Human Nature is essentially evil in Lord of the Flies Essay

During the 1950s when Golding had written Lord of the Flies war and conflict was amongst them. World War Two had recently ended and there was strong tension between Russia and the West. Russia and America had been building up nuclear weapons since the 1930’s, believing that these weapons would protect them from attack. This is known as the Cold War. In the book Golding constantly gives us hints that war is going on, for example when Piggy reminds Ralph that the plane crashed because they were attacked. The adult world at the time was full of evil and hate which is shown in the book. For example Hitler, whose aggresive ways seem to mirror the actions of Jack, who throughout the novel builds up power, eventually forming a ‘dictatorship’. When the boys arrive on the island the situation is calm. From the beginning we start to see some of Jacks dictitorial traits, this shown by the introduction of the ‘choir boys’ and him wanting to be chief. Most of the boys side with Ralph and elect him as leader. Jack is also described as having red hair, which is often used to portray someone with a fiery personality. Jack is the character who has largest appetite to kill; his highest ambition towards the beginning of the book is to kill the pig. Later on in the novel Roger show clear signs of mounting agressive behaviour. In the beginning he started to show his agression by knocking over sand castes built by the ‘little’uns’ as the novel progresses his actions become ever more violent ending in him killing piggy. Ralph and Piggy unlike Jack believe in fairness and democracy, the conch and piggy’s glasses play an important role in keeping order and sanity within the boys. Towards the end of the novel both of these important items are destroyed. Golding shows that human nature is evil by making the two sainest characters join in the killing of Simon. The glasses symbolised intelligence and thought so when they were destroyed Ralph often metions a ‘curtain’ meaning he can’t think clearly. The beast is first ‘sighted’ by a ‘little’un’ who said he saw a snake like beast in the night that turned out be a creeper when daylight returned. This ‘beast’ is probably the most important factor in book because it symbolises ‘fear in the heart of man’. Initially the boys take no notice of this ‘little’un’ but as time goes on’ other boys believe they have seen the beast but in a different form. Jack tries to show his bravery by offering hunt down the beast. Ralph tries to be rational and explain that there is no such thing but he has difficulty persuaded the other boys. Jack and Ralph believe in totally different principles with this in mind Jack forms his own tribe who are there to hunt and have fun, were Ralph requires the boys to tend to the fire and build shelters. The boy’s fear of the beast increases aswell as the boy’s savage behaviour. The boys regularly perform a tribal dance with one the boys pretending to be a pig dancing and chanting ‘kill pig, cut his throat, and spill his blood’ this chanting is both primitive and pagan. Whether real or imaginary the beast is present in all, it represents what Ralph calls ‘the darkness I mans heart’ this shows that the beast is capacity for evil and wrong doing in all of us. Law and order disintegrates gradually, as the fear of the beast becomes more real over time. The conch and piggy’s glasses were the centre of law, order and democracy so once they were desroyed democracy and order andhad gone with it. Were nearly all of the other boy’s show that human nature is essetially evil, there is one character that stands out for goodness and innocence which is Simon. Simon is shown to be unconventional; he is also thoughtful and kind. He is shown to be good till the end. He often will just go off on his own which eventually puts him it great danger because once he wandered off during the night and a ‘little’un’ saw him and believed him to be the beast. Golding was a very relious man, some people think that Simon represents Jesus. He dies because he tries telling the others the truth about the soldier whom they believe is the beast but they don’t care. He has a conversation with the Lord of the Flies which represents the confrontation between good and evil. Some of the words that Golding uses when he is talking about Simon describe religious scences; the candle bud’s open wide as he sits alone in the forest at dusk which makes you think of church candles. He is the true exception in this book the one that is truly good.

