How To Reduce Hospital Infections Related To Invasive Devices Essay

How To Reduce Hospital Infections Related To Invasive Devices - Essay Example A very common example would be the performance of invasive procedures that use invasive devices such as urinary catheterization, naso-gastric tube insertion, and intravenous catheterization. Key words: invasive devices, invasive procedures, hospital infections, How to Reduce Hospital Infections Related to Invasive Devices Every year more lives are compromised or worst lost due to the increasing number of incidences of hospital related infections. It is very frightening to think that the hospitals and health care facilities which are supposed to save lives are the least places people would think that their health will be compromised and yet some studies point fingers on these health havens and say failure can be from the hands of the health care providers especially in handling invasive devices. Invasive devices such as catheters of different kinds are being utilized by the health care team for patients needing it—such patients needing hydration or infusion of antibiotic therap y are given IV catheter insertions. And such use of invasive devices for such procedures has been reported to have complications that put patient’s life at risk. ... terature in the use of invasive devices, the standard policies and procedures, as well as the solutions and better outcomes deemed and reviewed from published works and studies. Change Plan I. Over the years the increasing number of hospital related infections due to invasive devices increased. The use of these devices has been established to incur and help improve patient outcome by allowing better access to patients in terms of medication, nutrition, hydration and even drainage. But the increasing prevalence of complications from the use of such devices somehow places the credibility of such procedures at risk as well as doubting the ability of the nurse in performing procedures without causing further complications. The standard of safe practice in performing such procedures needs to be reevaluated and reinforced to be able to strengthen the chain of procedures without breaking the barrier to prevent infections. II. The prevalence of hospital infections due to invasive devices nee ds to be addressed. By reviewing the standard practice in the use of invasive devices, healthcare providers will be able to come up with the analysis and evaluation regarding the effectiveness of such practice in ensuring safety to patients and preventing further and additional complications. By performing such evaluation techniques the rate of prevalence of infections will be decreased and eventually totally avoided. Furthermore the review evaluation will increase the nurses’ and patients’ knowledge regarding proper procedure and care of invasive devices that will lead to better patient outcome and preventable related infections. III. Intravenous therapy is a crucial and indispensable aspect of nursing practice in acute settings, and is expanding into community care (Lavery & Smith,

Report on employability position Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Report on employability position - Essay Example The word â€Å"employability† is simply pertaining to each individual’s capabilities of being able to be hired for the job post a person wishes to apply. The concept of employability does not necessarily stop with the idea of being hire but also a person’s ability to maintain his/her competitiveness in order to maintain such employment for a long period of time. Considering this point-of-view, employability would somehow indirectly refer to the qualities and skills each person has in order to be able to outstandingly perform a particular task. Globalization has somehow triggered the market competition within the labour market. In order to compete effectively with other small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or large multinational companies, HR managers are being challenged to maintain a number of self-efficient employees who are capable of multi-tasking in order to keep the overhead or cost of labour as low as possible. qualification requirement from each job post has become more complex in the sense that job applicants who were able to acquire multiple skills and has the ability to easily cope with the continuously changing demand in the labour market are the ones who could easily be hired for their preferred job post. For this reason, each person has to consider the knowledge, skills, and attitude (KSAs) they have acquired over the years in order to learn more about their individual employability for a potential employment. Employability of each individual is more than the academic backgrounds they have acquired from school and universities. Specifically the knowledge of each person outside the scope of academic subjects and attitude are equally important to enable a person be hired or be able to maintain their preferred employment. For example: The job of a bar tender does not stop with having knowledge about mixing cocktail drinks. In most cases, it also requires special skills like juggling some empty bottles as a form of

Market Failure With Graphical Analysis Economics Essay

