Lsi Paper Leadership and Organizational

LSI Paper   Leadership and Organizational Behavior Anne Peters 07/21/2012 My primary thinking style with the highest percentile is being competitive at 99 percentile. I actually never realized this aspect about my thinking style but now it all makes sense. In the past I have been so busy winning and showing other people losing that I totally forgot to pay attention on my own performance, I guess glory isn’t that important, what really important is how I achieved it.At home, I’ll always be busy competing with the siblings and at work I was always comparing myself to others, hence not paying attention on my performance. My Secondary thinking style is my Affiliative thinking style at 96 percentile. I totally agree with this as I do pay a lot of emphasis on relationships. I am very warm and open about meeting and interacting with new people from different cultural backgrounds and have a keen interest in learning different languages. This thinking style helped me develop g ood interpersonal skills.At home I have great relationship with my parents and siblings. At work I am always deemed as the favorite manager I am very understanding and friendly. My limiting thinking style would be avoidance-thinking style; I believe instead of dealing with the problems I usually walk away from them, which is not a good trait. A problem must be solved instead of letting it lingering in the back of your mind. I may be overly hard on myself. When I make a mistake, it is especially difficult for myself to forgive myself and move on.This can result in a fear of failure, and the feeling that I must avoid situations that carry the risk of personal defeat. I typically refrain from examining and expressing feelings, which could signal a more general pattern of withdrawal. For example in the past I have turned small problems into huge problems overtime since I didn’t feel like tackling them then and there. I had relationship problems and money problems because of my av oidance thinking style.In 2006 I was moving out of my uncle’s house and things went sour in between his family and mine, but since I was young and reckless I completely ignored the problem instead of dealing with it, later on the problem was huge and couldn’t be tackled anymore and till this day I have weirdness involved when meeting up with his family. Impact of my personal styles on my management style: Planning: When it comes to planning my competitive, perfectionist and achievement thinking style play a big role. Planning requires being competitive, you make sure whatever you are planning is worthy enough and efficient.Perfectionist thinking style helps it to be without flaws and no room for errors. Achievement style helps me to be somewhat confident and easily able to meet challenges. Organizing: Again the perfectionist plays a big role in organizing also. The humanistic style helps me in guiding other people towards organization and guiding them and supporting th eir effort. I feel organizing is not the strongest management area for me and I need to work on this skill. Leading: The thinking style of self-actualization, competitive, and power, plays a huge role in helping me lead.I am pretty self-actualized, which means I am really comfortable with myself and who I am. For being a leader one needs to be competitive otherwise you can’t lead if you have the mentality of â€Å"if we lose that’s ok, it’s more like no! We got to win! † I like being in charge and in control of a situation, it’s very typical of me, the sense of being independent makes me comfortable in a leading position. I believe in leading by example style of management, instead of telling people what to do a manager needs to show them how it’s done and then audit to make sure they are just as good as you or your best employee.Controlling: The power, competitive and humanistic thinking style plays a huge role of me being controlling in my work environment. A manager must manage, to be in control one needs to earn respect of their employees, to do so you need to work with them and not against them. Once you earn their trust, they will probably perform the same way whether you are supervising them or not. To be in control you don’t have to be a power hungry manager who always thinks he’s right, but more of a understanding people at their level and culture manager.It’s easy to get into employee’s comfort zone even if you know one thing about their language, ethnicity or culture. Once the barrier is down they respect you and controlling them becomes a lot easier. Genesis: I develop all this thinking style at quite an early stage; I was 21 when I first moved from Karachi, Pakistan to Chicago, United States. Since the beginning I was working a management position in a fast food restaurant and going to school because I wanted to and there was no obligation. The competiveness was there but as I w orked the management position I developed numerous other thinking styles.The self actualized and humanistic style was developed with the helped of my parents; they brought me up with a lot of love and made me feel confident about every decision that I wanted to make. Having parents like mine makes a huge difference in one’s thinking style. I worked as a general manager at a fast food restaurant for quite a while and then was hired as a creative designer and HR for a new concept restaurant that was serving Lebanese food. This opportunity helped me polish my Humanistic, competitive, perfectionist and achievement thinking styles even more.And recently I moved to southern California to start another concept restaurant by leaving everything behind and taking another major change in my life hence making me a big risk taker. Overall I am pretty satisfied with my LSI results, although I have realized there are aspects I really need to work on, but then again nobody is perfect. The ar eas that I need to work on are: Conventional: I really need to follow my heart and Ideas more than just be by the book. Dependent: I shouldn’t be dependent on other people for approval, ometimes I need to do things on my own. Avoidance: I need to deal with problems right there and in the face instead of slacking. Competitive: Need to be a little less competitive and let other people get ahead and learn from them. Achievement: I need to work on my goals a little bit more, be more goal oriented than living day to day. Oppositional: Be a little less oppositional and be more open to other people’s ideas. I plan to learn to be a better management from this class and apply all these new thinking style I never know I had.Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to fine-tune all this style to become a better performing manager. Name:  Ã‚  D01673320| Date Survey Taken:  Ã‚  | Your LSI Styles ProfileThe raw and percentile scores in the table below and the extensions on th e circumplex shown below depict your perceptions of how you think and behave. The CONSTRUCTIVE Styles (11, 12, 1, and 2 o'clock positions) reflect self-enhancing thinking and behavior that contribute to one's level of satisfaction, ability to develop healthy relationships and work effectively with people, and proficiency at accomplishing tasks.The PASSIVE/DEFENSIVE Styles (3, 4, 5, and 6 o'clock positions) represent self-protecting thinking and behavior that promote the fulfillment of security needs through interaction with people. The AGGRESSIVE/DEFENSIVE Styles (7, 8, 9, and 10 o'clock positions) describe self-promoting thinking and behavior used to maintain status/position and fulfill security needs through task-related activities. Position| Style| Score| Percentile| 1| Humanistic-Encouraging| 35| 80| 2| Affiliative| 39| 96| 3| Approval| 28| 95| 4| Conventional| 25| 93| 5| Dependent| 23| 90| 6| Avoidance| 13| 83| | Oppositional| 15| 87| 8| Power| 13| 79| 9| Competitive| 29| 99| 1 0| Perfectionistic| 24| 75| 11| Achievement| 33| 63| 12| Self-Actualizing| 37| 93| The raw scores potentially range from 0 to 40. The percentile scores represent your results compared to those of 9,207 individuals who previously completed the Life Styles Inventory. For example, a percentile score of 75 means that you scored higher along a particular position than 75% of the other respondents in the sample and, in turn, indicates that the style represented by that position is strongly descriptive of you.In contrast, a score of 25 means that you scored higher than only about 25% of the other respondents and therefore indicates that the style represented by that position is not very descriptive of you. Your LSI Styles CircumplexFor detailed descriptions of each of these 12 styles,? click on the circumplex graphic in each of the 12 sections. Examining your CircumplexTo accurately interpret your LSI results, it is important for you to consider your score on each style in terms of its ran ge (high, medium, or low) on the profile. The three ranges correspond to the percentile points in the circumplex and in the table above. |

Two Main Approaches to Learn About Nature in the Process of Science

In the process of science, scientist use two main approaches to learn about nature; Discovery Science and Hypothesis based science. With Discovery Science, scientist observe and describe objects, and with Hypothesis based Science, scientist make a hypothesis, make deductions and then test the predictions. In our everyday lives we use Hypothesis based science to solve many different problems. There is a criterion that is needed in order to have a hypothesis-based scientific study. To start you must have an observation and generalizations from discovery science. You must have questions and tentative answers to the questions. You must also have deductions that will lead you to predictions. And lastly be able to test the predictions to see if the hypothesis is falsiable. In experiments the use of control groups and experimental groups helps to control the variables. A large sample size is always a better choice than a small sample size to eliminate the possibility of chance. A case study of hypothesis-based science is both different from and similar to a case study from every day life. The two are similar in many ways. Both studies require that you make an observation as well as make a hypothesis from the observation. They are also similar in the fact that they both need a prediction, and both predictions needed to be tested in order to see if they are falsiable. The two are also very different from each other in other aspects. A hypothesis based science study needs to have two different groups of subjects; an example would be an experimental group and a control group. Hypothesis based science also needs to factor in sample size. With a case study from every day life there are a lot less factors that you have to be concerned with. The basic differences between the two are as follows: Everyday Life -Hypothesize using testable and falsifiable hypotheses -are predicted by using If-Then statements -Test predictions -Conclude the findings Hypothesis Based Science -The above steps but with tighter regulations -Experimental and control groups are required -Sample size must be large enough to generalize results -Must be an experimental variable An experiment of my choice that I researched is a double-blind study evaluating the long-term safety of varenicline for smoking cessation (WILLIAMS Kathryn E. ; REEVES Karen R. BILLING Clare B. ; PENNINGTON Ann M. ; GONG Jason) This experiment asses the safety of long term varenidine for smoking cessation. Subjects were chosen at random, and it was large sample size of 376. There was a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group received varenicline and the control group received a placebo. Subjects were monitored by weekly visits that after week eight turne d into visits of every 4 weeks. Subjects vital signs were documented each visit along with smoking status. All subjects were also provided with a brief counseling. The conclusions of this study were: â€Å"Varenicline 1 mg BID can be safely administered for up to 1 year. Varenicline was also a more effective smoking cessation aid than placebo throughout the study, supporting both its short- (12-week) and long-term (52-week) efficacy† I chose this study because I think that it fits the criteria and demonstrates the basic considerations in a good designed study. I can use my knowledge of the scientific method when reading medical journals to figure out the authenticity of the experiment. This will help me as a nurse to comprehend the research being presented on specific diseases as well as treatments.

