Person Centred Care Essay

On a female only respiratory ward in the West Midlands a patient was admitted to the ward with chest pain and shortness of breath. Her name was withheld in order to conform with patient confidentiality (Dimond, 2002). Due to being registered deaf, the patient had difficulty com municating verbally. She had a form of Aphasia resulting in stuttering. A friend of the family asked if the nurses could note down the procedures for the patient. The friend proceeded to use British Sign Language (BSL) to pass on information when trying to converse with the patient. The BSL use several movements which include hand gestures, lip patterns, fingerspelling and facial expression (National Health Services choices, 2013). The tissue viability (TV) nurses advised daily leg dressings for ulcerated legs and her personal care and medication were organised. She was kept informed by written notes. All NHS Policies, Procedures and The Code of Conduct within the Trust were followed as protocol. The patient began to refuse any care. It is the right of a mentally competent person to refuse treatment (Dimond, 2005, p142). Read more:  Essay About Person Centred Care After several attempts to change nurses, the patient still refused. This was done to see if she was more comfortable with one particular nurse. The patient was unable to sleep through the night. The nursing team followed person centred care. The nurses began trying to reason with her to give her consent for treatment. At this time the patient could have been lying in her own urine and faeces. If her leg was not attended to, further complications could occur. Her leg could become gangrenous and need operating on. All healthcare professionals want to adhere to safeguarding the patient. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) (2014) states â€Å"safeguarding means protecting people’s health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. It is fundamental to creating high-quality health and social care†. The nurses wanted to respect and think of the dignity of the patient. Eventually the patient allowed her observations, blood sugar levels and a urine analyses to be done. A urine sample is dipped using a â€Å"multiple combination strips – e.g., five tests on each strip (detects blood, ketones, glucose, pH and protein), or seven tests on each strip (tests for blood, ketones, glucose, pH, bilirubin, urobilinogen and protein)† (Henderson, 2004). The sample was sent to microbiology to be investigated into more for underling infection that could be causing her behaviour. At all times information was provided for the patient to make her own decisions and to use all communication sources in place. Manley et al (RCN) (2011) â€Å"Healthcare teams, healthcare provider organisations and governments often articulate an intention to deliver person-centred care. However, achieving it is often challenging and difficult to sustain†. HHHh This section aims to highlight Holistic and Person-Centred care with reference to the scenario. The paper will look at professional issues in nursing practice, and it is linked with ethical issues. It will then address the importance of effective communication skills. It is including the trust’s policies and procedures, The Royal Marsden hand book, Nursing Midwifery Council, The Royal College Nursing and Department of Health. To be able to plan appropriate nursing care the whole of the patient needs to be assessed, physically, medically and psychologically. This is Holistic assessment. All aspects of the patient’s lifestyle, age, gender and how they are feeling needs to be obtained. Whilst the nurse is doing the assessment they must use all of their senses. Therapeutic communication, hearing, visual and touching should be used (Smith, 2012, pp.5-7). The Health Foundation (2014) states that ‘Person-Centred Care show an important way to make the patient feel involved in their own care’. If the patient has control over their own body and mind, then they will have an understanding of what is happening to them. Person-centred care is in place for the patients, staff and families all to get involved in the planning, care and discharge. It involves compassion which is important in a nurse’s role as the patient enters unfamiliar territory. All staff needs to consider the patients respect and dignity is upheld, with closing curtains, covering up the patient and asking for consent to enter the patient’s bed space. Person-Centred Care was followed in the scenario. The Doctor and the nurses asked for the family to come in to discuss the care of the patient. The nurses communicated with a friend of the family because the patient’s partner also had a hearing impediment. Then they communicated with the patient and told her it was in her best interest if she allowed the staff to care for her. The leg began to weep through the dressing. It was over due to be changed. She still refused help. The student nurse who was helping the patient seemed to have a positive impact on her. Price (2006, p.50) states that the person centred care approach needs different frameworks to accommodate different patients. Making sure to look at the patient as an individual. This is what the student nurse did. The patient believed she had previously met with the student nurse. The patient refused to co-operate with other nurses. The patient was very co-operative with the student nurse. The student nurse began basic sign language in order to communicate. Then the patient responded, and allowed other staff to look after her. Eventually the patient co-operated, the test results were all fine, and Doctors were not concerned. Professional issues in nursing practice are linked with ethical issues. In the dictionary the definition of â€Å"professional† states â€Å"Worthy of or appropriate to a professional person; competent, skilful, or assured† (Oxford 2014). A nurse needs to be professional in their everyday role in work and in their personal life. The Code of Professional Conduct informs a patient what standard should be expected from a registered practitioner. (Burnard. and Chapman, 2004, p1). A competent and caring nurse. The student nurse noticed the patient was struggling to communicate and had difficulty with other nurses. The student nurse thought she would be professional and use her signing skills to help with communicating. According to Tschudin (1986) in (Burnard. and Chapman, 2004, p6). Claims that â€Å"ethics is caring† and that â€Å"to act ethically is to care†¦to care for ourselves and others†. The healthcare profession can not bring in their own ethics into the hospital; they may have certain religious or moral ideas. On the other hand the patient’s family may have ethical issues. The ethical issues of her understanding what was happening was taken into account by all communication sources in place for her to be in control of her own body and to give her consent. Medical staff needs to use effective communication with family or friends. They need to be their advocate, to help them to communicate. Active listening is a skill which is also needed to communicate. Look at body language and what the patient is saying. The speed one speaks has to be thought about and the tone. If as much information is given to nurses and doctors as possible then it all helps in the care