Research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Research - Assignment Example Research findings, clinical knowledge, knowledge resulting from basic science as well as opinion from expert are all regarded as â€Å"evidence† (Drake and Goldman 32). Practices that are based on research findings, however, have high chances of resulting into outcomes that match the desires of patients across different settings as well as geographic locations. The challenge for evidence based practice is caused by the pressure from health care facility due to containment of cost, larger availability of information, greater sway of consumer regarding care and treatment options. This kind of practice demands some changes in students’ education, more research which is practice-relevant, and a working relationship between researchers and clinicians (Drake and Goldman 38). Evidence-based form of practice also brings an opportunity for nursing care to be more effective, more individualized, dynamic, streamlined and opportunities to maximize clinical judgment effects. When there is reliance on evidence in defining best practices but not for supporting practices that exist, then nursing care is said to be keeping pace with recent technological changes and benefits from developments of new knowledge (Drake and Goldman 49). Although many young professionals have embraced this new approach, it has come with its challenges. A number of researc h studies have indicated that perception of nurses towards EBP is positive and they regard it useful to better care of patients. This research will critically analyze the barriers towards full acceptance of EBP. This will be a descriptive research design. Qualitative research does not, by definition, aim to precisely estimate population parameters or test hypotheses. However, most qualitative projects do attempt. This design was identified as the most convenient and ensured that the data obtained gave answers to the research questions. Descriptive design also offers the opportunity for a logical structure of the inquiry into

Core Team of Change Champions Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Core Team of Change Champions - Term Paper Example This is of significance in ensuring activities and processes for planned change are in line with national and international guidelines. Non-governmental organizations whose mandate is ensuring equal opportunities for all in terms of access to quality and safe care would in this regard be one of the core team of my planned change. For instance, the WHO would provide financial support. In achieving planned change, there must also be the creation of shared need. In this regard, it would be important to ensure individuals involved in improvement strategies have a shared objective. These individuals in the context of my planned change include nurses, physicians, the administration or management of the healthcare organization, patients, and the community in general. Nurses are the primary care givers and thus their involvement is critical for the achievement of planned change. If physicians and other care providers understand the main objective of care delivery and conform to their assigned role, then they will direct their efforts in terms of conforming to quality improvement in the achievement of planned change. The role of patients and local community as members of the team of change is to provide feedback needed in assessing outcomes. In a nutshell, the core team of change will involve all stakeholders: Nurses, physicians, patients, the local community, government organizations, and non-governmental

Define both faith and reason Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Define both faith and reason - Essay Example Reasoning is the name of explanation with justification. Justification in turn is drawn from universally acknowledged facts and beliefs. Almost always, there is no ultimate reason that can be raised in support of a particular faith. Many reasons can be offered to justify a faith, and there acknowledgement varies from individual to individual depending upon the individual’s way of thinking and perception of the world. Relationship between faith and reason: There is a very strong relationship between reason and faith. Reason is the fundamental element that supports faith but it can never take its place. It is not possible for faith to exist without any reason, though faith can and does exist quite frequently without the existence of a profound knowledge or reasoning in its support. It is important to note that reason and faith are never antithetical. Reason and faith are never opposite. They are also never mutually exclusive and are hence, inseparable from each other (Albl 1). T herefore, it is quite normal and rational to find reason for having faith. Description of faith: â€Å"Biblical faith is having the belief and assurance from God in something that is unseen and/or not yet realized which has some probability of being correct, where the probability is determined using the brain and the intellect as guided by God† (angelfire.com).