Rhetorical Analysis of the Cinema I Shall Fight No More Forever Essay

Rhetorical Analysis of the Cinema I Shall Fight No More Forever - Essay Example Chief Joseph fudged and avoided his chasers for 90 days after travelling a very long errand until he eventually laid down his arm to General Nelson Miles following the total slaughter of his tribe from a five-day clash. After a long struggle, Chief Joseph decides to surrender and give a surrender speech. This surrender speech is extremely compelling, in spite of its shortness. With just a few number of words used, Chief Joseph was able to express the complete essence of a loss as likewise conveyed by the many Native peoples moved and dislocated from their abodes. He expresses ethos by the use of his modest reputation as one of the greatest leaders at the time; he epitomizes a man that is esteemed by the Native peoples. Chief Joseph's submission to General Miles signifies that incredible ability of words in demanding to ethos, pathos, and logos, his capability to enclose emotion in a group, and the correct identification of reason and audience. Chief Joseph causes the speech to become more compelling by recognizing all the varying age categories, making the in predicament influence every member of the tribe and making it a subject that menaces Native Americans all over the place. This ethos of the tribe as well as the arrangement and influence of a family likewise plays a significant part in the inclusion of pathos in his surrender speech. The movie appeals to the audience and encourages the youth to keep fighting and declaring the old people dead. Chief Joseph reminds his tribesmen that their interests and values must be protected especially for their native land. Chief Joseph uses these appeals in order to put more strength and power to his speech despite the brevity of time. He also employs descriptions of death of the other leaders to improve the essence of defeat in that these societies have lost the governance that managed every facet of their lives. Similarly, Chief Joseph utilizes the cold and deficiency of important ingredients to improve compassion to his tribe. The immobilizing cold and the dearth of blankets suggest the idea of seclusion and absence of energy and enthusiasm. The film employs various forms of language ranging from angry, sad, and confrontational. The language used is confrontational especially when Chief Joseph calls the youth to keep fighting for their interests. The language used is also sad. The unavoidable sense of defeat and misdirection is a very engulfing sensation that creates a sad language in the speech. The speech acknowledges the long struggle and the chase with people left homeless and with hunger. The sad language is still present in the film especially when Chief Joseph realizes that he has lost most of his tribesmen in the battle. The dialogue between the speaker and the audience is both logic and real. It appeals to the target audience and the feedback indicates that the message is reaching the intended audience. For example, Chief Joseph admits that he is tired and his heart is sick. Considerin g the shortness of the speech at 157 words in total, it definitely suggests the fact that he was already weary and exhausted. The phrase indicates the dialogue between the speaker and the audience. The narrator of the film is not biased in any form. The narrator presents both sides of the story and creating a balance that appeals to audience. The narrator appeals to the audience by creating suspense. The narrator has no hidden agenda that is likely to distract the audience and prevent them

The Process of Industrialization Research Paper

The Process of Industrialization - Research Paper Example Some feel that the amount of income increased, but this was easily offset by the repercussions of those earnings. It is critical to weigh the merits of each proposition in order to effectively assess the effects of industrialization on worker’s conditions of living. Marxists and their attack on industrialization Marxists were the most predominant opponents of the industrial revolution. They believed that capitalism was an unjust system in which controllers of capital took advantage of the masses for economic gain. Therefore, to adherents of this school of thought, industrialization spelt nothing but gloom and doom for the group. Marxists could not fathom a situation where workers were better off in the industrial era than they were in previous economic periods. The very fact that factory owners were trying to squeeze out as much surplus value as possible from their employee was reason enough to oppose it. Members of this school did not really care whether workers could purchas e more goods or access more products than they had initially accessed in previous regimes. Their concern was the injustice that was meted against these persons. To the Marxist, controllers of capital simply paid workers seemingly higher wages in order to compensate for the exploitative work conditions in their factories. Industrialization took away workers’ control over resources and put it in the hands of a few people. Wages may have been lower in the pre-industrial era but at least resource ownership was less concentrated than during the industrial revolution. However, these arguments may not hold water when one examines the rate at which incomes rose between 1820 and 1860. Even though Marxists make a strong point when highlighting the ills of industrialization, their assertions must be compared to the conditions of living before the industrial era. These theorists still have a problem with the system of land ownership and mercantilism in pre-industrial Britain. Therefore, they seem to object to almost every method of economic control. In fact, their ideal society was one in which equal distribution of wealth existed; that is the communist society (Jessop and Wheatley 55). The point of this paper is not to determine whether industrialization was exploitative; it is to decipher whether it had a positive or negative effect on the population. Positive outcomes can arise even in exploitative conditions. Some gains occurred in workers’ lives but one must asses whether those gains were sufficient enough to warrant a change in their standards of living. It is for this reason that other elements of history must be examined. Liberalists and the consumer revolution Another school of thought emerged concerning the living conditions of persons in the industrial revolution, and this was the liberalist school. Followers of this theory asserted that industrialization was a beneficial occurrence in the lives of these workers because it ushered in the consumer revolution. These rapid changes in production processes enabled the creation of mass consumer goods at affordable prices. Therefore, for the first time, the average laborer could afford such things. At the theoretical level, it can be deduced that industrialization led to an expansion of markets, which sold manufactured goods. Additionally, the industrial re

JP Morgan Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

JP Morgan - Case Study Example These laws are meant to regulate the financial markets in US. Impact of Federal interest rate hikes may deter investment because it costs more to borrow. Interest rates in USA remained in between 4%-5% in 2009. Strong dollar may make exporting more difficult because it may raise the price in terms of foreign currency. Declining personal savings rate.In September 2005, the personal saving rate as a percentage of disposable income was negative implying US consumers spent more than 100% of their monthly income. 3. Social Factors determine the way the society in groups behaves because of cultural factors. In US Increasing minority Population, increasing retiree Population, have their impact on the financial behaviour of the US saving and expenditure rate and ways. Customer Loyalty is very much determining sustenance of a business for long. J P Morgan has built this customer loyalty by strong brand equity.. 4. Technological Factors: The fast changing financial world of US and UK such as highly computerised service, online banking, insurance and IT integration of lending institutions have sizeable impact on the financial services of JP Morgan. 5. Ecological: Every business today is responsible for maintaining the ecological balance directly or indirectly. J P Morgan is active in taking up and investing in environmental projects to carry out this responsibility 6.Legal framework of US, UK and other countries where J P Morgan function has undergone fundamental changes on account of introduction of stringent law after sub-prime lending debacle having impact on the financial services of the company. Impact of insurance industry after deregulations has strong effect on the business operation US Financial Services Industry: An Analysis www.researchandmarkets.com/.../us_financial_services_industry_an_analysis.pdf SWOT analysis is to make a long list of every factor that defines the company's situation. JP Morgan as financial global company has several strength that sustained the company against tough competition. Strengths JP Morgan is a leading global financial brand with recorded revenues of $71,372 million during the fiscal year ended December 2007, an increase of 15.1% over 2006. The operating profit of the company was $22,805 million during the fiscal year 2007, an increase of 14.7% over 2006. The net profit was $15,365 million during the fiscal year 2007, an increase of 6.4% over 2006. They have extensive retail distribution network, high quality asset investments and Capital strength. Weaknesses Sub-prime exposure in the US and UK shook the entire financial world. Several months before the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis surfaced, JP Morgan had detected accumulated such sub- prime risks associated with mortgage securities. The company dumped those risky assets and could avoid being trapped deeper. Opportunities J P Morgan diversified in banking and brokerage global

Icelands Business Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Icelands Business Laws - Essay Example With the exemption to particular agricultural products, Iceland practices a liberal trade policy. Since being reviewed back in the year 2000, there has been no major changes made to Iceland's import system in spite of the entry into force of a new customs law on January 1, 2006. MFN (Most Favored-Nation) applied tariff in Iceland is 5.9% with a high percentage of tariff lines profit from duty free treatment. In agricultural products, average MFN applied tariffs is 18.3% according to WTO definition in comparison to other goods that is only 2.5%. The trade and investment relations in Iceland occur under preferential rules. Under various free-trade agreements, Iceland offers preferential tariffs on imports from its 37 WTO Member Nations. Despite the fact that Iceland's growing number of preferential agreements may be lessened by the nation's application of the Pan-European Cumulation System for rules of origin, this has increased the complexity of its trade system. Other outside factors affecting imports in Iceland include a value-added tax, excise taxes, and some other specific charges. Generally, such charges is considered a burden to small economies like Iceland and is significantly heavier than that of the tariffs themselves falling mostly on imports as Iceland depends on imported products in meeting most of its domestic needs. Export restrictions are practiced by Iceland with the purpose of protecting human and animal health. One specific example is the requirement that should be met by producers of lamb meat to export a percentage of their production in regulating the domestic supply. As a result, export goods made from agricultural raw materials gain from a refund equal to the difference between the cost of raw materials in the international and domestic markets. Iceland's law permits the establishment of free zones. Apart from agriculture, aid coming from the state is low and is generally of a horizontal nature due to the fact that it is focused mainly on research and development, support of small and medium-sized businesses, training, and job creation. Iceland's Environmental Protection Iceland had learned a lesson from the 1783 volcanic eruption and just how much it cost to the environment. The environmental disaster has been described as an amazing and portentous one and full of horrible phenomena (White 1789). The article of Brayshay and Grattan (1995) indicated that the emissions from Icelandic volcanic eruptions are capable of causing serious environmental damage, prompting alarm and panic among the population in locations far from the source. Grattan and Charman (1994) added that the palaeoenvironmental implications of this episode have been considered elsewhere, however the full impact on Britain was clearly profound and more work is needed to examine the wider European picture. The question being thrown for the future will be to seek more systematic evidence of crop damage and the impact of adverse weather on food prices. Nevertheless, valuable information that greatly extend our knowledge not only of the impact of volcanic eruptions on distant societies an d ecosystems have been made available on contemporary newspaper and journal accounts that also provide some new light on the character of the responses of those communities

Feminism in Women Hollering Creek Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Feminism in Women Hollering Creek - Essay Example My area of concern is how majority of the characters have the stereotypical outlook towards genders especially the men embodying the machismo while the women are depicted as being weak and also naive. While not belonging to any land whether Mexico or America, the Chicana protagonists intently look out for their identity and this just ends up negatively as their dreams end up shattered with abuse and neglect this is brought out clearly in the text with the emphasis being on how the female generation struggles while at the same time the author brings out the other side of the readers with the tales of the lives of immigrants especially the Mexican immigrants and their personality as a society. My main goal in this paper is to analyze the themes associated with feminism in the story â€Å"Woman Hollering Creek† by Sandra Cisneros. The theme of feminism will be analyzed from the perspective of similarities and differences between the cultures that are displayed by the story. This will be split between into sections with each looking at different aspect of cultures that are presented. Also under this section will be the historical context and a brief preview of the story by the author which depicts how the society is brought out. As the last part, I will be concluding with my thoughts on the story and the themes discussed especially the aspect of feminism and how the Mexican culture has been presented in relation to the women. Woman Hollering Creek The story is the title of the book by the same name; â€Å"Woman Hollering Creek†. It revolves around a Mexican woman by the name Cleofilas Enriqueta DeLeon Hernandez who has a belief she will live ever happily ever after; she marries a man by the name Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez after her father consents the marriage. Thereafter she leaves her father and her six brothers in Mexico, the couple drive across the border to â€Å"el otro lado†- the other side; a dusty little town called Seguin in Texas. I t is here in Texas that she wants to start a new life as a wife in a ramshackle house but her hopes and aspirations of having a happy marriage are dashed just like the characters she watches in the telenovelas. Across a stream by the name Woman Hollering Creek, Cleofilas finds out that she had left a boring yet peaceful life with the family that she shared (her father and six brothers). All through her marriage with Juan; the relationship is tumultuous as Pedro is unfaithful, abusive and also leaves her in isolation most of the time. Her new life that was supposed to be full of passion like the ones she had seen in the telenovelas becomes â€Å"sadder and sadder† with each episode even though she has a belief that â€Å"when one finds, finally, the great love of one's life, [one] does whatever one can, must do, at whatever the case to protect it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This results to her being depressed and the same time develops a keen interest she has on her legendary icon on the t elenovelas, la llorona, and the creek that is named after her legendary icon that runs behind her house. However, unlike the â€Å"weeping woman† in the telenovela; who chooses death as a solution and means to escape her unloving husband, Cleofilas in a sense chooses life and this will help in dealing with her problem. With the aid of

