Reflection - 1752 Words

During my placement at Project Booyah, I found the 500 hours both a challenging and rewarding experience. Throughout my experience new knowledge and skills were gained as well as insight into looking at issues from a different perspective, ability to identify personal values clashes with organisational values and developing my self-awareness of these issues through critical reflection in which I found invaluable to my practice. Each of these areas will be discussed in more detail below, before discussing areas I have identified for further development. My placement allowed me to trial a range of skills learned at University such as interpersonal skills; some more successfully than others. This placement enabled me to practise my†¦show more content†¦I was conscious not to use too much self-disclosure while keeping the focus on the client. I believe that this was a good decision as I could see the client appreciated someone understanding. Another example of resourcefulness was suggesting the use of either JCU campuses due to the lack of office space and technology. A task given was to canvas donations for a trivia night. This resulted in successful networking with other organisations although at the start I was apprehensive after bad encounter with a business owner. By the end of my placement I had secured some fantasitic prizes. This experience aided my networking skills and confidence as it can be quite daunting asking complete strangers for a donation and feel this has enabled my self-confidence to grow. My skills is cultural sensitivity were also practiced when engaging with clients from other cultural backgrounds while allowing me to develop and deepen my interpersonal skills, especially in rapport building. New knowledge was acquired whilst in placement. There were discussions with my task supervisor in which I was able to identify theories which underpin the organisation. I also took time to critique a theory used. I found it useful learning how case management works within the organisation andShow MoreRelatedReflection1650 Words   |  7 PagesIan-Bradley Tancred This essay analyses and describes what reflection is and how it supports your personal and professional learning. It elaborates upon how and why recognizing your strengths and weaknesses are important and how they can enhance lifelong learning. It describes what arguments and assertions are, what the differences are between them and which one is better. Debnath describes reflection as a means of self-examination to learn from knowledge and experiences which will help transformRead MoreReflection1479 Words   |  6 PagesReflections Both simple and complex reflections were used. A simple reflection used towards the beginning of the interview transpired into, â€Å"pretty active out doing a lot of things.† Alternatively, a complex reflection used when reflecting on Sarah’s feelings about what her friends think about her not socializing subsisted of, â€Å"it bothers you thinking about them, wondering about your intentions.† I used twice as many complex reflections as simple reflections. Unfortunately, I should have usedRead MoreReflection On The Word Reflection 701 Words   |  3 PagesFor me the word ‘reflection’ means taking time to really dig deep into my thoughts, to contemplate something meaningful and significant, to make a decision that often involves me and my future. It has a personal and emotional connection. Daudelin (1996) uses the word ‘reflection’ to encourage managers to create time to recognise the value of learning from past and current work s ituations (‘experience’) and to adapt this learning to new situations. I would prefer to choose the words ‘thought’ or ‘consideration’Read MoreReflection1218 Words   |  5 PagesReflection on your personal development Reflection is a major factor in developing self-awareness to improve services provided to everyone around me, this is to develop my own understanding in realising the good and bad made previously. Moving forward with a better understanding, as well as rectifying the mistake whilst recognizing the good points, (Horton-Deutsch and Sherwood, 2008). Working in a domiciliary setting and visiting vulnerable adults within their homes, I am constantly tryingRead Morereflection703 Words   |  3 Pageshelpful/ inspiring. Your completed template form and content should be a CRITICAL reflection of the paper/ chapter content but NOT merely summarize what you have read. TEMPLATE FOR REFLECTIONS ON EXPERIENCES DATE: PLACE: The experience 1. What experience are you reflecting on (class session, project group meeting, particular piece of reading, other)? Give a brief account of this experience. 2. 3. Reflections on Experience 4. 2. Looking back, what was particularly memorable/ interestingRead MoreReflection Of Illusion1635 Words   |  7 Pages Shattering a Reflection of Illusion I stare blankly at the blinking caret. Propped up snugly against three quilted pillows and one calculus textbook is my laptop. To be more specific, a laptop opened to an empty Microsoft Word document. Writing a speech is no easy task, but writing a valedictory address is like playing darts with spaghetti. Humbly accepting the position as the class valedictorian, I have been graced with the task of writing an excerpt that would fill my classmates’ hearts withRead MoreNursing reflection.12855 Words   |  52 PagesReflective Essay This essay will look at reflection on a critical incident that has promoted a positive outcome. It is not a very major incident but it stands out as it has a potential for learning. This essay will