Health promotion theroy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health promotion theroy - Coursework Example This theory is normally based on the fact that the readiness of an individual to act depends on his or her own perceptions. These perceptions include severity of the consequences, the potential benefits, and cost of taking that particular action as well as the susceptibility. The main advantage of this theory is that subsequent interventions can be planned and made on the basis of the response of an individual towards these concepts. This theory was purposely developed to respond to the issue of the failure of the free TB health screening plan. This model can be used to look into a number of both short-term and long-term health behaviors which include the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other sexual risk behaviors (Glanz & Lewis, 2002). This theory argues that a person will normally take a health-related act such as using a condom if he feels that HIV can be avoided, expects a positive result by using protection and if he believes that he can effectively take an optional health action. This theory is very useful when planning for the community health program. You will be in a position to predict the proper plan of action to take after taking these studies in the community. However, it is worth noting that the theory does not look into other aspects of the individual such as the environment in which they live (John,

Special Forces Responses to the New Type of Warfare Essay

Special Forces Responses to the New Type of Warfare - Essay Example Despite the fact that the US is affected by the new type of warfare much like other countries, the OCONUS area also presents a challenge for the Special Force in the sense that the UCP stipulation asserts that there is need for the Force to have an effective presence in this region if the new type of warfare is to be handled properly. For many years, the Special Force has had a presence in the OCONUS area but with a focus to protect the US. This has been reflected clearly in the UCP stipulation that limits the ability of the special forces to carry out activities that are created to prevent emerging threats and form strong relationships with foreign militaries that can help combat the new type warfare. This fact clearly shows that the Special Force needs to change tactics in order to operate effectively (Dinter Jr, 2001).The 9/11 attack brought about a change in consideration of terrorism from just a criminal attack to a new type of warfare on a worldwide level. Another issue of conc ern in the 21st century as a form of new warfare is resource characterized as economic-warfare. Such issues require the Special Force to change its tactics to deal with the new type warfare, which encompasses different issues as shown in this paper. For a long time, the Special Force has used a military strategy to infiltrate into hostile land, sea and or air to conduct a variety of operations, many of them classified to them. Most of the operations carried out by the Special Force are determined to tackle terrorism.

The elderly †a group apart Essay Example for Free

The elderly – a group apart Essay One of the largest groups that are routinely dismissed or ignored is the part of the population known as the elderly. Because of their age, some people think that their ways or knowledge may be outdated, no longer of use to the technological present. Other people dismiss the elderly because of their own issues regarding aging. Being around a person who is 85 or 90 makes them face the reality that they will also be that age someday, and they are not ready to admit that. This is evident by the enormous amounts of money spent on anti-aging products and the increasingly busy plastic surgery industry. Unfortunately, when the general society ignores this section of the population, they fail to realize just what they are losing. If people dont attempt to learn from those who have learned the important lessons of life, then they are doomed to make the same mistakes. What the general public does not recognize is the amount of wisdom that the elderly have. They have seen the world change before their eyes, and have so many stories to tell. Generally, the elderly are thought of as boring, and tired. Yet, when one takes the time to really listen to them, friendships can be created, and knowledge exchanged. Just because an elderly person may not know what an i-pod is, does not mean that they cant teach something new. The elderly are the same people that they were when they were young. The only difference is the wisdom and life-knowledge that they have gained on the way. Their humor, personalities, likes and dislikes are the same, as is their need of love and acceptance, a need that we all possess. Aging is a stage that is part of life, and just because someone is aged, does not make them less important.