Market Failure With Graphical Analysis Economics Essay As Roral Coase indicated, the question to be decided is: Is the value of fish lost greater or less than the product which contamination of the stream makes possible. Thus, it is understand that concept of social efficiency is difficult to achieve because of unexpected costs. Government intervention to the economy can be justified when market fails to achieve social efficiency (Webster, 2003). Social efficiency occurs when marginal social cost (MSC) is equal to marginal social benefit (MSB) (Sloman and Garratt, 2011). The market demand curve reflects MSB from an economic activity and supply curve reflects MSC of it (Begg, 2009). Instead, markets do not always attain an efficient output because of under-production and over-production of some goods and services. Inefficient level of production causes deadweight lost which represents a decrease in total surplus and this is market failure (Parkins, 2012). Under these conditions, Pareto efficiency cannot exist. According to Verhoef (1997, p. 3) Pareto efficiency is, a feasible situation, usually in terms of the allocation of goods and production factors, for which exists no other feasible situation that is weakly preferred by all agents. So, he concludes that markets mostly fail to achieve Pareto efficiency. In the literature, the major causes of market failure are (Parkins, 2012; Sloman and Garratt; 2010; Bregg, 2009; Blink and Dorton, 2007; McAleese, 2004, Morey, 2012): Externalities Public goods Merit and De-merit goods Market power Factor Immobility Imperfect information The major causes of market failure with graphical analysis are discussed as follows. Externalities: Externalities are economic side effects and can be either positive or negative (Grant, 2003). Externalities are costs/benefits that are imposed on people who are not directly involved in economic activities (Henderson, 2005). Positive externalities (external benefits) have beneficial effects while negative externalities (external costs) have harmful effects on third parties (Grant, 2003). Externalities cause market failure since decision makers generally consider only marginal private cost (MPC) and marginal private benefit (MPB) (Grant, 2003). There are four main types of externalities (Sloman and Garratt, 2010): -Negative externalities of production -Positive externalities of production -Negative externalities of consumption -Positive externalities of consumption Production and consumption externalities cause differences between private and social costs of production and also private and social benefits of consumption (Margetts, 2012). Social cost equals to sum of private costs and external costs while social benefits equals to sum of private benefits and external benefits (Sloman and Garratt, 2010; Parkins, 2012). Negative externalities of production: Negative externalities of production occur when the production process imposes external costs on third-parties (Grant, 2003). It exists when MSC of production exceeds MPC of the firm. For example, the production of cars can cause air, noise and visual pollution. Pollution can be harmful for people who are living around the factory. In Figure 1, MSC of production is above MPC. If a factory is interested in profit maximisation, it produces at Q. It is not producing at Q1, where MSC is equal to MSB, so it is market failure. There is an over-production (Q-Q1) that means misallocation of societys resources (Blink and Dorton, 2007). Moreover, the overproduction (Q-Q1) causes welfare loss as well. Positive Externalities of Production: Positive externalities of production occur when the production or provision of some goods or services creates external benefits for third parties (Blink and Dorton, 2007). In this case, MSC of production is less than MPC. For example, if a car factory provides training to its employees, this raises costs of the factory but increases the productivity of workforce. If these employees leave that firm and start working in another firm, this creates benefits for new employers since they do not have to spend money on the training of their new employees. It is figured out in the following graph. In the figure 2, MPC is above MSC. So the car factory produces at Q which is less than the social optimum output level at Q1. Between Q1 and Q, there is a potential welfare gain which is shown by the highlighted area. If the output level increases from Q to Q1, welfare would be gained. In this example, there is underproduction or provision of beneficial output that means misallocation of societys resources and it causes market failure (Blink and Dorton, 2007). Negative externality of consumption: Negative externality of consumption occurs when the consumption of some goods and services impose external costs on third parties (Grant, 2003). It exists when MPB is greater than MSB. For example, the consumption of cigarettes has harmful effects on others who are not smoking, called passive smokers. This may cause cancer. In figure 3, MPB is above MSB. This means that consumers are trying to maximise their private benefits without considering the externalities they create. There is over consumption of cigarettes, so it causes welfare loss to the society. This causes market failure. The welfare loss occurs when MSC is not equal to MSB (Grant, 2003). Positive externalities of consumption: Positive externalities of consumption occur when the consumption of some goods and services impose external benefits on third parties (Grant, 2003). It exists when MPB is less than MSB. For example, consumption of health care provides benefits for the whole society. If a person is healthy he wont transmit diseases to others and healthy people will perform better. In figure 4, MSB is above MPB. The consumption of health services is at Q1 with price P1. On the other hand, the socially optimum output level is at Q2 where MSC is equal to MSB. If consumption of health care services increase, welfare would be gained. Public goods: The two distinct characteristics of public goods are; non-rival and non-excludable (Tataw, 2011; Griffiths and Wall, 2007; McAleese, 2004; Borooah, 2003; Parkin, 2012). Thus, public goods can only be provided by the government and some private firms that are subsidised by the government (Sloman and Garratt, 2010). Lighting and pavement can be given as an example of non-rival goods (Dewar, 2010). Consumption of non-rival goods by one person does not prevent others using/consuming those