What will happen vs what should happen with Government Warrantless Essay

What will happen vs what should happen with Government Warrantless Surveillance - Essay Example Warrantless Surveillance will continue to be a mode of operation by the Federal Government. Things will continue to go pretty much as they have since 2001. There will continue to be court cases which will challenge the right of the government to engage in what some would call an illegal operation. It is hard to argue against the security of our nation as being a reason for this action. Some people will continue to distrust the government and their reasons for gathering certain information and tapping foreign phone calls. When looking at utopia, our country would not need to gather this information because everyone would be doing what is expected of them and not out to harm their neighbor. The government would function as an arm of the people, providing for the common good of all Americans. The court system would be engaged in the enforcement of our laws and not arguing about what is constitutional or unconstitutional. A sad thing that would happen with the disappearance of warrantless surveillance, people would lose their job. The news shows on television would have to find something else to discuss and Senators Kerry and McCain would begin addressing more pressing

Legal Age for Alcohol Consumption Essay Example for Free

Legal Age for Alcohol Consumption Essay Different governments have age limits for legal consumption of alcohol. For instance, in most western states individuals below 18 years of age should not consume alchohol. Other countries have an age limit of 15 years (Miller, 2010). All these governments have reasons for setting this age requirements for alcohol consumption. For example, some argue that raising the legal age limit may not have an impact on society, if people do not have the will and zeal to stop irresponsible drinking. Others argue that raising the legal age limit would allow individuals to drink when they are mature and responsible (Kolander, 2011). This would reduce chances of irresponsible drinking. I believe governments should raise the legal age requirement for alcohol consumption, as an effort to reduce the negative impacts of alcohol to society. I support the idea of raising the age limit for alcohol consumption. However, I also believe that this cannot be a successful measure to deal with the negative impacts of alcohol to society, without using other avenues. For instance, governments should implement a program to educate the youth on the negative impacts of alcohol. According to reports from a number of police departments, most youth consume alcohol when they have not met the age limit. This implies that raising the age limit can only be effective if parents instill morals in their young children (Miller, 2010). Therefore, the religious groups and the family have a massive role to play in regulating early consumption of alcohol. Secondly, raising the age limit for consumption of alcohol will reduce the harm of alcohol on the health of consumers. Individuals suffer from chronic effects due to alcohol consumption when they have access to it at early ages. For instance, the danger that an individual who started consuming alcohol at the age of 18, is more severe than that of an individual who started drinking at 25. Health experts have claimed that early exposure to alcohol consumption has drastic effects on key internal body organs, compared to individuals who start consuming alcohol at late ages. In addition, raising the legal age for alcohol consumption reduces chances of addiction, due to less exposure (Billings, 2010). Early exposure to alcohol consumption has also led to a deteriorated culture in society. Families have broken up due to irresponsible drinking by children, who end up indulging in other criminal activities such as burglary, to finance their alcoholic behavior. At the current legal requirement of 18 years, most youth may not have the finances to finance their consumption of alcohol. This makes them depend on their parents by lying to them, to get money. In the event that the parents are not able to meet the financial demands of the children, the children look for other options to financial stability. Some go to the extent of stage managing kidnaps to get money from parents. This has eroded the positive values of society, especially the youth, who are the largest group of the world’s population (Kolander, 2011). In conclusion, the above illustrations indicate that early exposure to alcohol consumption has more negative effects than positives. For example, individuals have a high probability of acquiring health complications, such as lung and kidney infections. Secondly, early access to alcohol consumption also erodes the morality of society. In addition, early alcohol consumption may also affect the academic life of young adults, who end up as addicts to alcohol. These young adults also face the threat of joining illegal gangs in society. Thus, it would be reasonable to suggest that governments should consider revising the legal age limit upwards. However, other institutions in society must also aid in alleviating the negative impacts of alcohol to society. Religious groups and the family should provide advice to young adults on the dangers of early alcohol consumption. References Billings, S. (2010, October 24). Should the Legal Drinking Age Be Raised to 25 to Eliminate Deadly College Partying? Retrieved July 19, 2012, from christwire.org: http://christwire.org/2010/10/should-the-legal-drinking-age-be-raised-to-25-to-eliminate-deadly-college-partying/ Kolander, R. W. (2011). Drug Abuse Prevention. New York: Jones Bartlett Learning. Miller, W. R. (2010). Rethinking Substance Abuse: What the Science Shows, and What We Should Do

Runaway Girl by Carissa Phelps Essay Example for Free

Runaway Girl by Carissa Phelps Essay In Runaway Girl by Carissa Phelps the reader knows from the beginning that the main character, Carissa, cant stand discipline and runs away when authority steps in her way. Nevertheless, she creates friendships with people she thinks she can trust, but only ends up getting hurt by their dishonesty and greediness. Carissa is a rebellious, stubborn, independent child who grows into something amazing after all the dramatic tragedies that took part in her life. Carissa is rebellious from the start. She transitions from being scared to go to school on the first day, to yelling a few weeks later, â€Å"Fuck you†, to a substitute teacher. Not to mention Carissas hormones are kicking in and shes crushing on this kid Fernando on the football team and, ends up staying out all night just to come home to getting yelled at and getting grounded. Carissa doesnt agree with such punishment so in turn , she ends up running away. The worst of Carissas deception is her plan on figuring out wheres shes going to stay, what shes going to eat, her struggle of fighting to stay alive, and more importantly what the cops have to say about her running away. As a child Carissa had poor judgment on the real world. When she was on her own, she thought that she was invincible and nothing bad could ever happen to her until, she met Icey. He changed Carissas life in less than a heart beat. Carissa went from being the boss of herself while being a runaway to being a black mans prostitute at the age of 12. Carissa wasnt in control of her own well-being anymore, Icey was. Carissa merely followed Iceys instructions especially because she despised him so greatly, but she thought that he cared about her because he fed her and bought her things and talked to her ever so sweetly, compared to the other girls. All of this was stopped when the people Carissa despised ,for busting her every time she ran away, came to her rescue when Icey screwed up by stealing a car. She soon learned that authority was just there to help her and free her of Iceys control. At juvenile hall Carissa met someone that helped change her life forever. His name was Ron. He was the counselor at Wakefield and just by handing a spiral notebook over to Carissa and telling her to write in it and â€Å"tell her story†, Carissas life was soon on its way to a new beginning.