Effect Of Caffeine On Breathing And Pulse Rate Biology Essay

Effect Of Caffeine On Breathing And Pulse Rate Biology Essay Caffeine is a natural chemical substance known to have stimulant properties within the body (Addicott MA Laurienti PJ, 2009). Prior research focused on caffeines ability to affect ventilation, blood pressure, mood, and mental stress (Kennedy MD et al. 2008; Addicott MA Laurienti PJ, 2009). Their findings concluded that caffeine actually spiked blood pressure, ventilation and heart rate (Kennedy MD et al., 2008); while others claimed that it had no effect on heart rate or breathing (Ratliff-Crain J et al., 1989). Some gaps in these studies were that very few actually measured the rate of breathing, but rather focused on the volume of breathing and the percent oxygen saturation/diffusion (Chapman R Stager JM, 2008), as well as blood pressure, rather than heart rate (Ratliff-Crain J et al., 1989). This experiment aimed at finding a clear relationship between ingesting caffeine, and its effect, if any, on breathing and heart rate, after the subjects performed incremental stepping exercises. The significance of this study is vital in sport, particularly caffeines role in the Olympics (Spriet LL, 1995), and its potential as a prophylactic in treating asthma (Welsh EJ et al., 2010). Methods: See School of Biological Sciences (2010). Refer to Appendix (1) for the hypotheses. Results: Using the t-test it was found that the mean (+/- range) change in pulse rate was not significantly different between non-caffeine (Group A) and caffeine (Group B) treated subjects (t=0.4, df=161, P=0.7 ie P>0.05). (Refer to Appendices 2a, 2b,3a, and 3b for the data and t-test) Figure 1: The mean of changes in the pulse rate of non-caffeinated (control) and caffeinated (treatment) participants after performing a stepping exercise. Error bars are the range. N=140 and n= 75 for the non-caffeinated and caffeinated groups respectively. Using a paired two sample for mean t-test it was found that the mean (+/- range) change in respiration rate was not significantly different between non-caffeine (Group A) and caffeine (Group B) treated subjects (t=-0.7, df=132, P=0.5 ie P>0.05). (Refer to Appendices 2a, 2b,3a, and 3b for the data and t-test) Figure 2: The mean of changes in the breathing rate of non-caffeinated (control) and caffeinated (treatment) participants after doing a stepping exercise. Error bars are the range. N=140 and n= 75 for the non caffeinated and caffeinated groups respectively. Discussion: The results of the investigation revealed that the difference in mean pulse rate change between the two groups was 1.1 BPM and the mean breathing rate was 1 BRPM. This indicated that there were no significant difference between mean change in pulse rate and breathing rate between the group that was taking the caffeinated drink (treatment), and the group that ingested the non -caffeinated beverage (control). Therefore, since (P>0.05) the null hypothesis (HO) was accepted, and the alternative hypothesis (HA) was rejected. Prior research revealed that caffeine had no significant effect on the ventilator responsiveness or exercise ventilation on exercise -induced subjects following the administration of a moderate dose of caffeine (8mg per kilogram of body weight). Any modest increase in breathing rate was attributed to caffeines secondary effect on the Central Nervous System, rather than a direct effect on the respiratory system (Chapman R Stager JM, Caffeine stimulates ventilation in athletes with exercise-induced hypoxemia, 2008). However, other studies have suggested that caffeine acted in the manner of a ventilator stimulant and increased the breathing rate of individuals (Chapman R Mickleborough TD, 2009). Similar studies found that caffeine increased the mean change in pulse rate by 6 beats/min an hour after ingesting caffeinated coffee (350mL, 140mg of Caffeine). This revealed that while caffeine may affect the heart rate, its relative impact had no significant effect (Kennedy MD et al., 2008). Further research concluded that regular consumption of coffee could not increase the heart rate and blood pressure; unless consumed chronically and excessively (Ratliff-Crain J et al., 1989). The experimental data revealed that naturally there were a large range of values, beginning from as low as {3 BPM, 1 BRPM} and peaking to {110 BPM, and to 62 BRPM} respectively. The issue with having such a large range was that it masked any