process. Therefore, communicating with the patient’s friend helped the medical team to understand the health of patient before admittance. Family are encouraged to stay with the patients, to keep them company and bring in their own belongings to reduce the anxiety of being in strange surroundings. â€Å"Good communication helps to build a therapeutic relationship†(Collins, 2009).A nurse is often the one to explain to the patient what a doctor has just said, in a more simple way, to listen to any problems. All the policy and procedures that are in place at the hospital were followed. One particular policy that was followed is from the hospital hand book of leg ulcer management (2013). This ensures that her leg had been graded, reported and recorded. There had been photographs taken of the leg. Then the leg dressed with all the correct dressings for the grade and type of wound. The Tissue Viability nurses had been to check the wound then advised the nurses what was required to put on the area for healing. The patient was treated as seemed fit by her condition, making sure the antiseptic technique was used. It is necessary to use knowledge to provide a person and family centred care in The Royal Marsden Hospital Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures it states that â€Å"Poor communication with patients can negatively affect decision making and quality of life† (Dougherty, L and Lister, S (Eds) 2011; Fallowfield et al 2001; Thorne et al 2005,p198). It is not always possible to communicate face to face or to be seen or heard. Perhaps a gentle hand on the shoulder would help. In the case of a deaf person to make sure to stand in a good light so lips can be read. After all a patient has been taken out of their own surroundings and put onto a ward, in a strange bed with strange people around them. A nurse needs to find ways to help the patient to know what is being done without being frightened. The Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) is a governing body. The NMC, (2012) states that they have a â€Å"vision, mission and values†. Its vision is to make sure nurses and midwives always give their best healthcare to safe guard the public. Their mission is to maintain a register of nurses and midwives making sure they are fit to practice. The education of nurses fits the correct standard. If these are not adhered to then they are dealt with. The values are for those who need services of nurses and midwifes, they act in the best interest and are open and transparent in their actions and take responsibility. They show consideration and understanding and act with integrity. Also work to high standards and are experts in what they do. Modern health is used and works in partnership with others and provides equality (NMC, 2012, p.3). The hospital guidelines are â€Å"Vision, Values and Strategic Goals†. â€Å"They place their patients at the centre of all they do†, â€Å"work together to deliver top quality services† and â€Å"try to be innovative how they work and create an environment for people to thrive in†(The Royal Wolverhampton, 2014). The student nurse tried to deliver quality service by trying to use her skill in the small amount of sign language she knew. The Royal College Nursing (2012) state that the â€Å"people in your care must be treated as individuals and their dignity must be respected†. The medical team have to reach a certain level and to behave in a certain way. After the entire patient’s life is in their hands. The professional issue of the case is the delivery of care given to the patient was followed to the care plan in place everything was taken into consideration. The Department of Health states that â€Å"People who use health and care services have the right to be treated with respect, dignity and compassion by staff who have the skills and time to care for them† (DOH, 2013). The patient was treated with a high standard of care and alternatives to help with her communication needs were implemented. At a later stage the patient would be discharged from the hospital and transferred under the guide of Community Care Matron. The patient would need to be assessed in order to identify the specific care required. Conclution From a nursing persective it was evident that a good quality of Person- Centred- Care was implemented. It was taken into account that there were more complicated matters than the patient’s ulcerated leg. The staff worked well as a team, this showed in the way the nurses tried to alternate their care. Everyone worked with the professionalism that beholds a nurse,competent,skilful and assured. They worked effectively with the communication needs that were in their power to do so. Note taking and using the family and friend for help when signing.The communication problem caused by the patient’s deafness could have been made easer if all staff were trained in BSL. This training must be put in place to allow patient and staff to have better communication. References Burnard,P. and Chapman, C. (2004) Professional and ethical issues in nursing. 3rd ed. Oxford: Bailliete Tindall. Care Quality Commission (CQC)(2014) Safeguarding people. [online]. Newcastle upon Tyne: CQC. [Accessed 14 April 2014]. Available at: . Collins, S., (2009) Building relationships is central to nursing work. Nursing Times.net. [online] 19 June, p.1 [Accessed 17 March 2014]. Available at: . Department of Health (DOH)(2013) Treating paitents and service users with respect, dignity and compassion. [online].DOH. [Accessed 12 March 2014].Available at: . Dimond, B. (2002) Legal aspects of patient confidentiality. London: Allen Publishing. Dimond, B. (2005) Legal aspects of nursing. 4th ed. London: Pearson Longman. Dougherty, L. (2011). The royal marsden hospital manual of clinical nursing procedures student edition. 8th ed. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Health Foundation (2014) Person-centred care: what is person-centred care? [online]. London: [Accessed 27 March 2014]. Available at: . Henderson, R. (2014) Urine dipstick analysis. [online]. Leeds: [Accessed 14 April 2014]. Available at: . Manley,K. Hills, V. and Marriot, S.(2011) Person-centred care:principle of nursing practice ‘D’. 25 (31), pp.35-37.[Accessed 11 April 2014].Nursing Standard [online].Available at: . National Health service (NHS choices)(2013) Commuication sign language.Redditch:NHS [Accessed 11 April 2014]. Available at: . Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC)(2012) Guidance on professional conduct session theme for taught. [Online]. London: NMC.[Accessed 24 March 2014].Available at: . Oxford Dictionaries (2014) Language matters. Oxford University Press [online]. [Accessed 8 April 2014]. Available at: .‎ Price, B. (2006) Exploring personal-centred care. 20(50),pp.49-56.[Accessed 16 April 2014].Nursing Standard [online].Available at: . Royal College Nursing (RCN)(2012) Human rights and nursing. [online] London: RCN. [Accessed 12 March 2014]. Available at: . Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. (2013) Leg Ulcer Management. Version 1. Wolverhampton: Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (2014) Trust’s Vision and Values. [online].Wolverhampton: [Accessed 4 April 2014]. Available at: . Smith, P. (2012) Holistic Assessment Holistic. Assessment skills in nursing [online]. [Accessed 27 March 2014]. Available at .