Construction Productivity Measurement Techniques

Construction Productivity Measurement Techniques The construction industry remains one of the few most labour intensive industries in the developed world. It is therefore imperative to understand the measure of construction labour productivity. Furthermore, recent institutional and industrial calls for an increase in productivity suggest a desperate need to get the measurement of productivity levels right. The research reported in this paper forms part of an ongoing Ph.D. study into the issue of construction labour productivity. An earlier study highlighted that less than 50% of the industry actually actively measure and monitor productivity levels, with a majority of those companies that claim to measure go about measuring on the basis of the intuition of key site management personnel. This may seem alarming, however, it was argued that productivity measurement techniques could be perceived as theoretical, arduous and expensive for construction companies to adopt. This paper reviews the methods of productivity measurement availabl e and describes two case studies conducted during this research, with a view of reporting the problems and issues faced when attempting to establish productivity levels at a project level. Lessons learnt are then drawn from the experience. INTRODUCTION The quest for productivity improvements in the UK construction industry has been an especially important agenda over the last decade (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). However, what is found baffling is the fact that the measure of productivity is often conflated with the measure of performance. One only needs to turn to the Construction Productivity Network (CPN) to seek an instance of such misapprehension. Indeed, the very name of the network is misleading since it deals with such far wider issues as risk management and knowledge management. Clearly, the network might be more suited to have adopted the term Construction Performance Network as compared to the use of the term productivity, which traditionally refers to the quantifiable ratio between inputs and outputs in physical terms. Indeed, the industrial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) rightly recognise the clear distinction by acknowledging the measure of productivity as a subset of the wider measure of business performance. However, in the pursuit of convincing the industry to take on board improvement programmes and initiatives, recommendations have tended to represent simplistically improvements through headline measures such as reduction in construction time, defects, accidents etc., for instance, in the case of the Movement for Innovation (M4I) demonstration projects. Productivity, interestingly, was measured by the M4I by taking the median of the company value added in monetary terms per employee. This value added approach mirrors the value-added approach conventionally applied at the industrial (macroeconomic) level (see e.g. Jonsson, 1996). While it is understandable, from a marketing perspective, to report headline indicators per se, given the fact that embarking on any initiative undoubtedly needs corporate buy-in by senior managers, it is felt that capturing productivity measurements at the strategic level may be insufficient to guarantee that improvements actually occur at the operational level. Therefore, it is firmly believed that going back to the basics of measuring productivity at the project site level would be necessary in facilitating improvements. This is because the construction industry is largely project-based. Groà ¡k, for instance, issued a stern warning that there is an inherent failure to recognise that the site was the defining locus of production organisation (1994: 288) for construction. However, there lies a problem here. Apart from the formal measures propounded by such initiatives as the M4I stated above, many construction companies just do not have formal measures in place at the project level. For example, Chan and Kaka (2003), in a questionnaire survey to 400 UK contractors, found that of the 77 respondents, more than half of them do not monitor productivity levels at the project level. Furthermore, a third of those who claim to do so base their judgement of productivity on gut feeling and experience of dealing with contract schedules. Similar findings were noted in a large study commissioned by the Investors in People in the UK, which was aimed at examining productivity measurements inter alia across sectors including manufacturing, transport, service and construction. The Investors in People (2001) noted that while 22% of the respondents did not measure productivity levels at all, 36% and 22% of the respondents used formal and informal techniques to establish productivity levels respectively. Yet, past research have shown that the very process of formalising on-site productivity measurements itself delivers project improvements. For example, Winch and Carr (2001) notably identified a growing competitive spirit among the workforce as they progressed in their study investigating the benchmarking of on-site productivity, thus reinforcing an earlier comment made about the importance of measuring productivity levels at the project site level. Nonetheless, Chans and Kakas (2003) and the Investors in People (2001) reports beg the question as to why there is reluctance for formal productivity measurements, and which forms the premise of this paper. The chief aim of this paper is to explore the pertinent issues that would explain some of the reasons behind what we would call industrial inertia towards productivity measurement at the project level. In so doing, we would tackle it from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The next section briefly reviews the key textbook approaches to measuring on-site productivity and highlights the limitations in terms of reliability and relevance of these approaches that restrict industrial adoption. Thereafter, we will report on the relevant findings of two live projects observed as part of a wider study into understanding the concept of construction labour productivity, revealing some of the practical issues encountered when measuring on-site productivity. Conclusions are then draw n from both the review and the case studies that lead to the recommendations for future research that would hopefully encourage the industry to measure on-site productivity. PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES Construction textbooks are awash with details of key productivity measurement techniques and it would be inappropriate to replicate the explanation of these techniques within the constraints of this paper. According to Noor (1998), productivity measurement techniques fall within a spectrum between two broad categories of observational methods, namely continuous observation (e.g. direct observation and work study) and intermittent observation (e.g. audio-visual methods, delay surveys and activity sampling). Noor recognised that while continuous observations such as direct observation and work study provide high levels of accuracy and detailed data for understanding productivity, these are often time-consuming, arduous and costly. Given the operational imperative of construction projects and the ever increasing time pressures exerted on project schedules, the cost of employing personnel to conduct such observations both in terms of the monetary cost of wages and the time value of observation that does not result in the physical growth of buildings (i.e. non value added) would deter companies from adopting such measurement techniques. Furthermore, the benefits of continuous observations are marred by the inexorable restriction of scope and thus, would make it difficult for large projects to pursue this approach. Where the use of technical equipment for audio-visual methods is concerned, Winch and Carr (2001) were especially cautious that the workers might feel that the surveillance was un necessarily intrusive. As such, they avoided the use of such methods to observe the workers and opted instead for direct observation where the researchers got to know the individual workers on a personal level. Therefore, while the absence of the workers uneasiness was achieved, the inability to observe the whole construction process became an evident trade-off. With respect to intermittent observations, Noor noted that these are prone to errors in determination since the data tends to be aggregated statistically through the observation of a representative sample. To add to this, Radosavljevic and Horner (2002) recently revisited formwork and masonry productivity data sets across eleven sites in the USA and the UK, only to confirm their suspicion that productivity is not normally distributed, thereby implying that some basic statistical diagnosticsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ may give misleading results and are not applicable (p. 3). Accordingly, this questions the dubious reliability of conventional productivity measurement techniques. Serendipitously, Radosavljevic and Horner made a brief comparison of the data with volatility studies in econometrics to reveal surprising similarity with Pareto distributions, which are typical of chaotic systems. They concluded therefore that using test statistics that rely on normality usually have been taken for grant ed, and consequently not much could have been done to achieve a better understanding of the ubiquitous complexity (p. 11) as they call for a paradigm shift to understand the complexities of construction labour productivity, possibly through chaos theory. However, it is felt that such complex methods of analysing productivity levels might further discourage companies to measure productivity since this would mean additional investment of statistical expertise. Another problem with many of the conventional productivity measurement techniques is the reductionistic approach in analysing work time (see e.g. Drewin, 1982). To put simply, much of the analysis of productivity data had been concerned with the binary relationship between productive (or value-adding) time and time loss. However, contenders such as Thomas et. al. (1990) challenged this underlying assumption the inverse relationship between productive and non-productive time, and that reducing time loss leads to productivity improvements as they claimed while these assumptions seem sensible and logical, they will be shown to be unsupportable for most construction operations (p. 712). In fact, a later study (Thomas, 1991) provided evidence that would cast doubts on the assumption of the binary relationship between productive and non-productive time, and hence on the productivity measurement techniques. A further limitation relates to the application of productivity measurement techniques in past research. A review of the literature revealed that measurement techniques were mainly concentrated, in past research, on a number of key construction operations: namely concrete works (Proverbs et. al., 1999; Winch and Carr, 2001), masonry projects (Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987; Olomolaiye, 1990), structural steel (Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987) and electrical works (Thomas, 2000). Evidently, with the exception of electrical works, much of the studies were concerned with the structural elements, i.e. elements that contribute to the structural frame of the building. This means there is an overwhelming lack of research aimed at studying such other aspects of the building process as architectural elements (e.g. plastering, internal fit-out, painting and decoration) or services installations (e.g. mechanical and sanitary installations). Indeed, the studies surrounding electrical works were related t o the effects of schedule acceleration, in part, due to the effects of productivity-related problems of the earlier structural phase of projects (see e.g. Noyce and Hanna, 1998; and Thomas, 2000). One of the possible reasons for this phenomenon is the lack of previous studies (unlike where areas such as bricklaying and concrete operations are concerned) or industrial productivity data for comparison. Notably, the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) in the US has been deeply keen in examining productivity issues ever since the late 1960s (Thomas et. al., 1990) and have been actively developing labour consumption curves (NECA, 1983) to inform the industry for possible applications on different project types (Thomas, 2000), offering perhaps an explanation as to why productivity on electrical projects are examined. Olomolaiye (1990) is one of the few who explains his decision to focus on bricklaying as he attributed his preference to the predominance of bricks as one of the main construction materials in the UK. He added a bulk of construction manpower still goes into bricklaying as it remains highly labour-intensive (p. 302). On the decision to focus on concrete operations, Winch and Carr (2001) cited Horners and Zakiehs (1996) claim that studies of estimating have shown that the largest items in the bill can be used to determine overall outputs very closely. Furthermore, they expounded that data on concrete deliveries by ready-mix trucks for any given period are easily obtained from site records, and because concrete is perishable, we can infer that deliveries on a day have been poured that day (p. 581). It is argued, however, that concentrating on the predominant or largest activity results in a reductionistic approach, which fails to take into account the entire construction process. Intere stingly, Kazaz and Ulubeyli (2004) in a recent study aimed at reconciling governmental statistics and real project data on productivity rates in Turkey elected to examine only 82 work items deemed to be used most in practice, thus affirming the researchers observation, although they acknowledged that these only constitute 6.11% of all possible work items. In this respect, conclusions made in past studies are limited in their scope in offering plausible recommendations for implementation for the improvement of construction labour productivity. The limitations of productivity measurement techniques discussed hitherto, to some extent, help to explain the low industrial uptake within construction. These encompass the issues of reliability and relevance of existing techniques that would inhibit the ability of companies to meaningfully analyse their project productivity so as to bring about improvements to the entire construction process. Furthermore, there are the investment constraints of time and expertise in implementing the existing productivity techniques. These emerging issues from the brief review explains some of the general difficulties claimed by the participants of the Investors in People (2001) study, particularly the difficulties in obtaining accurate information, the varied nature of individual job roles and the complex nature of productivity that is dependent on several intervening factors (p. 6). CASE STUDIES AND PRELIMINARY FINDINGS Having briefly discussed the theoretical issues surrounding existing productivity measurement techniques, this section now turns to the two projects, hereinafter known as projects A and B, observed during the course of the study. The purpose of the case studies is to explore the issues faced by practitioners when measuring project productivity. The two projects were selected because project participants had either attempted to measure productivity (project A) or claimed to have a formal method of measuring productivity in place (project B). Each case will begin with a brief synopsis of how the researchers got involved with the projects and an account of the observational process. This will then be followed by a succinct report of the key issues involved in the implementation of the productivity measurement techniques in the two projects. Project A: Multi-storey Car Park Background to project A Project A is the construction of a multi-storey car park for a Scottish airport. This was initially selected as a pilot study at the onset on the basis of convenience, access and geographic proximity as instructed in Yin (1994: 75). It is perhaps worthwhile, at this point, to provide an insight into how and why access was given to this project in the first place. A marketing flyer accompanied by a cover letter was sent to companies to seek collaboration and access to projects, people, data etc. at the start of the research. A positive response from the main contractor executing project A then resulted from this initial call for participation. The contractor was a fast growing company at that time that aimed both to penetrate the Scottish construction market and to succeed in gaining repeat business with British Airports Authority (B.A.A.). Because the company had not undertaken any on-site productivity measurement, they were therefore keen for the researchers to assist in the develop ment of on-site productivity measures. And so, access to the project was granted on a two-days-a-week basis and the project quantity surveyor of the company was involved with the researchers in developing the measurement technique. To overcome the problems discussed in the previous section regarding the isolation of construction activities in measuring productivity, a decision was made to measure productivity levels using the existing company worker timesheets. Timesheets were found to be extremely useful mainly because timesheets were used for the purpose of calculation of hourly wages and linking this to productivity measurement would probably show meaningfully the notion of a fair wage. Furthermore, measuring productivity on a daily basis was considered to be the most appropriate technique as corrective action could be taken as quickly as possible. For data collection purposes, foremen were instructed to complete time inputs and physical outputs for each worker under their charge within a set time sheet on a daily basis. Table 1 below shows a simplified example of a recording on the activity of pouring concrete by a gang of concrete labourers. Based on the data presented in table 1, a total of 66 man-hours w ere used to produce 232m3 of concrete, yielding a productivity rate of à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ » 3.5m3 of concrete per man-hour. Emerging issues A number of issues arose whilst attempting to measure on-site productivity levels for project A in this way. The desire for a speedy construction process meant that many proprietary systems, e.g. in the case of formwork, were used as part of the construction techniques. These were undertaken by specialist subcontractors (with whom access was not granted). What was observed was that the core labourers used by the main contractor were general operatives who were often mobile in terms of the task they did. So, for example, an operative could be involved in general housekeeping on day n, shifting what is known as tables (a proprietary form of the conventional birdcage scaffolding that is on wheels to support the formwork) on day n + 1, and putting stop ends along the perimeter of a plot prior to concreting to prevent the concrete from spilling over on day n +2 and so on. Perhaps the only stable groups of workers were those who were relatively more skilled, e.g. concretors and steelfixers , who tended to stick within the task of their trades. Even so, these workers moved to other projects in the vicinity when their tasks were not scheduled for project A. Therefore, while measuring productivity levels in this way appear to be more holistic and probably closer to reality than the methods highlighted in the previous section, the mammoth task of tracking workers posed an immense challenge. Moreover, although the data was collected at the gang level (through the foremen), the boundaries of the gang were found to be arbitrary because of the volatile movement of the workers. This resulted in high variability of the productivity data obtained, which supports Radosavljevics and Horners (2002) observations, but which implies that discerning the factors affecting productivity especially those related to the workforce issues was particularly problematic. Administering the measurement was also not without problems. To start with, foremen were not akin to filling out forms and throughout its implementation, the project quantity surveyor discovered that there was a need to constantly explain to the foremen the mechanisms of recording. Two reasons accounted for this. The first relates to the inevitable problem with determining output quantities given that construction operations are often associated with work-in-progress that can be difficult to ascertain. Rules of credit (see e.g. Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987) may go some way to facilitate this process, although time and manpower is needed to maintain a database of such information for which the project quantity surveyor did not have. In fact, the project quantity surveyor resigned in the middle of the project and the measurement of productivity halted due to the absence of a willing successor. To exacerbate the problems of measurement, the project quantity surveyor had identified a compl ex list of more than 170 task descriptions, thus causing further confusion for the foremen in the recording process. This enormous list of task descriptions is believed to be due to the fact that many proprietary systems were used in the construction process. Still, as the predicted trend for the construction industry is towards greater outsourcing and use of innovative technology in the production of buildings (see e.g. CRISP, 2001), it would be sensible to take into account such complexities when measuring productivity. It is here that project B sheds some light. Project B: Headquarters of a Commercial Bank Background to project B Project B involves the construction of the headquarters of a commercial bank on a greenfield site just outside Edinburgh. Access was given to interview senior project managers and to conduct questionnaire surveys with the site operatives. During the interviews, the researchers were struck by the ability of the managers to report what they allege to be the precise number of man-hours expended on the project to date, a phenomenon that was non-existent in other projects observed during the study. Inquisitively, the researchers investigated how project participants captured this data through further probing during the interviews. According to the project managers, project B utilised what is known as The Last Planner system, a planning system that has gradually gained recognition and refinement since its inception in 1994. Much has been written about the system (see e.g. Ballard, 2000), although this is really related to planning and never intended to be used as a means of measuring on-site productivity. However, one of the KPIs resulting from this system, known as the Percent Plan Complete (PPC), was thought to be extremely valuable by the project participants for them to gain an informed view of the on-site productivity levels. Basically, the PPC refers to how much of the planned work on a weekly basis is actually completed. In a similar vein, this ostensibly is comparable to the earned value analysis used in project management (see Project Management Institute, 2000). Figure 1 above shows an extract from a weekly progress update, which enables project Bs participants to keep track of how productively the wo rk packages were performing to plan. To help improve the PPC, the progress meetings were used as a platform to understand what went wrong, i.e. what intervening events or factors resulted in a low PPC (e.g. weather, lack of materials etc.). Emerging issues While this paper is not aimed at analysing whether this system constitutes a credible means for measuring on-site productivity, it was felt that this system provided an effective way for managers to establish how progress was being made. Hence, this allowed project participants to get a feel of the productivity of the workers by complementing the measure of PPC with the number of man-hours expended. To show a simplistic example, using figure 1 above, let us assume that work package 1 utilises the same amount of man-hours throughout the project. Therefore, one can safely deduce that achieving 100% PPC in say week 13 and 76% PPC in week 14 would signify a dip in labour productivity. In other words, PPC can be viewed as an output in the productivity ratio and so alleviate the problems of complexities involved in construction operations and sub-contracted work packages experienced in project A above. Furthermore, such information should provide useful feedback to the workforce regarding their performance. Implementing this system for the project participants was also met with a number of challenges. For instance, the system is largely paper based and therefore archiving such information and managing it within a database would still require the deployment of manpower. Nonetheless, as compared with the attempts in project A, this is perceived to be relatively more straightforward. It would also be tempting to proclaim that running this system commenced from the first day of the project. In fact, the project managers had attempted to implement such a system on a previous project six years ago but faced immense resistance from the project workers as it was then thought to create a blame culture so that fault could be apportioned when things went wrong. Interestingly, another project observed, which involved the construction of an office block in central London and built by the same contractor running project B, had initially tried to adopt the system. However, it was abandoned as soon as it started on the same basis of resistance. Still, project B participants learnt from their previous experience from six years ago and thus, made a conscious effort to allay fears of a blame culture right from the very start of the project through constant reassurances given during early briefing sessions. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the paper raised the issue of the importance of, and lacklustre attitude of companies towards, measuring on-site productivity. Thereafter, a review of the limitations behind the key textbook approaches to measuring productivity was provided and these represent some of the problems, which contribute to the industrys reluctance to measuring productivity. We have then taken the reader on a journey through two projects observed and summarised here some of the practical issues faced in the implementation of an on-site productivity measurement system. These include the time and expertise needed in handling the complexities of productivity data and resistance from the workforce. In essence, the underlying theme throughout the experience is that a productivity measurement system has to be comprehensive enough to take into account the complexities of todays construction operations and ever increasing emphasis on sub-contract work packages as seen in project A; but simple enough to be effective as portrayed in The Last Planner system in project B. However, the reliability of using The Last Planner system to measure productivity was beyond the remit of this current study. Nonetheless, the experience of project participants in project B shows that it works in reality to help provide that informed view of on-site productivity levels needed to bring about improvements. Therefore, further work is required to establish the feasibility of using such a system in measuring productivity.

