Open AccessThe emperor's quality clothes: for goodness' sake, let's take the strain off the word quality!
Author(s) -
Mooney Gavin
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-842x.2000.tb00735.x
Subject(s) - quality (philosophy) , clarity , word (group theory) , clothing , emperor , goodness of fit , psychology , linguistics , history , statistics , mathematics , philosophy , law , epistemology , political science , biology , ancient history , biochemistry
Quality is a much used word in health care. It clearly has positive connotations. Yet there is less than clarity in the literature as to what it means. This article suggests that quality has to have something to do with ‘goodness’ and indeed ‘betterment’. It then argues that it follows that quality cannot be defined before we have sorted out ‘good’ and ‘better’. The author appeals for these terms to be defined.