Central Concerns in John Thompsons Political Scandal Essay

Central Concerns in John Thompsons Political Scandal - Essay Example This is because there was no perception of accountability to the public in many societies in the past. Moreover the dissemination of scandals far and wide, and as frequently as is possible, is made possible by the development of a plethora of media now available. This has resulted in lots of unearthing of covert actions of people in power. There are some people who look at the media coverage of scandals as a form of entertainment available to the people. However many consider the role of media as that of vigilant watch dog that unearths the wrongs in society and brings remedial action and plugs in all loopholes that encourage public figures to circumvent regulations and act in their private interest. Many recent books have come out on this subject and John Thompson's book, Political Scandal has made a significant contribution to the ongoing debate on the subject by an analysis of public scandals as churned out by the media and its effect on accountability of high ranking public figures, the effect of this on the erosion of credibility associated with their office and a host of other illuminating aspects of the problem. Thompson considers political scandals as violations of prescribed process and transgressions of regulations, which have been incorporated, in the democratic system as a measure to avoid misuse or check the deviation to unilateral action by a person who has a public responsibility. After the media has gained such significance as tools that can form the attitudes of people and influence the way they cast the vote, there has been a conscious attempt to throw the weight of the media in competitive politics. Thomson sees the reputation of the individual politician as the key asset that will determine his edge over his opponent in the process of election. The media is on the look out for transgressions committed by an individual as a matter of priority in its reporting due to various reasons. While some media report these transgressions merely to enhance their readership or viewer ship others may be committed to their role as watchdog Page 3 in a healthy democracy. In addition to this, in competitive politics, the motive may be to tarnish the reputation of the opponent by constant bombardment of the opponent by targeting weakest points. In this tendency Thompson sees the dangers of dragging political non-issues related to the personal conduct of public figures into vortex of media reporting. In many democracies, including some of the old and celebrated ones, the narrow-minded struggle for power heavily draws on the repertoire of sex scandals real or concocted to deal a deathblow to the reputation of the other. The mud slinging campaigns and personal vituperation that appear so blatantly in the media, Thompson, warns will undermine the social trust of the democratic system (p.251). The exposure of political scandals if undertaken responsibly, Thompson believes, can strengthen the democratic institutions. What he calls power scandals are those that contravene or seek to circumvent the rules, laws and established procedures that govern the exercise of political power (P.196). In a democratic set up power is to be exercised openly and the role of the media as a watchdog makes the exercise of the power an openly done task and hence accountable. However Thompson does not think

Landscape, Spirit, and Music Essay Example for Free

Landscape, Spirit, and Music Essay Anne Boyd’s â€Å"Landscape, Spirit, and Music: An Australian Story† is a substantive view on the integration of the landscape of a distinct culture represented by aboriginal beliefs and traditions to Australia’s inimitable non-Indigenous music industry. Boyd said, â€Å"it is possible to see something of the significance of music in constructing an ‘inspirited’ relationship with landscape as part of a possible process of ‘aboriginalization’ which is slowly affecting all of Australia’s non-indigenous inhabitants. † Boyd sought to prove her assumptions by presenting various evidences in the works of famous Australian composers such as Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe, and David Lumsdaine, including the artistry of Tommy Barrtjap as a musician. The landscape that Boyd was referring to with regards to the influences of some non-Indigenous Australian composers encompasses the history of Australia, the culture of its indigenous people, as well as the physical landscape or environment that makes the country matchless in beauty and whereiwthal. The history of Australia serves as the backdrop or milieu from which the composers were able to structure their unique, meaningful, and poignant music. Furthermore, the culture of Australia’s indigenous peoples becomes the inspiration for musicians or composers to create something exclusive and distinctive. Thus, the musicians and composers that Boyd mentioned in her discussions were able to create a kind of music that channels mysticism, spirituality, and the metaphysical, representative of Australia’s indigenous culture. Boyd said that â€Å"All three composers [Ross, Edwards Schulthorpe] have drawn upon birdsong, not literally, but in a mythical and ritual sense; birds thus become spiritual messengers linking human music and landscape. † The great influence of Australia’s history and the indigenous culture of its native inhabitants is expected, as argued by Schultz . Schultz said that the emergence of a unique and distinctive music is most likely, particularly in Australia because â€Å"the existence of diverse immigrant population, a sense of real or imagined isolation, insecurity about the presence of a national character†¦ unique natural features such as climate, geography and flora and fauna, a pre-existing and extant culture with a strong and individual civilization, high standards of education with concomitant levels of artistic self-awareness, and substantial government subsidization of artistic activity† are dynamic and influential factors that would encourage such devotion and revolution in making and producing music for the sake of art. Furthermore, Lim believes that the growing interest of non-Indigenous Australian musicians to the history of Australia and culture of its Indigenous peoples as landscapes to developing music has something to do with the stipulation of these composers to develop a unique kind of music and a pe rsonal identity as a musician or composer. Lim said â€Å"Aboriginal cultures continue to be used by artists as a marker of authenticity in the construction of an Australian identity of sense of nationality. † By and large, Boyd’s discussions as supported by the narratives and arguments presented by Schultz and Lim explicate the great weight or importance of Indigenous culture in Australia as well as its history in helping musicians and composers create music that represents nationalism and establish a unique and inimitable identity. Works Cited Boyd, Anne. 2007. â€Å"Landscape, Spirit and Music,† in The Soundscapes of Australia: Music, Place and Spiritually. Richards, Fiona (Burlington, VT: Ashgate), pp. 11-18. Lim, Liza. â€Å"Crossing Cultural Boundaries and Ecstatic Transformation,† Sounds Australian 26 (2006), 10-11. Schultz, Andrew. â€Å"Other Places, Whose Music? : Some Introductory Comments on Appropriation and Tradition,† Sounds Australian 20 (1991): 8-9.

