Open AccessA learning approach to community response during the COVID ‐19 pandemic: Applying the Cynefin framework to guide decision‐making
Author(s) -
Holly Margaret,
Bartels Sophia,
Lewis Ni,
Howard Paul,
Ramaswamy Rohit
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
learning health systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2379-6146
DOI - 10.1002/lrh2.10295
Subject(s) - pandemic , context (archaeology) , resilience (materials science) , computer science , domain (mathematical analysis) , process (computing) , action (physics) , covid-19 , psychological resilience , community resilience , management science , public relations , data science , risk analysis (engineering) , political science , business , infectious disease (medical specialty) , medicine , economics , geography , psychology , disease , social psychology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , archaeology , pathology , operating system , quantum mechanics , physics , redundancy (engineering) , thermodynamics
The United States has been unsuccessful in containing the rapid spread of COVID‐19. The complex epidemiology of the disease and the fragmented response to it has resulted in thousands of ways in which spread has occurred, creating a situation where each community needs to create its own local, context‐specific learning model while remaining compliant to county or state mandates. Methods In this paper, we demonstrate how cross sector collaborations can use the Cynefin Framework, a tool for decision‐making in complex systems, to guide community response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Results We explore circumstances under which communities can inhabit each of the four domains of systems complexity represented in the Cynefin framework: simple, complicated, chaotic, and complex, and describe the decision‐making process in each domain that balances health, economic, and social well‐being. Conclusion This paper serves as a call to action for the creation of community learning systems to improve community resilience and capacity to make better‐informed decisions to address complex public health problems during the pandemic and beyond.