Effective Use of Dialogue in All the Pretty Horses Essay -- Pretty Ho

Effective Use of Dialogue in All the Pretty Horses All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, is, among other things, an exploration of its main character, John Grady Cole. The author chooses words carefully and sparingly when creating dialogue for Cole. In doing so, McCarthy creates poetic effects and rich meaning from limited verbiage. This novelist lets his readers get to know his main character largely through dialogue instead of through direct description. In this way, readers find the techniques used by McCarthy similar to those used by Ernest Hemingway in many of his books and short stories. Like the dialogue of Hemingway's protagonists, Cole's speech is sparse, but it is indicative of a great deal of meaning. In Cole's brief discourse, wise readers can find many individuality indicators that help us to understand this stoic character. The first verbal exchange of this novel only requires 17 words of Cole. The first twelve words tell us a great deal considering the limited number of words used: I appreciate you lighting the candle, he said. Como? La candela. La vela. (4) On the first line of Cole's dialogue, he shows his appreciation of a kindness done for him. This act suggests some goodness in his character. This sentence is in English. The person speaking with Cole in this scene replies in Spanish, and we find that our protagonist is at least bilingual in the next line when he replies to the other speaker in Spanish. The fact that Cole knows two different Spanish words for candle suggests a more extensive understanding of his second language. Readers will find that this is not the only example of individuality indicators expressed in Cole's speech. McCarth... ...r He decides" (60). John Grady Cole clearly does not state that the end of the world, or anything about the end of the world, will be effected by anything he does. Cole's God is in charge. Some readers may judge by word-count that Cole doesn't say very much in this novel, but such is not the case. Cormac McCarthy's protagonist, John Grady Cole, tells us a great deal about himself through his dialogue. The author of this book, like many contemporary writers, expects a lot of his readers, and rewards close examinations of his work with deep insights about his characters. The near-poetic density of the language of John Grady Cole helps the author to speak volumes without having to beat the reader over the head with obvious conclusions. "Evocal to the intelligent alone--for the rest they need interpreters." --Motto Pindar, Olympian Odes, 2:85-6

Changes In The Earths Environment Essay -- essays research papers

Changes in the Earth's Environment The 20th century, especially in the second half, has been one of rapid change in the Earth's environment. The impact of humans on the physical form and functioning of the Earth have reached levels that are global in character, and have done so at an increasingly mounting speed. 20 years ago the environment was seen as posing a threat to the future of humanity as death rates from natural hazards had increased dramatically since the turn of the century. The Earth though has always been plagued by natural disasters. Now, with the world population growing at a rapid rate more people are living in hazard prone areas. Events which may have gone unnoticed previously, only become hazards when there is intervention with humans and their lifestyle. With the discovery of the ozone hole in the 1980's attention was now more focused on the threat humans were posing to the environment. With scientific evidence to back up pessimistic predictions of our future, most people, through media coverage, political pressures and general concern now see the environment as being truly threatened by human progress and in desperate need of help. Natural hazards have been defined as â€Å"...extreme geophysical events greatly exceeding normal human expectations in terms of their magnitude or frequency and causing significant damage to man and his works with possible loss of life.† (Heathcote,1979,p.3.). A natural hazard occurs when there is an interaction between a system of human resource management and extreme or rare natural phenomena (Chapman,1994). As McCall, Laming and Scott (1991) argue, strictly speaking there is no hazard unless humans are affected in some way. Yet the line between natural and human-made hazards is a finely drawn one and usually overlapping. Doornkamp ( cited in McCall et al, 1992) argues that many hazards are human induced or at least made worse by the intervention of humans. In the 1970's, natural hazards were an important subject of topical study, as the nature of their impact on human populations and what they valued was increasing in frequency at quite a rapid rate (Burton, Kates, White, 1978). During the 75 years after 1900 the population of the earth increased by a staggering 2.25 billion people. People who needed land on which to live and work. As the population rose people were dispersed in more places and in larger numb... ...cote and B.G. Thom (eds): Natural Hazards in Australia. 3-12, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra. Kevies, D.J. (1992). Some Like it Hot. New York Review of Books. 39:31-39. McCall, G.J.H. (1992). Natural and Man Made Hazards: Their Increasing Importance in the End 20th Century World in G.J.H.McCall, D.J.C.Laming and S.C.Scott (eds): Geohazards: Natural and Man Made. 1-4, Chapman and Hall, London. McKibben,B. (1990). The End of Nature. Penguin, Middlesex. Meyer, W.R. and Turner, B.L. (1995). The Earth Transformed: Trends, Trajectories and Patterns in R.J. Johnson, P.J. Taylor and M.J.Watts (eds): Geographies of Global Change. 302-317, Blackwell, Oxford. Pearce, D. (1995). Blueprint 4: Capturing Environmental Value. Oxford Uni. Press, New York. Perry,A.H. (1981). Environmental Hazards in the British Isles. Allen and Unwin. London. Schnieder, S.H. (1989). Global Warming: Are We Entering The Greenhouse Century ?. Sierra Club Books, New York. Stow, D.A.V. (1992). Preface in G.J.H.McCall, D.J.C.Laming and S.C.Scott (eds): Geohazards: Natural and Man Made. i-ii, Chapman and Hall, London. Suzuki,D. and Gordon, A. (1990). It's a Matter of Survival. Harvard Uni Press, Harvard.

Domino’s Pizza Analysis Essay

Introduction: This report is going to be based upon Domino’s Pizza, a franchised organisation derived in Michigan, USA. This report will firstly give a brief overview of the history of Domino’s; it will then establish and explain the micro and macro factors that affect Domino’s and their effects on the business. It will also contain a strategy which would allow Domino’s to adapt and thrive in its ever changing environment; the report will give details explaining which external opportunities Domino’s should take advantage of, and which external threats it should combat. This report will include a PEST analysis, examining the political, economical, social and technological factors that Domino’s is affected by, a SWOT analysis which will observe the strengths and weakness Domino’s has, and also external aspects that will threaten the business or provide opportunities. In 1960 Tom Monaghan and his brother created ‘DomiNick’s’ Pizza shop, in 1961 Tom bought his brother out of the company and renamed it to the ‘Domino’s’ that we know today. Domino’s is now one of the largest pizza franchises in the world with 9,350 stores in over 70 countries. It employs 175,000 people worldwide and delivers over a million pizzas per day. Tom developed his company using franchising, allowing people to set up their own Domino’s pizza shops, in doing so he eventually made over 1 billion dollars before retiring in 1998. Domino’s is a LLC (limited liability company), merging the characteristics of sole proprietorship and a corporation, meaning that business owners still have control of their business but have limited liability against debt. Part A: This section is going to focus on the macro (external) factors that affect the business using a PEST analysis and the micro (internal) factors such as strengths and weaknesses. Politically, Domino’s is affected by a number of things References: http://www.dominos.uk.com/pdf/information_pack.pdf