Recording, analysing and using HR information Essay Example for Free

Recording, analysing and using HR information Essay It is beneficial for a business to collect a variety of data to gain an understating of its performance to satisfy compliance legislation. However the information collected needs to be useful, relevant and selective. Raw data collected can be converted into useful information. It is important for human resources (HR) to collect data to meet legal requirements, keep necessary contact details of employees, records all contractual arrangements and to provide supporting information in the event of a claim that may be made against an organisation. It also supports an organisation when making decisions. Data can be collected in two different types of formats within an organisation. These are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative is data collected numerically which allows for data to be measured and calculated. Quantitative is a descriptive method of collecting data. This type of data can be observed but not measured. These two different types of data support HR practices in a number of different ways, such as, showing patterns of absence relating to employees, highlighting any learning and development requirements that an individual may require, trends’ in staff turnover and key performance indicators. Customer feedback can also be obtained to allow a business to improve it services and costs can also be easily monitored. HR data can be stored by a number of different methods each having advantages and disadvantages. Data can be stored electronically and non-electronically. Storing data electronically can be beneficial as it is easy to access, can be shared easily and takes up less space. Online HR systems are available to employees where data and information can be added and updated by an individual and also can be accessed by one or more people such as line managers. This is useful for appraisals and monitoring performance. Storing data electronically through databases is also more secure than manual documents. Sorting data manually such as diaries, word processing documents and paper based surveys also has its benefits as it can be more cost effective to a business and cannot be easily lost where electronic data could be. Also employees require less training to store and organise manual data. There is an array of different UK legislations currently enforced relating to data and legislation is in place to enforce correct storing, recording and accessibility of data. One of these UK legislations are The Data Protection Act, The information commissioner has produced a code of conduct relating to the data protection act. This applies to personal data held and the legitimate grounds for this being held, which information is classed as sensitive and cannot be gathered without explicit permission. Another type of current UK legislation is the Human Rights act. This confers the right of respect of privacy on individuals and provides for employees in the public sector to take legal actions against their employer of they consider their rights infringed.