The Invalid’s Story Notes

The Invalid's Story by Mark Twain a. k. a. Samuel Clemens (1835-1910) * Seems sixty and married * Really a 41 year old bachelor * two years ago he was â€Å"a man of iron, a very athlete† * Lost his health by helping take care of a box of guns on a two-hundred-mile journey by railway one night in winter * belongs in Cleveland, Ohio reached home after dark, in a snow-storm, and heard that his dearest boyhood friend and schoolmate, John B. Hackett, had died the day before * last utterance was a desire that I would take his body to his father and mother in Wisconsin * card marked â€Å"Deacon Levi Hackett, Bethlehem, Wisconsin† * long white-pine box fastened the card to it with tacks then put it aboard the express car then ran to the eating-room for a sandwich and some cigars * He came back and there was â€Å"a young fellow examining around it, with a card in his hands, and some tacks and a hammer† * a mistake was made and it turns out he was carrying off a box of guns which that young fellow had come to ship to a rifle company in Peoria, Illinois, and the young man had got John B. Hackett’s dead body * sat on a bale of buckets expressman – plain man of fifty, with a simple, honest, good-natured face, and a breezy, practical heartiness in his general style * package of peculiarly mature and capable Limburger cheese on one end of my coffin-box (box of guns) * at the time he had never heard of the cheese in my life and thus was ignorant of its character * â€Å"slammed his sliding doors to, and bolted them, closed his window down tight, and then went bustling around, here and there and yonder, setting things to rights, and all the time contentedly humming â€Å"Sweet By and By,† in a low tone, and flatting a good deal† * began to detect an odor on the frozen air every minute the odor thickened more and became more gamey and hard to stand * the expressman got some wood and made fire in his stove. * Thompson (the expre ssman) * felt himself growing pale and qualmish but said nothing. * â€Å"Pfew! I reckon it ain't no cinnamon ‘t I've loaded up thish-yer stove with! † * â€Å"Sometimes it's uncertain whether they're really gone or not,–seem gone, you know–body warm, joints limber–and so, although you think they're gone, you don't really know. I've had cases in my car. It's perfectly awful, becuz you don't know what minute they'll rise up and look at you! Then, after a pause, and slightly lifting his elbow toward the box, — â€Å"But he ain't in no trance! No, sir, I go bail for him! † * â€Å"Well-a-well, we've all got to go, they ain't no getting around it. Man that is born of woman is of few days and far between, as Scriptur' says. Yes, you look at it any way you want to, it's awful solemn and cur'us: they ain't nobody can get around it; all's got to go–just everybody, as you may say. One day you're hearty and strong and next day he's cut down like the grass, and the places which knowed him then knows him no more forever, as Scriptur' says.Yes'ndeedy, it's awful solemn and cur'us; but we've all got to go, one time or another; they ain't no getting around it. † * Had been dead 2 or 3 days * â€Å"Two or three years, you mean. † * They were heliotrope to him * Narrator suggested cigars * Thompson referred to the corpse by various titles, military ones, civil ones and as the stench grew, Thompson would give him a bigger title * Thompson said they should move the corpse about ten feet away * â€Å"we took in a good fresh breath at the broken pane, calculating to hold it till we got through; then we went there and bent over that deadly cheese and took a grip on the box.Thompson nodded â€Å"All ready,† and then we threw ourselves forward with all our might; but Thompson slipped, and slumped down with his nose on the cheese, and his breath got loose. He gagged and gasped, and floundered up and made a b reak for the door, pawing the air and saying hoarsely, â€Å"Don't hender me! –gimme the road! I'm a-dying; gimme the road! † Out on the cold platform I sat down and held his head a while, and he revived. * we hadn't budged the dead body * Thompson got carboy of carbolic acid from a station he drenched everything with it, rifle-box, cheese and all * the two perfumes began to mix and they had to leave the car * waltzed back and forth, freezing, and thawing, and stifling by turns * about an hour and they stopped at another station and Thompson came in with a bag * â€Å"He had brought a lot of chicken feathers, and dried apples, and leaf tobacco, and rags, and old shoes, and sulphur, and asafoetida, and one thing or another; and he, piled them on a breadth of sheet iron in the middle of the floor, and set fire to them. * the original smell stood up out of it just as sublime as ever * other smells just gave it a better hold * Thompson got suffocated and fell and before t he Narrator dragged Thompson out by the collar the Narrator was near gone * â€Å"Typhoid fever is what's going to come of this. † taken from the platform an hour later at the next station * Narrator went into a virulent fever, and knew nothing again for three weeks * He found out that he had spent that awful night with a box of rifles and cheese * the news was too late to save him because â€Å"imagination had done its work, and his health was permanently shattered† * Bermuda or any other land could bring his health back * His last trip because he is on his way home to die.