goods (Grant, 2003). Lighthouses and national defence are examples of non-excludable goods (Johnson-Lans, 2004). Once they are made available for someone, they become available for everyone (Folland et al., 2007; Henderson, 2005). This will give rise to free rider problem. Free riders are the people who receive the benefits from goods and services without paying for them. So public goods are like externality (Begg, 2009). Based on the above conditions, Tataw (2011, p. ?) concludes that, market failures arise because only a small quantity of public goods will be provided inefficiently in private markets. Merit Goods: Merit goods create positive externalities when they are consumed (Margretts, 2012). This means that MSB exceeds MPB. This is presented in figure 5. The benefits of merit goods are not fully esteemed by typical consumers (Tataw, 2011). This causes under consumption and under provision of merit goods. In figure 5, consumption of merit goods are at Q, that is below the socially optimum output level, so this means misallocation of societys resources and cause market failure. De-merit goods: Contrary to merit goods, consumption of de-merit goods have harmful effects on third parties and create negative externalities (Grant, 2003). Cigarettes and alcohol are examples of de-merit goods (Blink and Dorton, 2007). Consumption of alcohol may make the drinkers feel good but they can create disturbance in public places. This is indicated below. In figure 6, MPB exceeds MSB. The consumption of alcohol is at Q1 which is above the socially optimum output level, so there is over consumption. This creates welfare loss. Market Power: In an imperfectly competitive market, firms are not able to produce at socially optimum output level (Sloman and Garratt, 2010) and it causes market failure. For example, in a monopolistic market, there is a single producer who can achieve profit maximisation in a short-run (Margetts, 2012). In this situation, producers produce where MC=MR, and this is reflected in figure 7. In figure 7, monopolistic producer produces at Q1 which is profit maximisation level and it also represents privately optimum output level. Also, Q1 is below the socially optimum output level which is at Q2. In this scenario, benefits obtained by producers are much more than what consumers receive. This is represented by the deadweight loss and highlighted within the figure. Factor Immobility: Two main types of factor immobility are; geographical immobility and occupational immobility (Blink and Dorton, 2007). Immobility of resources, such as labour and capital, might result in misallocation of resources, an increase in unemployment level and productively inefficiency in the market (Grant, 2003). This is reflected in igure 8 with a PPFs curve. In figure 8, points on the curve represent the productive efficient levels. The point E represents the productively inefficient point (Grant, 2003). Imperfect Information: Buyers and sellers may have inefficient choices if they are not fully informed about costs and benefits of consumption or production of goods and services (Grant, 2003; McAlleese, 2004). Imperfect information makes it difficult for economic decision makers for equate marginal benefit and marginal cost, so this causes market failure (Blink and Dorton, 2007). For example, the contribution of the merit goods to consumers is much more than what they think (Grant, 2003). This is partly because of imperfect information (Riley, 2012). In figure 9, there is under consumption of merit goods. This prevents social efficiency and causes market failure. As a conclusion, todays environmental problems and monopolistic markets encourage government interventions and a need for a central authority to coordinate the market mechanism inevitable, after almost eighty years that was first introduced by Keynesian economics school of taught.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck :: Of Mice and Men Essays

Introduction. 'Of Mice and Men' is written by John Steinbeck, published in 1937. The novel is set in the 1930s during the great depression in California. The two prominent characters, George and Lennie are farm workers who have a dream of one-day owning their own ranch. They find work in a ranch near Soledad, after escaping from Weed because of George's incident. They are met by different characters on the farm that all have a dream. Lots of farm workers would share the dream of all one day owning some land of their own. This dream became very popular and was named the 'American Dream.' Its people came from every country and background with the one belief that America would bring them wealth and happiness. For very many others, America offered escape from poverty and starvation. It was a new country, an undiscovered one. In Europe land had always been the key to money and status. Only in America could the poor of Europe hope to own their own land. The country became more and more heavily populated as the word got around of gold mines, and new homes and villages developed creating communities. At its simplest the American Dream was the popular idea that America was a country that allowed men and women to make a clean start. Like all dreams the reality did not always match the dream. However the destruction of the Indians, the American civil war and the creation of city slums were all growing pains of a great country. Yet the dream survived. That is this dream survived until the late 1920s. By then there was no more land to be claimed and America had built up its own rules and laws. This marked the start of the great depression. Farming was badly effected, as over farming had caused huge areas of land to just dry up. This was the creation of the famous 'dust bowl.' Poor crops meant that many of the farmers were unable to pay back the debts they had taken out in the first place to buy the land.