identify and explain Johns (1994) model of reflection and explain what reflection is and why reflective practice is necessary and how it can be used. Schone (1983) recommended reflection on critical incidence as a valuable term, sited in Ghaye and Lillyman (1997) a critical incidentRead MoreReflection Essay1616 Words   |  7 Pagesintegral part of nursing. It will also demonstrate how reflection enabled me to make sense of and learn from this experience, as well as identify any further learning developments needed to improve my practice and achieve the level of competency needed for when I qualify as an assistant practitioner. While discussing the knowledge underpinning practice, evidence based literature will be reviewed to support my discussion and for the purpose of reflection the essay will be written in the first person. SpouseRead MoreReflection On Self Development Through Reflection1854 Words   |  8 Pagesthrough reflection is a key issue of education and learning (Kennison, 2012), where you learn through experience (Tashiro, Shimpuku, Naruse and Matsutani, 2013), learn to self-evaluate (Duffy, 2013), identify gaps in knowledge and detect where further training or study is required to improve practice (Olarerin, 2013). Ultimately reflection is thought to be constant learning from practice, thus refining knowledge and experiences and putting them into practice (Naidoo, 2013). Within my reflection examplesRead MoreReflection Essay781 Words   |  4 PagesI determined that I needed a new interest, something to keep my mind engaged and challenged. I enrolled in the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) through the Columbia Southern University (CSU) just for fulfillment. This reflection assignment exercise proves to be the catalyst for my future college endeavors. The assignment to reflect on DBA program dreamed of taking steps towards realizing those ideas and course accomplishments right now. Due to time some course assignments, I will embrace,

Using Appropriate examples, discuss the Elitist and...

In this Essay, our main aim of discussion is to build a general understanding about how organisation sustainability researchers propose evaluating organisation sustainability and how the proposed models and frameworks changed over time. The analysis is carried out from the perspective of several aspects, focusing on the methods, tools and models proposed for organisation sustainability assessment, noting the organisation level of evaluation (the organisation level, a broader industry of value chain level, or a narrower product, service or process level). Two other aspects of the research were the definition of sustainability in the proposed models with regard to sustainability dimensions, and different empirical studies conducted using†¦show more content†¦Public administration is concerned with such questions as how law should be administered with equity, speed and without friction. It is the systematic execution of the will of the people which has been discovered, formula ted and expressed in the form of laws by the legislature. The assessment and rating of taxes, for instance, the hanging of criminal, the delivery of mails, the recruitment of army are all acts of public administration. Thus it may be said that public administration is the non-political machinery of the government carrying on its work for the welfare of the people according to the laws set up by the State. It is the permanent executive as distinguished from the political one. We must at this stage also be clear that public administration has to do with people and not with things. There is a school of thought which holds that in the future the tendency will be from the administration of persons towards the administration of things which does not carry any sense at all. Things may be arranged but ultimately it is the participation of the human element that matters. Things no doubt, are of great importance to the administrator who arranges them but they cannot be administered by him. Administration has to do with human beings for which it is meant. It is managed by human beings and it serves human beings. It is essentially a matter of social relationships. It must not also beShow MoreRelatedOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesand Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of work that today qualify as constituting the subject of organisational theory. Whilst their writing is accessible and engaging, their approach is scholarly and serious. It is so easy for students (and indeed others who should know better) to trivialize this very problematic and challenging subject. This is not the case with the present book. This is a book that deserves to achieve a wide

Ethics Essential ICT Professionals