Prospects for the Measurement and Management Essay

Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise that is carried out at an interval of about five years aimed at evaluating the quality of research that is undertaken by British higher education institutions. The exercise is undertaken basically on behalf of the four United Kingdom funding councils of the higher education. The research Excellence Framework came as a successor to the Research Assessment Exercise as a method of assessing the research of British higher education institutions. As a mew framework it is expected to produce a robust indication of research excellence for all disciplines following the failures of its predecessor. Both have faced much criticism from scholars who feel that the mode of operation of these assessment exercises is not standard and is marred with misleading information that has grave consequences to the value of higher education n the country. How they operate Research Assessment Exercise uses specialists in the particular fields of research to make submissions to the councils that are ranked by the review panel. The assessment process places much emphasis on the quality of research outputs which includes the papers published in academic journals as well as conference proceedings. The process of assessment also takes into consideration the environment on which the research was carried out as well as indicators of esteem. Each discipline of study that the research is based on has a panel that is well vast with that discipline that determines the rules that will be used as the general guidelines of the assessment exercise. The institutions are also invited to submit their research outputs that are published over a given period. The Research Assessment Exercise takes into consideration the research outputs made by full time members of staff in the research that have been selected for the inclusion. The Research Excellence Framework came as a successor to the Research Assessment Exercise that had highly been criticized by academics in the United Kingdom. It substituted Research Assessment Exercise as a method of assessing the research carried out by British higher education institutions. As a new assessment strategy it is aimed at producing an indication of research excellence in higher education institutions that is robust and can be used as a benchmark quality adjacent to international standards. It also aims to provide a basis that can be used in the distribution of funds to research institutions reducing the administrative burden on institutions. It aims to avoid creating an undesirable behavioral incentive and promote equality and diversity by providing a stable framework on which there will be continued support of a world-leading research foundation within higher education institutions. Both are considered important based on their operations in the society. This is based on the fact that they give insight to the funding councils on the way that they will fund the higher education institution based on the credibility of the research of each institution. They as well show the excellence of the different higher education institutions which helps the public in monitoring the progress of the education institutions in the country (Business Video News, 2010). Criticism The Research Assessment Exercise has highly been criticized on the basis of the fact that happens to ignore the publications made by many full time researchers in the United Kingdom. This has been attributed to the fact that most of these researchers whose publications are ignored are employed on basis of contracts that have a fixed term. The guidelines made by Research Assessment Exercise of the year 2008 attribute that most research assistants are not eligible to be attributed as research active staff (Andrew, 2008). It also excludes the publications made by researchers on fixed term contracts from the assessment exercise unless they can be credited to a staff member who is eligible for the assessment exercise. Criticism has also been raised on the expertise of the panel to evaluate the quality of the research outputs. This is on the basis of the fact that the performance of experts happens to be less when they work in fields that are outside their specific areas of specialization. The Research Assessment Exercise has also been criticized on the basis of the impact that it has on the institution of higher education. This is based on the outcomes of the assessment exercise that have led to the closure of departments that have strong research profiles as well as adequate student recruitment. This has led to massive loss of jobs, demoralization of staff as well as narrowing of the opportunities of research over concentrating funds leading to the undermining of the relationship between teaching and research. The assessment exercise has been criticized as an exercise that has the impact of destruction of the higher education system in the United Kingdom raising its opposition by academics. The criticism to both Research Assessment Exercise and Research Excellence Framework has highly been centered on the fact that the research that is made by the higher education institutions is usually rewarded on the basis of the economic impact that it has. This has been based on the idea that these research assessment exercises assess the research made by the institutions and rank them on the basis of the economic impacts that their research outcomes have on the economy of the country (Chanson, 2007). Based on the economic impact of their research, the institutions are then funded by the funding councils and this has raised much of the criticism. The basis of many academics opposing these assessment structures is the thought of the economic emphasis that is placed on their researches (Felipe, 2009). This has raised the high opposition of both assessment exercises by the academics on the basis that the exercises require them to place much emphasis on research that have an economic benefit. The argument of the academics is the fact the research assessment exercises focus their attention on one aspect of their research that is economic. The feel of the academics is that the assessment exercises are discriminatory on the basis that their attention is on the economic impact that the research has on the society rather than the significance of the research itself. This makes the academics have the idea that their field of research is compromised in the sense that they have to make research findings that have an economic benefit on the society. The indication that research proposals should indicate the economic impacts that the research has on the society has been viewed as a move that limits their scholarly freedom. This is on account of the fact that the indication of the economic impact of the research limits the field of the research. This is on account of the fact that it creates a bias situation in which the researchers are bound to give improper reports on their research. This is in regard to Research Excellence Framework which has it that it will allocate a quarter of United Kingdoms university research funding on the basis of the impact of the research (Andrew, 2009). This is viewed as to create a loophole in which higher education institution may carry out research with the aim of meeting the impact rather than the educational goal of the research. It is also viewed as a factor that has the potential of leading to mislead research reports that are geared at creating the economic impact targeted by the assessment exercises in order to get the funding. It is seen as a move that limits the freedom of education on the grounds that it seeks to appreciate education on the basis of its economic impact in the society (An open letter to Research Councils UK, 2009). This is on the basis that academic researchers are responsible for the impartial pursuit of knowledge a factor that is undermined by the recommendations made by Research Excellence Framework. This is seen as a limitation in the field of education on the grounds that it interferes with the policy making in the scientific field. This is viewed to have the impact of limiting success in the scientific field on the basis that the freedom of research has been tampered with. This has led to academics opposing the assessment exercises feeling that they limit their freedom of pursuit of knowledge. This is on the grounds that it limits their field of research on the basis that they have to direct their research in a way that they have an economic benefit in the society. The limit is on the basis of the fact that science is a global discipline that has held non-interference policies that have led to the discovery of many important aspects in the field that have had much significance in the human life. The recommendation by the assessment exercises are viewed as a devastating move in the sense that some of the research made must not have an economic benefit in the society but may have massive impact in the society. This creates a situation in which the researchers cannot make some of their research reports owing to the fact that they do not have an economic benefit in the society. The scientific research has also been known to make findings that are hard to predict on the basis that their impact depend on certain factors that may change over time. This creates an uphill task for the researches on the account that they have to calculate the economic impact of their research that is at times dependant of the way that the research is applied in the society. The economic impact that is taken into consideration is also hard to determine as well as measure. This is based on the fact that there has not yet been an invention made that can be used in the determination as well as measurement of the economic impact that something has in the society (Jessica, 2009). This creates a situation in which what is considered as the economic impact is an assumption that is bound to change depending on factors that surround the operation of the research. The measurement of the economic impact that the findings have in the society is the main point of argument based on the fact that it is hard for this impact to be accurately measured. This raises a question of the criteria in which the assessment exercises use in the calculation of the economic impact that the reports from the research have in the society. The basis of argument is the fact that a clear calculation cannot be easily made raising concerns over the criteria that is used by the panel in the determination of this. This creates a situation in which the assessment panel is viewed as biased on account of the fact the economic impacts made are assumption thus the firm seen as to favor the research of the academics that they have interest in. The fact that academics are opposed to the assessment exercises does not necessarily mean that they are no longer to be managed. This is due to the fact that lack of their management can lead to the misuse of the funds allocated to them as well as carrying out of unwanted research that has less significance. This calls for the need of their management as a move that is aimed at their regulation as well as monitoring their activities. However, the management ought to be in a systematic way that does not limit their freedom of pursuit of knowledge. This is based on the fact that poor management strategies can be applied leading to the destruction of the learning process that is accompanied with the academics. The management ought to be directed on the distribution of the funds as well as monitoring the usage of the funds. This is aimed at avoiding embezzlement of the funds as well as the use of the funds in projects that are of less significance to the goal of academics. The management ought to give freedom for research based on the fact that academics are aimed at acquiring knowledge and this can only be achieved with the freedom to carry out research on any field. This is despite the impact that their findings have in the society and this should not be used as the basis of their funding. Some of the research is significant to the life of human beings but may not have economic significance which can not be used as the basis of funding academic research. Academic research is really a matter of serendipity on the basis that serendipitous discoveries play a significant role in the advancement of science. This is based in the fact that they offer a foundation on which important intellectual leaps of understanding are made. This is based on the fact that accidental discoveries reveal information that when contemplated can be developed into an important scientific discovery (Science Daily, 2009). Conclusion The assessment plan is an important idea that helps the public in the monitoring of the way the higher education institutions utilize the funds allocated to them by the funding councils. It also plays an important role in helping the public monitor the activities of the higher education institution so as to tell their progress in the pursuit of knowledge. However the criterion that has been used by the assessment exercises RAE and REF have been discriminatory and not beneficial to the academics leading to the destruction of the research activities of these higher education institutions. This is based on the fact that they lay much emphasis on certain aspects of the research such as their economic impacts which offers misleading information to the funding councils. This has raised the criticism that the exercises have faced from the academics. The measurement of the economic impacts of the research has also raised concern questioning the criteria used by the panel to determine the economic impact. This is based on the fact that there is no known criterion that can be used in the determination of this aspect of research findings that is used in the assessment exercise. Bibliography Andrew M. (2008). The researchers the RAE forgot. Viewed August 1, 2010 from Andrew O. (2009). REF should stay out of the game. Viewed August 1, 2010 from An open letter to Research Councils UK. (2009). Only scholarly freedom delivers real ‘impact’ 1. Viewed August 1, 2010 from Business Video News. (2010). David Willetts announces review of the impact requirement in the Research Excellence Framework. Viewed August 1, 2010 from Chanson, H. (2007). â€Å"Research Quality, Publications and Impact in Civil Engineering into the 21st Century. Publish or Perish, Commercial versus Open Access, Internet versus Libraries? † Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, NRC, Vol. 34, No. 8, pp. 946-951 Felipe F. (2009). Poisonous impact. Viewed August 1, 2010 from Jessica S. (2009). Humanities research threatened by demands for ‘economic impact’. Viewed August 1, 2010 from Science Daily (2009). Accidental Discovery Produces Durable New Blue Pigment for Multiple Applications. Viewed August 1, 2010 from < http://www. sciencedaily. com/releases/2009/11/091116143621. htm>

