Research Investigation Essay

A research investigation on what specific skills an actor would need learn in order to convincingly portray the role of Silvio in Carlo Goldoni’s, A Servant of Two Masters. Carlo Goldoni wrote the comedy â€Å"Arlecchino servitore di due padroni†, which translates into modern English as The Servant of Two Masters, a commedia dell’Arte-style play. The performers of Commedia were often illiterate, and as such there was no point to write down scripts and record the performance, it was improvised and modified, preserving the aspects the audience found amusing and excluding those that were less successful. In this way, Carlo Goldoni’s writing down of the play strictly goes against commedia traditions, as it is not the way things were done when it was originally staged. Despite performing all their plays in Italian for the first twenty or so years, Commedia troops had phenomenal success, perhaps because the slapstick nature of their comedy mingled with its vulgar humor was relatively easy to follow. The themes of the play, including love, romance, deception and the status between masters and servants, combine to create an enjoyable and greatly comical performance. The play also scrutinizes social boundaries that were once present. Such as, the idea of a woman being dressed as a man this was much more controversial in the 1700’s and especially a woman who defeats a man in combat, as Beatrice (comes to Venice dressed as a man in search of her beloved Florindo, She is also a part of the first lover couple along with Florindo) defeats Silvio. Smereldina (the maid of Clarice, she is an extremely feisty and slightly bitter character who wants more than anything to find a man and get married) also confronts Silvio and scorns him, which is something unparalleled in that time, a woman of the serving class reprimanding a man of status. The play also explores the lengths people will go to for the sake of love, the hopelessness of Florindo (a man banished from his home in Turin for his murder of Federigo Rasponi, and the lover of Beatrice who comes in search of him) and Beatrice’s relationship to find each other, as well as commenting on the importance of never giving up hope, because as they are about to kill themselves they find each other again. This is also reflected in the many difficult predicaments Truffaldino (the servant of both Florindo and Beatrice, he is a mischievous, hungry man who is seeking ways to better himself, he is comic relief and also the main protagonist) finds himself in, as no matter how hopeless his situation looks, he keeps on envisaging himself getting out of his tricky situations and eventually he does get out of trouble. The behavior by those of the dominant class of the servants is a very noticeable theme of the time period, and an important social observation. The serving class of Truffaldino, Smereldina and the Porter (she carries the bags places at different times during the play and has a fairly rough time of it, carrying very heavy loads only to be ridiculed and left unrewarded for her labor) are regarded with little respect and trust throughout the entirety of the play. As the early performers of this play were more than likely lower class individuals, this play is an insightful parody of their own difficulties. Commedia dell’Arte is an Italian theater style, characterized by masked performers and improvised scenes based on simplistic scenarios. Carlo Goldoni categorized four elemental types of stock characters in Italian comedy: Pantaloon, a miserly Venetian merchant, easy to anger, disrespected by everyone and a born loser; Dottore, a pedantic lawyer-type from Bologna; Brighella, a serenading servant who enjoys thieving, and bragging; and Arlecchino, a basically thoughtless servant permanently in despair over unreturned love. A Servant of Two Masters is set in Venice in the 1700’s, and would have been performed by a travelling troop of commedia actors. As such, they would have had very limited set facilities, and their performances staged outdoors, meaning they would have to allow for surrounding noises such as wind when performing. Throughout this research investigation it will be delving into what specific skills I must learn in order to convincingly portray the role of Silvio in Carlo Goldoni’s, A Servant of Two Masters. There is a catch when one decides to take on the task and portray the role of Silvio in The Servant of Two Masters and that is that the comic instincts of a skilled actor need to conquer a tendency to be a servant to the text. It has been said that commedia is the riskiest form of comedy. That being said, it is worth the risk. When the flash of inspired improvisation hits an actor it is like a whirlwind and time seems to be in a complete interruption while a phenomenon takes place. Fortunately Goldoni’s writing is so perfectly composed and clinging to fundamental Commedia dell’Arte form that it allows one to understand how to perform below, within and around the text itself. Focusing on the lovers, they are the sons and daughters of characters who are also high on the social ladder; this is where Silvio finds himself in The Servant of Two Masters. The lovers in this play (Silvio and Clarice) are not only infatuated with each other they are extraordinarily infatuated with themselves. More often than not, they are only with one another because the other person makes them look better. They argue often, making a big melodramatic show out of their blubbering and attempting to top the others grief; yet they immediately make amends when they receive a flattering remark about their appearance. They speak in a distinguished, pretentious and flowery language: â€Å"If I could think that you desired my blood to avenge my supposed cruelty, I give it you with all my heart. But, oh God! Instead of the blood of my veins, accept, I beg you, that which gushes from my eyes.†(Goldoni 53) Silvio is traditionally costumed in the latest Italian fashions (since Italy is where Commedia originated) The Lovers elegant costumes were usually of the same color, just in case another couple of lovers was in the play too. This only reaffirms how much they were made for each other. Just like couples who wear matching outfits today. Given that Silvio is wealthy, he wears expensive clothes and jewelry, made of luxurious fabrics. Both Silvio and Clarice usually hold some kind of prop in their hand, most likely a letter to swoon over, or a handkerchief but this is of course the director’s choice. There is always a mirror somewhere on their body, being in a purse or pocket, or even hanging as a necklace around the actor’s throat. This is useful for admiring oneself, or in Silvio’s case for seeking out Clarice and adorning her through it. Unlike what most know Commedia dell’Arte to be known for the lovers do not wear masks. Rather, they wear quite a bit of makeup which in turn subsidizes as their mask. The term dreamer is a key way to understanding the lovers’ movement. Their feet are firmly on the ground, in a somewhat Ballet style position, but they lack firm contact with the earth because they lead with their chest and are heart heavy. Their arms are held out to their sides and curved. Their whole manner is very elegant and balletic, as they do not walk so much as glide. They never touch; to do so would cause them both to faint and or run away. It is sexually arousing for them to get very close without touching. They aren’t the brightest individuals so walking is somewhat of a challenge causing them to wobble, due to the uncertainty of their lack of contact with the ground. The posture that Silvio undertakes is that of compelling pride. His chest is naturally expanded and thrust out so that his heart essentially leads him, sometimes seeming to literally pull him across the stage. He points his toes while standing (like that of a ballet dancer), and when moving, he takes light, quick steps, giving himself a floating appearance. Overall, they simply lack contact with the ground. Their hand movements and gestures are very grand, expansive and expressive. Actors use the same dancing trainers as the wealthy individuals whom they are imitating in order to put emphasis on the absurdity of melodramatic behavior. There can be two sets of lovers in a Commedia dell’Arte play. The First set of lovers, usually more intelligent and serious, and the Second Lovers which in A Servant of Two Masters is Silvio and Clarice, usually whimsical and slightly silly. The second lovers in Goldoni’s A Servant of Two Masters are Clarice and Silvio. In research of the lovers when things are not going their way, they throw tantrums, pout, hurl insults while crying and whining. Their manner of dress and movement is highly stylized (more so than the First Lovers), making Silvio quite a narcissus. Silvio exists very much in his own world- and in his own world within that world. Self-obsessed and very selfish, he is more interested in what he is saying himself and how it sounds than in what his beloved Clarice is saying. He is primarily in love with himself, secondarily in love with love, and only without any doubt in love with his beloved. What he learns, if anything, from the tribulations of A Servant of Two Masters is the need to reverse these sickening priorities. Even though most of Silvio’s declarations would melt a heart of stone, there always seems to be a comic side to everything he says. One wonders if the explanation does not lie in the fact that love often robs the lover of all sense of his own logic, even though he may be the most rational of living men under ordinary circumstances. He does, however, come off better than most other Commedia characters: there is no viciousness in him, and less to be accused of – except for his vanity and narcissism. He represents the human potential for happiness, which is something that everyone is striving for. â€Å"Sir, I beg you, let everyone do as they will; do not be so put out about it. Now that I am happy, I want all the world to b e happy too. Is anyone else going to be married? Let them all get married†! (Goldoni 54) I have become conscious of the fact that the character of Silvio must be played as one that is over confident. He is very certain of himself and of his actions. He believes he is entitled to Clarice and is willing to fight to protect his property. Silvio is also quite protective, or even overprotective of those things which are important to him, or that he sees as belonging to him. He wishes to keep Clarice all to his own and have her within an area he feels he can keep safe. While he is protective of others, he himself shows little regard when placing himself in jeopardy. This is shows how dim witted his character truly is. The idea of defeat does not enter his mind and he is always on the front foot, unwilling to let others determine his actions, he is a very rash character. Patience is a virtue, apparently. Silvio often lacks any sense of patience which makes him a very irritable, anxious, angry and difficult to be around type of character. His shortage of patience makes him a rat her ignorant character. Silvio is always quick to act and often makes mistakes because of his unwillingness to listen to the advice or opinions of others. He is a man of action, and he needs for things to be occurring or he quickly loses any potential interest. He is quick to do battle regardless of the consequences, which shows how stupidly in love he truly is. His unwillingness to listen to an entire situation and process his next appropriate action, often get him into irresponsible situations. â€Å"†¦That wretch shall die, and my ungrateful Clarice shall see her lover wallowing in his own gore†. (Goldoni 26) Despite his quick anger and his tendency to solve his problems with violence, he is inconspicuously charming. Even though his unwillingness to listen too much besides the sound of his own voice, he is really just eager to please his lover Clarice. He has swept Clarice off of her feet and is the heartthrob of Venetian women. Some people settle down, and some people are just settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than the feeling of butterflies, which is exactly how Silvio feels towards Clarice. He is never slow to put himself in harm’s way. He is quick to action and has little caution for his own well-being when engaging in any sort of fight, or in anything else he does. He is a man to be admired when he is at his finest, even though he is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. â€Å"I don’t care how old you are’ I have a mind to run you straight through the body†. (Goldoni 24) Through researching the character of Silvio it would be necessary to portray him as a man who struggles to hold himself in the position in which his status in society places him. He strives to be suave, cool and collected, but somewhat fights to maintain focus and is very quick to act, his actions usually end in anger and much turmoil. He is a powerful physical presence, and is one of formidable fighting skill, but is emotionally immature on many levels. His love for Clarice is one of his few genuinely mature emotions, and it is his motivation through the play. He is prone to rash, spontaneous actions, as well as to throwing tantrums such as a moody child would when things don’t go his way. This effectively suited the comedic aspect of the play while not deteriorating from the romantic story between Clarice and Silvio. â€Å"When we love we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too†. (Jeaulo Coelho)

