereby improving the capacity for managing the processes and systems. It avoids wasting resources such as money, time and personnel by perceiving the organization as a set of dynamic and interrelated parts, with each of the parts being a subsystem within the organization (Stroh, 2015).

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The approach integrates holistic thinking into problem solving by dealing with wholes rather than parts. The main idea is that looking at the parts could result in other important elements being overlooked, and these could be crucial for the issue being addressed. The interplay of all the parts is considered as a major factor in the occurrence and presentation of the issue as it does. So the basic idea of holistic approach as presented by system thinking is that that is a need to think about whole rather than just parts. Although holistic approach as applied in systems thinking helps to ensure that the issue is comprehensively understood and addressed, the notion of holistic is relative as it has no end, thereby creating an issue in identifying what the whole would imply for the system. For instance, a patient is part of a family that forms part of a neighborhood that forms part of a community that forms part of city that forms part of a region that forms part of a state. At every step, there is a whole that forms part of the next whole. There is no end when considering parts and wholes in holistic approach (Helming, Shields & Avino, 2020).

Still, wholes can be best achieved by considering points of view or perspectives of the stakeholders involved. For instance, the patient can notice how quickly the medication works, the nurse will see how the patients react to the drug, and so on. The more points of view that are collected will help in generating a whole that is better suited for the situation. Through this approach, systems thinking is able to tool at the complicated pattern of multiple parts that make up a whole. This would ultimately help in ensuring that even as public health services are provided, they are balanced with personal holistic approach to transform communities (Helming, Shields & Avino, 2020).

References

Helming, M., Shields, D., & Avino, K. (2020). Dossey & Keegan’s Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice (8^th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.

Skochelak, S. E., Hammond, M. M., Lomis, K. D., Borkan, J. M., Gonzalo, J. D., Lawson, L. E., & Starr, S. R. (2020). Health Systems Science (2^nd ed.). Elsevier, Inc.

Stroh, D. P. (2015). Systems Thinking For Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results. Chelsea Green Publishing.          Systems Thinking with Small Changes Essay Discussion Paper