significance to the mean. The extreme data points would distort the mean value, even if caffeine had proven to have a significant effect. Thus, its effect would not be reflected in the results. Whilst increasing the sample size and repeating the experiment a number of times would improve the reliability of the experiment, it would do little to increase the precision of results. This is due to the presence of natural variation. Different people have differing athletic ability, sensitivity to caffeine, or gender differences, which the sample sizes (n=140 and n=75), did not account for. The failure to take account for the nature of the sample sizes greatly reduced the power of the experiment. Research suggests that males and females may actually hav e distinct responses (Kennedy MD et al., 2008), and so must be accounted for separately. This could be improved by separating the caffeinated and non- caffeinated groups into gender types, and perhaps only observing its effect on athletes (Chapman R Stager JM, Caffeine stimulates ventilation in athletes with exercise-induced hypoxemia, 2008). The amount of coffee may have been too small experimentally to produce a noticeable effect. Switching the dose to a full cup of coffee could enhance the effects of caffeine (Kennedy MD et al., 2008), or perhaps the length of time between ingestion and exercise was too short. Increasing the period from 1 hour to 2 hours could give caffeine more time to produce its effects (Kennedy MD et al., 2008). The accuracy of the results could have been improved by using more sophisticated counting methods to measure heart rate like using a digital pulse readout (i.e. an ECG), or percentage arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation to measure ventilation, which would produce more accurate results (Chapman R Stager JM, Caffeine stimulates ventilation in athletes with exercise-induced hypoxemia, 2008). The implication of this study is particularly important in the issue of caffeine bans from the International Olympic Committee, and whether or not it provides legal ergogenic advantage to athletes in short distance running or other aerobic activities. The rules governing caffeine ingestion prior to exercise may be revised if caffeine is proven to have substantially enhanced the athletes pulmonary capabilities (Spriet LL, 1995). Other future studies of caffeine include developing prophylactics for asthma (from its anti-inflammatory and bronchodilator properties). Randomised clinical trials have already confirmed improvements in lung function after using caffeine. This could produce new front line drugs to treat asthma (Welsh EJ, 2010). In conclusion, the caffeinated and non caffeinated groups showed a slight mean difference of 1.1 BPM and 1 BRPM, but statistically, there were no significant change in the mean heart rate or the mean breathing rate, which means the null hypothesis was accepted (P>0.05), and the effects of caffeine was not proven conclusive on either. References: Addicott MA, Laurienti PJ. (2009). A comparison of the effects of caffeine following abstinence and normal caffeine use. Psychopharmacology , 207 (3), 423-31. Chapman R, Mickleborough TD. (2009). The effects of caffeine on ventilation and pulmonary function during exercise: an often-overlooked response. Phys Sportsmed. , 37 (4), 97-103. Chapman RF, Stager JM. (2008). Caffeine stimulates ventilation in athletes with exercise-induced hypoxemia. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise , 40 (6), 1080-6. Graham TE, Hibbert P, Sathasivam P. (1998). Metabolic and exercise endurance effects of coffee and caffeine ingestion. Journal of Applied Physiology , 85 (3), 883-9. Kennedy MD, Galloway AV, Dickau LJ, Hudson MK. (2008). The cumulative effect of coffee and a mental stress task on heart rate, blood pressure, and mental alertness is similar in caffeine-naÃÆ'Â ¯ve and caffeine-habituated females. Nutrition Research. , 28 (9), 609-614. Ratliff-Crain J, OKeeffe MK, Baum A. (1989). Cardiovascular reactivity, mood, and task performance in deprived and nondeprived coffee drinkers. Health Psychol. 1989 , 8 (4), 427-427. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney. (2010). Human Biology: Unit of Study Manual for Students. Spriet LL. (1995). Caffeine and Performance. International Journal of Sport Nutrition. , S84-99. Welsh EJ, Bara A, Barley E, Cates CJ.(2010). Caffeine for asthma. Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews. 1(1): CD001112.