The Social-Emotional, Cognitive and Physical Benefits of Physical Activity

The social-emotional, cognitive and physical benefits of physical activity During childhood our body and mind changes very fast. I believe that nowadays parents focus more on the brain developement of their children than their physical activity. When I was a little girl – over 20 years ago – we spent most of our time outside playing, running and enjoying fresh air and being in movement. Physical activity of children can secure them health and well being in their adulthood as well as teach them a lot of very importants aspects like social relations and behaviors in different situations.Now I see that a lot of children spend their time at home or at after school activities that don’t involve a lot of movement. According to Child Development and Education â€Å"a series of studies shows that reductions in physical education are not associated with increase in academic achievement†. It is important to teach a children how to play piano or improve their mathema tical skills but we should also remember how important is a physical activity in their development.Also as Child Development and Education states: â€Å"One of the problems is that adults tend to want children to remain still and quiet, particularly in groups, whereas many children prefer more rambunctious activities. † According to The Journal of Pediatrics physical activities of children vary with age, type of exercise, and setting. Physical activity begins in infancy with pushing up, turning, crawling, and eventually walking, and it progresses to more complex activities as neuromuscular control develops.Basic movement patterns develop during preschool ages and are the foundation for a wide range of physical activities at later ages. With growth, maturation, and experience, basic movements are integrated and coordinated into more specialized and complex movement skills that characterize the free play, games, sports, and other activities of school-age youth. Guided instructi on and supervised practice, specifically by qualified teachers, coaches, and others who work with children, are important in learning movement skills. Types and contexts of activities are variable and change with age during childhood and adolescence.Activities of children aged 6 to 9 years are largely anaerobic (as in non-sustained activities or games such as ‘‘tag’’), and they help the child learn basic and more specialized motor skills. As youth move into the pubertal transition (about age 10-14 years, earlier in girls than in boys), these skills are incorporated into a variety of individual and group activities and many organized sports. Mature structure and function are approached or attained in late adolescence (age 15-18 years), so that physical activity programs can be more structured.Physical activity has not only physical benefits. It also has a very big impact on social-emotional and cognitive aspects of child’s live. According to Centers f or Disease Control and Prevention â€Å"The development of a physically active lifestyle is a goal for all children. Traditional team and competitive sports may promote healthy activity for selected youth. Individual sports, noncompetitive sports, lifetime sports, and recreational activities expand the opportunity for activity to everyone.The opportunity to be active on a regular basis, as well as the enjoyment and competence gained from activity, may increase the chances that a physically active lifestyle will be adopted. † Team sports for example not only provide physical activity for children. They also introduce them to the meaning of â€Å"teamwork† and ability to find their own place in a group. Especially in sports, where roles change and they need to wait for their turn. When I was little we used to play badminton but unfortunately had only two sets of rackets that we needed to share.There was usually 6-8 of us playing together and I remember how we managed to be a public and players. This was one of my first lesson of sharing and adapting into a situation that I can’t change. Also it is important for children to learn a little bit about competition, since it is present in our whole lives. We have competition at work, college and different areas in our lives and I hardly believe that when person learns that sometimes you are first, sometimes second and sometimes last as early as you are a child it will be easier for the person to accept that you can’t be always first in adult life.During physical activities children interact with each other and getting to know their friends. Very often on the outdoor playgrounds we can see how quickly they meet other children. If they get bored they start looking for a new friend that can play with them. Encouraging children to those type of behaviors teach them how to be open in relationships with new people in their lives and how to interact with new friends. Adults should be aware of the right ways in encouraging their children’s physical activity.It is very important to know, that physical activity is an essential part of children’s day and teachers as well as parents should know how to promote it among children. First of all they should remember about even short activity breaks in between learning. The Journal of Pediatrics states that â€Å"The recommended 60 minutes or more of physical activity can be achieved in a cumulative manner in school during physical education, recess, intramural sports, and before and after school programs.In this regard, the Centers for Disease Control recommends daily quality physical education from kindergarten through grade 12. Both physical education and recess afford opportunities to achieve the daily physical activity goal without any evidence of compromising academic performance. Opportunities to influence youth participation in physical activities are readily available at home and school, as well as in community and health care settings. † They should also Provide an appropriate equipment and make exercising an enjoyable experience.Children tent to get bored if they do one thing for a long time, that is why diversity in exercising is very important. As a adults we should remember how important it is to take care of the physical activities of children. They can not only stay in good physical shape because of them but also develop on many other levels like social, emotional and cognitive. References McDevitt T. M. Ormord J. E. , (2012). Child Development and Education. 5th ed. USA: Pearson, pp. 157-77 WILLIAM B. STRONG, MD, ROBERT M. MALINA, PHD, CAMERON J. R. BLIMKIE, PHD, STEPHEN R.DANIELS, MD, PHD, RODNEY K. DISHMAN, PHD, BERNARD GUTIN, PHD, ALBERT C. HERGENROEDER, MD, AVIVA MUST, PHD, PATRICIA A. NIXON, PHD,JAMES M. PIVARNIK, PHD, THOMAS ROWLAND, MD, STEWART TROST, PHD, AND FRANCXOIS TRUDEAU, PHD,, (2005). EVIDENCE BASED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR SCHOOL-AGE YOUTH. The Journal of Pediatr ics. e. g. 32 (e. g. 2), pp. 732-7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guidelines for school and community programs to promote lifelong physical activity among young people. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1997;46(RR-6):1–36