Question: Discuss about the Ethics Essential for ICT Professionals. Answer: Introduction This particular essay is prepared in view of analyzing ethical considerations in ICT organization for the professionals. The content of the essay is structured with identifying an article showing ethical essentiality for ICT professionals along with showing some major aspects. These aspects were considerably presented centering one single question as If you were sacked tomorrow, would you do damage on your way out of the organization? (Aynsley 2015). Now answer to this question show at what extent, ethical dilemma is present in ICT organization. Approximately 85% of the professionals agreed to damage way out of organization if they were terminated from service (Warren and Lucas 2016). Some situations and scenarios were included in the later paragraph to show some other instances of unethical incidents causing huge impact over customers. In the event that on ICT expert is taking after this ACS code of ethics, individual ought not permit any deceptive or improper utilization of innovat ion; they ought to block dishonest utilization of innovation comply with ACS code. Ethics essential for ICT professionals: Discussion and Analysis The primary question was raised in this newspaper article as If you were sacked tomorrow, would you do damage on your way out of the organization? This question was raised in system administration conference in US, several years before; in front of several delegates (Ferguson, Thornley and Gibb 2016). A source confirmed that 85% of the ICT professionals have staggering yes answer to the question. Most of the analysts have conveyed their view as this result of 85% positive opinion is quite unnatural. Additionally, ICT professionals have confirmed that they have recognized their obligations in ethical and responsible manner. Furthermore, there were countless instances of employees facing charges of corruption, guilty of theft, hacking, and other form of misconduct and offences (Al-Saggaf, Burmeister and Weckert 2016). In following few years duration, the senior ICT managers of New South Wales TAFE, the Commonwealth Bank and Sydney University, were charged with criminal offences. Queens land Healths case against IBM was covered with allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct and it was under court verdict in Brisbane (Edwards 2016). On the other hand, in Ashley Madison era, the personal and confidential identity of customers was disclosed online, after the site was hacked; despite the organization has promised that those disclosed information was deleted (Leicester 2016). These were the common yet popular instances of ethical misconduct and events in the current scenario. Now, as an ICT professional, the employees should play a pervasive role of conducting themselves with subject to major correction of their behavior. Legitimately, the ICT managers refer themselves as professionals, whereas the best practice of ethical conduct should not only follow the bylaw legislations but also individually they should conduct ethically and with utter responsiveness (Aynsley, 2015). The ACS code of ethics is prepared with a benchmark for controlling their members and as well as the ICT practitioners for valuing professional work standard. In six principles adhered in ACS code of ethics, the ICT professionals should follow: primacy of public interest, enhancement of quality of life, honesty, competence, professional development, and professionalism (Tondeur et al. 2016). However, these mentioned principles are not only the bylaw legislation requirements, but also the principles were needed to be considered for any use of technology consequences. The technology can b e utilized for the organization and / or the wider community of resources (Hemsley et al. 2016). In case on ICT professional is following this ACS code of ethics, he or she should not allow any unethical or inappropriate use of technology; they should hinder unethical use of technology abide by ACS code. Along with emerging big data, cloud computing, and social media developments; the technology is currently a bigger part of any organization with offering new and faster approaches to gather information (Boddy and Dominelli 2016). However, big data, cloud computing, and social media developments play major role in conducting business and planning business for ensuring business methodologies in practice. Ethical conduct required the ICT professionals to imply their actions to staff, customers, and other resources. In this modern technology adoption era, Facebook is widely used by the policymakers and community for conducting content feed experiments. The Facebook feeds were used to test impact on peoples emotions and this test was subjected to over half a million users as well (Aynsley, 2015). This test was labeled as invasion of privacy breaching ethical considerations over informed consent. However, the users had no idea of this manipulative testing causing significant impact on thei r emotions. As technology is evolving at a higher rate; therefore, the legislative framework should be updated in accordance with definitive guidelines of capabilities. Ethical considerations should consider the gaps where legislation is not prepared and yet to some limitations the ethical consideration should outlaw (Lang, Craig and Casey 2016). ICT professionals should lead considering the ethical implications for ensuring no one has negative impact as per their efforts. This newspaper article poses a challenge of active ethical commitment with turning someone with difficult questions. The article raises another query to depict the best practice of showing well-versed ethical issues and steps to ensure ethical righteousness (Ponce and Gomez 2016). Some researchers have incorporated the fact of following certified professionalism. The certified professionalism followed with some points as underneath: Standout from Other Personnel in Organization: The certification assessment from ACS depicts that individual skills and knowledge in marketplace should be placed against independent and internationally recognized benchmark. ACS undertook the formal skills for conducting nearly 100,000 ICT professionals during previous decade (Keeble 2016; Lloyd, Downes and Romeo 2016). ACS ensures customers with empowering their skills and knowledge association. Trusted Advisor for Clients: The certification