Current Media: Nurses Portrayed as Non-Critical Thinkers Essay

Introduction In this paper, the misguided image created by media tells the public: nurses follow doctors orders and are incapable of making their own judgments will be explored. The impact of this image on the nurse as an individual and on the nursing profession will be shown and ways to improve the image of nursing will be discussed. Evidence Present media, portrays the nursing field as an aid to physicians in the hospitals giving little credit to what nurses do in their profession. The media has pushed aside nurses and have made a high image for doctors and physicians. Television shows generally depict doctors as the key clinicians, putting nurses in the background doing the unimportant tasks (Mee, 2010). Therefore nurses are seen having a minimal role in the health care system. The idea that nurses simply follow doctors orders is a strong stereotypical theme that has many people deceived. Nurses are not thought to be independent, making critical decisions for the patient. Instead, nurses are thought to only care for the patient while the doctor is gone. According to the American society of registered nurses, â€Å" The public perceive a nurse as just someone who assists the doctor during and after treatment of the illness assisting the patient in keeping up is personal hygiene, giving the medications as prescribed by the doctor, dressing the wounds when there is a need ensuring welfare of the patient† (American Society of Registered Nurses, 2007. para 1). This is a harmful image that creates a low expectation of what nurses are capable of. Therefore, nurses are endanger of not being taken seriously by patient families when their advise is given for a patient. People may want to speak to the doctor about patients health instead, even though the nurse is the one who sees the patient daily for long periods of time. The idea that a nurses role is easy, and simplistic is also shown in media as the nurses job is not well represented. According to the Ontario Nurses Association, â€Å"Physicians are shown spending half their time conduction key care tasks that nurses actually perform while nurses, as their peripheral subordinates, stare at them with adoration and admiration†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ontario Nurses Association, 2008. p.1). The general public is not well educated on the nurses role and do not realize the work nor effort nurses put into their career through education and dedicated work. The negative notions about nursing through television and other types of media need to be seriously exposed as they harm and form lies about nurses. Currently, â€Å"these images reinforce the farce that nurses are not critical thinkers and are dependent on physicians for every direction; that nursing is not a profession unto itself but that nurses are medical aids† (Ontario Nurses Association, 2008, p.1). Discussion The idea that nurses are not critical thinkers nor independent is damaging to the face of the nursing career. This train of thought causes people to underestimate the capabilities of nurses across Canada. The idea that we only follow doctors orders causes people to overlook what we do, labeling our work as unimportant. This attitude causes less funding into the nursing profession which leads to nursing shortages, creating over worked nurses and clinical error.As well as creating more part time jobs instead of full time, leaving many nurses no choice but to work more then one job. When a negative image is very dominant in Canadian culture, nurses in the working profession start to believe the lies about themselves, making nurses quiet and not speaking out against the image. The lack of credit nurses get for what they do can lead to them thinking their job is insignificant. Also, media is a main way that the younger canadian generations are being educated. By them learning wrong messages about nursing can create them to not wanting to pursue nursing as a career. This leads to less passionate nurses coming into the field who are unprepared for what they are signed up for. As a future nurse, the publics view of me is important. I want them to see me as a professional leader in the health care system. The idea that nurses are not critical thinkers and are depending on doctors for advise and orders counter acts the real job description is of me as a nurse. The negative assumptions about nursing can effect the way patients perceive me before having our first encounter. A patients doubts of my abilities a a nurse can make our interactions difficult at first if they look down on me. A patient support group is key to the patients recovery. Having family members doubting the capabilities of nurses can stop the patient and family from asking me questions regarding the overall health of the patient. When people expect me to just listen to the physician, not realizing that I make critical choices everyday, makes the patients take me for granted thinking that I am only a nurse. These thoughts will make my job more difficult as I will have to break through the wall of negative assumptions to allow patients , family and physicians see how independent, capable and professional I am as a nurse. To break down these negative images of nursing as a profession, nurses across Canada can use the media to their advantage by educating and showing people the full spectrum of nursing, allowing the public to understand that nurses make up a large portion of the health care system and are vital to each patients health and wellness. By educating the younger generations of Canada, nurses will be able to inspire and help people get passionate about nursing. This passion will bring more people into the workforce who are ready, excited and prepared for a rewarding career and will be able to shift the negative attitude towards the profession (Ontario Nurses Association, 2008). Each nurse in Canada should work hard and act professional to do their part in promoting a positive image that will reflect all canadian nurses as a whole. Having proactive nursing conferences across canada would help raise awareness of negative nursing images so that all nurses can be united and working towards the common goal of creating a more professional image of nursing in the eyes of the public. Currently, many nurses are being proactive by being integrated into the policy development on the healthcare and government level ( Ontario Nurses Association, 2008). The image of nursing must be changed, but all nurses need to come together as a team doing their part and taking pride in their identity as nurses. As a nurse, I will rise higher then the image of not being a critical thinker and only following doctors orders by always seeking more education so that I can be prepared for situations that I come across. I will stay current with health issues and events that occur around me both on a local and global level. I will always strive to be a leader in the health care system by taking pride when fulfilling my role as professional nurse. When patients or people in the community ask me about my career, I will make sure that I am always prepared by knowing in my heart the reason for my career choice, the importance of my profession and the impact it makes in the health care system, allowing the public to get the right perspective of me as a nurse. Also I will always think critically of any situation I am faced with, allowing the patient to receive the best and most professional care. Currently, I am going to do my part as a nursing student to strive for excellence while I have the opportunity of learning so much about my future career choice which will allow me to be confident in the skills I will acquire and have the joy in knowing that what I do will have an impact on many peoples lives. Conclusion In conclusion, the negative image of nurses being dependent on doctors and not thinking for themselves hurts nurses across Canada. To stop this negative image from taking over the nursing profession, nurses must unite together and strive to be positive leaders, creating a strong and professional image for nursing. References American Society of Registered Nurses. ( 2007, December 1). The Real Public Perception of Nurses. American Society of Registered Nurses: Journal of Nursing. Retrieved from http://www.asrn.org/journal-nursing/249-the-real-public-perception-of-nurses.html Bard, R. (2012, January). Embracing Social Media. Canadian Nurse: Canadian Nurses Association. Retrieved from http://www.canadian-nurse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=587%3Aembracing-social-media&catid=23%3Aceo-outlook&Itemid=31&lang=en Canadian Nurses Association. (2011, March). Nurses In The Media: And The Winner Is. Canadian Nurse: Canadian Nurses Association. Retrieved from http://www.canadian-nurse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=401%3Anurses-in-the-media-and-the- winners-are&catid=4%3Aperspectives&Itemid=39&lang=en Krischke, M. (2007). Beyond TV Stereotypes: Students Can Shape Nursing’s Image. NurseZone. Retrieved from http://nursezone.com/recent-graduates/recent-graduates-featured-articles/Beyond-TV-Stereotypes-Students-Can-Shape-Nursing%E2%80%99s-Image_20072.aspx Mee, C. ( 2010, January 6) . Nursings Image In The Media: Just in Jest. Evolve Learning System. Retrieved from https://evolve.elsevier.com/cs/Satellite/Article/Nursings+Image+in+the+Media +Just+In+Jestcid=700000000611524&Audience=Faculty Ontario Nurses Association. ( 2008, September). Position Paper: The Image of Nurses. Ontario Nurses Association. Retrieved from http://www.ona.org/documents/File/pdf/PositionPaperImageofNurses.pdf