PEDE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PEDE - Essay Example Ethical decision making is the very cornerstone of the Professional Mission Statement and may very well be the guiding principles of the entire document. As you progress through the OLS program of study, you will increase your knowledge, crystallize your beliefs and expand your skills. Therefore, you will keep modifying and perfecting your mission statement during the next few months and years. A mission statement should enable you to attain unsurpassed excellence, inspire you to lifelong honesty and ethical behavior, and serve as your continuous guidepost during difficult personal and professional times. Many leaders put their mission statement on their business cards, display it in their offices and/or keep a copy in their homes. The first step in writing your mission statement is to do some reflecting, soul searching, and imagining. This is often called harnessing the potential of your creative imagination and mobilizing allied forces of concentration. The sequence is: The first step in the process of developing a Personal Mission Statement is to outline your various roles in life and describe how you desire to be in each of those roles. You have roles in maintaining total well-being, in your family, at work, with friends, in the faith community, in lifelong learning, and in your community. It is important to maintain â€Å"life balance† in these areas. How you define each of your roles is up to you. The life roles are in the left hand column and the question about how you would like to be described in each role is in the right hand column. Please complete this worksheet: After defining your roles in the seven areas, it is time to expand on your personal and professional role. The answers to the following questions may serve as the basis for the development of your mission statement: I want to become supportive and at the same time a participative kind of

Case study on vodafone Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

On vodafone - Case Study Example This constitutes what is known as diversification, a strategy for business growth through starting up or acquiring businesses outside the firm’s current products or markets (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). This strategy has significantly paid off for Vodafone. It has managed to gain competitive advantage and has also managed to expand in different global markets. There are many advantages that can be derived by the company through diversification. It is in a better position to attract many customers and it can also customize the products and services offered to suit the different needs of the customers. In the event that I am the CEO of Vodafone, I think I would need to focus on differentiation in order to create supreme customer value in the products and services it offers. Differentiated products are unique and they are often seen as valuable by the customers. The other advantage of differentiation is that the products offered are outstanding and they can be hardly imitated by the other competitors. This strategy has been adopted by other successful companies in the telecommunications industry such as Apple. This company has gained a large market share through its innovative and differentiated products such as the iPod and its iPhone. These products are unique and they have superior value which appeals to the interests of the targeted customers. The company can also be in a position to charge premium prices for the products that are differentiated. This can also help the company to gain competitive advantage over the other players in the same industry. 4. The potential threat facing Vodafone is related to the aspect of competition. It has been observed that the deregulation of the mobile telecommunications industry has enabled the other players to enter into the market. This has seen a significant rise in the number of players intending to operate in

English Coursework - Questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

English - Questions - Coursework Example (Point #8) What’s the difference between class drilling and individual drilling? Are some language items more suitable for drilling than others? Which students might respond well to drilling and which might not? (Point #10) Would all kinds of writing practice be suitable for all kinds of students? How would the writing the writing you give to business people differs from the writing you give to school students? Is there any point in giving EAP students story-writing practice? Not all writing need to be done long – what kinds of writing would you give to people wanting to learn English for a holiday trip to England? ( Point#11) Which of the vocabulary methods do you think more useful? Why? What other strategies for teaching vocabulary are you aware? Describe each of the five points chosen. (Point 6) Listening to the radio to get the weather; listening to a television program that offers Bible study, and attending a seminar listening to information on job related material is a hearing/listening activity I do daily. Checking my emails for both academic and social communication; reading a magazine in the doctor’s office that provided information on the latest break through in treating different medical conditions; reviewing a study Power Point to work on an academic paper, are different examples of reading and listening for information I may accomplish on any given day.I think it is pretty amazing how much information we receive everyday and equally amazing how many sources it comes from. I think this Point to Consider just wants you to ‘notice’ how many different mediums of information we are exposed to everyday and understand how daunting it must be for someone learning another language to take it all in and make sense of it. (Point7 )Preparing questions for review for students having read a novel versus those prepared for students having read a short story takes into account a broader perspective. With a novel, the questions mig ht include what is the theme; what is the tone; what is the setting. Using deduction and inference applies to students reading a novel and answering questions about the reading. When students are provided questions ahead of a short reading of entertainment sections of a paper such as who, what, where, when, and why then they have an opportunity to use scanning the way native speakers use it to get specific information from smaller pieces of text. I agree. Here are some other types of questions to consider. Some of these are more applicable to one particular genre than the other. Analylitical: Tear the text apart piece by piece. Evaluating: Expressing judgment Inference: Being able to read between the lines, to understand something without having it written out. Synthesizing: Pulling the text together. Valuing: Making a choice, preferring one over the other. View Point: Who is telling the story? How would the story be different if it were told by X instead of Y? (Point 8)Both beginni ng and advanced students benefit from drilling when kept to two minute exercises that challenge answers by asking questions as part of the drill. Using drilling individually focuses on the student for answers while class drilling can involve everyone answering a question. Either way, the use of drilling is only effective when it involves having students respond to a specific inquiry rather than repeating what is said. Repeating what an instructor says is useful for beginning work one on one with a student or in having individuals repeat the