should be held for primacy of public interest along with individual approach. The ACS code of ethics makes employees committed with building skills and knowledge (Chang 2016). Hence, one individual with certification from ACS code of ethics should perform a role of advisor for the clients to ensure ethical guidance among the practitioners and professionals. Acquire Best Position for Ensuring Success in Career: The ACS employment survey demonstrated that certified professionals should earn vendor certifications. ACS assessment of employees should ensure career success for them stating competence in knowledge and professional development. Preparation for Opportunities: The disruptive technology at stake does not pick major opportunities for employees, ethical conduct does (Faruq and Tatnall 2016). ACS certification is technology-skeptic, vendor-cynic, and mostly focuses over transferrable expertise. The certification is relevant to employees and customers for focusing over expertise. Hence, the discussion is confronted with showing some events of ethical dilemma and issues. Afterwards, issues and raising questions were subjected to ACS code of ethics and certification under suitable professionalism and professional development (Patil 2016). The principles were demonstrated to depict the employee activities, their capabilities and responsibility leading to organization standard. Conclusion After the ethical and regulatory standards have been draw out in the essay, the major conclusions can be prepared with depicting the gaps in ethics. Ethical consideration is major for any organization in ICT and information technology adoption in organizations. Mostly, the organizations have bigger responsibilities asserted to employees with confronting six major principles. Nonetheless, these said standards are the local law enactment necessities, as well as the standards were should have been considered for any utilization of innovation outcomes. The innovation can be used for the association and/or the more extensive group of assets. On the off chance that on ICT expert is taking after this ACS code of morals, he or she ought not permit any unscrupulous or improper utilization of innovation; they ought to frustrate deceptive utilization of innovation submit to ACS code. Furthermore, the ACS code of ethics is incorporated in the essay for showing ethical guidelines to ensure compet ence, professionalism, professional development, honesty, primacy of public interest, and quality of life enhancement. References Al-Saggaf, Y., Burmeister, O.K. and Weckert, J., 2016. Perceptions of incompetence in the ICT workplace.ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society,45(3), pp.11-17. Aynsley, B., 2015. Ethics essential for ICT professionals. [online] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/. Available at: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/opinion/ethics-essential-for-ict-professionals/news-story/78307af0586683a61e7a0d537c5f6cf8 [Accessed 1 Nov. 2016]. Boddy, J. and Dominelli, L., 2016. Social Media and Social Work: The Challenges of a New Ethical Space.Australian Social Work, pp.1-13. Chang, W.W.M., 2016. Digital competence and professional development of vocational education and training teachers in Queensland. Edwards, J., 2016. Cloud computing services: Professional obligations and ethics.Brief,43(3), p.32. Faruq, Q.O. and Tatnall, A., 2016. Adoption of ICT in Implementing Primary Health Care: Achievements of the Twenty-First Century.International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation (IJANTTI),8(1), pp.55-64. Ferguson, S., Thornley, C. and Gibb, F., 2016. Beyond codes of ethics: how library and information professionals navigate ethical dilemmas in a complex and dynamic information environment.International Journal of Information Management,36(4), pp.543-556. Hemsley, B., Georgiou, A., Carter, R., Hill, S., Higgins, I., van Vliet, P. and Balandin, S., 2016. Use of the My Health Record by people with communication disability in Australia A review to inform the design and direction of future research.Health Information Management Journal, p.1833358316652060. Keeble, R., 2016. Publication ethics: stressing the positive.Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society,14(1), pp.20-23. Lang, C., Craig, A. and Casey, G., 2016. A pedagogy for outreach activities in ICT: promoting peer to peer learning, creativity and experimentation.British Journal of Educational Technology. Leicester, N., 2016. Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on Professional Behaviour?. Lloyd, M., Downes, T. and Romeo, G., 2016. Positioning ICT in Teachers Career Path: ICT Competency as an Integral Part of Teacher Standards (Australia). InDiverse Approaches to Developing and Implementing Competency-based ICT Training for Teachers: A Case Study(Vol. 1, pp. 21-44). UNESCO Bangkok. Patil, S.G., 2016. An Overview of Digital Challenges and Users expectation in IT era related to Library Profession. Ponce, M.I. and Gomez, J., 2016. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and Pre-Service Education Professionals: A Case Study of Motivation and Knowledge.International Journal of Educational Excellence,(2016) Vol,2, pp.63-79. Tondeur, J., Forkosh-Baruch, A., Prestridge, S., Albion, P. and Edirisinghe, S., 2016. Responding to challenges in teacher professional development for ICT integration in education.Educational Technology Society,19(3), pp.110-121. Warren, M. and Lucas, R., 2016. Ethics and ICT: Why all the fuss?.Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society,14(2).