Outline and Evaluate the Reasons for the Growing Popularity Essay

Outline and evaluate the reasons for the growing popularity of alternative medicine Alternative medicine is a term that is used to describe medical practices that are different from accepted forms and is used instead of orthodox medicine (Hunt and Lightly, 1999). This term was given to these types of medical practices by the bio-medical model which reflects their power. However, recently it has been become ‘Complementary’ which shows the increasing acceptance of this type of medicine; this now marks a shift from seeing alternatives as in opposition to modern medicine to recognising that they can support orthodox treatment. This type of medicine has a Holistic approach, meaning that it treats the mind as well as the body, unlike the bio-medical model which could be a reason as to why more and more people use certain forms of complementary medicine. Alternative medicine has always been popular in Eastern societies; for example, treatments like Fire Cupping originate from China and over time have becoming increasingly popular in the West. According to a study in 2007, Britons spent ? 91 million on alternative medicine in that year alone and has been suggested that that figure has gone up by 32% in the past five years. Another reason as to why this form of medicine has become largely more popular in Western societies is that GPs and hospitals will often refer people to them if they feel that the bio-medical model can’t help them. Similarly, the NHS will refer to this form of medicine as ‘Complementary’, which shows that they no longer see it as a threat to their form of health care. According to Sharma (1992) the most popular forms on Complementary medicine are Herbalism, Osteopathy and Homeopathy. This could be down to the fact that these ones are the most successful in their treatment, or on the other hand it could be that celebrities have made it into some form of ‘Popular Culture’ in which the masses feel they should also try out. There are a significant amount of reasons as to why there has been a growth in the popularity of alternative/complementary medicine over the last decade. According to Bivins (2007) the popularity of bio-medicine suited a population under permanent threat of infectious diseases. Whereas today, patients’ needs have changed due to the fact that certain chronic conditions have risen which has in turn led to disappointment towards industrial medicine as it is shows that orthodox medicine doesn’t give people other options; it is limited in its treatments. Furthermore, industrial medicine is significantly impersonal compared to complementary medicine which could be another reasons as to why people are choosing alternate forms of health care. On the other hand, Hunt and Lightly (1999) suggest that it could be down to the fact that there are a growing number of people in the population which simply needs/wants to be different and experiment. Illich would put forward his theory of ‘iatrogenesis’ (when medicine does more harm than good), saying that people are concerned about the unpleasant side-effects of drugs and the interventionist nature of medical practice which has been proven by surveys taken out. Another minor issue could be that people now demand for patient input; regarding complementary medicine, the doctor and the patient talk and together come up with solutions; the patient isn’t treated passive and isn’t talked to. According to Bakx (1991) the decline in the cultural dominance of biomedicine and the medical profession has resulted in the re-emergence of the plurality of alternative approached to health. Stanway would refute this view and suggest that people ‘simply want to experiment’. He would also say that this could be down to philosophical/religious reservations about what is being offered. Orthodox medicine have a ‘body dualism’ approach instead of a Holistic approach in which alternative medicine does take; they take into account everything to do with the patients life, whether that be physical or emotional or psychological problems. However, Coward (1989) would refute both models of health saying that they ‘tend to stress that health problems are individual, both in terms of the causes and the cures’. He would say that this ignores the wider social factors that cause ill health, such as poverty, job-related stress and pollution. He would also say that many of the treatments haven’t been tested in the ways that conventional medicine has, so it hasn’t met the ‘Peer Review criteria’ which therefore brings into account the â€Å"Placebo Affect† suggesting that these treatments make people believe that they are feeling better when actually it is all fake. This suggests that the rising popularity of contemporary medicine is ‘fake’ and that the medicine doesn’t actually do anything, but because people think it does they are using it more and more. He would also state that if people on rely on alternative medicine it could be dangerous in the case of serious diseases like Cancer and AIDS where conventional treatments are more effective. Fulder would agree with Coward here and question whether alternative practitioners are prepared to take sole responsibility for their patients when regarding chronic diseases and whether they would refer them to the bio-medical models’ treatment or keep them in their own hands. According to a survey done by Fulder and Monro, it was suggested that the kind of people who use alternative medicine are more likely to be middle class, female and young to middle-aged. Some would argue that this is because alternative medicine can be expensive, and also because women often go to the doctors more than men they are now turning to complementary treatments in hope that (for example) their period pains, morning sickness etc will be sorted by other forms of medicine. To conclude, there are a number of reasons as to why there is a growing popularity of alternative medicine and there isn’t one clear cut answer.

Hannibal and the Carthaginian Empire Essay

Hannibal was great and famous Carthaginian general. He is remembered for his great strategic skills on the battle field and as a great military chief. Born in late 247 BC, was the oldest son of Hamilcar Barca. In 237 BC, Hamilcar took his nine year old son, Hannibal, to the altar of a Carthaginian god and made him pledge eternal hatred to the Romans. Then Hannibal and his father left for Spain. The headquarters of Carthaginian power in Spain was the city of New Carthage. Hannibal saw immediately his father’s techniques for war . When Hamilcar perished in the battle of 230 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, became the military leader plus the political leader and continued Carthage’s pressure in Spain. In 226 BC Hasdrubal signed an agreement with the Romans. The agreement stated that neither army could cross the Ebro River in the northern Spain . When Hasdrubal was murdered in 221 BC, the Carthaginians collectively elected twenty-six-year-old Hannibal to be the leader in Carthaginian government and commandant of the army in Spain. After Hamilcar’s death Hannibal became an excellent military leader. â€Å"Under [Hannibal’s] control the Carthaginians made large territorial advances†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (I-cias). He learned quickly how to be a leader and with the support of his brothers he was able to succeed through his battles. Hannibal was crossing the Alps and was able to receive rations for a couple days. â€Å"On the third day he captured a Gallic town and provided the army from its stores with rations for two or three days† (Alps). He wanted the best for his army, but had little support from Carthage. Despite the number of men falling from the army due to natural disasters he managed to recruit others. â€Å"Even if many fell from his army during this march because of snowstorms, landslides, and attacks from hostile local tribes, he managed to recruit new personnel along the route. † His strategy was to respond quickly to these natural disasters and it helped him. Hannibal earned his success by enduring hardships with his recruits and reinforcements. Hannibal experienced many challenges including battle delays little amount of military equipment and a small number of reinforcements from home. Other military leaders knew he would not be able to handle a delay due to the lack of preparation he took for each battle. â€Å"He [Fabius, Roman Military Leader] believed that Hannibal lacked the equipment for a prolonged siege and that a delay in the battle would seriously reduce the Carthaginian food supply†. Rome believed that delays would end in the conquering of Hannibal because of the lack of necessities there was little he could do. Hannibal began to suffer during his career due to the lack of food. â€Å"Zama was the only defeat. Hannibal suffered in his military career† . After his defeat his enemies began to discover his weakness. Hannibal was running out of everything during the Battle of Cannae and his help refused to aid him. â€Å"Hannibal needed reinforcements, which the Carthaginian government refused to furnish, and he also lacked siege weapons† . Hannibal’s restrictions could have given him success, had he been willing to bargain with another force greater then his own. Hannibal was the instrument of his own undoing. Hannibal was set on being the conqueror and set on some one else’s defeat, which lead him to his own. His enemy, Rome, was the center of his downfall. He would never settle and there was no satisfaction between them. â€Å"†¦In 218, he clashed with the Roman army. The Romans claimed that this was a break of an existing treaty between Rome and Carthage and demanded Hannibal surrendered to them†¦the Second Punic War started† (I-cias). If Hannibal conquered Romans he would never be able to rule over. â€Å"According to legend, Hamilcar had made the young Hannibal swear on a sacred altar that he would remain an enemy of Rome for life† . Hannibal had made a promise to his father, therefore intending to go on with nothing. â€Å"The loss of the second city of Italy cost Hannibal the allegiance of many of his Italian allies and put an end to his hopes of further replenishing his army from their ranks† . Hannibal had lost it all. His hope had been limited at this point. Hannibal both succeeded and failed. He never won the hearts of the people; therefore he was never able to truly be victorious. Hannibal married a Spanish princess and conquered the surrounding land and took hostages from the adjacent tribes to assure their loyalty to him without crossing the Ebro River, except for the city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome. When Saguntum began trouble between Carthage and Rome in 219 BC, Hannibal invaded the city. This began the Second Punic War . After hearing the declaration of war Hannibal immediately starts off towards Rome. The problem was he had to go by land since Rome controlled the seas. Hannibal began a long and hazardous expedition across the Pyrenees and the Alps in August of 218, with battle elephants walking at the front of his army . In the spring of 218 BC, Hannibal handed over command of the Spanish armies to his brother Hasdrubal. He then led his troops north toward the Pyrenees Mountains and began one of the most famous journeys in history . Hannibal’s army included Libyans and Numidians from North Africa, Iberians and Celtiberians from Spain, and Gauls from Spain, France, and Italy. There were thirty-five thousand foot soldiers, twelve thousand horsemen, and fifty war elephants. Hannibal used the elephants to break infantry lines and to create fear and disorder. The elephants also frightened horses, so they were able to disrupt the enemy’s cavalry . In the Pyrenees, Hannibal encountered resistance from local tribes. He lost a lot of his men to fighting, and some of the mercenaries went home because they were scared of the long journey. With all this, Hannibal continued to move as quickly as possible, but bad luck fell into Hannibal’s lap as early snows and landslides kill many of his men and almost all of his war elephants . He enters Italy with only twenty-six thousand men and five or six war elephants in September 218. Hannibal and his troops spent the winter in Po Valley. In the spring of 217 BC When news of Hannibal’s army reached Rome, the Gauls of northern Italy revolted. They joined Hannibal in fighting the Romans. Now Hannibal had a sufficient army of infantry and cavalry. The Romans had plans to attack Carthage and New Carthage, but they had to be delayed because of the rebelling tribes in Italy and the approach of Hannibal. So the Romans sent troops under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio, to stop Hannibal at Massilia . Massilia is on the French coast where the Rhone River runs into the Mediterranean Sea. The Rhone is a wide river with a swift current, so it was a great obstacle to Hannibal. Scipio’s troops set up camp by the sea, thinking that Hannibal would reach Massilia in the near future. But he did not realize how fast Hannibal was moving his troops . When Scipio received news of Hannibal, it was too late. Hannibal had moved his entire army across the Rhone, fifty miles north of Massilia . Although Hannibal’s army had been reduced to twenty-six thousand infantry, nine thousand horses, and five or six elephants, it was a great accomplishment to get across the Rhone. To transport the elephants, the men built rafts . When the Alps came into view, Hannibal allowed his army a few days to rest, because he knew that his army had doubts about crossing the Alps. Never before had elephants crossed the Alps. The army did not reach the Alps until late in the year, and many troops and horses were killed. Some troops who came from warmer climates died from the cold. Some troops died of hunger because food was short to come by. Others died in fights with mountain tribes. Some of the mountain tribes rolled big stones down the mountains and caused men and animals to fall from the narrow mountain passage .