innate human violence Essays -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Phillip Zimbardo, Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram, and Howard Zinn were/are all gifted psychologists that strived to understand the simple complexities of conformity within an individual’s specific societal structure. Within their own specific areas of psychology, every single one of them came to one simple conclusion that allowed each of them to become the quality of psychologist that they are today, and that is the understanding that the power of the situation can be stronger than the individual. So much so, that the events which occurred in the Abu Gharib prison, were just a matter of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, world renowned psychologist, current professor at Stanford University, and leader of the 1971 study of the ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ said â€Å"When you put that set of horrendous work conditions and external factors together, it creates an evil barrel†¦You could put virtually anybody in it [evil barrel] and you’re going to get this kind of behavior† (Edge). Thirty years ago, Zimbardo began a study which demonstrated the power of a certain social situation that distorted the participants’ personal identities and morality in order to understand what specifically made those personalities conform the kind of behavior that most of them, swore they could never be. quote of individual who said that he could not be mean to any living thing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another p...

Musicians have a responsibility to serve as role models to our youth :: Music

Musicians have a responsibility to serve as role models to our youth I strongly disagree with this statement because music artists have the right to express what ever subject they wish. Musicians do have to serve as role models to our youth through their actions, if that is their target market, but they do not have to take any responsibility what so ever for what teenagers choose to listen to or the actions they choose to take because of artists lyrics. The lyrics in many musicians? songs, especially ?rap? music should not be taken seriously, because a number of music artists have said that the lyrics in their songs are not meant to be taken seriously. Many rap artists use extremely exaggerated and profound lyrics (which are not to be taken seriously) to portray a message. There has been much debate over whether musicians should be banned from releasing music with explicit lyrics, especially by parents. Ozzie Osbourne has been taken to court on three occasions because of parents that accused him of influencing their sons? actions due to the explicit lyrics in his songs. Each of the boys had committed suicide, and on all three occasions parents believed that Ozzie Osbourn?s lyrics contributed to, or were the main cause of their sons? unfortunate deaths. But in all three court cases Ozzie Osbourne was not held accountable for the actions of the parents children, because music artists are allowed to express themselves freely. Even though all musicians have the right of ?freedom of speech? there is warning stickers on all CD?s such as ?Explicit content MA 15+? or ?High Course Language? etc. These labels help differentiate music with explicit lyrics/content from music that has no explicit content. The labels warn all parents that if their child or teenager is under the age of 16, that this music may not be suitable for them to listen to.