Personal Ethics in Nursing Essay

Ethics is the discipline that waits in the wings as a health-restoring resource when moral guidelines fail to do the job alone. Ethics provides a language, along with methods, and tools for evaluating the components of personal, societal, and group morality to create a better path for yourself and others. Some of its most important uses are to clarify, organize, and critique morality to highlight what does and does not fit in a particular situation (Purtilo, 2011). A nurse cultivates personal ethics through personal, cultural, and spiritual values which becomes a moral compass for their professional ethics. Personal ethics in combination with the code of ethics often assist the nurses in personal and social decision making during ethical dilemma. This ability prompts them to better respond to needs of the suffering patient and their own well-being. Nursing ethics shares many principles with medical ethics such as beneficence, non-maleficience, and respect for autonomy. Nursing ethics however, can be distinguished by its emphasis on relationships, collaborative care and human dignity, because the health care climate is regularly changing, as is our society, it is crucial that nurses have a grounded understanding of ethics (Ward, 2012). Born in a middle-class Christian family from South India, the strict traditional values helped to embed the concept of service through family and friends who taught me trust, respect, integrity, and responsibility for my education and beliefs. One of my major spiritual values that kindled the concept of service within me is â€Å"do unto others as you would have them do unto you† which is found in the Bible. At an early age I started to practice this concept by not only self-respect for myself but mainly treating others with respect. Individuals may build their moral values from listening to their parents, grandparents, religious beliefs, friends, books, their local societal values and even watching television. Moral values and enthusiasm help an individual to understand one’s accountability to their profession to deliver harmless, a compassionate work atmosphere. This empowers nurses to raise their self-confidence in their profession. Maintaining the existing responsibilities in the nursing field is vibrant to assist patients, families, and the general public. Our ethnic standards play a big role in nursing life. Nurses however should not be judgmental of patient’s beliefs and force their own beliefs in patient care. Hospitals under Joint Commission are responsible for addressing and maintaining patient’s privileges. These privileges include the accommodation; divine, mystical, particular Cultural values and follows while providing care to patients from diverse faiths. Nurses must have reverence and not put down the patient’s faith and values, and provide care consistently. Being acquainted with a variety of different cultures, languages, and religions influence worldly views and nursing decisions in providing culturally sensitive care. The traditional spiritual and cultural morals along with diverse worldviews became the directorial moral compass to take the right decision on behalf of the patients and personal life and empowered to improve the confidence and capability as a nurse. Values, Morals, and Ethics are often thought of as interweaved and to have the same denotation when each of solely have a different meaning for themselves. Values are one’s fundamental beliefs developed from childhood through family and society. Morals are values that attribute to a system of beliefs. Values are the language that has evolved to identify intrinsic things a person, group, or society holds dear. Not all values are moral values either. For instance, some things are cherished for their beauty, novelty, or efficiency they bring to our lives (Purtilo, 2011). When values, morals, and ethics of nurse influence his or her professional conduct, it often tips to conflicting situation in one’s nursing practices. For example, the topic of abortion is frowned upon when looked at from a spiritual Christian standpoint. When a nurses’ spiritual doctrine is against abortion, it would be against their moral to assist in decision making to abort the baby even when the fetus is deformed, thus arising an ethical dilemma between personal values and coming to an ethical conclusion on aborting the baby. Hospital management may develop a strong Code of Ethics in order to help regulate and maintain a professional atmosphere for nurses so that their decision making will be easier when they incur ethical dilemmas. A Code of Ethics not only serves as a guideline for nurses but also sets a standard for them to abide