Cashier vs. Sales Assoicate

Sale associates have task that have to be done, such as zoning, putting freight away and helping customer find products. I can connect to this because Im a sales associate in the crafts and fabrics department. It takes a lot of determination to get the tasks done in the time we are schedule for. By zoning we are making our department look good and to make sure we have the products in stock. This is why we get freight to put away so we never run out of items that the customers want to buy. It also helps the associate know where items are so then when a customer asks for help; the associate knows where the product is located. Another difference between a cashier and a sales associate is the location. A sales associate is assigned to a department. As for me being a part of a crafts and fabrics associates Im located in the back of the store next to electronics and pet supplies. There are different locations for departments that sale associates attended to do their duties. Associates cant stand in one spot a time because there either helping Begg2 a customer or making there department look better. Time, time, time. Time is key in a sales associate’s job. They have to be on time because the associate that came in before them either is leavening soon or need you to cover the area while they go on lunch or break. Sale associates are assigning a lunch time, but they have freedom for taking their breaks. You take your break two hours after the associate signs in for the day and two hours before they leave they can take another break, depending on how many hour you work. This is where sale associates differ from cashiers. The front end of the store gets the money. These are your typical cashiers. Checking out customers items. Cashiers scan products, bag the products, and take the money. As a cashier you need to know how to do this while also communicating with the customer. It sounds like a boarding job. This is one difference of why sale associates are different. A cashier has one location and thats in the front of the store. They may have different registers, but there stuck in one spot all day. Cashiers dont get to walk around like a sales associate. Sales associates get assigned lunches and freedom to choose their own break times. However, cashiers dont get that privilege. Cashiers have to be told to take a break or a lunch. They have to wait until it slows down with the traffic of customers checking out and then an assist manger tells the cashier that they can go on break or lunch. Cashiers have very different schedules then a sales associate. For instances you are a cashier and you can only work mornings, but not nights then you only get mornings. For sale associates you put the hours you are free and then you’re scheduled to work whatever hours you’re free in the days of the week. This is unfair to sales associates, however, more hours means more money. This is why cashiers get paid less money than associates. Cashiers will always be differing in different situation then sale associates. Begg3 Sale associate and cashiers work together to make the store move smoothly. Without each other the store would be a mess. When a customer comes in and looks for stuff they need, but dont know the items are located in the store the customer may ask where the item is located and then the sale associate and either explain where the item is or show the customer what aisle the item is located. The customer is done shopping and then they proceed to the cashier. The cashier then cashes you out and the customer is on their way out the door. See how the sale associate and the cashier make it easier for the customer and the store to move smoothly. Another similarity with the two sub cultures are that we both have the same code we have to follow in case of and emergency. For example brown is a shooting situation, white is an accident in the building, and red is for fire and so on and so forth. The similarities for a cashier and a sales associate help the store do the job its needs to do which is to serve the customers , be respectful to one another and to work safely at all times. Wal-Mart stores are a big culture and there are many sub- cultures inside of Wal-Mart. Being a sale associate and a cashier are a few of the sub cultures in Walmart. These two groups may be different, but theyre very much alike. At end of the day, sale associates and cashiers always work together to make the store move smoothly.

Cross Cultural Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cross Cultural Management - Essay Example Time Focus (Monochromic and Polychromic): Monochromic culture means the people doing one thing at a time. They value a certain sense and orderliness of there being on correct place and time for everything. There is no value interruption. In Spain and Poland, monochromic culture gives control on the situations by professional managers, bureaucratic structure, time management, technology etc. concentrating on time and efficiency and planning and schedule for the productivity. They believe that professional and personal lives are separate. They live to work, not work to live. Their privacy and private property are used to maximum yield. They improve their productivity efficiency in their property. â€Å"Soundproof, private offices to minimize work distractions and shut people out.  Careerism and workaholism as the main source of self-identity† (Cultural Characteristics and Classifications 2011). They also believe in careerism and workaholism as the main source of self-identity. For business people, in monochromic culture, schedules and punctuality are very important. Time schedule and deadlines are tend to be rigid and monochromic people’s meetings are interrupted very rarely. Poland generally follows monochromic culture. But in the case of polychromic culture, people do multiple things at a time. â€Å"People and relationships are more important, in this culture; schedules and deadlines tend to be quite flexible and meetings are frequently interrupted† (Gesteland 1999). Here, people use time to relax and enjoyments. Because they believe in live to work and not work to live. They do changes in plans according to the business needs and environments. These people are fatalistic believers. External environment will control the human events. They give more than one priority for a time. Spain and other many Latin American and Asian countries are followers of polychromic culture. Time orientations: (past, present and future) The time orientation i n a culture means the thinking about past, present and future. It talks about how a culture values time and how they can control believes of people. The past-oriented culture is concerned with old or traditional values and follows traditional ways to do things. They look conservative in management and make no changes in thing that are tied to the past. â€Å"Present-oriented societies include the rest of the Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. They see the past as passed and the future as uncertain. They prefer short-term benefits. Future-oriented societies have a great deal of optimism about the future. They think they understand it and can shape it through their actions. They view management as a matter of planning, doing and controlling (as opposed to going with the flow, letting things happen)† (Differences in Cultures n.d.). The U.S and Brazil are future-oriented countries. Power: Hierarchy and Equality: Hierarchy: A characteristic feature of the Poland economy is the commitment and the participation of the people in the countries day to day affair. The Poland is a patriotic nation with the well-built invasions from the various countries; they uphold a good cultural identity, where they had an established autonomy. Usually it is seen that the administration functioning hours are from 8 am to 4 pm and there are frequent international businesses and company that utilize foreign staff in a more western move toward long working

Is the American Dream Over Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is the American Dream Over - Essay Example From this study it is clear that  the opportunity to become a rich and successful citizen is influenced by the level of education. Here we can trace the main manifestations of inequality, which influence the future of the country and people. Rich people appear in advanced position. Good education in the USA costs much; therefore, the possibilities of a child to receive this education directly depend on the prosperity and the education level of his parents. It’s hard for the parents to earn decent money without good education. The vicious circle appears as a result. The prospects of any American depend on the income and education of his/her parents more, than the prospects of a resident of almost any other developed country. On the other hand, many people think that income inequality is not a problem and the American dream is not so important for America.  This paper highlights that  the most disappointing thing is that the rich are sure that they should live better, beca use they deserve it as they managed to earn money. Such ideas worsen the situation. In the last decades America chose the political agenda that left the most vulnerable sectors of society behind. The growing concentration of wealth and considerable decrease of taxes on it did not allow investing in education and protection of children. The unemployment rate among the schools graduates is growing rapidly. One more indicator of population distress significantly grew: the frequency of use of various discounts and benefits.

Analytical Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analytical Research Paper - Essay Example This paper discusses the macroeconomic issue of the Eurozone recession which adversely affected the countries of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (so-called PIIGS) due to fiscal issues. Discussion Economics is a Greek term which literally means the administration or management of a household. It is a social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of the various goods and services within a country and also among nations. It came about due to the Industrial Revolution that produced the new economic system of capitalism which replaced old order of feudalism (Sherman, 2006, p. 67). In this new system, wealth (profits) is now created out of invested capital in entrepreneurial ventures as opposed to wealth that was generated by the ownership of vast lands under feudalism. Economics is generally divided into its two main components; microeconomics is the study of the basic elements in an economy while the other is macroeconomics, which concerns larger is sues of an entire economy such as growth, inflation, unemployment, monopolies, oligopolies, recession, depression, and fiscal and monetary policies. Economists broadly define a recession as two (2) successive quarters of economic decline based on the real gross domestic product or GDP of the country. Recession is a problem on a macroeconomic scale because it affects general employment in two ways: those who work lose their jobs while those seeking work cannot find meaningful employment, which in turn will cause a deterioration in the overall standard of living of the citizenry. Businesses lay off people as there is excess production capacity resulting from a weak or non-existent demand. Economic growth is stalled or stunted which makes business reluctant to hire new or additional people. The unemployment results in reduced income taxes while putting pressure on government social services as revenues evaporate, making the balancing of national budgets very difficult to do. It will re sult in a fiscal deficit, like the dreaded â€Å"fiscal cliff† in America (a $600 billion shortfall). The significance of this problem is it can result into social chaos and political instability as people and governments scramble to find ways to re-start economic growth but the options are often limited in such a dire situation. If the government tries to reduce expenditures because of a decline in tax revenues (both from individual and business taxes) such as laying off government workers, cutting on social services like education, health care, infrastructure projects and others, people will complain and go out in the streets to demonstrate against austerity measures, which in turn will cause a political crisis that will destabilize a country and cause further problems. The United States of America uses other economic indicators besides unemployment and a rise in excess capacity, such as industrial activity, real incomes, wholesale prices and retail consumer sales. The Nati onal Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) of the United States uses overall business activities as an indicator, the time when business reaches its peak and starts to decline, as the beginning of a recession

QATAR AIRWAYS swot analyses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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The love-song of J.Alfred Prufrock Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Preincible of leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Sales Promotion Essay Example for Free

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Two Middle Range Theory Evaluation Paper