The Assessment for Nursing Potential: Nursing Quality Scale

The study integrated the qualities of nursing students (N=227) with their aptitude and academic achievement in a tripartite model. A battery of tests called in the Assessment for Nursing Potential (ANP) composed of the (a) Nursing Quality Scale (NQS) with factors on caring, compassion, commitment and connectedness; (b) Achievement test; and (c) Aptitude test was used in the study. Using a three-wave longitudinal design, the NQS was first administered followed by the aptitude, then the achievement tests.The effects of the nursing qualities on achievement and aptitude were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The first model indicates that nursing quality as a latent factor has no significant effects on both achievement and aptitude, obtaining a moderate goodness of fit (RMSEA=. 09). However, when the same model was tested including the effect of aptitude on achievement, it resulted to a better fit (RMSEA=. 06). In the second model, aptitude has a significant effect on ac hievement, p

Disaster Planning: Public Health Role

After working through the project â€Å"Disaster in Franklin County,† I will admit that I have a new appreciation for the role of the public health nurse in the event of an emergency. The simulation helped me to understand the important role that the public health team. The plays in assisting the community during a disaster. Role of the Major Public Health Personnel Each of the major public health personnel, including the public health nurse, play a key role in keeping a disaster organized flowing smoothly.The key roles are the medical health director, agency incident commander, public information officer, liaison officer, operations chief, planning chief, logistics chief, finance and administration chief, and public health nurse. With the exception of the public health nurse, the positions are often filled by people who may not be specifically trained for the roles, however, have a general overview of what the specific role requires.Agency Incident Commander – The agen cy incident commander is responsible for making the assignments of each of the other roles. She/he will have a familiarity with the specific skill sets of each person who is eligible for a role and be able to use these skill sets appropriately with in each role to obtain the highest amount of effectiveness. The incident commander will have a broad overview of what the different areas are working on, and know how each role will work to benefit other roles within the big picture.The AIC oversees the development of the incident mission and key goals, and from this comes the development of an Incident Action Plan (IAP). The AIC is responsible for ensuring that the public health agency incident mission and goals are synchronous with those of the other responding agencies and jurisdictions. The person in this position will have natural leadership qualities such as reliable critical thinking and problem solving skills, ability to make a quick decision, flexibility, adaptability, and a broa d understanding of the area affected.Public Information Officer – The public information officer is the communication coordinator or spokesperson. This individual is responsible for assuring that appropriate information is provided to the public, governmental officials and collaborating agencies. The Public Information Officer also assures that the required information is provided to the public health agency staff, so that the message of the agency is consistent, and in synchrony with other agencies.This person needs to be proficient in gathering the correct data for the situation, organizing facts, preparing appropriate releases for the press and the public, should have good communication skills, the ability to think quickly before responding, and have a good working knowledge of correct policy and procedure, standards, and laws in the public health realm. Liaison Officer – The liaison officer interfaces with and coordinates all activities with external agencies.The L iaison Officer assures that external agencies that are working with the department of health are provided with the resources that are required, as well as assure that agency policies, procedures and sovereignty are respected. She will be a point of contact for other agency representatives, and will coordinate assistance from other agencies such as hospitals, counties, EMS and federal emergency management.She will be responsible for creating and maintaining a list of cooperating agencies, their representatives, and point of contacts, and keeping other agencies aware of the public health status within the given situation. The liaison officer will have a functional working relationship with other agencies and have good communication and organizational skills. Operations Chief – The Operations Chief carries out the specific tasks and objectives that the public health agency needs to do in order to accomplish the goals of the incident.In this section, the Incident Action Plan is a ctually executed. This person will have a working knowledge of what needs to be done, how to get it done, and who to send to complete the task. He will also identify additional issues and resources needed and make those requests to the appropriate people. Examples of Operations activities include distribution of vaccines, water or soil sampling, delivery of risk communication messages to the public and case investigation, to name a few.The skill set appropriate for this person is someone with leadership qualities such as critical thinking, direct communication, and the ability to multitask. Planning Chief – The planning chief position is used to organize data, make projections and forecasts about the event and report the information to the AIC. Where required, this person may engage in intelligence activities – which for public health may be gathering, analyzing and sharing incident information (some of which may be sensitive) with other agencies.Examples of intelligen ce activities may include analysis and projections regarding  epidemiological data about a bioterrorist event, risk assessments based on information reported by law enforcement or determination of toxic contamination levels in an environmental incident is responsible for knowing the status of all resources available during a disaster both personnel and equipment. They will know how to obtain these resources, be able to determine current situation and status of the event, making a plan to provide the community with the things that are needed during a disaster, and have contingency plans in case the initial plans are unable to be carried out.This person will have strong contacts throughout the community, a working knowledge of resources available and strong planning skills. Logistics Chief – The Logistics Chief provides the support to all other sections that have been activated in the public health agency so that the work can be accomplished. Logistics acquires and sets up th e things that are needed for Operations to get the job done. A logistics chief will have excellent organizational skills and good ties with the community.Finance and Administration Chief – The finance and administration chief has an essential role including assuring that a contractual and financial process is in place for emergency procurement of supplies, equipment, space and personnel; interpretation of human resource policies; tracking of fiscal resources that are expended during the response (so that costs can be recovered by the agency during the recovery phase of the event) and in some cases, assurance of availability of resources to address the physiological and psychological needs of the paid and volunteer agency personnel who are engaged in the response.Diligent work done by the Finance / Administration Chief during an emergency can serve to prevent a financial or human resource disaster after the event. This person will have a skill set and background in finance or bookkeeping. Public Health Nurse – The public health nurse’s role in a disaster is to assess medical health and safety needs of the community and implement interventions as soon as safely possible after the event.This may include assessing individual needs of community members for things such as appropriate shelter, medications, basic provisions, such as food and water, and assessing for overall coping and stress management skills within a household. As these needs are assessed the public health nurse may refer to other agencies for resources in assisting these community members. The public health nurse will also be involved in vaccine delivery as appropriate and treating basic emergencies as needed. Chain of Command for the Community Health NurseIn the simulation â€Å"Disaster in Franklin County,† the chain of command for the community health nurse began with reporting to the agency incident commander who reported to the public health director, who reported to the medical health director, who then reported to the operations chief for the county incident command system, who reported to the emergency operation center commander. This clear-cut chain of command makes it easy to get information up the chain to the appropriate people without the public health nurse having to relay information to multiple people. Available ResourcesResources available to the community health nurse to deal with situations outside her scope of practice included environmental health specialists to assist with inspections of restaurants available to reopen and inspections of housing before people returned home and help educate the public regarding the use of generators; law enforcement to assist with volatile situations, security and safety needs; hazmat and fire crews to assure safety of homes and businesses, and assist with cleanup efforts; public works to assure water safety, electrical safety, and assess for gas leaks are just a few of the resources available t o the public health nurse to assure that the community is safe throughout the event and healthy upon returning to their homes.Actions Taken During the Door-to-Door Interviews During the door-to-door interviews in the simulation, the community health nurse encountered Mr. Fugate, who did not have his blood pressure medications. This had the potential to be an emergency, had Mr. Fugate’s blood pressure been high, or had he been symptomatic. The simulation stated that Mr. Fugate could have stayed at home or gone to the shelter, according to the community health nurse.In this situation, even though his blood pressure came back at a reasonable reading at the moment, I believe Mr. Fugate would be best served at the shelter where his blood pressure and his general safety could be monitored until events after the storm could be better stabilized. Should Mr. Fugate, choose to stay at home, there is a risk that his blood pressure would spike to a much higher level at a time when he is alone, and unable to receive appropriate medical treatment in a timely fashion. This also increases his risk for issues such as stroke and falls. While we must respect the wishes of the patient, as nurses, we also can make strong recommendations to our patients using basic health facts and logic that will sometimes change their decisions.In the case of Mrs. Alvarez, who spoke Spanish only, the enclosed generator had the potential to be lethal to Mrs. Alvarez and her son. The immediate education regarding the ventilation of the generator was necessary to prevent a buildup of deadly gases. Had there not been anyone at the Alvarez his residence who spoke English, not having access to a translator could have been detrimental to their health as they would not have been a way to discuss the risks with Mrs. Alvarez. Having a plan in place for access to a translator in a time of the disaster is very important as education, such as this, may be necessary on the spot, as opposed to at a later time.In the case of Susan Fuhr, my main concern would have been a lack of coping skills and an immediate danger to herself and her child. In a disaster, many things can happen to cause an increase in stress levels. In a person who is already stressed, any one of the stressors may cause an already overloaded person to be pushed beyond their breaking point. This puts at risk everyone in their path for physical and verbal abuse. Susan Fuhr had the stressors of a young child, as well as caring for her mother-in-law to deal with before the storm. While a recommendation to go to the shelter would have provided her with food, shelter and water, sometimes the stress of being away from your home, especially when caring for others is more difficult to deal with.Assuring that the family had the essentials that they needed and that follow-up was arranged was imperative in this situation. In a disaster, many people are afraid that they will be a burden to others if they ask for help. In the cas e of Mr. Westlund, the chemical spill and cleanup without being educated about the proper ways to do this could be detrimental to Mr. Westlund’s health. Putting him in touch with the appropriate resources, such as the hazmat team, was imperative to assuring that the chemical spill was cleaned up properly, both for Mr. Westlund and the community. Assisting the Community in Coping The community health nurse provided education to each of these families appropriate to their situations.She acted as a coordinator and advocate to put them in touch with the appropriate resources as well as a collaborator, by listening and respecting their needs and wishes. Using these techniques helps to calm the fears of the residents of the community by helping them feel more prepared through education, know that there needs and wishes are important and will be respected by those providing help to them, and by acting as an advocate, they are reassured that someone cares about their situation and wa nts to help them in this time of need. Disaster Nursing-How Can I Help As a nurse in the community, whether working in the public health realm or another sector, it is our instinct to go where they need is.One of the first things that you can do to help in the situation of the disaster is to be preregistered with an organization that is known to provide first responder assistance such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or local disaster teams. Even though the areas we are needed are rarely the areas of our expertise, extra bodies and extra hands are always welcome in a disaster. For those that work in areas such as hospitals, emergency rooms, and urgent care centers, checking in with your employer to see where help is needed is always appropriate. As a nurse, I worked through Hurricane Ike in September 2008 as it hit the Texas coastline and wreaked havoc on the city of Houston and surrounding communities. Even though I was in management at the time, I worked 58 hours straight through the hurricane coordinating nursing staff, caring for patients, and doing whatever needed done.This meant that, along with normal nursing duties, I made sandwiches, I cleaned beds, I removed red bags with patient waste inside, I assisted in putting out small fires, and I coordinated a move of the nursery when water started leaking through the ceiling. None of these was my regular duty, however, they were things that needed done at that moment. I believe the biggest service in any disaster for nursing personnel is to first be prepared for the disasters that can happen in your area; have a plan for your own family that can include being separated from them; know how you will get to the area you could be working in should a disaster occur in; and once you’re  there, be willing to do what needs to be done, even if it’s outside your comfort zone.Being a nurse during a disaster can be stressful and exciting all at the same time. It will make you