by. Being in the nursing field my tasks vary from caring, communicating, teaching, bedside care, and even advocating therefore the likelihood of ethical dilemmas are inescapable. Thus far I haven’t been faced with any major ethical dilemmas that would violate my spiritual doctrines that I uphold. Most commonly the ethical dilemmas I’ve seen care providers face are usually due to religious and spiritual backgrounds of the patient. Some religions do not support induced death by humans and nurses may have trouble supporting the patient and family about cases like abortion. Although it is the individual’s right to make decisions about their bodies, the religious values do not allow one to be apart of the procedure. Therefore when I’ve been in minor ethical dilemmas while being a care provider I go by what is medically and ethically correct. Nurses are an important element of the health care field because their decisions along with commitment play an essential role for the welfare and safety of humanity. If their decision making is based on personal, cultural, and spiritual values then at times they may be faced with an ethical dilemma. In situations where they’re beliefs may be tested, nurses are expected to either follow the Code of Ethics set out by their management or they should be professional and do what is medically right in order to deliver quality care.

Analyzing Anna O, Freud. Breuer, Jung

Analyzing Anna O Examining the theories of Sigmund Freud, Joseph Breuer and Carl Jung March 20, 2013 1 Bertha Pappenheim, better known as Anna O, in the world of psychology, was 21 years old when she first became a patient of Dr. Josef Breuer. She was said to be a gifted girl, with a high intellect. Sadly, however, she had a series of psychological and physical disturbances that rendered her almost incapable of functioning. â€Å"She suffered from a rigid paralysis, accompanied by loss of sensation, of both extremities on the  right side of her body; and the same trouble from time to time affected her on her left side.Her eye movements were disturbed and her power of vision was subject to numerous restrictions. † (freudfile. org) In addition to these problems she also suffered confusion, delirium and alteration of her personality. (This was described as â€Å"absence† at the time) She had head posture problems, and was unable to speak or understand her native language at times. Throughout her treatment with Dr. Breuer, these and other additional conditions would surface. It was during her treatment that Sigmund Freud showed an interest in her case. Breuer was an associate of Freud and had trained under him.Breuer had disagreements with some of Freud’s theories and set out to start his own practice. It was this case that inspired the â€Å"psychoanalytic cure†, which was the start of the widely used psychoanalytic methods used today. At the onset of Anna’s case, Dr. Breuer seemed at a lost with how to treat her. However, as Anna’s treatment progressed, he gained insight when he observed that, â€Å"while the patient was in her states of ‘absence (altered personality accompanied by confusion), she was in the habit of muttering a  few words to herself which seemed as though they arose from some train of thought that was occupying her mind. (freudfile. org) 2 Once Dr. Breuer gained this insight, he engaged in a t ype of hypnosis. Utilizing these words, he enabled her to focus on them as a starting point. By doing this, Anna was able to reproduce the mental thoughts that were occupying her mind when in one of her altered states. As stated above, Sigmund Freud developed an interest in the Anna O case. His fascination with this case led to his publishing Studies in hysteria. It was this publication which establishes Freud as the â€Å"father of psychoanalysis†.At this time, Freud constructs his theory that when the mind is fearful and overly emotional (hysterical), a person may develop disease symptoms. He goes on to explain the techniques of â€Å"free association and dream interpretation†, which, in turn, becomes the core of psychoanalysis. Once this was done, he was able to establish psychoanalysis as a legitimate clinical science. Freud went on the publish Theory on Dreams; The Conscious and Unconscious Mind; The Id, Ego, and Superego; Psychosexual Development, and other theor ies. Freud first published Theory on Dreams in 1899.During the first 6 years after its publication, the book sold only 351 copies. In fact, it took 2 decades before Freud received his fame. A paragraph from the PBS movie Young Dr. Freud summarizes Freud Theory on Dreams. â€Å"He uses dreams and dreaming to develop and weave an entire theory of mental functioning, perception, memory, and wishes. That, I