Devising As A Journey Of Exploration And Discovery Theatre Essay

Devising As A Journey Of Exploration And Discovery Theatre Essay Devising is a very fluid form of theatre. Taking inspirations from anywhere and everywhere, a devised performance can be in any form and on any topic. This style is in direct contrast to scripted theatre, where a text is laying out the plot, direction, characters and details of the final performance. Although there is freedom for a personal interpretation of the overall view and form of the piece, the rehearsals and performances are confined by what has already been decided by the playwright. But devising is unlimited, in which a company can produce a performance on any theme or topic, taking ideas from any part of life and producing something new and fresh †¦the precise nature of the end product [of devised theatre] is unknown. In conventional theatre, however, everyone knows the production is, for example, Shakespeares Hamlet from the outset. (Oddey, 7) An example of a devising piece is the recent Fairytale Mash-Up which I was involved in as an actor. For this our original stimulus was a collection of short fairytale stories, some of which were familiar and others were unknown to the group. On reading the stories we found them to be surprisingly gruesome, which was something that is not necessarily picked up when a fairytale is heard as a child, such as the butcher cutting off the girls feet in Red Shoes. This was an unexpected twist and was the main basis of the beginning of our idea, as we decided from the very start that the Fairy Godmother would be dead, and therefore would not make all dreams come true as is usually expected of this character. Already we had a new interpretation of a classic idea, but our own input had discovered a new alternative. As oak trees grow from small acorns (Greet, Why Devise) and all ideas must stem from somewhere, the actors within a devising group are responsible with feeding new ideas into the group to create more diversity within the piece. Through this an actor has the power to get what they individually want from the piece and therefore it becomes more personal for the actors. It becomes their piece in a deeper way than, for example, a Chekhov play would, as it is inspired by their own ideas and experiences. In the Mash-Up I personally wanted something from it, having not attempted a murder mystery before and having not explored the true possibilities within comedic theatre. Devising allows us, as actors, to explore ourselves, our possibilities and our limitations. Sarah Kane believed that if something could be imagined then there was a way of reproducing it on a stage, and with this in mind an actor can explore distant memories and fantastical stories in aid of a devised performance. As every human is unique and no two people have the same experiences, a devised company has a whole variety of stimulus that is previously unseen and unexplored by a public audience. In this, the not knowing is clear, as at the start of development of a piece nobody knows what will be their influences and stimuli, and this creates a feeling of excitement and in return provides energy for the piece. This, as a result, means inevitably every devised piece will always be original due to the fact that a different group of actors will provide different motivations, due to the contrasting relationships within the group. In the 1960s a group was formed called the People Show and their performances relied on the differences and conflict between individual artists within the group, which changed with every new shows situation, conditions and circumstances. Every show was a unique devising performance. (Oddey, 5-6) This company is an ideal representation of a devising company, as they are described as a group of individual artists in collaboration with each other, taking risks, having a sense of unknown at the start of the devising process (Oddey, 6). It is this risk-taking that is important to devising, as people need to lose their inhibitions for true inspiration and new ideas to form. Having worked with members of my group before there were connections for some, but others were new relationships that had to be built during the development process. A benefit of this was that fresh eyes on an actor would see a talent within them that had maybe not been explored before, that their closer friends would have overlooked as being too obvious. In this risks were taken, not all of which were successes but by doing rehearsals we allowed the freedom and non-judgement of an idea so that even if only a tiny aspect of it was used later, we made it so that actors would not fear having ideas rejected within the group. One of the main techniques within devising is improvisation, which in reality is the basis of most devised work. This is a spontaneous activity, and therefore allows freedom, as an actor is not tied down by any limits, there is no final destination laid out in advance and there is limited if any direction made. The actor can be in the moment, without having to concern his thoughts with the next moment: Nothing is fixed and absolute, it is in flux, what will the next moment be? (Bentley, 78) In improvisation the next moment is not important, it is about focusing on the current and feeling free to explore in the present without fear of the future. Not all improvisation goes well, and more than often it takes more than several tries to find something worth anything, which is why continued improvisation is vital for discovering new things, because if a company always goes with the first idea they limit themselves greatly where they should be free to pick and choose from many ideas. Addit ionally a benefit of devised work is that even a concept that has been weeks in processing can be dropped if needed something that is not so possible within scripted work. In our piece we swapped and changed characters as we felt needed one member was set to be the Fairy