Charles Russell And Jehovahs Witness Essays - Bible Student Movement

Charles Russell And Jehovah's Witness Charles Russell and Jehovah's Witnesses On February 16, 1852, a child was born that would grow up to lead millions of people astray from families, friends, Christianity, and, most importantly, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The teachings this child taught later as an adult lead people down a road that will only end in one destination?Hell. On this seemingly normal day in 1852, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a son was born to Joseph L. Russell and his wife, Anna Eliza. They named him Charles Taze Russell. This child would grow up to form ?The Watchtower Society? and later the religious group Jehovah's Witnesses. Because Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah Witnesses religious group, grew up to be a lying, immoral man and had religious beliefs that went totally against New Testament Christianity, it is imperative that it is exposed both who he really was and the false doctrines around which his religious group was built. Before one can study Russell's beliefs and proof of his immorality, one mu st learn the history of his life and Jehovah's Witnesses. As mentioned before, Russell was born on February 16, 1852, to Joseph and Eliza Russell. He spent most of his early years in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Not much is know about Russell until 1870, when, at the age of 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh. In 1875, the group elected him ?Pastor.? From 1876 to 1878, he was assistant editor of a small Rochester, New York, magazine until he resigned when a controversy arose over his counterarguments against Christ's ?atonement.? In 1879, Russell married Maria Frances Ackley. Also in 1879, Russell founded ?The Herald of the Morning,? which eventually developed into today's ?The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom.? From 6,000 initial copies, the publication has grown to 17.8 million copies per month in 106 languages (Martin 79). In 1884, Russell incorporated ?Zion's Watchtower Tract Society? in Pittsburgh. In 1886, it published the first of seven books (Russell wrote six by himself.), now entitled Studies in the Scriptures and originally entitled The Millennial Dawn (Martin 17). From these beginnings, Russell gained many followers and continued teaching and preaching until his death on October 31, 1916, aboard a trans-continental train in Texas. After Russell's death, leadership duties were taken over by Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford. Under Rutherford, the official name ?Jehovah's Witnesses? was taken at Columbus, Ohio, in 1931, to differentiate between the true followers of Russell and other splinter groups (Martin and Russell 11). Following Rutherford's death in 1942, Nathan Knorr, Frederick Franz, and Milton Hanschel have assumed the leadership role, respectively. Through these leaders, Jehovah's Witnesses has grown to a total membership of 5,413,769, as of the end of 1996 (Martin 93). Now that the history of Charles Taze Russell and Jehovah's Witnesses has been covered, it is now time to move on to a comparison of basic Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs to accepted Christian biblical doctrine. There are many tenets to the Jehovah's Witness faith that are totally against accepted Christian biblical doctrine. The Jehovah's Witness religious group has made an attempt to separate themselves from the name Charles Russell in the years following his death. Even though the following doctrines mentioned are listed as Jehovah's Witness beliefs, a careful comparison between them and the writings of Charles Russell would show a clear connection. The following are just a few of the Jehovah's Witnesses' false doctrines followed up with biblical refutation. The doctrines mentioned are taken directly from their official pamphlets and books. First, here are some of their beliefs on Jehovah God. Jehovah Witnesses believe there is only one true God and that he has many titles but has only one name. That name is ?Jehovah.? Jehovah's Witnesses arrogantly claim that by using Jehovah, they have ?restored? the divine name of God. This is totally untrue. In the ancient Hebrew texts, where Witnesses claim they have found this as God's name, only the Hebrew consonants ?YHWH? or ?JHVH? appear. In the Hebrew language, any vowels could be inserted between the consonants, giving any combination from JoHeVaH to JiHiViH, without doing any damage to the grammar of the language. To insist their past leaders had a revelation on this topic is a pathetic

Laughter as Therapy Essay Example