believe, is the reason and the foundation for why it's viewed as a landmark. In the dream book the Oedipus complex is stated, the role of infantile sexuality is recognized. That dreams have meaning is recognized.The patient is asked 3 to free associate. Once you have the dream book you can start business as psychoanalysts because you know – at least you have a hunch of how to do it†. (Young Dr. Freud, 2002) Throughout Freud’s life, many aspiring psychologists were associated with him. In 1906, Carl Jung begins letter correspondence with Sigmund Freud. In 1907, J ung visits Freud in Vienna and writes  The Psychology of Dementia Praecox . Jung resigns from working at the Burgholzli Mental Hospital in Zurich, and visits the USA with Freud.In 1909, he also opens his own private practice of psychoanalysis and continues it until his death in 1967, at the age of 85. During Jung’s early association with Freud, he was a tireless fighter for the Freudian cause, that is, the universal promotion of psychoanalysis. He was swayed by Freud's methodology with the elusive problem of dream interpretation. However, in 1912 he announces his independence of Freud and goes on to publish Neue Bahnen der Psychologie. This independence seems to be a long time in the making.Jung was slowly disagreeing with Freud’s theories, cumulating with his reluctance towards Freud’s theory on the role of sexuality in the psychic development. By 1914 Jung had resigned from all positions he had held. At this time he seems to have gone through his own persona l turmoil, and it was reported he was suffering from moods verging on â€Å"near schizophrenia† (carl-jung. net) There has been a great deal of documentation showing that Jung had an affair with a former patient, named Spielrein, during these years. Perhaps adding to his break with Freud and his sexual theories.Jung felt that Freud’s theories were too extensive, summing up with this quote,â€Å" The great problems of life — sexuality, of course, among others — are always related to the primordial images of the collective unconscious. † 4 As great as the differences were regarding sexuality, a greater one was forming, their views on the unconscious. To Freud, the unconscious encompasses repressed or forgotten thoughts, while lingering within the individual psyche. The unconscious is like a repository for forgotten things of a person’s past.It is absolutely personal and belongs to that individual person alone. Jung, on the other hand, maintai ned there is a personal unconscious, but it rests on a collective unconscious. He felt that the collective unconscious does not derive from the personal unconscious, but it is formed from something that is â€Å"universal in nature. † Jung believed that this collective unconscious is the same in all individuals. Therefore, while Freud believed that everything comes down to a person’s past: family, relationships and repressed sexual wants and confusions.Jung maintained it was the collective unconscious which was â€Å"the great sea† in which everything else in the psyche came from and took shape. When analyzing the case of Anna O, Freud and Jung would have had disagreements. Freud felt the Anna O’s problems most likely stemmed from sexual abuse as a child. In fact, it was his view that eventually led to the rift between him and Dr. Breuer. Freud was also of the mind that this abuse rested completely in the personal unconscious. Jung would not have placed a great importance on a possible sexual abuse.Instead, he would have viewed Anna O through his collective unconscious theory. Jung may have gone so far as equating Anna’s paralyzes, and her dream of the snakes as corroboration to this theory. Siting the universal fears humans have of snakes, going back to the first book of the Bible. 5 To me, Freud would have approached Anna O with many questions concerning her childhood and possible sexual abuse. He would have been determined to find the link between her problems and abuse. Jung, on the other hand, may have placed his attention on making Anna aware of the common fears humans have, and why.While they both may have attempted a form of hypnosis, I do not think they would have succeeded, as Dr. Breuer did. In fact, It is my opinion Anna O was very lucky to have Dr. Breuer treating her and not Freud or Jung. 6 References: http://carl-jung. net/stages Feist, G. , Feist, J. (2009) Theories of Personality www. argosy. edu. myclassroo m. com http://www. freudfile. org/psychoanalysis/annao_case, Sigmund Freud: Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis. http://oaks. nvg. org http://vizedhtmlcontent. next. ecollege. com http://www. pbs. org/youngdrfreud/pages/theories_sexuality , (2002) Young Dr. Freud