Two Middle Range Theory Evaluation Paper The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two middle range theories abilities to test the concept of comfort for the practice question Do neonatal nurses who care for dying infants who attend an end of life care educational training program compared to neonatal nurses who do not attend the program experience a difference in comfort levels (Comfort Level for Caring for Dying Infants (CLCDI)) when caring for a dying infant? A summary of two middle range theories the Comfort Theory (Kolcaba, 1994) and the Theory of Self-Efficacy (Resnick, xxxx) will be summarized and then critiqued using Smith and Liehrs (xxxx) Framework for Evaluating Middle Range Theory. The discussion will conclude with a summary of strengths and weakness of the theories and a research hypothesis to reflect that reflects the most appropriate theories conceptual definitions and propositions. Introduction Background Despite nurses as frontline caregivers for dying patients and their families many nurses have identified that they struggle with the responding adequately to the emotional devastation to parents and siblings when caring for a neonate with an unresolved terminal condition (Frommet, 1991). With the advances in neonatal care and life sustaining treatments, sick and very preterm infants do not often die in utero, at birth, or shortly after birth, but instead they often live much longer in a healthcare paradigm of comfort care and dignified death. This relatively new emersion of the end of life model integrates a more holistic approach which considers a more comprehensive view of the patients needs (emotional, spiritual, and medical) (Mallory, 2002; Mallory, 2003; WHO, 2002). With this paradigm shift, health care professionals are obligated to assess the adequacy of their own knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about death and dying. Multiple studies regarding nurses preparation for dealing with death and dying have consistently found that nurses that nurses do not feel educationally prepared to care for dying patients and insist that healthcare professionals should receive additional education on end of life care to bridge the deficit gap (Frommet, 1991; Robinson, 2004; White, Coyne, Patel, 2001; Beckstrand, Callister, Kirchhoff, 2006). These findings have led to a further observation that nurses caring for these complex patients regularly experience moral distress from competing principles of their personal, collegial, organizational, and religious/spiritual ethics (Frommet, 1991). Practice Problem To help ease this moral distress an evidence based end-of -life educational training program for NICU nurses has been successfully implemented in several neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to increase the nurses comfort level of caring for neonates and their families at the end of life (Bagbi, Rogers, Gomez, McMahon, 2008). To determine if an evidence based end of life educational program impacts nurses comfort levels in caring for dying infants and their families a question was developed using the population (P) intervention (I) compared to (C) outcome (O) format (Newhouse, Dearhold, 1997). The following discussion will focus on this PICO question Do neonatal nurses who care for dying infants who attend an end of life care educational training program compared to neonatal nurses who do not attend the program experience a difference in comfort levels (Comfort Level for Caring for Dying Infants (CLCDI)) when caring for a dying infant? During the intervention a monthly 1 hour, neo natal end of life education program will be conducted over a 6 month period of time based on research about what nurses would like to know about caring for a dying infant (Robinson, 2004). For the purpose of this problem, comfort is defined as the ability of the NICU nurse(s) to show adequate knowledge and skills in providing neonatal end of life care for dying babies and their families. For this problem comfort will be measured as a score on the ordinal scale of Comfort Level Caring for Dying Infants (CLCDI). The instrument consisting of 15 items, measured on a 5 point Likert type scale equates scores of 1=never; 2=rarely; 3=sometimes; 4=often, 5=always measures the level of comfort a NICU nurse has caring for dying infants as opposed to their perception toward pediatric or neonatal end of life care (Bagbi, Rogers, Gomez, and McMahon, 2008). In evaluating the score, the higher the reported score the greater level of comfort NICU nurses have in caring for dying babies. Testing the Concept of Comfort A portion of Kolbacas (1991) Theory of Comfort and Resnicks (2008) Theory of Self-Efficacy, two middle range theories, will be used to test the concept of comfort for providing an organizing structure. Based on previous studies about nurses comfort when caring for patients, propositions five and six of Kolbacas Theory of Comfort seem to be a promising fit for this problem (Kolbaca, 1991, Kolbaca, XXX). These propositions collectively propose that patients, nurses, and other members of the healthcare team agree upon desirable and realistic health seeking behaviors (HSBs) and if enhanced comfort is achieved, patients, family members, and/or nurses are strengthened to engage in HSBs, comfort is further enhanced (Kolbaca, 1991). However, comfort as defined conceptually in this case as knowledge and skill can alternatively be equated with a sense of competence or self-efficacy of the NICU nurse to care for a dying infant and their family. There are many examples in the nursing literature linking self-efficacy to knowledge and skill (xxxx, xxxxx).) Self-efficacy, knowledge, and skills are also central to Banduras theory, which is the basis for Resnicks (xxxx) Self-Efficacy theory. Self-efficacy as described in Resnicks (xxxx) Theory of Self-Efficacy for this context is described as the judgment about the nurses ability to organize and execute a course of action required to attain designated types of performances. The theory states that perceived self-efficacy, defined as the individuals judgment of his or her capabilities to organize and execute courses of action, is a determinant of performance (Resnick, xxxx). Self-efficacy beliefs provide the foundation for human motivation, well-being, and personal accomplishment (Resnick, xxxx). According to Resnick (XXXX) theory individuals with higher levels of self-efficacy for a specific behavior (caring for a dying infant) are more likely to attempt that behavior. There are many examples in the literature using the Theory o f Self-Efficacy to support nursing education interventions (xxxxx, xxxxx). For these reasons, Resnicks Theory of Self-Efficacy (xxx) will be used to test the concept of nurses comfort or knowledge and skill (self-efficacy) in caring for dying infants and their families. The purpose of the following discussion is to summarize, describe, analyze, and evaluate these theories using the Framework for the Evaluation of Middle Range Theories (Smith, 2008) and conclude with a synthesis and research hypothesis to reflect conceptual definitions and propositions of the theory with the best fit. Theory Summaries: Comfort and Self-Efficacy Kolcabas Comfort Theory The Comfort Theory is a humanistic, holistic, patient need based nursing derived middle range theory (Kolbaca, xxxx). The concept of comfort has had a historic and consistent presence in nursing. In the early 1900s , comfort was considered to be a goal for both nursing and medicine, as it was believed that comfort led to recovery (McIlveen Morse, 1995). Over time comfort has become an increasingly minor focus, at times reserved only for those patients for whom no further medical treatment options are available (McIlveen Morse, 1995). The term comfort is used as a noun (comforter), adjective (comforting), verb (to comfort), or adverb (comfort the patient) (xxx). It is also used as a negative (absence of discomfort), neutral (ease), or positive (hope inspiring). Webster (1990) defines comfort as relief from distress; to soothe in sorrow or distress; a person or thing that comforts; a state of ease and quiet enjoyment free from worry; anything that makes life easy; and the lessening of misery or grief by calming or inspiring with hope. The origin of comfort is confortrare which means to strengthen greatly(Kolcaba, 1992). Based on the diversity of these terms comfort is a complex term. Kolcabas (1991) concept analysis of comfort helped to clarify the role of comfort as a holistic concept for nursing. This review confirmed that comfort is a positive concept and is associated with activities that nurture and strengthen patients (David, 2002). Over a period of years and revisions Kolcaba (1994) developed the comfort the ory which continues to evolve and change with changes as recent as 2007 (Figure 2). Kolcaba (1994, 2001, 2003) has defined comfort as the immediate state of being strengthened through having the human needs for relief, ease, and transcendence addressed in four contexts of experience (physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental). The terms relief, ease, and transcendence are types of comfort that occur physically and mentally (Figure 2). The terms are defined based on definitions from medicine, theology, ergonomics, psychology, and nursing (Kolcaba Kolcaba, 1991). Relief is the state of having a discomfort mitigated or alleviated. Ease is the absence of specific discomforts. Transcendence is the ability to rise above discomforts when they cannot be eradicated or avoided (e.g., the child feels confident about ambulation although (s)he knows it will exacerbate pain). Transcendence, as a type of comfort, accounts for its strengthening property and reminds nurses to never give up helping their children and family members feel comforted. Interventions for increasing transcendence can be targeted to improving the environment, increasing social support, or providing reassurance. The three types of comfort occur in four contexts of experience: physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental. These contexts were derived from an extensive review of the nursing literature on holism (Kolcaba, 1992). When the three types of comfort are juxtaposed with the four contexts of experience, a 12-cell grid is created, which is called a taxonomic structure (TS) (Figure 1) . Taken together, these cells represent all relevant aspects (defining attributes) of comfort for nursing and demonstrate the holistic nature of comfort as an important goal of care. All comfort needs can be placed somewhere on the taxonomic structure, and the cells are not mutually exclusive. A sample pediatric case study using the TS as a guide for a holistic comfort assessment is demonstrated below (see Figure 1). The concepts for the middle range for Comfort Theory include comfort needs, comfort interventions, intervening variables, enhanced comfort, health-seeking behaviors, and institutional integrity (Kolcaba, 1994). All of these concepts are relative to patients, families, and nurses (Kolcaba, 2003; Kolcaba, Tilton, Drouin, 2006). There are eight propositions which link the above concepts together. All or parts of the Comfort Theory can be tested for research (Peterson Bredow, 2010). In the comfort theory, Kolcaba asserts that when healthcare needs of a patient are appropriately assessed and proper nursing interventions carried out to address those needs, taking into account variables intervening in the situation, the outcome is enhanced patient comfort over time (Kolcaba, 2007). Once comfort is enhanced, the patient is likely to increase health-seeking behaviors. These behaviors may be internal to the patient (eg, wound healing or improved oxygenation), external to the patient (eg, active participation in rehabilitation exercises), or a peaceful death. Furthermore, Kolcaba asserted that when a patient experiences health-seeking behaviors, the integrity of the institution is subsequently increased because the increase in health-seeking behaviors will result in improved outcomes. Increased institutional integrity lends itself to the development and implementation of best practices and best policies secondary to the positive outcomes experienced by patients (Kolcab a, 2007). To translate the concepts to practice the effectiveness of a holistic intervention can be targeted to the taxonomic structure for enhancing comfort in a specific patient, family, or nurse population over time. Holistic comfort is defined as the immediate experience of being strengthened through having the needs for relief, ease, and transcendence met in four contexts of experience (physical, psychospiritual, social, and environmental).The comfort theory has been operationalized in many research settings with a variety of patient and target populations ranging from end of life care to the comfort of nurses (xxxx). Resnick Theory of Self-Efficacy Self efficacy is described as a way to organize an individuals judgment of his or her capability to execute a course of action. The Theory of Self-efficacy states that self-efficacy expectations and outcome expectations are not only influenced by behavior, but also verbal encouragement, reflective thinking, physiological sensations and role or self-modeling (Bandura, 1995).. Through self evaluation an individual judges their capability to perform and established self expectations which is visually depicted in the conceptual model (Appendix 2) (Resnick, 2008). Resnicks Theory of Self Efficacy is based on Banduras social cognitive theory and conceptualizes person-behavior-environment as triadic reciprocity the foundation for reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 1977, 1986). Most of the research into self-efficacy beliefs among older adults has been quantitative and has consistently supported the influence of those beliefs on behavior. However, it has not been established how efficacy beliefs actually influence motivation in older adults, or what sources of efficacy-enhancing information help strengthen those beliefs. Kolcabas Comfort Theory: Description, Analysis, and Evaluation Theory Description Historical context. The Comfort Theory is a humanistic, holistic, patient need based nursing derived middle range theory (Kolbaca, xxxx). The concept of comfort has had a historic and consistent presence in nursing. In the early 1900s , comfort was considered to be a goal for both nursing and medicine, as it was believed that comfort led to recovery (McIlveen Morse, 1995). Over time comfort has become an increasingly minor focus, at times reserved only for those patients for whom no further medical treatment options are available (McIlveen Morse, 1995). The term comfort is used as a noun (comforter), adjective (comforting), verb (to comfort), or adverb (comfort the patient) (xxx). It is also used as a negative (absence of discomfort), neutral (ease), or positive (hope inspiring). Webster (1990) defines comfort as relief from distress; to soothe in sorrow or distress; a person or thing that comforts; a state of ease and quiet enjoyment free from worry; anything that makes life easy; and the lessening of misery or grief by calming or inspiring with hope. The origin of comfort is confortrare which means to strengthen greatly(Kolcaba, 1992). Based on the diversity of these terms comfort is a complex term. Kolcabas (1991) concept analysis of comfort helped to clarify the role of comfort as a holistic concept for nursing. This review confirmed that comfort is a positive concept and is associated with activities that nurture and strengthen patients (David, 2002). Over a period of years and revisions Kolcaba (1994) developed the comfort the ory which continues to evolve and change with changes as recent as 2007 (Figure 2). Structural Components. Assumptions. Kolcabas Theory of Comfort (1994) makes four basic assumptions about reality. She assumes that humans beings have holistic responses to complex stimuli; comfort is a desirable