A Newborn Is Thrown in the Trash and Dies

A Newborn Thrown in the Trash and Dies is a thought provoking, gut wrenching tale about an infant who is born to a teenage mother that lives in a housing project in New York and is thrown down the trash, down ten floors to thecompactor chute to its death. The story is narrated by the unnamed infant who is the subject of the story. She is the sympathetic character as she describes her projected lifehas horrible as her certain death. She doesn’t seem bitter about dying, she feels sympathy for the mother who put her in the trash and accepts her life as being â€Å"how it is,† as she doesn’t know any better. As she passes each floor she shares the peek that she is given, from learning that people talk out of both sides of their mouths, political power, her molestation, and even the death of her brother. The infant almost gives the reader the idea that her life will be just as tragic as her death and wouldn’t change anything. She would just be one of many stories published in the paper. She believes that a Russian on the other side of the world is going through the same thing, that even though they are from different countries they have poverty in common. This is true today, we hear horrible stories about things that happen to children and the people of the city have become numb to its affects. For example, children are abducted from the city all of the time and it is reported, right after the story the news anchors switches gears and gives the weather as if they were not affected by what they have just reported. It seems that it is as easy to them as reporting rain or a traffic jam, they seem unaffected which is conveys to the listening audience. Those of us who are affected will be for a short time, but not enough to where we will feel that we need to do something about it. Life will continue to go on as it always has and stories like these will continue to occur. The story makes me question what I have become numb to and what do I consider normal. When I watch the news I almost expect to see where someone is murdered in the city. What is wrong with me, us, society? The story describes that there have been nine babies discarded in 1990 and as of August of the following year seven discarded babies were discovered. How ironic is it that the name of her housing project where she is born and dies is called the Gerald J. Carey Gardens. A garden is a place where seeds are planted, nurtured and tended, the total opposite of what was happening to her.