Has post war policy made education in England more meritocratic Essay

Has post war policy made education in England more meritocratic - Essay Example These social policies are important because they both aim to achieve meritocracy and they are interrelated. The BNA 1948, in the course of its implementation, exposed the limitations of EA 1944 in its purpose to making English education more meritocratic. Furthermore, the impact of the BNA 1948 to the effectiveness of the EA 1944 and the need of the latter to address the need of the former illustrates the central role education had played in Britain’s post-war reconstruction (Tomlinson 2001). Understanding Meritocracy Meritocracy can be simply understood as promotion and inclusion based on merit – e.g., A meritocratic education system accepts, promotes, and rewards students based on ability, not on social status, ethnicity or gender (Llewellyn et al. 2008). However Sen (2000, p. 14) explains that it is actually the concept of ‘merit’, itself, which complicates the definition of meritocracy because â€Å"the rewarding†¦ and the very concept of merit it self depend on the way we see a good society and the criteria we†¦ assess the success and failures of societies.† It was after WWII that Britain started to walk the road of meritocracy. After Britain lost its world supremacy, it had no other recourse to survive international competition but to make better use of its human resources which for the past century were left wasted due to class discrimination. To do so, Young (1961) explains, Britain had to give up its century-old feudal principle of selection by family, and use instead the principle of selection by merit. Thus, Britain progressively opened its schools and industries to clever children and workers, giving equal opportunities for social mobility to those who have the ability and will to do so. Since meritocracy presupposes that boundless opportunities for success exist for all regardless of class, colour, ethnicity, and gender, many perceive meritocracy an ideal justice principle (Yuan 2013). On the contrary Youn g (1961, p.14) concludes that â€Å"the rate of social progress depends upon the degree to which power is matched with intelligence.† It is no different from the social class-based hierarchy of power, wherein power and wealth is distributed only to the few to the detriment of a wider group of ordinary people. The only difference is in meritocracy what matters is ability or intelligence. Eventually, elites of talents would be created, further justifying the socio-economic ladder more convincingly. Nonetheless, Allen (2011, p. 371) still asserts that meritocratic system is just on the basis that â€Å"social status was a direct expression of their intellectual worth. The system was now â€Å"just† because it was justly unequal.† Policy Review 1: British Nationality Act 1948 Introduction. Post-war migration to Britain, to Hansen’s (2000) analysis, is actually an issue of British citizenship, which the BNA 1948 legally conferred on Britons and ‘colonial ’ British subjects, giving them equal rights to enter Britain and enjoy all the socio-economic-political benefits any Briton could legally enjoy. Although prior and subsequent to this Act were the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 and BNA 1964, the BNA 1948, Hansen (2000) notes, was most influential because it had dramatically reoriented the British migration policy,

Ifnormation security and assurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ifnormation security and assurance - Essay Example The up to date tools and technologies provided by the information technology helped businesses to computerize and organize their business operations and consequently improve their business performance. Despite the fact that, the ideas of remote working, storage, processing and communication are not new, because in every decade we have seen a lot of developments and efforts carried out in these areas. However, at the moment we in reality see these ideas as a genuine implementation, in the form of cloud computing. Actually, the cloud services are offered by a third party. So the secret data and information of an organization are stored on the servers of that third party. In this scenario, organizations believe that there emerge a number of security issues for business organizations due to cloud computing environment. This paper discusses some of the important security issues in cloud computing. Index Terms—Cloud Computing, IaaS, SaaS, Cloud I. Introduction This paper presents a detailed analysis of cloud computing related security issues. In the past few years, the cloud computing has emerged an attractive platform which provides on-demand, reliable and expandable (as these services can be reduced or expanded depending on the organization’s needs) computing power to organizations. ... With the adoption of cloud computing the business organizations are able to get a large number of advantages such as utility computing, Virtualization, scalability, the ability to outsource data and processes, pay-per-use services and access to almost infinite computing resources (Aleem & Sprott, 2013; Dahbur et al., 2011; Hudic et al., 2013). In addition, this wide variety of affordable and consistent services have caught the attention of a large number of business organizations, which have decided to shift their business data, application or major operations of it into the cloud. In fact, the recent studies and researches conducted to determine the impact of cloud computing on business organizations show a beyond belief expansion; on behalf of more than 16% of the world software sales with a market of more than $46 billion. In fact, for the majority of business organizations cloud computing is believed to be an affordable, helpful and an appropriate choice for the reason that the a doption of cloud computing allows them to diminish the total expenditure of technology ownership. Without a doubt, cloud computing model provides a wide variety of tools and techniques to improve business productivity, however, there are certain security issues connected with the use of cloud computing. In order to take benefit of cloud computing a business organization must effectively deal with these issues (Aleem & Sprott, 2013; Dahbur et al., 2011; Hudic et al., 2013). II. Security Issues Cloud computing is an attractive information technology (IT) trend which ensures the implementation of the utility computing model broadly using Virtualization technologies. Keeping in mind the numerous advantages of cloud computing, an increasing number of business