holistic state that is germane to the discipline of nursing; human beings actively strive to meet, or to have met, their basic comfort needs, and that comfort is more than the absence of pain, anxiety, and other physical discomforts (Kolcaba , 2009). Concepts. Kolcaba defines six concepts of comfort which are relative to patients, families, and nurses (Table 1) . The term family, as defined by Kolcaba (2003) encompasses significant others as determined by the patient (Kolcaba, 2003; Kolcaba, Tilton Drouin, 2006). The first concept is of comfort needs which is the relief/ease/transcendence in physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural and environmental contexts of human experience. Comfort interventions in the model are defined as interventions of the health care team specifically targeting comfort of the patient, family and nurses. Intervening variables are positive or negative factors over which the health care team has little control, including physical limitations of the hospital or patients home, cultural influences, socioeconomic factors, prognosis, concurrent medical or psychological conditions. Health-seeking behaviors are those behaviors of patient, family or nurses (conscious or unconscious) which promote well-being; may b e internal, external or towards promoting a peaceful death. The final concept, institutional integrity, added in most recently, are values, financial stability and wholeness of health care facilities at the local state or national levels. Propositions. To help test the concept of nurses comfort caring for dying infants, propositions five and six of Kolcabas comfort theory are examined. These propositions state that patients, nurses, and other members of the healthcare team agree upon desirable and realistic health seeking behaviors (HSBs) (five) and if enhanced comfort is achieved, patients, family members, and/or nurses are strengthened to engage in HSBs, which further enhances comfort (six). These propositions provide rationale for why nurses and other health care professionals should focus on the patient, family, or in this case the nurses comfort beyond altruistic reasons. Because health seeking behaviors include internal and external behaviors almost any health-related outcome important in a healthcare setting can be classified as a health seeking behavior (Peterson Bredow, 2010). The desirable and realistic health seeking behavior (HSB) for this study is nurses comfort (knowledge and skills) to relieve moral di stress in caring for a dying infant and their family. Several studies support that moral and other types of distress are frequently observed in nurses who care for dying infants (Frommet, 1991) and most importantly indicate that nurses are seeking education regarding patient end of life issues (XXXXX). It is believed that reducing this distress and frustration can be affected through an effective end of life educational programs and is likely to improve the knowledge and skills nurses need to help increase their comfort level in caring for dying infants (xxxxx). Functional Components. Visualizing the concepts in the conceptual model, the Theory Analysis and Evaluation To analyze and evaluate Kolcabas Comfort Theory (1994) the substantive foundation, structural integrity, and functional adequacy of the theory using Smith and Liehrs (2008) Framework for the Evaluation of Middle Range Theories is discussed below (Appendix 1). Substantive foundations. Assessing the substantive foundation of a middle range theory is based on four criteria (Smith, 2003). The first criterion evaluates whether the theory is within the focus of the discipline of nursing. Kolcabas comfort theory successfully addresses four concepts comprising the metaparadigm of nursing, defining the concepts as they correspond to the theory (Dowd, 2002; Kolbaca, 2007) as well as presents a diagram of how the Comfort Theory relates theoretically to other nursing concepts (Figure 2) (Kolcaba, 1994) . Nursing is described as the process of assessing the patients comfort needs, developing and implementing appropriate nursing interventions, and evaluating patient comfort following nursing interventions. Person is described as the recipient of nursing care; the patient may be an individual, family, institution, or community. Environment is considered to be the external surroundings of the patient and can be manipulated to increase patient comfort. Fi nally, health is viewed as the optimum functioning of the patient as they define it. The ability of the framework to suggest interventions that help guide nursing interventions to increase comfort supports the discipline of nursing, and in doing so meeting the first criteria. The second criterion evaluates whether the assumptions are specified and congruent with the focus. The four assumptions in the Comfort Theory are explicitly stated and so meet the second criteria. Comfort theory (xxxx) assumes that humans beings have holistic responses to complex stimuli; comfort is a desirable holistic state that is germane to the discipline of nursing; human beings actively strive to meet, or to have met, their basic comfort needs, and that comfort is more than the absence of pain, anxiety, and other physical discomforts (Kolcaba , 2009). Because the Comfort Theory (XXXX) substantially describes the concept of comfort at the middle range level of discourse, the third criterion of the substantive foundation is met. Kolcabas (1991) concept analysis of comfort helped to clarify the role of comfort as a holistic concept for nursing. This review confirmed that comfort is a positive concept and is associated with activities that nurture and strengthen patients (David, 2002). The Comfort Theory provides an excellent description, explanation, and interpretation of the comfort concept in multiple domains and practice settings. Comfort theory is at the middle range level in that is defined in a measurable way and can be operationalized in both research and practice settings. The final criterion for this category evaluates if the origins are rooted in practice and research experience. The Comfort Theory has been used in numerous practice and research settings to provide a framework where patients have comfort needs and enhancing their comfort is valued. It has also been used to enhance working environments, especially for nurses, and most recently as a framework for working toward national institutional recognitions. More specifically parts are all of the theory have been used to test the effectiveness of holistic interventions for increasing comfort (xxxxxxx), to demonstrate the correlation between comfort and subsequent HSBs (xxxxx) and to relate HSBs to desirable institutional outcomes. It has also been used as a framework for helping families make difficult decisions about end of life (xxxxx). International and national healthcare institutions have also used Comfort Theory to enhance the work environment for nurses (xxxx). In these cases, nurses comfo rt is of interest and is theoretically related to the integrity of the institution. Summarize specific studies and tools used here. Structural integrity. There are four criterion for evaluating structural integrity. The first criterion is that the concepts are well defined. The concepts (defined above) of comfort needs, comfort interventions, intervening variables, enhanced comfort, health-seeking behaviors, and institutional integrity are clearly defined and easy to understand. There are numerous examples of applying the concepts in the literature for further clarification (xxxxx). The second criterion of structural integrity is that concepts within the theory are at the middle range level of abstraction. The concepts of the Comfort Theory-comfort needs, comfort interventions, intervening variables, enhanced comfort, health seeking behaviors, and institutional integrity are near the same level on the ladder of abstraction at the middle range level. They are more concrete because they can and have been operationalized and measured (xxxxx). The third criterion of structural integrity is that there are no more concepts than needed to explain the phenomena. Overall, the concepts adequately explain the phenomena of comfort. The theory is synthesized and organized in a simple manner. Lastly, the fourth criterion evaluates whether the concepts and relationships among the concepts are logically presented with a model. In the Comfort Theory (1994) model the ideas are integrated to create an understanding of the whole phenomenon of comfort in a model. The Comfort Theory (1994) model is a great example of presenting the concepts and statements in a linear logical order so the appreciation of the theory can be recognized (Smith, 2003). Functional adequacy. Because the criterion for functional adequacy overlap somewhat the five criterion will be discussed collectively. The five criterion include: theory can be applied to a variety of practice environments and clients; empirical indicators have been identified; published examples exist of research and theory in practice; and that the theory has evolved through scholarly inquiry. The Comfort Theory easily meets all of these criterions. For example, the Comfort Theory has been used widely in a variety of research in practice settings and patient and family populations. Even though the Comfort Theory has been used most widely with patients and families at the end of life and surrounding holistic palliative care nursing interventions, there has been a broad application of the theory in other populations as well including mothers in labor (xxxx), Alzheimer patients (xxxx), pediatric intensive care unit patients and families (xxxx), patients on bedrest (xxxx), those underg oing radiation therapy (xxxx) and for infants comfort and pain (xxxx). Most recently research of using the theory in practice has expanded to support institutional nursing recognition and comfort in the nursing working environment. In each of the populations mentioned above a psychometric comfort instrument has been developed as empirical indicators of concepts in the theory. However, the empirical indicators extend beyond empiricism and some include perceptions, self reports, observable behaviors and biological indicators (Ford-Gibloe, Campbell, Berman, 1995; Reed, 1995). The Comfort Theory (1994) has also been revised with the latest revision in 2007. The empirical adequacy of the Comfort Theory is evidence of the maturity of this theory (Smith, 2003). Summary The Comfort Theory (1994) is a well defined and well tested theory. Its strength lies in the versatility, adaptability, and testability of the concepts. The comfort theory clearly defines the concepts in the theory and the relationship between them. Because the comfort theory meets most of the substantitive foundations, structural integrity, and functional adequacy criteria the Comfort Theory (1994) is a strong middle range theory. An area that could increase the generalizability especially for nursing institutions is a change in the term in the model of nursing interventions to comfort interventions (xxxxx). Resnicks Self-Efficacy Theory: Description, Analysis, and Evaluation Theory Description Historical context. Resnicks Theory of Self Efficacy is based on Banduras social cognitive theory and conceptualizes person-behavior-environment as triadic reciprocity the foundation for reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 1977, 1986). The cognitive appraisal of these factors results in a perception of a level of confidence in the individuals ability to perform a certain behavior. The positive performance of this behavior reinforces self-efficacy expectations (Bandura, 1995). Structural Components. Although it is not explicitly stated, the core of this theory assumes that people can consciously change and develop or control their behavior. This is important to the proposition that self-efficacy also can be changed or enhanced through reflective thought, general knowledge, skills to perform a specific behavior, and self influence. This perspective is rooted in the model of triadic reciprocality (foundation for reciprocal determinism) in which personal determinants (self-efficacy), environmental conditions (treatment conditions) and action (practice) are mutually interactive influences. Therefore, improving performance depends on changing some of these influences (Bandura, 1977). In order to determine self-efficacy an individual must have the opportunity for self evaluation to evaluate how likely it is he or she can achieve a given level of performance. Concepts. The two major components of self efficacy include self-efficacy expectations and outcome expectations (Table 2). Self-efficacy expectations are judgments about the personal ability to accomplish a given task. Outcome expectations are judgments about what will happen if a given task is accomplished. These two components are differentiated because individuals can believe a certain behavior will result in a specific outcome, however, they may not believe they are capable of performing the behavior required for the outcome to occur (Bandura 1977, 1986). For example, a NICU nurse may believe attending an end of life education series will increase his/her knowledge and skill and ease moral distress, but may not believe that they could provide sensitive care for some ethical, religious, or moral reason. It is generally anticipated, but not always realistic that self-efficacy will have a positive impact on behavior. There are times when self-efficacy will have no or a negative impa ct on performance (Vancouver, Thomspon, Williams, 2001). Bandura (1977, 1986, 1997) suggests that outcome expectations are based largely on the individuals self-efficacy expectations, which generally depend on their judgment about how well they can perform the behavior; can be disassociated with self-efficacy expectations; and are partially separable from self-efficacy judgments when extrinsic outcomes are fixed. Because the outcomes an individual expects are the results of the judgments about what he or she can accomplish, they are unlikely to contribute to predictions of behavior (Bandura, 1977). Judgments about ones self-efficacy is based on four informational sources including enactive attainment, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological state. The first source, enactive attainment, or the actual performance of a behavior has been described as the most influential source of self-efficacy information (Bandura, 1986,; Bandura Adams, 1977). There has been repeated empirical evidence that actually performing an activity strengthens self-efficacy beliefs due to informational sources (Bandura, 1995). The second source, vicarious experience or visualizing other similar people perform a behavior, also influence self-efficacy (Bandura, Adams, Hardy, Howells, 1980). Conditions that impact vicarious experience include amount of exposure or experience to the behavior (least experience causes greater impact) and amount of instruction given (influence of others is greater with unclear guidelines) (Resnick Galik, 2006). Another source verbal persuasion or exhortation i nvolves telling an individual he or she has the capabilities to master the given behavior. Verbal encouragement from a trusted, credible source in counseling or education form has been used alone to strengthen efficacy expectations (Castro, King, Brassington, 2001; Hitunen et al. 2005; Moore et al., 2006; Resnick, Simpson, et al., 2006). The final information source physiological feedback or state during a behavior can be important in relation to coping with stressors, health functioning, and physical accomplishments. Interventions can be used to alter the interpretation of physiological feedback and help individuals cope with physical sensations, enhancing self efficacy and resulting in improved performance (Bandura Adams, 1977). Propositions. To help test the concept of nurses comfort caring for dying infa