Laughter as Therapy Essay Example Laughter as Therapy Paper Laughter as Therapy Paper Laughter As Therapy Naturally, we as a people dislike feeling bad and like feeling good. Two examples of common things that make us feel bad are sickness and sadness. Common remedies for those things are medicine and humor. Though medicine and humor seem different at first glance, they share very important commonalities; they make us feel good and are key influences on a culture. This connection between health and humor has intrigued scientists for years. Recently, scientists have begun seriously investigating the relationship between the two. More specifically, if laughter is capable of contributing to the field of medicine. Many scientists have reason to believe that laughter could have a significant effect as a therapeutic medicine, whether it be through the physical act of laughing, or through the effects of changing hormone levels. Therefore, the goal of this essay is to educate the readers on the development and experimentation of laughter used as therapeutic medicine in the past, present, and fut ure. Laughter is an age-old, natural human reaction to humor that elicits a feeling comparable with euphoria. For 2,000 years, people have been baffled by why laughter causes humans to feel so good. (Gorman, 2011) In fact, the benefits of humor and laughter are even recognized in Proverbs 17:22 of the Bible, â€Å"A cheerful heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit makes one sick.† (The Nurse’s Handbook of Complementary Therapies, 2001) Some cultures, such as the Mayans, have practiced humor in medicine for thousands of years. Specifically, the Mayan healer, Don Elijio Panti, whom lived until he was 103, was described as much of a clown as a doctor. Panti believed that a happy patient was a healthy patient. Without a positive attitude, the patient was less likely to recover from their sickness. He utilized humor techniques, such as making jokes, teasing, and telling stories with dancing and other body movements, to lighten the mood of his patients. Panti once sai d, â€Å"A persons spirit needs to be uplifted as much as the body needs to be healed. And without an uplifted spirit I dont think there is enough energy within the body or enough vital force for a person to properly and completely experience healing.† (Balick Lee, 2003) Many considerable strides have been made since the time of the Mayans. Today, scientists have reason to believe that laughter could be therapeutically beneficial in ways such as a relief from pain and stress, an improvement in immunity, and a useful tool for nurses in treating patients. (Nurse’s Handbook of Complementary Therapies, 2001) I will analyze these claims in the following three paragraphs. On September 13th, 2011, the New York Times published an article entitled â€Å"Scientists Hint at Why Laughter Feels So Good† by James Gorman that contained results of a pivotal experiment in the field of laughter studies conducted by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford University, and his colleagues. Dunbar and Co. conducted five studies in the laboratory by testing subjects’ pain tolerance after fits of laughter. Dunbar had his subjects watch â€Å"excerpts of comedy videos and neutral videos, or videos meant to promote good feeling but not laughter.† The comedy videos included excerpts from the popular television shows, â€Å"The Simpsons,† â€Å"Friends† and â€Å"South Park†. Neutral videos included a documentary on pet training and a program on golf. The videos meant to elicit good feelings, but not laughter, included excerpts from television shows about nature such as â€Å"Planet Earth† and â€Å"Jungles.â₠¬  They inflicted pain in their subjects via a blood pressure cuff, a freezing wine sleeve across the fore arm, or a demanding ski exercise. Participants were tested before and after watching a series of the aforementioned videos. When suffering the various inflicted pains subjects were instructed to indicate when the pain became unbearable. All events that occurred during these experiments were recorded. The results of the experiments by Dunbar and his colleagues showed that laughter increased pain tolerance, while ‘good feeling’ videos did not. These results confirm that laughter is a relief from pain. Though much more conclusive evidence is needed, one can speculate that laughter may be a door way into a new realm of pain medication. Lee Berk, a PhD and scientist of the 1980s, was interested physiological effects caused by fits of laughter. In his most famous study, Berk simply instructed ten healthy individuals to watch a 60-minute humorous video while he tracked their hormone levels. The control group did not watch a video of humorous nature. Surprisingly, he found that laughter significantly reduced the levels of three critical stress hormones. Cortisol (steroid hormone produce by the adrenal gland), epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), and dopac (metabolite of the neurotransmitter dopamine) decreased by 30, 70, and 38%, respectively. (Balick Lee, 2003) There was not a reduction in levels of stress hormones in the control group. Knowing that stress levels usually have an influence in an individuals immunity, Berk furthered his studies in psychoneuroimmunology by replicating his experiment and focusing on change in hormone levels associated with immunity. He and his associates found that laughter caused a significant increase in two hormones; beta-endorphins (chemicals which improve mood) by 27% and human growth hormone (chemical that helps optimize immunity) by 87%. (Balick Lee, 2003) There was not an increase observed in th e control group. His findings support the claim that laughter can reverse the negative effects of stress and cause an improvement in ones immune system. Though it may not be considered â€Å"therapeutic† by exact definition, humor is a technique constantly used by many nurses today for many purposes. Typically, nurses will use humor to ease the strange, anxious feeling patients sometimes experience in hospitals, to develop a therapeutic relationship between nurse