How Can Inter-Proffesional Working Improve the Quality of Health Care

Using appropriate literature this paper will attempt to examine the ways in which interprofessional working can improve the quality of health care. Concepts of interprofessional working will be looked at. Examples observed or carried out on assessment ward in the mental health practice area will be drawn upon to explore the concepts of interprofessional working and quality. Issues relating to interprofessional working will be identified and will explored based on experience. ‘Quality’ is very difficult to define so this will be attempted using certain criteria.The report ‘High Quality Care for All’ published by Lord Darzi (DOH 2009) equates higher quality care with improvements to patient services i. e reducing waiting times for meetings and health care interventions. Also, by giving power to the general practitioner, the report aims to change the way NHS budgets are run. According to the NMC (2008), Nurses must work together with carers, patients, communiti es, groups and other organisations while taking into account their needs and strengths.They must promote health and well being while empowering people to make to make choices and decisions to promote their own self-care. Interprofessional working is an essential concept of the Nursing and Midwifery Council requirement for any qualifying nurse to be deemed competent. This essay will focus on an assessment ward, in a mental health unit at a general hospital. Seeing how important interprofessional working is, key issues affecting interprofessional working will be explored.According to Day (2006), 3 major factors affect interprofessional working. These are systemic, organisation and interactional factors. Systemic factors are factors outside of the organisation that have an impact, be it positive or negative on this organisation. Professional socialisation, professional language, professional tribes and territories, professional codes of conduct and professions/professionalism are all d ifferent aspects of this factor. An example of a key issue would be articulating professional identity.If nurse doesn’t know what unique role they play as a nurse, they will be unable to effectively work together with other professionals. Another factor is the organisational factor. This relates to factors of setup and framework within the organisation. For example, lack of staff during a shift can cause a serious problem cause communication breakdown between management and nursing/healthcare assistants. The last factor that Day (2006) pointed out was the interactional factor.Interactional factors relate to a process of collaboration that occurs between two individuals. Lack of communication, lack of willingness to collaborate and professional stereotypes all come under this factor. Now the factors that can affect interprofessional working have been covered, looking at what works effectively within the chosen admissions ward under the mental health unit is the next step. When looking at those systemic factors it’s apparent that professional language is very important and used through-out the ward among professionals to communicate.For example the nurse asked the student to do go do a UDS screening and some vital obs on patient B. The student nurse is familiar with this professional jargon and carries out what has been asked where as if this was asked of someone on the ward for the first time they would not know what to do. A way to solve this would be to keep professional jargon strictly among professionals and to make communication between a patient and a professional as clear and easy-to-understand as possible.The NMC professional codes of conduct are referred to a lot on the ward when dealing with students and the hospital trust policy is also referred to in an attempt to make all students aware of expectation to pass their respective placements. How does this relate to interprofessional working? Professional codes of conduct always promote go od interprofessional working, for social workers the GSCC (2002) states ‘recognising and respecting the roles and expertise of others from other agencies and working in partnership with them’, for doctors the GMC (2001) states ‘Respect the skills and contributions of your colleagues.Communicate effectively with colleagues within and outside of the team. On the ward, professional socialisation problems were not very apparent because the health care professionals present during meetings were always willing the take on board the different philosophies and theoretical bases present during the meeting and try to reach a common goal for the patient. Open discussions on different perspectives can help other professional overcome this problem.When looking at organisational factors on the ward, the ward appears very well structured as everyone knows what to do any point during the day. The use a of a white board to write down the duties and responsibilities of the professi onals based on the ward made it clear ‘who was doing what’ and limited any confusion. The ward design and function aid interprofessional working by bring all the professionals together regularly and by allowing them to use the same meeting rooms.The regular team meetings also greatly improves interprofessional working on the ward and ward rounds always comprise of health care assistants and nurses who effectively pass on informationâ€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"â€Å"1n from the previous shift to the staff taking the new shift. The doctors round is similar because nurses doctors, ward managers and some other health care professional may be present to discuss patient on a case by case basis. The use of Rio (the intranet patient dat abase) is invaluable as an effective interprofessional tool.Patients are accessible by all health care professionals and progress notes are regularly recorded for patient by a variety of professional so reading through on the ward can give a clear picture of what’s the patient’s current progress. A good team leader is also important in term of interprofessional working. On the ward, the team leader is an essential component. She/he can make or break a ward structure. In this case the ward manager was excellent, friendly, professional and willing to solve any problems that occur between members of staff.The interactional factors also affect the interprofessional working on the ward. Professional stereotyping doesn’t occur much on the ward because most all of the staff come from a wide variety of countries and religions so there is a lot of mutual respect. Professional stereotyping of patients wasn’t a frequent thing but did occasional happen i. e a nurse e xpecting a patient to behave a certain way because of their racial background. Generally negative stereotyping should be frowned upon but positive stereotyping of patient which would improve their outcome should be capitalised on.Way to reduce this would be interprofessional education courses. Issues with lack of communication on the ward were not frequent but did occur. Staff forgetting to mention or document key occurrences or incidents during the day, lead to a few problems with interprofessional working as the doctors could not act on information they did not have. Having had time to look at different issues on the ward and solutions as to how to solve them, the barriers of interprofessional