Gold Strike, Relating To Cry, :: essays research papers

â€Å"Gold mining union plans one-day Free State strike† An article dated March 17, 2000   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NUM, or South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers, is organizing a one-day strike at Free State gold mines. They are protesting the poverty and job losses from the mines. NUM is the country’s biggest mining union with 50,000 members, and on March 22 the strike would affect five gold companies; AngloGold Ltd., Gold Fields Ltd., Harmony Gold Co., Avgold and African Rainbow Minerals. NUM spokesman Ikaneng Matlala didn’t say, however, how many members of the union would participate on the strike, but did say â€Å"All the gold mines in the Free State gold fields are going to embark on a strike.† The protest is against the gold mines because of the huge job losses in the last fifteen years. In 1987, gold, being the backbone of the economy, employed 530,000 miners. After the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa’s economy was open to foreign competition, and the gold industry had to be restructured. The gold price has been decreasing as well, and today only 200,000 miners are employed. This current event relates to Alan Paton’s, Cry, the Beloved Country, because mining supported Johannesburg, and references were made to the mining industry throughout the book. Many characters voiced their opinion that it was the black men that economically supported the white men in South Africa, and they were diseased and injured by it. That they worked for cheap, were exposed to dangers, and then when they needed medical attention the non-European hospitals were less than inadequate. John Kumalo gave speeches on strikes against the gold mines. Gold was found in a new area, Odenaalrust, and the white men wanted to change the name because it was too hard to pronounce.

The Stroke :: essays research papers

The Stroke   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Every second, of every day, something happens to someone in the world. Sometimes it is for the best, and sometimes it is not. I truly believed that the bad only happened to those who deserved it. The human population lives in their safe little world believing that nothing bad will happen to them. Or at least this is what I believed. Unfortunately, as the saying goes â€Å"shit happens.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On July 31st, of 2004, Judy Kolstad was walking back to the bed from the bathroom. Without warning she fell over, and her head proceeded to land on the floor. During the week prior to this she had complained of flu like symptoms, headaches, and problems with her menstrual cycle. She was taking many medications for these symptoms, and was beginning to feel better. She had been drinking wine the night of the accident, and wasn’t able to fall asleep. After falling to the floor, her husband, my step-father, came to her aid. and called Buffalo Hospital. She began to experience trouble breathing, and was none responsive to us. Because of the fact that she had been drinking we assumed her fall was caused by a mixture of alcohol and prescription drugs. She was rushed to the hospital where she underwent many tests in attempt to locate the source of the problem. Three hours later they reached the bottom of the list, and came to the conclusion that it may have been a stroke. By this time my mother was in a coma. She was transferred to Mercy Unity Hospital in Fridley, Minnesota. It was there that she underwent neurological testing to try and discover the root of the problem. On August 1st, my stepfather came home from the hospital, where he was discussing my mother’s condition with the neurological surgeon. From the moment he walked into the house, my sisters and I knew something was wrong. He began telling us in a somber voice tha t our mother had had a stroke. From that moment in time, life has changed dramatically.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Judy was a workaholic, and full of life. She was a strong headed German woman, and I held great respect towards her from the moment I was born. My mother lived for the day, and took pride in all the little aspects of life. She maintained a home, a family, a husband, and a career. Judy had worked as a field rep for a large sales company in the machining industry.