and patient, and to positively influence hopefulness. (The Nurse’s Handbook of Complementary Therapies) For example, I have an aunt named Joan who is a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Chicago and, much like the Mayan healer Don Elijio Panti, uses humor as a tool when meeting her young patients for the first time. â€Å"Usually, they (patients) are very shy to start but once I introduce myself in a positive, humorous manner, I begin to gain their trust. A patient’s trust is imperative to a successful treatment by a nurse. By displaying a positive attitude, I instill the same positive, hopeful attitude in my patients†, says Joan. Some nurses have even gone so far as to allow clowns to aid them in their treatment of patients. Patients at the Babies and Childrens Hospital at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (CPMC) in New York were lucky enough to be subjects of three studies that were funded by The Richard and Ilinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at The Columbia  College of Physicians and Surgeons to learn about the effects of ‘clowning around’ with pediatric cancer and heart patients. Specially trained clowns, deemed the Clown Care Unit (CCU), were hired to aid researchers in their investigation of â€Å"the effect of clowns on decreasing physiological and psychological indicators of distress in children and adolescents undergoing cardiac catheterization†. (Balick Lee, 2003) Results showed decreases in observed child distress, child self-reported distress, and parent-rated distress when the clowns were present for the cardiac catheterization. As for the doctors performing the cardiac catheterization, they found the procedure significantly easier to perform when the clowns were present. In summary, nurses and doctors alike use humor on a daily basis to instill a feeling of hopefulness and to improve relations with their patients. The future of laughter therapy seems promising based on the history of the development of the science. After the connection between humor and health was realized thousands of years ago society has been making significant strides in the forward direction which will hopefully lead to a proven and regulated therapy for individuals who are ill, undergoing treatment, or recovering from a treatment. In order to accomplish an effective laughter therapy, doctors would need to administer a form of medication that contained the same chemicals released during laughter or recommend their patients to therapist that specialized in laughter therapy. In other words, laughter therapy could come in the natural form of humor via another human or artificially via a medication. The possibilities are endless. In conclusion, in the present scientific community there has been studies that yielded concrete results that support that laughter can improve health in the short term. Robert Dunbar and his colleagues proved that laughter can reduce sensitivity to pain in their tests using various techniques of inflicting pain in their subjects while they were instructed to watch comedic television shows. By relieving that stress, individuals will feel healthier in general. Finally, there has been record of doctors practicing laughter therapy as treatment for long-term ailments, specifically Mayan healer Don Elijio Panti. (describe article in more detail) In conclusion,  there is scientific evidence to support laughter improving short-term health by relieving stress in the individual. However, despite the fact that many ancient cultures practice laughter therapy for long term ailments, there is very little concrete scientific evidence that laughter could heal an individual that has been diagnosed with serious disease or condition. At most, laughter therapy can act as an aid to the individual to cope with a difficult healing and/or treatment processes [There is no word to explain the feeling after a gut-busting laugh. It is a natural high to say the least. Some scientists, like Robin Dunbar an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford University, believe that it is the physical act of laughing that produces the pleasurable feeling. Others, like Lee Berk, PhD and a pioneer in laughter studies, believe the answer lies our hormones. (add information on book source)] The article, written by Micheal J. Balick and Roberta Lee and published in the scholarly journal entitled Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, discusses the role of laughter in traditional practice and its pertinence in the current medical field. Balick and Lee incorporate and analyze a series of essays regarding lessons and observations of humor in the medical community. an aid in recovery from surgery, a cure for melancholy, physical exercise, to restore equilibrium, to use in treatment of the sick, to help digestion, and to stimulate the internal organs. News Article:nytimes.com/2011/09/14/science/14laughter.html?_r=1src=meref=science Scholarly Journal: Healing with HA! http://search.proquest.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/204826776/131EA152F382DD5362B/2?accountid=12598 Book:The Nurse’s Handbook of Complementary Therapies