Managing Financial Principles and Techniques Essay

Managing Financial Principles and Techniques - Essay Example For this project the company has hired an international firm of management consultants who has forecasted the cost of production, selling price and profit per unit for mobile. They have also forecasted the demand for the new mobile in 5 year period down the line. The forecast made by them is as follows- Net Present value (NPV) is very common financial tool often used by the management to find out whether a new project will be beneficial in the future or not. NPV is the â€Å"difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows† (Investopedia. 2009). The major advantage of this tool is that it takes time value of money into account, thus the result arrived at are more accurate as compared to simple pay back value. But many people find if a bit complicated (Stoltz, A. & Viljoen, M. 2007). The company assumes that per unit fixed cost and interest per unit, both varies with the level of production. But other general costs like advertising expenditure and maintenance remain constant, irrespective to the level of production. As per the result derived from the analysis it is found that the NPV of the project is negative, hence the project should not be accepted. The company has an option that instead of setting the new production line, they can use the existing machine which is under utilized. As per the company’s policy the machinery has to be depreciated along straight line method, so next year the written down value will become zero. Thus in the second year company has to purchase a new machine which will cost  £500,000. Thus the NPV and the IRR of the project will be as follows- The NPV of the project comes positive which indicates that the project will have sufficient cash inflow and it will be profitable in the long term. Hence on the basis of NPV the project can be accepted. The IRR of the project is 35%; which is above the cost of capital (10%). So this clearly indicates that the project should be

Local Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Local Policy - Essay Example (Ulin,2002) They believe that a diverse group of people fosters an environment conducive to creativity, productivity and high performance that affords each individual the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Proper facilitation and administration provides leverage to the diversity of America as a competitive advantage in the global aspect that they face and to make America a better place to live and prosper for immigrants such as the Irish. Diversity in the workforce has contributed to the emergence of awareness and acceptance of employees from different races, ages and gender. Women are now more involved in different sectors and has made notable contributions as well. The traditional notion that women should be limited to the four corners of the house with the ultimate position as a housewife is now long gone. Single or married women, with or without kids, are continuously striving to flourish their own career profiles for their self-fulfillment and also to help in the financial capacity of the household. Gender discrimination can still be an issue but not as progressive as it previously was. However, working women are still subject to stereotypes and biases for some of them may be possible victims of prejudice and bias. Most companies have the tendency to hire and retain working women w... Most companies have the tendency to hire and retain working women who are still single and without any kids. Ideally, they believe that these single women have fewer responsibilities to fulfill for they are free from the familial problems that arise from arguments with husbands or kids getting sick. This can be an issue for this notion is somewhat subjective and does not really apply to all for there are still working mothers and wives who are able to do their jobs very well. Being a mother is already a huge responsibility and being a wife in another tedious task. However having multiple roles to perform outside the workplace may hinder or permit these working women to perform and stay at par with the single women in the workforce. The City of Los Angeles shall work toward implementing the principles of CEDAW to ensure the protection of human rights, including the elimination of discrimination against women and girls. (Willard, 1991) The impact on the criminal justice system is that in undertaking the enforcement of this Ordinance, the City of Los Angeles is assuming an undertaking only to promote the general welfare. It is not assuming, nor is it imposing on its officers and employees, an obligation, the breach of which creates any liability in money damages to any person who claims that the breach proximately caused injury. This ordinance does not create any private cause of action. (Ordinance 175735). The Commission on the Status of Women developed guidelines regarding gender analysis. Each department reports annually to the Commission on the Status of Women, in accordance with the established guidelines, on how it is implementing the provisions of CEDAW and

Motivations for Expatriation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Motivations for Expatriation - Essay Example Thus, international strategy is the direction that companies seek to pursue, and these strategies must be geared primarily towards the achievement of the business goals. Sending home-country managers abroad or internationalization of people is one of these strategies adopted by organizations working at the international level. This strategy known as expatriation is not a new phenomenon but has only recently taken the corporate world by storm making expatriate managers the norm. Expatriate managers play an important role in managing the parent firm's foreign subsidiaries. Expatriate managers are crucial to the process of globalization as they are the parent company's or headquarters' reliable representative posted overseas to effectively implement corporate strategies. As they gain in experience, country-specific knowledge, inter-cultural skills and global perspective, they become valuable assets for the parent company becoming seasoned players on the global stage. The converse of this where by international managers from their overseas assignments are transferred to the home- market is known as inpatriation. Selmer (1995) maintains that expatriation and inpatriation are the leading strategies where personnel are appointed at international postings. Line managers and technical personnel are the most common positions as subjects of expatriation and inpatriation (p. 3). While both expatriates and inpatriates are seemingly at opposite ends of the spectrum, they have some important common requirements: inter-culture skills, country-specific or local knowledge and so on. Of the two internationalizing strategies, expatriation is the older one and the prime focus of this research. Shell is one of the companies that foster a high level of expatriation (Cameron, 2002). Shell is proud of its long history of expatriate employment as well as the considerable number of its expatriate staff. Shell understandably, sees expatriate employment as fundamental to the nature of the company. Shell believes strongly that expatriate staff, at every one of its centers, contributes greatly to the growth and success of the company especially in combination with the skills and expertise of the local staff. In 2004, the company launched the New Generation Expatriation program to facilitate and accommodate the changing needs of the business, needs of staff and their families including partners' careers. The program acknowledges the high value Shell places on its expatriate staff and their families and tries to meet diverse requirements as far as possible. Having an impressive number on the expatriate rolls, Shell is in a position to move critical skills to places where they are required and develop careers which will supply Shell with globally competent leaders (Hofmeister, 2004). 2.0 Rationale It is imperative for organizations to identify and train their expatriate staff and leaders in preparation for global deployment. Especially since the ability of expatriate managers to succeed on foreign shores has a direct impact on the company's performance in the global market. While the expatriation strategy has significant advantages and the expatriate manager is a 'seasoned player' there