Background to HRM at General Motors Corporation Essay

General Motors Corporation (NYE: GM) is the leading American automaker in the world with its operations spanning in 157 countries. The car manufacturer was established in 1908 in Michigan and today it is headquartered in Detroit, the United States of America. Besides the domestic industry of the United States of America, General Motors manufactures cars and trucks in other 30 countries around the world. Among its brand products are Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Hummer, Holden, Opel, Saab, Pontiac, Vauxhall, and Saturn. Besides these brands that are owned by the automaker, GMC also operates joint ventures in China and Japan. That is, Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile respectively. From its Website, General Motors Corporation is among the leading American employer with 204 000 employees distributed throughout its global markets. The employees include production engineers, financial auditors, marketers, and researchers among others. Before restructuring and retrenching that took place in 2008 following a harsh global financial crisis that resulted into a loss of $37.3billion by the automaker, General motors corporation was the leading American employer with 284 000 employees (GMC, 2008). Because of its large network of global presence in 31 countries, General Motors human resource management practices entail international practices that are designed in accordance to the international operation requirements and the organizational culture designed to reduce operational costs. Majority employees of the corporation’s subsidiaries in the 31 countries are drawn from the domestic pool of local labour markets and only a few expatriates are drawn from USA as back office managers due to their wide knowledge of its organization culture (Cappelli, 1999). The Board of directors which draws from the organization’s international market presence is charged with the responsibilities of making major decisions critical to the company’s operation. According to Gustin (2008), General Motors Corporation spent up to $103 million in settling healthcare insurance benefits of its retired employees in 2007. From this information, it is evident that the American automaker provides life insurance covers for its employees upon retirement. However, following restructurung, these benefits  were stripped off and only a few employees still enjoy them today. From January 1, 2010, pension scheme of retired hourly employees of General Motors Corporation was transferred to United Autoworkers; a third party insurance firms and all permanent employees who were hired after january 1, 1993 nolonger receive health care insirance benefit upon retirement(GMC,2008). The entry salary of the global automaker is dictated by the labour laws of each market of operation and thus varied with the United States of America being the highest irrespective by job categories ( Main et al., 2007). The organization has invested in a Human Resource Management system that allows close interraction of its global employees through technology such as e-mailing and enterprise resource Management (Azrul, 2010). Marketing strategy entails presentations by field marketers to the organization’s large distributors and online follow ups. Reccommended HRM practices for GMC From the above background analysis of General Motors corporation, it is clear that the organization requires international Human Resource Management practices that will integrate the cultural diversity of its employees.The catastrophic impact of the 2008 financial ciris that resulted into massive restructuring and retrenching of its human resources also underscores the organization’s poor human resource planning. The following recommendations are prescribed for the automaker on the basis of figure 1 below. The first recommendation, is Re-designing the business strategy to target the bottom line of the market. According to Azrul (2010), one of the main reasons for the $37.4 billion loss incured by the American automaker is external market forces from competitors like Honda and Hyundai that were producing far cheaper vehicles with high efficient engines and low fuel consumption rates as compared to Genereal Motors’ brands. In the heat of global financial crisis, the market shifted to consumption of cheaper and less fuel consumers produced by the competitors resulting in huge losses by the General Motors Corporation. The new business strategy should entail  designing cars and trucks with high eficent engines and electric cars that can survive an upsurge in oil prices. This will involve an investment in manufacturing technologies that ensures high quality at reduced costs such as electric engines that uses bateries.This will give the Amecan leading automaker a competitve advantage against the stiffening market competition. The second recommendation is outsourcing of labour from China and Japan. Many Corporations prefer to manufacture their products from China because of the availability of a relatively cheaper labour force when compared to western counterparts. General Motors corporation can either outsource its human resoure from China or undertake most of its production from its Japanese and Chinese Subsidiaries. The labour laws in the two countries are relatively flexible and firendly than in the United States of America. This will help the American Automator reduce huge operational costs incured in meeting the big payroll of over 200, 000 employees. The third recommendation is integration of employees’ training in high involvement work practices. According to Konrad (2006), engaging employees of an organization in job specific training improves their productivity by increasing their job-related skills, reducing propensity of committing costly errors, and increasing their job confidence. Training of General Motors’ employees on their job specifications will improve their productivity. Ofshore trainings in China and Japan are recommended. This will allow the corporation’s manufacturing engineers to learn new efficient production technologies of Japan and China in making cheaper and highly effiecient cars. Motivational incentives such as team building sessions, delegation of duties, self-managed leadership styles, and monetary rewards will boost their commitment to the organization. The combined effect of training and motivation will necesitate restructuring of a pay roll while leveraging on improved