think outside the box to so lve situations in new and different ways. Critical thinking and problem solving are taken to a whole new level during a disaster. Nursing of this type will boost confidence and test endurance as the nurse often works with little sleep, little food, and stress surrounding her. I will also say that nursing during a disaster is some of the most rewarding nursing I have ever done, and as crazy as it will sound to the rest of the world, nurses will always run in as everyone else runs out. It’s just who we are Disaster Planning: Public Health Role After working through the project â€Å"Disaster in Franklin County,† I will admit that I have a new appreciation for the role of the public health nurse in the event of an emergency. The simulation helped me to understand the important role that the public health team. The plays in assisting the community during a disaster. Role of the Major Public Health Personnel Each of the major public health personnel, including the public health nurse, play a key role in keeping a disaster organized flowing smoothly.The key roles are the medical health director, agency incident commander, public information officer, liaison officer, operations chief, planning chief, logistics chief, finance and administration chief, and public health nurse. With the exception of the public health nurse, the positions are often filled by people who may not be specifically trained for the roles, however, have a general overview of what the specific role requires.Agency Incident Commander – The agen cy incident commander is responsible for making the assignments of each of the other roles. She/he will have a familiarity with the specific skill sets of each person who is eligible for a role and be able to use these skill sets appropriately with in each role to obtain the highest amount of effectiveness. The incident commander will have a broad overview of what the different areas are working on, and know how each role will work to benefit other roles within the big picture.The AIC oversees the development of the incident mission and key goals, and from this comes the development of an Incident Action Plan (IAP). The AIC is responsible for ensuring that the public health agency incident mission and goals are synchronous with those of the other responding agencies and jurisdictions. The person in this position will have natural leadership qualities such as reliable critical thinking and problem solving skills, ability to make a quick decision, flexibility, adaptability, and a broa d understanding of the area affected.Public Information Officer – The public information officer is the communication coordinator or spokesperson. This individual is responsible for assuring that appropriate information is provided to the public, governmental officials and collaborating agencies. The Public Information Officer also assures that the required information is provided to the public health agency staff, so that the message of the agency is consistent, and in synchrony with other agencies.This person needs to be proficient in gathering the correct data for the situation, organizing facts, preparing appropriate releases for the press and the public, should have good communication skills, the ability to think quickly before responding, and have a good working knowledge of correct policy and procedure, standards, and laws in the public health realm. Liaison Officer – The liaison officer interfaces with and coordinates all activities with external agencies.The L iaison Officer assures that external agencies that are working with the department of health are provided with the resources that are required, as well as assure that agency policies, procedures and sovereignty are respected. She will be a point of contact for other agency representatives, and will coordinate assistance from other agencies such as hospitals, counties, EMS and federal emergency management.She will be responsible for creating and maintaining a list of cooperating agencies, their representatives, and point of contacts, and keeping other agencies aware of the public health status within the given situation. The liaison officer will have a functional working relationship with other agencies and have good communication and organizational skills. Operations Chief – The Operations Chief carries out the specific tasks and objectives that the public health agency needs to do in order to accomplish the goals of the incident.In this section, the Incident Action Plan is a ctually executed. This person will have a working knowledge of what needs to be done, how to get it done, and who to send to complete the task. He will also identify additional issues and resources needed and make those requests to the appropriate people. Examples of Operations activities include distribution of vaccines, water or soil sampling, delivery of risk communication messages to the public and case investigation, to name a few.The skill set appropriate for this person is someone with leadership qualities such as critical thinking, direct communication, and the ability to multitask. Planning Chief – The planning chief position is used to organize data, make projections and forecasts about the event and report the information to the AIC. Where required, this person may engage in intelligence activities – which for public health may be gathering, analyzing and sharing incident information (some of which may be sensitive) with other agencies.Examples of intelligen ce activities may include analysis and projections regarding  epidemiological data about a bioterrorist event, risk assessments based on information reported by law enforcement or determination of toxic contamination levels in an environmental incident is responsible for knowing the status of all resources available during a disaster both personnel and equipment. They will know how to obtain these resources, be able to determine current situation and status of the event, making a plan to provide the community with the things that are needed during a disaster, and have contingency plans in case the initial plans are unable to be carried out.This person will have strong contacts throughout the community, a working knowledge of resources available and strong planning skills. Logistics Chief – The Logistics Chief provides the support to all other sections that have been activated in the public health agency so that the work can be accomplished. Logistics acquires and sets up th e things that are needed for Operations to get the job done. A logistics chief will have excellent organizational skills and good ties with the community.Finance and Administration Chief – The finance and administration chief has an essential role including assuring that a contractual and financial process is in place for emergency procurement of supplies, equipment, space and personnel; interpretation of human resource policies; tracking of fiscal resources that are expended during the response (so that costs can be recovered by the agency during the recovery phase of the event) and in some cases, assurance of availability of resources to address the physiological and psychological needs of the paid and volunteer agency personnel who are engaged in the response.Diligent work done by the Finance / Administration Chief during an emergency can serve to prevent a financial or human resource disaster after the event. This person will have a skill set and background in finance or bookkeeping. Public Health Nurse – The public health nurse’s role in a disaster is to assess medical health and safety needs of the community and implement interventions as soon as safely possible after the event.This may include assessing individual needs of community members for things such as appropriate shelter, medications, basic provisions, such as food and water, and assessing for overall coping and stress management skills within a household. As these needs are assessed the public health nurse may refer to other agencies for resources in assisting these community members. The public health nurse will also be involved in vaccine delivery as appropriate and treating basic emergencies as needed.Chain of Command for the Community Health NurseIn the simulation â€Å"Disaster in Franklin County,† the chain of command for the community health nurse began with reporting to the agency incident commander who reported to the public health director, who reported to the medical health director, who then reported to the operations chief for the county incident command system, who reported to the emergency operation center commander. This clear-cut chain of command makes it easy to get information up the chain to the appropriate people without the public health nurse having to relay information to multiple people.Available ResourcesResources available to the community health nurse to deal with situations outside her scope of practice included environmental health specialists to assist with inspections of restaurants available to reopen and inspections of housing before people returned home and help educate the public regarding the use of generators; law enforcement to assist with volatile situations, security and safety needs; hazmat and fire crews to assure safety of homes and businesses, and assist with cleanup efforts; public works to assure water safety, electrical safety, and assess for gas leaks are just a few of the resources available to the public health nurse to assure that the community is safe throughout the event and healthy upon returning to their homes.Actions Taken During the Door-to-Door Interviews During the door-to-door interviews in the simulation, the community health nurse encountered Mr. Fugate, who did not have his blood pressure medications. This had the potential to be an emergency, had Mr. Fugate’s blood pressure been high, or had he been symptomatic. The simulation stated that Mr. Fugate could have stayed at home or gone to the shelter, according to the community health nurse.In this situation, even though his blood pressure came back at a reasonable reading at the moment, I believe Mr. Fugate would be best served at the shelter where his blood pressure and his general safety could be monitored until events after the storm could be better stabilized. Should Mr. Fugate, choose to stay at home, there is a risk that his blood pressure would spike to a much higher level at a time when he is al one, and unable to receive appropriate medical treatment in a timely fashion. This also increases his risk for issues such as stroke and falls. While we must respect the wishes of the patient, as nurses, we also can make strong recommendations to our patients using basic health facts and logic that will sometimes change their decisions.In the case of Mrs. Alvarez, who spoke Spanish only, the enclosed generator had the potential to be lethal to Mrs. Alvarez and her son. The immediate education regarding the ventilation of the generator was necessary to prevent a buildup of deadly gases. Had there not been anyone at the Alvarez his residence who spoke English, not having access to a translator could have been detrimental to their health as they would not have been a way to discuss the risks with Mrs. Alvarez. Having a plan in place for access to a translator in a time of the disaster is very important as education, such as this, may be necessary on the spot, as opposed to at a later t ime.In the case of Susan Fuhr, my main concern would have been a lack of coping skills and an immediate danger to herself and her child. In a disaster, many things can happen to cause an increase in stress levels. In a person who is already stressed, any one of the stressors may cause an already overloaded person to be pushed beyond their breaking point. This puts at risk everyone in their path for physical and verbal abuse. Susan Fuhr had the stressors of a young child, as well as caring for her mother-in-law to deal with before the storm. While a recommendation to go to the shelter would have provided her with food, shelter and water, sometimes the stress of being away from your home, especially when caring for others is more difficult to deal with.Assuring that the family had the essentials that they needed and that follow-up was arranged was imperative in this situation. In a disaster, many people are afraid that they will be a burden to others if they ask for help. In the case of Mr. Westlund, the chemical spill and cleanup without being educated about the proper ways to do this could be detrimental to Mr. Westlund’s health. Putting him in touch with the appropriate resources, such as the hazmat team, was imperative to assuring that the chemical spill was cleaned up properly, both for Mr. Westlund and the community. Assisting the Community in Coping The community health nurse provided education to each of these families appropriate to their situations.She acted as a coordinator and advocate to put them in touch with the appropriate resources as well as a collaborator, by listening and respecting their needs and wishes. Using these techniques helps to calm the fears of the residents of the community by helping them feel more prepared through education, know that there needs and wishes are important and will be respected by those providing help to them, and by acting as an advocate, they are reassured that someone cares about their situation and want s to help them in this time of need. Disaster Nursing-How Can I Help As a nurse in the community, whether working in the public health realm or another sector, it is our instinct to go where they need is.One of the first things that you can do to help in the situation of the disaster is to be preregistered with an organization that is known to provide first responder assistance such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or local disaster teams. Even though the areas we are needed are rarely the areas of our expertise, extra bodies and extra hands are always welcome in a disaster. For those that work in areas such as hospitals, emergency rooms, and urgent care centers, checking in with your employer to see where help is needed is always appropriate. As a nurse, I worked through Hurricane Ike in September 2008 as it hit the Texas coastline and wreaked havoc on the city of Houston and surrounding communities. Even though I was in management at the time, I worked 58 hours straight through t he hurricane coordinating nursing staff, caring for patients, and doing whatever needed done.This meant that, along with normal nursing duties, I made sandwiches, I cleaned beds, I removed red bags with patient waste inside, I assisted in putting out small fires, and I coordinated a move of the nursery when water started leaking through the ceiling. None of these was my regular duty, however, they were things that needed done at that moment. I believe the biggest service in any disaster for nursing personnel is to first be prepared for the disasters that can happen in your area; have a plan for your own family that can include being separated from them; know how you will get to the area you could be working in should a disaster occur in; and once you’rethere, be willing to do what needs to be done, even if it’s outside your comfort zone. Being a nurse during a disaster can be stressful and exciting all at the same time. It will make you think outside the box to solve s ituations in new and different ways. Critical thinking and problem solving are taken to a whole new level during a disaster. Nursing of this type will boost confidence and test endurance as the nurse often works with little sleep, little food, and stress surrounding her. I will also say that nursing during a disaster is some of the most rewarding nursing I have ever done, and as crazy as it will sound to the rest of the world, nurses will always run in as everyone else runs out. It’s just who we are.