Godmother before this was changed weeks in, but it was discovered that this actually allowed the original actor to experience more, having been able to try out more than one character until she found one that would fit with what she wanted out of the devising experience. Additionally, original characters like a reclusive genie were dropped as we felt necessary, and in early stages we were regularly swapping characters until we found an option that gave everyone the best opportunities for themselves and for the group. WE toyed with the idea of simply picking out characters from a hat then performing as them or producing still images without discussing it, but this became more complicated as some were drawn more to a certain character and struggled with more obscure options. As time went on and the piece became more complex and structured, one group member produced poems which acted as monologues for all the different characters, so in time we found ourselves structuring scenes around these poems as more were produced. It was quite interesting combining improvisation with scripted work, as we could improvise and develop until we found a place where the poem fit, and once it was done we would improvise the end of the scene as well. This meant that we could feel sure that the scene would have a point but we would still have the freedom to play around the set information. Additionally, as all the scenes were flashbacks for various murder suspects, there was no set order for them to be in, so this also added the opportunity to play with different orders to study the flow of energy from one to another before finding the right arrangement. Oddey says how thinking on your feet allows the individual to respond to new ideas or thoughts spontaneously, to sense and react to others so that the interaction or combined operation often produces unknown or unseen fresh material. This is not to underestimate the value of or importance of group discussion, but to point out the danger of becoming preoccupied with talking (155) and this is definitely a significant point. In our group we found that discussion was best left until after trying out some free improvisation and even then it needed to be brief otherwise it became compressing. We gave ourselves strict time limits and this meant that there wasnt time to talk and added concentrated energy into a moment, which often created new and exciting results. Devising is also about exploring how common ideas and regular day-to-day things can be flipped on their head and transformed into brand new perspectives, thereby challenging our preconceptions. (DV8, Artistic Policy) Theatres priority is to get a message across or to make an audience feel something particular, and more than often this is done through opening their eyes to the obvious but unexpected. This is the use of the known rather than the not known but has just as much if not more of an impact on viewers. The forgotten and the ignored are just as important as the undiscovered and in fact these things make it more personal and an actors own memories or feelings have a real power to shape plot or characters. Additionally, using influences from outside of theatre is very important and often not considered. For Frantic Assembly neither of its artistic directors has a formal background in drama, theatre or dance. In creating work, the company relies on influences that lie, for the mo st part, outside the realm of theatre and its regular forms and practise. (Frantic, †¦uk/p110.html) For our work we were inspired greatly by the 2001 film Shrek and used nursery rhymes for development in one scene. By looking further than common theatre techniques and looking outside the box, we found more options for variety within the piece. The physical company DV8s focus of the creative approach is on reinventing†¦ with meaning, particularly where this has been lost through formalised techniques (Artistic Policy). Another skill in devising is the use of play and re-exploring our childish minds, though not pretending to play as a child, but rediscovering the intensity of focus we experience as children (Greet, Why Devise), as this removes inhibitions and helps to reintroduce the more fantastical creative imaginations we once had. Consequently it makes actors less fearful of bad ideas and therefore less afraid to be more outrageous and experimental. One can then look beyond self-perceived limitations (Frantic, †¦uk/p106.html) and find a more energetic side, which means that physical theatre is achieved much more easily. Even closing ones eyes makes judgement less threatening which provides opportunity for even more exploration. In devising, the aim is to produce brand new theatre that has not been seen before. We found in our company that we often did not know what would happen next; in fact the murderer was not decided until well into the rehearsal process. It made no sense to know the end before the beginning or middle, so we did not rush this decision. Our piece was not a search for knowledge, but for the unknown. (Barba, 5), so knowing the ending would have confined us and limited exploration, constantly distracted by the final message of the piece. Even if two companies did a performance of The Caucasian Chalk Circle for example, completely uninfluenced by each other, they would still be telling the same story. This is why for our piece we used well-known characters but then added a twist, such as Cinderella actually being an obsessive cleaner. By exploring all of our different possibilities we did discover new opportunities and new perspectives on theatre as a whole. The real discovery, however, comes at the end, when we watch it back and see what we have achieved from scratch, and finally acknowledge and notice how our own input has provided a brand new interpretation: Now we have made a journey in our own home. True travellers know this experience very well: the unknown world is discovered when one returns. (Barba, 146)