productivity of highly productive employees. The fourth recommendation is embracing technology in Human Resource Management system to enhance global cordination of its business. According to Dreher and Dougherty ( 2002), the use of technology such as centralised Enterprise Resource Management system to co-ordinate human resource  activities of General Motors will enhance quick sharing of ideas and consultation among the global employees of the company without barriers. This will allow the organization to carry out its marketing strategies efficiently and effectively without limitation by geographical distances. Effective Human Resource Management through streamlined sofware-based systems enhances fast communication and online training which gives an organization a higher competitive advantage. The fifth recommendation is integration of social benefits such as pension and health care schemes in the reward system. From the backround information above, it is evident that General Motors Corporation with-held social benefits for employees who were hired after January 1, 1993 and transferred the remaining ones to third pary insirance firms. The American automaker also stripped healthcare benefits for retired employees beyond 65 years. Acording to Konrad (2006), social rewards like health care insurance schemes make employees feel more valued by their organizations than monetary rewards in terms of bonuses and salary increments. Also pension schemes improve employees’ commitment to their employer because of future guarantees. This reduces employees’ turnover which is essential in retaining critical human resources for continuity of operation of General Motors. High staff retention improves an organization’s competitive advantage in a complex market of operati onal rivalry. The sixth recommendation is the implementation of employee productivity management and monitoring systems such as Balanced Score Card (BSC) and High Performance Work System (HPWS) (Rouse, 2000). The latter system refers collectively to open systems, autonomouas teams and teamworks, and performance-based pay (Azrul, 2010). The implementation of the two Human Resource Management systems will improve organizational performance by providing real time employees’ information storage database from which future managerial decisions, and rewards will be based. According to Konrad ( 2006), employees of an organization are more productive when they are aware that their performance is recorded for review in determining their future rewards. Effective implementation of the Human Resource Management systems will help General Motors Corporation in categorising employees  according to their productivity rates. This information is important in determining the relevance of job training and objective restructuring in the event of a crisis like that which befell it in 2008. In this case, only high productive employees will be retained. The seventh recommendation is the implementation of an integrative pay/ reward system to inculde performance-contingency pay scheme, skill-based pay, and seniority-based pay scheme. According to performance-contingency pay scheme, the employees’ reward will be based on the performance of their working teams. This will help the automaker in creating effective self-managed and motivated teams. Skill-based pay will ensure that employees’ pay schemes are based on their job skills. For instance, production engineers will be given high pay than marketers because of their technical skills required by the organization. Seniority-based pay scheme demands that those employees who have stayed longer in the organization will get a higher pay than new comers because of their cumulative salary increements along their carrier path. Seniority-based pay scheme promotes staff retention even when the entry salary is relatively lower than the market rates because employees know that there is a room for growth. In general, General Motors Corporation should ensure total compliance with the labour markets and legal environments of their respective countries of operations before implementation of the proposed recommendations. For instance, the employment laws regarding hourly wages, minimum wage policy, employment opportunities, labour regulations, and safety rules in China are different from those of the United States of America. Therefore it is imperative that the American automaker consider their implications in setting the minimum entry wage in each country of operation. Conclusion. In conclusion, General Motors Corporation can sustain its competitive strategy as a leading automaker by embracing the above prescribed Human Resource Mangement system that integrates staff training on job related skills, outsourcing, social reward scheme, technology, and  performance-contingency pay scheme among others as strategic competiencies in its operation. The implementation of Balanced Score Card and HPWS is critical in improving the productivity of the organization’s employees. The proposed system will enhance high staff retention, high staff productivity, and objective contingency planning in times of global crises like the 2008 global financial crisis that lead to massive retrenchment by the automaker. References Azrul, A. (2010). Human Resource Management & General Motors. Monash University Publication, p.1-13.From: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14812855/Human-Resource-Management-General-Motors Main, B.G.,Jackson, C., Pymm, J.,& Wright, V. (2007). GMC:The Remuneration Committee and Strategic Human Resource Management. University of Edinburgh publications, p.1-49. Cappelli, P. (1999). Employment Practices and Business Strategy. Oxfford, ew York : Oxford University Press. General Motors Corporation. (2008). Restructuring Plan for Long-Term Viability: Submitted to Senate Banking Committee & House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. Detroit: General Motors Corporation. Rouse ,D. (2000). Manufacturing Sdvantage:Why High Performance Work Systems Pay off. Journal of Team Performance Management, vol 96(5) , p.1420. Dreher, G., & Dougherty,T. (2002). Human resource strategy: A behavioral perspective for the general manager. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Gustin, L. R. (2008). Billy Durant: Creator of General Motors. Ann Arbor. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Konrad, A. M. (2006). Engaging Employees Through High-Involvement Work Practices. IVEY Business Journal , n.p.From:

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde Essay

Oscar Wilde and his trials, both literal and figurative, has been the subject of quite a few films and plays apart from the considerable mass of writing that exist on this subject. This is because Oscar Wilde, as a metaphorical figure has never failed to capture the public imagination as the veritable revolutionary against society’s delimiting and deterministic conventions and a crippling value system. And yet, Moises Kauffman’s latest play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde manages to turn the relatively familiar material – the trials and indictment of the legendary Wilde on charges of sodomy and pederasty – into a riveting and powerful document against social determinism. The theme of Kauffman’s play is the ever-continuing conflict between art and morality and of course with such a theme, Wilde, the martyr to nineteenth century morality, with his assertion that there are no immoral books, only badly written ones is the perfect hero. Drawing from a huge variety of sources that includes trial transcripts, journalistic articles, contemporary autobiographies (including the one by Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas) and later biographies, Kauffman in the play successfully brings alive the past in a way that Wilde himself would have approved of. The play breaks all generic boundaries and has the elements of a historical drama, a docudrama, a courtroom drama, a social commentary, tragedy and comedy all rolled into one. The oft-repeated tale of Wilde’s fall from fame and fortune is by no means old wine in new bottle, primarily because the playwright’s in-depth research brings in new life into the tale by documenting new perspectives and exploring newer avenues and thereby problematizing the positions of victim and victimizer, secondarily because Kauffman concentrates in showing history in its own context and does not overtly attempt to make it contemporary, and finally because by showing Wilde’s plight in his confrontation with a world that found him fundamentally subversive to the interests of the society the playwright strikes an universal chord. Wilde’s passionate attempt to live a life on his own terms is superbly dramatized in the play. Most riveting are the dramatizations of those moments that change the life of the author for once and all. Such a fateful moment comes when Wilde denies kissing a young man with a witty putdown of his looks instead of a straightforward ‘no’. In the first of the three trials and in a climactic moment Wilde is asked by the prosecuting attorney Edward Carson, if he had ever kissed one of the young working class men with whom he was known to keep company. Wilde, with his suave and polished wit replies: â€Å"Oh, dear, no, He was a peculiarly plain boy. † Carson leaps victoriously at the implication of such a comment, that Wilde would have kissed the boy if he was a little more attractive and the author’s fate is sealed. From this moment onwards the play takes on a destructive momentum as Wilde’s entire life spirals out of control betrayed by his own wit. Never again is he able to gain control of his life. Through the presentation of Wilde, with support from his extensive research, Kauffman manages to subtly problematize the positions of victimizer and victim in the play. For as we find in the play, even before he stabs himself with his own clever tongue Wilde frittered away his prodigious talents by surrounding himself â€Å"with the smaller natures and the meaner minds. As he quotes from â€Å"De Profundis† towards the end of the play â€Å" I became the spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy. † Still, the intrinsic irony of the fact that it is his suavity, wit and incomparable craft with words that would bring his downfall is also highly symbolic as far as the theme of the play is concerned, for the play, among other things, engages with the typical Victorian debate over morality and art. Wilde refused to side with the dominant discourse of compartmentalizing his personal erotic longings and keeping it separate from the aesthetic side of his life. And the fact that he raised his personal sense of morality to the level of an art turned out to be the ultimate source of his tragedy in an age which preferred to look at art as a mode moral dispensation for social welfare. Apart from tracing the tragic downfall of this hero with a sincerity and passion that raises Wilde’s conviction and his untimely death to the level of a crucifixion so that the protagonist becomes a patron saint for all those whose life has been crippled by the narrow moralities of a compulsively prohibitionist society, the play also successfully and subtly presents a multilevel study in public perceptions of class, art and sexuality and this is what makes Kauffman’s themes universal. The playwright uses a chorus of actors, who appear both on stage and in front of it posing as the investigators in a hearing, almost classical in its simplicity. This modern chorus continuously reads, quotes or acts out from a huge variety of sources – fruits of the playwright’s research on his subject – establishing an ever-shifting mosaic of perspectives. This chorus takes up several convincing and often hilarious figurative perspectives. The multiple roles bring to the table the likes of Queen Victoria (the author of the Gross Indecency Law), and G. B. Shaw to name a few. The chorus quotes from the memoirs of Wilde and his lover, the accounts of Sir Edward Clarke and the editor Frank Harris. A particularly inspired scene is the one when a later day academic is brought into the play to deconstruct Wilde’s performance in court with insights that are nonetheless valid for being presented satirically. However the most hilarious of all these is probably the scene where the chorus dons long white underwear to display how Wilde procured his ‘gross indecencies’. The greatest success of Kauffman’s use of the chorus lies in the fact that by means of it, very subtly but surely, he manages to communicate a rather unsettling idea to the readers of the play: that even in our age of individual freedom, we are not very far from the social Puritanism that crippled Wilde during his lifetime.