Quantitative Methods and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Quantitative Methods and Analysis - Essay Example Particular demographic information includes employees’ gender, age group, department, position, and length of tenure with the company. Job satisfaction and satisfaction with the benefits received are measured using a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7, with 1 representing a â€Å"Least Satisfied† measure while 7 represents a â€Å"Most Satisfied† measure. Employee gender is either male or female; age group was divided into three, with those belonging to age 16 to 21, 22 to 49, and 50 to 65. Employees were classified according to three possible departments: Human Resources, Information Technology, and Administration; they were classified as either hourly employees who were eligible for overtime pay, or salaried employees who were not eligible for overtime pay. Their tenure with the company was also noted in the database and subdivided into three levels: less than two years, 2 to 5 years, and more than 5 years. In today’s day and age, statistics finds more and mo re uses in the workplace. For example, statistics is used to find the demographic distribution of employees in the workplace (Black, 2010). Those working in the Quality Control department use statistics to determine the products that are of good enough quality to be distributed to the market. Managers use statistics to determine employee performance and operational costs and values. Employees use statistics to keep track of their performance level too, knowing very well that such figures may mean the difference between promotion and service termination (Anderson, Sweeney, & Williams, 2009). Any organization that uses appropriate and correctly interpreted statistics will truly benefit in providing a more scientific venue for their decision making needs. With the use of statistics, problems may be identified early on, and corrected as necessary (Rubin, 2009). Moreover, statistics also provides evidence and actual proof of where an organization may focus its resources, whether in the f orm of physical or human capital. As the rest of this report will illustrate, statistics may be used to determine the thoughts and feelings of an organization’s members. This is very crucial because human resource and the satisfaction and proper treatment of employees should be a major concern for any organization (Cook, 2008). In placing the focus on the information provided by the database, it was found that 61% of the surveyed employees were male and 39% were female. These figures indicate that while females have long been in the employed sector, employees are still predominantly male. Among male employees, 54% have been with the company less than two years, 32% have been with the company between two to five years, and 14% have been with the company more than five years. Among female employees, 21% have been with the company less than two years, 58% have been with the company between two to five years, and 21% have been with the company more than five years. These statisti cs show that female employees are more loyal career-wise because they tend to stay with their company for a longer period of time. When it comes to extrinsic job satisfaction, males and female tend to be similarly satisfied with a mean value of 5.4 for both genders. This value seems to translate to overall job satisfaction as there is a 41% chance that an employee’s overall job satisfaction level is at least 5.2. When classified according to department, majority of the employees were in

Research Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Research Proposal - Essay Example Since climatic changes such as lower heating demand and higher cooling demand can directly influence the energy consumption in any economy therefore, this research study will evaluate its effects on energy consumption in Sacramento, California. This research will also assist the policy makers to analyze the extent to which the weather conditions can affect the energy consumption in Sacramento. Therefore, it will be very useful to meet the challenge of energy consumption demands in Sacramento. After conducting this research study, the answers to various questions will be achieved such as, what is the impact of weather conditions on electricity consumption? What are the affects of global warming on electricity consumption? The forecasts of electricity demand in an economy are made in consideration to the factors such as technological changes, income of consumers, population growth and prices. However, researchers have found that weather conditions variables should be also used to forecast electricity demand. A huge literature work has been done to study this relationship. In California, the population growth in the hotter interior regions of the state is causing growth in cooling demand, which ultimately affects the electric power system (Sanstad and Franco).1 Hor et al. investigated the affects of weather (Temperature, wind spread, rainfall, relative humidity and sunshine), GDP and population growth on monthly electricity demand in England and Wales. Weather conditions affect the electricity industry in terms of electricity consumption and operation of the network infrastructure (Hor et al.).2 Donovan and David discovered the use of the shade trees for reducing electricity use and they demonstrated t he importance of location of tree cover to reduce summertime electricity use.3 Lillard and Aigner demonstrated the impact of temperature level variations on time of day (TOD) electricity consumption and air conditioning.4 They found a positive relationship