Tv Shows And Real Life :: essays research papers

TV Shows and Real Life TV shows are probably the primary source of entertainment for the average American. Most of them run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. with reruns starting at 5 p.m. We watch them because they give us something to do, a way to relax, something to help pass the time. We all watch different shows, some people like "Married...with Children", some are repulsed with it, but like to watch "Home Improvement", what draws particular crowds to certain shows? How do these shows portray the average American, or do they portray average Americans at all? These are questions many writers have attempted to answer, at least one column in almost every newspaper is dedicated to this topic. I think the people like to see shows that portray them, or what they'd like to be. "Married...with Children" runs on Fox 29 on Mondays at 8:30 p.m., it has been on air for a long time, and has passed its 200th episode last season. The main characters of the show is women's shoe salesman Al Bundy, his wife Peg, dorky son Bud, and slutty daughter Kelly. Al loves to watch TV, bowl with his buddies, drink and go to the "nudy bar". Marcie and Jefferson, are the Bundy's neighbors and also take an active part in the show. Most shows consist of Al going somewhere or doing something and everyone else making fun of him when he fails miserably. Al is someone you can hardly call a father to his kids, he's doesn't take care of them and he does absolutely nothing father-like for them or with them. Al is constantly complaining about his marriage, he says that if he was sober that night, none of this would have happened. He calls his children accidents and the only good memory he has, is of him being a great high school football player, which he would take to the next level had all his dreams not been crushed by Peg. The only living thing Al really likes on the show is his dog, Buck, to which he can relate as they are both dirty and nasty. Every show it is the same kind of thing, over and over again. Peg is trying to convince Al to have sex, Al blames Peg for his failure in life, Kelly is screwing some guy in the back seat of a car, and Bud is looking at "nudy magazines". Last Monday, the 27, Al decided to join the Army Reserve in order to escape his family. John Ozersky writes in his article entitled "TV's Anti-Families: Married.

Plato’s Three Parts of The Soul Essay

As the founder of the first university and considered the most powerful thinker in history Plato believed that the soul was made of three parts. The Three Parts of the Soul in Plato’s Republic and Phaedrus are mans Appetite (Black Horse on Left), Spirited (White Horse on Right), and Reason (Charioteer). Each part of the soul has it’s own virtue as well as its own vice. Temperance is the virtue of Appetite, Courage the virtue of Spirit, and Wisdom is the virtue of Reason. It was Plato’s belief that goodness and justice come from the correct balance of the Three Parts of the Soul. We will uncover the perfect balance of the soul According to Plato and how goodness and justice come form this balance. Known as our animal side the appetitive part of the soul includes a myriad of desires for different pleasures, comforts, physical satisfaction, and bodily ease. Temperance, which is the virtue of the appetite, is ones ability to exhibit moderation and self-restraint when indulging in life’s pleasures. The good and just practice temperance while the evil and unjust practice lust, greed, and gluttony, commonly referred to as the Vice of the appetitive part of the soul. There are so many appetites that Plato does not mention all of them, but he does say that they can often be in conflict with each other. In the republic the workers and artisans were in this category. The ugly black horse on the left represents the appetitive element of the soul. The spirited part of the soul or hot-blooded part is where we get our source of action. This is the part of the soul that will get angry if we feel an injustice is being done. It is also the part of us that loves facing and overcoming challenges, the part that loves victory, challenge, and winning. Courage, which is the virtue of the spirited element of the soul, enables the soldier to stand and fight as well as control the lower class consisting of merchants, artisans and peasants. The souls source of action derives from courage and enables the appetitive part of the soul to exhibit moderation and self-restraint keeping us good and just. Anger and envy are the vices of the spirited part of the soul. When anger and envy take control gluttony, lust, and greed will soon follow. The spirited element of the soul is represented by the noble white horse on the right. The last and most important element of the soul according to Plato is reason. This is the part of the soul that thinks, looks ahead, analyzes, rationally weighs options and tries to decide what is best for us overall. It was Plato’s belief that the rational part of the soul convinces the spirited part of the soul to control the appetitive part of the soul. This is the only way one could achieve balance and harmony. The rulers and philosophers were amongst the most rational people in the republic. The charioteer represents our mind and conscious awareness that is guiding the horses and chariot. The charioteer should be in charge of the whole system deciding about when to give each horse it rein or when to hold it back. The horses should not govern the whole system; the whole system should be run by the rational decisions of the charioteer. Plato believed this was the perfect balance of the soul and would lead to harmonization and happiness of the soul creating a good and just person.