The Sovereign Debt Crisis in the Euro Region Essay

The Sovereign Debt Crisis in the Euro Region - Essay Example There were many European countries that agreed to pay out to potential investors on loan so that they could build their business or create a boom in their existing businesses. They started offering higher rates and better pay out to the bonds, and people started investing into them as their yield was comparably higher and better than the US security bonds that paid out less. There were quite many high risks lending and the loans that were being given out were not secure at all, thus when they defaulted this created a whole lot of collapses. Creating a joint pool of savings and money created a domino effect, if one country defaulted all the countries in the pool would be suffering and this created the situation that if one drowned the rest would go down too as the countries were all connected. The current economic situation will ultimately cause many businesses to shut down and thus this will impact the current job situation. When the firms will start to close down there will be many people who will become unemployed, and this will increase the poverty rate in countries as well. The countries will also face the loss of confidence and will have lesser external investments which would bring an overall halt in their economic growth. There are many reasons and causes that had resulted in the European crisis. The most prominent example is that of Ireland, they paid out loans without securities the investors and encouraged them to develop real state. The government assumed that this would boost their economies and bring in newer profits, but what they failed to acknowledge was what they would do if the borrowers failed to pay back. This created a property bubble and their economy started to tumble because of non-payments of debts. In Greece they became benevolent to the workers and started paying out them in a great amount with relaxed debt conditions, and many countries even borrowed from global investors to bring progress into the country, this created external debt s. Another real significant reason for the current crisis is that the government’s bailing out of large businesses, when they were suffering the financial crisis shocks, this caused the government to empty their own treasuries and have no benefits in return, they in turn themselves started borrowing a lot, and this led to them coming nearer to bankruptcies, as the inability to pay those large loans brought them on the verge of becoming bankrupt. The increase in imports of the smaller European nations brought about an increase in the trade imbalance which again affected the economies of these countries greatly; Germany was the only country that had a positive trade balance. The best and most common method that is adopted by the countries to face the economic crisis is to print money, which causes devaluation of the currency, in case of Euro zone this is not possible as the countries have a pooled in treasury, they cannot print money and thus the inflexibility causes the countr ies to suffer together, it reduces the immediate impact but then instead of one all countries get affected (Kolb 2011). It has been seen that once again the main issues related to the economic downturn has been caused by the Developed countries. The countries that are related to the European countries will have the greatest impact on the developing countries and the countries that are directly or indirectly related to these countries. For example if we have a look at China, they are the principal

Consider the relationships between culture and social identity in Essay

Consider the relationships between culture and social identity in Pygmalion and Educating Rita - Essay Example The ‘Pygmalion myth’ was a favourite subject for the Victorian play wrights where Shaw was not an exception. Will Russell’s ‘Educating Rita’ is, to a certain extent, thematically similar to Shaw’s play ‘Pygmalion.’ The central figure of this play is Susan, who calls herself as Rita, hairdresser from Liverpool who has decided to get an education, not to seek for s new job but to explore an entirely new world which she has never experienced before. She selects an Open University English Literature course and joins the world of Professor Frank, an alcoholic. Though she was determined and completed her studies, she could not either receive or reject her new state. A comparison of both the plays unveils that both the dramatists have effectively used culture and social identity as a means to makes the readers aware of the ill-effects of class distinctions and certain other factors. The play [Educating Rita] is a searing assault on our ri gid class distinctions, and culture of ignorance and misunderstanding, aggravated by inequalities in wealth and education (Educating Rita, 2010). â€Å"In retrospect, Educating Rita is a personal success story and one of hope, at least at the time it was written† (Aguilar, C. M J p.29). One can see a similar theme in ‘Pygmalion’ where Eliza is in search of her personal identity and it advocates the decisive role of culture in moulding one’s identity. The proposed study is conducted on the grounds that culture has a predominant role in forming one’s social identity or social milieu. Culture and social identity have a reciprocal relation akin to the relation between individuality and social identity. It is common knowledge that the seeds of one’s individuality lay in one’s culture, that is, the social set up figures out a person’s individuality. This is crystal clear when observing the first