working otherwise not highlighted previously will be looked at.Lack of knowledge about other professionals can cause a break down in interprofessional working. Knowing the different roles people play will aid you when needing to refer a patient or when a patient is concerned with a particula r issues you cannot handle yourself professionally. For example a patients housing issues should be handle by his/her social worker. Another issues is the different levels of authority most systems in healthcare have. This can create a lot of interprofessional working barriers.For example, nurses might find it difficult to communicate with a senior manager because of concerns about their position. Sharing information can also become a barrier when professional do not share all the information they have received regarding a care in their care. This can put other professionals at risk by then giving patients care, without taking into account what the last outcome was. For example, a patient telling a social worker that he cant have ibuprofen tablets because they make him sick.This information not being passed on to the Mental health team could result in ibuprofen being prescribed for him and he subsequently becoming very ill. Conflict can occur regarding the relationship with the pati ent. If a professional is over familiar with the patient it could lead to an impaired judgement and therefore conflict with the mental health team. Team size on the ward also affects the way in which professionals can perform their duties and interact with the other professionals. Conflict can arise if the team is understaffed.Resentment towards management, a lack of willingness to co-operate, undermined patient care can all emerge if these issues are allowed to continue. According to Goodman and Clemow (2010), several strategies can be used to improve interprofessional working which in turn will improve the overall care given to the patient and by definition, the quality of care will improve. Clinical supervision and engaging in reflection. The use of managerial support The development of realistic expectations Reinforcement of professional identityEvaluating current roles and practices Training and education for interprofessional working These are very effective strategies to mini mise barriers in effective communication. Clinical supervision is very important in ironing out minor issues and the communication lines open and transparent. The use of reflection as a tool to improve interprofessional is very good. Reflection can help a professional analyse and review the way in which they have been communicating. Was it effective enough? Was all the information passed on? Was it all understood?Was the information relevant? How was my tone of voice? Was i being fair? These are some of the question a professional can ask themselves to improve their communication with other professionals. Managers are their to support the professional on the ground. The proper use of manager to support any issues or problem you may be having with another professional is essential. People are very diverse and working in a large team of different personalities and philosophies will lead to conflict so it’s important to use the managerial support available to all on the team.Exp ecting realistic outcomes can really improve the interprofessional working because when professional work together they sometimes rely on a number of steps to be completed before, they can start their aspect of patient care. Having an understanding of the workload, stresses and time management issues another professional faces prevent barriers in communication from occurring. The use of badges, uniforms and i. d cards help reinforcement professional identity and improve interprofessional working. If it’s clear what roles a professionals serve the moment they approach any professional on the ward.It grants immediate trust in their role and improves their communication. Reflecting on the formative assessment. It was a very rich learning experience and proved how difficult it is to work in a team when people have serious difference in opinion. At one point the people were excluded from the group and things got very uncomfortable but in the end, we were able to push through our d ifferences and work out an essay which we all agreed to present. Our topic was learning and disabilities and the group scenario was based on my experience in a learning and disabilities placement.So I wrote the scenario which was used during the essay. It was a very good experience from me to reflect on placement and see how my experience on placement was represented in terms of an interprofessional working presentation. To summarise, the topic was introduced and attempts to identify the concepts of interprofessional working and ‘quality care’ were made. A practice setting was identified and was subsequently used to give examples. Following the introduction factors that contribute to interprofessional working were explored. Advantage and disadvantages of interprofessional working were highlighted.Key issues of interprofessional working were identified. These barriers were explained using examples and personal experience in the practice setting. These barriers were explo red in depth and examples were given. Lastly, several strategies were identified that would improve interprofessional working and would prevent barriers from occurring. These were explored and examples were also given. Now that interprofessional working has been explored, the effect is has on professionals, the practice area, the structure of the hospital, the interactions between professional and ultimately the patients.The concept of Quality care explain by Lord Darzi states a number of ways to improve services, patient waiting times, GP involvement in budgets but most importantly it is implied that making improvements between service and their professional i. e interprofessional working will directly improve the quality of care. This essay has tried to show the effects of interprofessional working on professional will always translate to the patient, be it negatively r positively. It is up to the professional of the current of future generations to make sure that our interprofess ional working improves the care we give our patientsREFRENCE LIST Barrett, S. T. (2005). Interprofessional Working in Health and Social Care. China: Palgrave Macmillian Codes of practice. [online] (2010). General Social Care Council. Available from: http://www. gscc. org. uk/cmsFiles/Registration/Codes%20of%20Practice/CodesofPracticeforSocialCareWorkers. pdf [Accessed on April 5 2012] Day. (2006). Inter-professional Working; an essential guide for health and social care professionals. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Department of Health. [online]. (2009). High Quality Care for All: Our journey so far. Available from: http://www. h. gov. uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_101670 [Accessed on April 5 2012] Ellis, G. K. (2006). Interpersonal Communication in Nursing: Theory and practice. (2nd ed). London: Elsevier Goodman, R. C. (2010). Nursing and collaborative practice: A guide to inter-professional learning and working. (2nd ed). Cornwall: Learn ing Matters Healthcare Policy. [online]. (2005). British Medical Association. Available from: http://www. bma. org. uk/healthcare_policy/healthcarerural. jsp? page=12 [Accessed on April 5 2012]