E-Procurement And E-Logistics

our site – CUSTOM ESSAY WRITING – Business Management Dissertation Ideas ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyze the e-procurement and e-logistics of the Dell Inc. Company. This will include a brief overview of the company, an exploration of its Customer Relationship Management, the Supply Chain management and an analysis of the various softwares used by Dell Inc in promoting its relationship marketing. INTRODUCTION Today, many people have discovered the significance of E-commerce. E-commerce, also known as electronic commerce refers to business transactions and communication via computers especially over the internet and networks (Botha, Bothma and Geldenhuys, 2008: p.23). This involves buying and selling of services and goods, and transfer of funds among other commercial communications through the internet, mainly through the World-Wide Web (Botha, Bothma and Geldenhuys, 2008: p.23). E-commerce takes place in different situations such as between businesses and customers (B2C), between one business/company and another (B2B), and between customer and customer (C2C). It is mainly divided into two main parts, which are e-procurement and e-logistics. E-procurement is defined as an electronic method of conducting business transactions while e-logistics refers to the transfer of goods sold over the internet to customers (Botha, Bothma and Geldenhuys, 2008: p.24). A well implemented e-procurement system is highly effective in connecting businesses and other business processes with suppliers while running all interactions between them. According to Botha, Bothma and Geldenhuys (2008: p.23), the development and advancement of technology, many businesses now sell their products through computer technology, which is a brilliant way of making companies reduce overhead costs and reach a wide customer base. Thus, e-procurement benefits not only the business owners, but also customers since they can shop without leaving their homes. Also, customers can easily find the lowest price of products when buying their goods via the internet. In this paper, we analyze the e-procurement and e-logistics of the Dell Inc. Company. DELL INCORPORATED Dell Inc. is a computer company that was established by Michael S. Dell, in 1984 (Krauss 2003: p.7). It offers a wide range of technology product categories (Krauss (2003: p.8). These products range from personal computers to services such as storage solutions. Also, it gives a variety of services, which range from business services and configurable information technology including product-related support services, consulting and applications and infrastructure technology (Krauss, 2003: p.8). As stated by Levy (1999: p.20), Dell Inc. operates in four global business segments, which include public, Large Enterprise, Consumer, and small and Medium Business. The company designs its own products, manufactures and markets them, sells, as well as supports a range of products and services, which can be modified to individual requirements of customers (Perret and Jaffeux, 2007: p.4). Dell Inc. is considered among the companies that are most profitable. The company offers the most innovative customer service, as well as product custom configuration in the world (Perret and Jaffeux, 2007: p.5). For this reason, the company is faced with the challenge of satisfying the customers’ needs while maintaining a stable relationship with them. E-PROCUREMENT AT DELL Dell Inc. is widely known for selling its computers and others services through the internet to other business (B2B) and to individual customers (B2C) (Perret and Jaffeux, 2007: p.5). B2B refers to business transactions between one company and another such as business customers, suppliers and distributors. The B2C refers to business transactions between a company and consumers. At the beginning of the 1990’s, Dell Inc. attempted to distribute wares by retailing. However, the management found out later that this method was unprofitable for business (Gattorna, 2003: p.51). Hence, Dell Inc. decided to key on boosting its customer support and services by allowing customers to make orders directly (Gattorna, 2003: p.52). This was considered a unique strategy for Dell customization. Recently, Dell Inc. improved its sourcing and buying processes by implementing a leading e-procurement solution known as Ariba Buyer (Krauss, 2003: p.8). In order to ease the business processes between Dell Inc. and its supplier companies, Ariba Buyer which is an e-procurement solution is used. It is quite useful in automating and streamlining sourcing. (Li, 2007: p.20). In earlier years, making purchase orders at Dell was a highly laborious process since company workers filled out forms for each purchase process every time they ordered an item, which included collecting about ten approval signatures (Li, 2007: p.21). The buyers were then expected to re-enter the data into two different systems that included a home-grown Access database and the legacy purchasing system. This paper-based process was challenging for Dell to track its purchases by commodity, as well as analyze its purchasing patterns in terms of where, how much and from whom the supplies were bought, hence the change in its procurement process. Thus, Dell Inc. implemented an e-procurement solution known as Ariba Buyer. E-procurement enabled Dell to streamline its supplying base. This helped in the elimination of maverick spending, as well as standardization of the ordering processes for its suppliers. (Krauss, 2003: p.8). This was followed, by Dell’s move, to assess 3 e-procurement systems depending on five criteria. These criteria included a user-friendly boundary, cost-effectiveness, and integration with existing back-end system (Krauss, 2003: p.8). Others included e-commerce links to most of Dell’s supplying companies, and compatibility with the current IT policy of Dell servers (Li, 2007: p.20). According to Gattorna (2003: p.50), close to seven months were spent by the personnel that were responsible for implementing Ariba. This time was spent in developing twenty interfaces that would facilitate connection of Ariba buyer with Dell’s legacy systems. They created linkages for Ariba and Dell’s purchase order, catalog data, cost center, accounting code validation, and employee data among other systems (Gattorna, 2003: p.50). This was made to ascertain that all the processed orders had been validated. This resulted in a final product, which facilitates making purchases online. This product is known as Dell Internet Requisition Tool (DIREQT) (Gattorna, 2003: p.51). Currently, DIREQT has made it easy for Dell employees to complete purchasing orders online by loging into DIREQT Web site, as well as conducting searches for certain products, suppliers or services, which usually give accurate status reports (Levy, 1999: p.23). Immediately, Ariba Buyer forwards the catalog items and requisition straight to the right manager at the cost center who signs the order electronically. The system then automatically creates an approving chain before directing it to an employee network. (Gattorna, 2003: p.51). However, if the product ordered is not present in the catalogue, Ariba Buyer includes a Dell buyer to source the product and hands over the request for last signatures (Perret and Jaffeux, 2007: p.6). After the requisition has been approved, it is moved to the Ariba Commerce Services Network (ASCN). ASCN is a shared network infrastructure that helps to connect with buyers and marketplaces, on the Ariba Business to Business (B2B). Commerce stand (Perret and Jaffeux, 2007: p.6). Ariba uses ASCN to communicate its orders to suppliers, which includes shipping through e-mail, faxes, Extensive Markup Language (XML) and electronic data interchange (EDI) (Perret and Jaffeux, 2007: p.6). Moreover, Ariba Buyer also accelerates the payment process in Dell Inc. The receipts that Dell’s central receiving department prepares for wares are brought into the organization and matched automatically with the right invoice. This is then fed into the system by the account payable processors (Bothma and Geldenhuys, 2008: p.25). In addition, the purchasers create receipts of the service given to them, which is also matched in an automatic manner. Therefore, this practice helps to avoid the early routine of service invoices, which is time-consuming, when making purchases for approval. As stated by Botha, Bothma and Geldenhuys (2008: p.25), with the Ariba Buyer at Dell, the requisition cycle time is likely to be reduced by 62%, and lessen operation costs by 61%. However, Dell Inc. believes that it stands to benefit on a larger scale from the perception into the buying process attained through combining customers’ information. Moreover, through the use of Ariba, Dell is able to gather information necessary to evaluate its supply base and re-evaluate key business to market communications services, office products and consulting, among many more kinds of expenditures (Gattorna, 2003: p.50). CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT According to Perret and Jaffeux (2007: p.7), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the creation and maintenance of relations with customers. The key aim of Dell is to offer its customers technologically reliable customer service requirements. Perret and Jaffeux (2007: p.7) argue that the software that help in facilitation facilitate Dell’s CRM include marketing automation software, a system that benefits the sales, and custom designed Web pages that contain purchase data. According to Ross (2010: p.88), today, one fifth of standard-based computers sold in the world is Dell’s product. The key concept of Dell Inc. is to sell computers directly to customers. This will increase their success in the computer business. (Ross, 2010: p.88). Before Dell Inc. invented the made-to-order concept, its customers used to buy its products from electronic shops and retail stores. In this case, customers interacted only with the salesperson of the store and not the manufacturer. Therefore, Dell introduced the concept of interacting directly with the customer via the internet so as to fulfil the demands of its clients and deliver quality services. E-LOGISTICS AT DELL INC. For Dell Inc., the E-logistics has entirely changed it way of distributing its products. Traditionally, Dell used to pick up components from the warehouses of suppliers then collect them in its central or regional distribution centres, and finally merge them in stock in order to deliver the final products to customers (Ross, 2010: p.88). Currently, through implementation of e-logistics, Dell Inc. can now pick up components from the ware houses of suppliers and then forward the merging of components made during the transit to the logistic-service providers through USP or Airborne Express (Li, 2007: p.36). This has resulted in less fixed costs spent in warehouse centers and distribution, no product technological obsolescence, and no stock-keeping units (SKU). SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT DELL INC. Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a system that Dell established to ensure the availability of precise computer components for its customers on demand and location. SCM describes how the company manages how raw materials are transformed into the end products and how products and services get to all its consumers (William, 2003: p.150). This has enabled the company to develop a tight bond with its supplier companies and consumers. In this regard, Mencarini (2003: p.19) states that Dell Inc. have one of the most effective SCM system in the world, and that it is focusing on creating the best SCM through the i2. This will improve the supply chain process through connecting its suppliers and planners in order to satisfy the requirements, as well as demands of their customers. SOFTWARE USED BY DELL IN PROMOTING RELATIONSHIP MARKETING Dell also uses a variety of software to promote relationship marketing such as Hotlink, Premier Pages and an enhanced CRM system, among others (Gattorna, 2003: p.57). Its database software is highly efficient and effective with customer relationship management, which stores tables of data used to check the information of customers and establish promotional campaigns. These databases mainly include the information of customers, their products and interests. According to Gattorna (2003: p.57), customer database helps to increase profits since it contains the information of clients, which determines the efficient and effective ways to target and divide the consumers. Hotlink is an automation software program, which facilitates tergeting and marketing communication, monitoring of customers and market development (Mencarini, 2003: p.21). This software gives Dell a free opportunity to advertise its products through the word of mouth. Also, it impacts its customer base to ensure that customers receive better services than before. Premier Pages are a transparent online system/software custom designed Web pages, which contain all the purchasing data (Gattorna, 2003: p.57). In addition, the software contains a paperless ordering process, which captures the technology configurations of customers. Mencarini (2003: p.21) argues that Dell created Premier Pages in order to gather less clientele details than they already have and develop a win-win situation that is more realistic. This starts when the clients places their orders for a computer and built later. Another system that Dell uses is an enhanced CRM system, helped by an information system company called the IS Partners (Moon, 2003: p.45). ProClarity offers a comprehensive analytical ability that highlights negative and positive areas of the business. Moreover, the company breaks down its sales by region where each team enables Dell to measure its own trend and success. ProClarity significantly benefits all the financial sections of the company. It also helps the Dell staff to easily access detailed demographic information about customers. The marketing department is able to follow product sales, customer activity and marketing mixes via this software. The management can follow activities in customer accounts, and act on lapsed quotes. Additionally, Dell installed the e-commerce software i2 Collaboration Planner, i2 Supply Chain Planner and i2 Factory Planner in order to meet its supply chain needs (Moon, 2003: p.45). This is applicable in the management of build-order procedures that exist between placing orders and customer support. The software enables Dell Inc. to classify customers and target them through their most preferred medium, obtain and analyze results (Moon, 2003: p.45). Moreover, Dell Inc. has signed an agreement with Part-Miner (Gattorna, 2003: p.51). Part-Miner is a vertical portal in electronic components industry, which provides information and helps to meet the demand and supply of the components. FUTURE PLANS OF DELL INC In future, Dell plans to update its processes of purchase such as the establishment of online auctions for products and services like printing, shipping, and paper (Li, 2007: p.20). The company also plans to make order status, payment information and receipts easily accessible to suppliers online. In coming years, Dell intends to expand its catalogue base and purchase choices by convincing its main suppliers to use the Ariba Business to Business Commerce Platform (Li, 2007: p.20). CONCLUSION CRM-SCM integration tries to satisfy clients through prompt delivery of products, ensuring its accessibility and maintain the manufacturer’s profits and returns. Thus, there are several lessons that can be drawn from Dell’s application of e-business. This trend can be emulated by other organizations in the industry. This will result in offering of better services to customers. It can be portrayed via the way Dell Inc. uses CRM to its advantage. Customer satisfaction will increase their trust in the organization, improving its reputation. In addition, custom-building a PC desired by the clients has formed a particularly strong relationship between Dell and its customers (Moon, 2003: p.50). In addition to this, implementing technology in a phased fashion has helped Dell to achieve a strong relationship with its clients. Dell set up simulated environments in order to support the i2 system in blotches without affecting the live form. Dell ensured that all stages of the comp leted process allowed future growth of the company before developing the whole system. Hence, this reduced risk and increasing efficiency. Another significant lesson from Dell would be to extend the link from the customer to the supplier, while maximizing its operation efficiency as well as customer satisfaction (Ross,2010: p.92). As a result, customers were able to spend less money on purchasing customized machines. This is because Dell approved the savings that resulted from managing its inventories efficiently. The company was, therefore, able to share information with suppliers about customer requirements and buying patterns in real-time. REFERENCES Botha, J., Bothma, C. & Geldenhuys, P. 2008. Managing E-commerce in Business, New York, Juta and Company Ltd. Gattorna, J. 2003. Gower handbook of supply chain management, Burlington, Gower Publishing Ltd. Krauss, M. 2003. Dell looks to Sears to extend buyer reach. Marketing News, April 28, 2003, Vol. 37, Issue 9. Li. L. 2007. Supply chain management: concepts, techniques and practices enhancing the value through collaboration, Tokyo,World Scientific. Moon, K. 2003. Dell Computers: A Leader in CRM. Retrieved February 20, 2010 Mencarini A. 2003. E-Business: Dell Case Study, UK, Strathclyde Business School. Perret, F. & Jaffeux, C. 2007. Essentials of logistics and management, London, EPFL Press. Levy, R. H. 1999. The Visible Marketer: Dell’s CRM model stresses transparent processes. Available from http://directmag.com/mag/marketing_visible_marketer_dells/index.html {Accessed 20th February 2012} Ross, D. F. 2010. Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies. London, CRC Press. William C. 2003. The true meaning of supply chain management. Logistics Management, June 2003, Vol. 42, Issue 6.