According to Paul Cezanne Essay Example for Free

According to Paul Cezanne Essay Paul Cezanne’s paintings are regarded today as being of considerable importance to the development of modern art. Cezannes use of colour as tone and his heavy interest in the formal elements of composition paved the way for artists following on from him to question what they were perceiving and their ability to visually represent what they saw through painting. This essay will be examining the influence that Paul Cezanne had on Cubism and how this elevated the picture into an autonomous object rather than a mere representation of nature. The French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne, although heavily ignored by the mainstream art sphere centered within Paris, had a considerable impact on Cubism as he laid out the fundamental ideas from which the cubists would create their works. One of the main key points that was central to the cubists was faceting, this reduction of form within the external world and transforming them to geometrical facets, ‘Nature should be treated as cylinders, spheres and cones.’. See more: Examples of satire in adventures of huckfinn essay Cezanne’s manner of depicting reality with inaccuracy and multiple viewpoints divorced itself from the laws of perceptive construction and allowed him to interpret what he saw in a subjective way, he wasn’t interested in merely imitating what he saw onto the canvas but rather to re-think the conventions which restrict traditional painting. A clear departure from traditional painting as a representational phenomenon has taken place, it’s no longer mimetic of nature or reality but rather holds its own reality within itself and painting and art in general is made autonomous through Cezanne’s unique approach. Where other painters saw transient effects of light Cezanne had the ability to perceive geometric structures and thus from his search for underlying structure of composition came Cubism and then Abstraction. In the impressionist movement, and other predecessors to cubism and post-impressionism, artists weren’t concerned in dealing with matters of inner meaning within their paintings, they were simply responding to what they saw which in turn gave little for the viewer to think about. It is here that we see Cezanne’s more conceptual manner of depicting reality by breaking things into obscure shapes and abstracted form, he projects his inner emotion and consciousness onto the canvas to represent a state of mind, ‘The painter’s idea cannot be conceived apart from the means he uses, for it is meaningful only so far as it is embodied in those means, and the deeper his idea the more complete they must be. I am unable to distinguish between my feelings for life and my way of transposing it. A painting must carry all its meanings within itself, and impose it on the viewer before he identifies the subject matter.’. This parallel of representing nature and self by use of facets and high-keyed colour (colour as a subjective device) is something that’s echoed throughout the works of the cubists, specifically the initial stages of this movement. It seems from this point onwards the painting has become a picture object, it’s removed from the shallow confines of our perception and begins to contribute to reality by adding other aspects and elements, ‘ He was, in fact, the first Post-Impressionist to make, as did the Pointillists and eventually the cubists, as structural analysis of nature, producing an art of the mind concerned with emotional apprehension of formal qualities in mountains, women or onions and totally unconcerned with the evanescent effects of light, shade and atmosphere.’ . This manner of painting had seeped into the consciousness of Pablo Picasso and George Braque, although they had obviously added their own elements to form their own individual styles Ceza nne had laid out the basis from which the cubists could build upon. Although Cubism can be categorised into three key phases: Analytical, Hermetic and Synthetic, it is all somewhat representational of reality. Pushed and stretched to its very limits reality has been distorted and forms are no longer instantly apparent, the viewer must project apart of themselves in order to make sense of what is happening within the painting. From the painters view the cubists applied an aspect of analysis in their paintings by which forms became increasingly fragmented, this way of depicting objects, landscapes and people was similar to Cezanne’s work in the way he represented nature. He was looking beyond the mere surface and impressions which met his gaze and focussed on the inner structures that made up things around him, this of course implies careful consideration and a process of analysis. This is something which resonated with Picasso’s work and contributed to his painting Demoiselles d’ Avingon 1908, ‘He took his cue in this partly from Cezanne’s efforts to fashion a way of painting that would lay bare – or at least open up for exploration by the viewer – the complex process of pictorial representation’. Upon looking at the works of Picasso’s Demoiselles d’ Avingon 1908 and even George Braque’s Houses at L’Estaque 1908, we can indicate a clear influence that is derived from Cezanne’s style of this alignment of nature and the artist. In Braque’s painting we note a visible colour palette which has been simplified and the use of structure that has been used in order to re-create nature, all of which is comparable to Cezanne’s painting Mont Sainte-Victoire 1902-04. However, Braque has accentuated certain elements resulting in a more systematic , clean and simplified style, ‘Yet unlike Cezanne, Braque pushes the juxtaposition of different perspectives to the point of contradiction, and underscores it with a quite arbitrary distribution of light and shade; rooflines fail to meet walls, spaces and solids are elided, buildings are stacked up against one another like playing cards, and in the absence of a horizon the landscape is compress ed into the space of a low relief.’. (FOOTNOTE: Movements in Modern Art Cubism, David Cottington, pg. 22)We notice a clear direction towards further abstraction in terms of form and colour and as cubism progresses these abstractions are further emphasised until reality is barely visible and only signals and indications of things are implied to the viewer. In addition, Picasso’s painting held similar elements of Cezanne’s style and although his painting Demoiselles d’ Avingnon is regarded as more of a proto-cubist artwork in a way it planted the seeds of his style which would later blossom and carry the cubist movement. He is still referencing Cezanne in terms of geometric shapes, limited colours, the fusions between negative and positive shapes and also the arbitrary use of light as he sees fit. Moving away from Demoiselles d’ Avingnon and focussing on Cottage and Trees (La Rue-des-Bois) 1908, again we see a direct correlation in terms of style to Cezanne’s and even Braque’s painting Houses at L’Estaque, in terms of subject matter it’s quite similar; fragmented shapes are used to signify a landscape with houses and contorted trees, however this use of shapes is further abstracted from that of Cezanne’s and Braque’s and again we see the use of colour being completely redundant in terms of imitating the world. The painting has become a complex of invented forms, singular viewpoints, accurate proportions and visual representation are no longer necessary, ‘Picasso independently emphasises each elemnt – volume, line, plane, light and shade – even at the expense of compositional unity. The effect is to maximise the dynamic effect of the painting.’. The emancipation of pictorial elements of line and colour elevated the painting to the picture object, as these elements no longer needed to be used objectively to depict the reality in which we are all submitted to, rather the artists can form the basis of a painting from reality and meet it halfway through his use of representing the internal reality which he is mentally experiencing. Cezanne used a process of analysis and reflection in creating his work which then influenced the cubists to constitute their own individual reality and project it onto the canvas. The result being fragmented geometric shapes which accentuate certain elements of figures, subjective and limited use of colour and an overall less naturalistic representation of what is directly being observed, this in turn helped painters like the cubists to re think what they were painting and also to think of what painting in general could be.