Critical research and individualism Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical research and individualism - Coursework Example The field of nursing research helps in integrating the various aspects of patient care including biological, social, emotional, as well as scientific and philosophical that have a direct and far-reaching impact on the provision of healthcare. The recent developments in the field of nursing science play a key role in influencing and shaping the discipline of nursing through a range of philosophical approaches. This essay aims to assess the various philosophical underpinnings of this profession, the implications of nursing theories in practice, and a critical analysis of various competing theories of scientific method, particularly the critical theory and the concept of individualism. Critical social theory: The critical social theory has been recently gaining increasing significance in the field of nursing science due to its philosophical approach towards understanding of science. The concept of individual liberty is somewhat restricted in contemporary society due to a range of socio- political restrictions. Such restrictive policies which are rampant across all sections of the society tend to have various negative implications on individuals due to its dominant presence as an integral element of the societal structure resulting in oppression of individual expression. The critical analysis of a given situation helps in highlighting the issue of oppression and the socially constructed borders on human freedom. The critical social theory helps in understanding the manner in which the dominant social values affect and influence the profession of nursing and subsequently the health and welfare of the society at large (Munhall, 2011). The critical social theory is hence involved in transforming existing social orders with a view to influence and coax a positive change in the social norms and hence the power relations to enable greater freedom and promote the greater social and moral values of equality, freedom, and justice (Hitchcock, Schubert, and Thomas, 2003). The field of nursing, being a 'practice science', is essentially involved in pursuing the primary goal of nursing inquiry and knowledge development in order to enable informed decision making and application of the same in practice in ways which are both - socially relevant as well as scientifically sound (Browne, 2000). This theory plays a key role in elucidating the relationship between theory and practice. It insists that the relationship between nursing theory and practice is reflexive in nature thus implying that 'theory feeds into practice, and practice informs theory' (Daly, Speedy, and Jackson, 2009: 116). According to Mill, Allen, and Morrow (2001) critical theory has the ability to "provide the broad philosophical foundation required by the discipline of nursing" (p. 112). The potential contributions of critical social theory in the field of nursing as well as its philosophical implications are fundamental to the field of nursing and healthcare delivery in general. The applica tion of critical social theory has been widely recommended by various nursing theorists for specific research, as a guide to nursing research and to use as a framework for developing the discipline. According to Habermas (1968 qtd. in Browne, 2000) "critically oriented science should produce emancipatory knowledge that promotes social change and a more just society" (Browne, 2000: 40). Individualism: Individualism is one of the most basic foundations on which

Sports Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Sports Governance - Essay Example athletes (USOC, 2015b). For instance, the USOC purposely created its â€Å"Sports Medicine Division† in order to support the physiological needs of the athletes in case of any serious physical injury (i.e. chiropractors and physical therapists) (USOC, 2015c). To support the learning and training needs of the athletes, the USOC purposely created its â€Å"Coaching Education Department† (USOC, 2015d). Today, USOC managed to establish a total of 17 training sites throughout 15 states in the United States on top of its 3 major training centers located in Chula Vista in California, Colorado Springs in Colorado, and Lake Placid in New York (USOC, 2015e; USOC, 2015g). To ensure that the efforts of USOC would pay off, this particular organization has decided to shift its focus from rewarding the active participation of athletes to those who can win medal (Smolianov, Zakus, & Gallo, 2014, p. 37). People at USOC are strongly encouraged to behave with integrity and practice creative thinking as they seek to inspire all athletes to give out their best performance in international sports games and competition (USOC, 2015f). Organizational structure clearly shows how certain tasks or activities are allocated, coordinated, and supervised within a given organization (Pugh, 1990). Often times, the process of examining the organizational structure of USOC is considered important since it can provide us a better understanding about the organizational leadership and behavior (Chance, 2009, p. 11). As of 2015, below is the official organizational structure of USOC: In terms of hierarchy, organizational structure can be classified as either â€Å"tall† or â€Å"flat† (Gupta, Gollakota, & Srinivasan, 2007, p. 250). Based on the chart presented on page 3, the organizational structure of USOC seems to be â€Å"flat†. It means that only the leader of the 14 major departments report directly to the CEO. Basically,

Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assignment - Research Paper Example One of the most notable empires that used communication technologies effectively to handle information was the Assyrian Empire. In the first millennium BC, the Assyrian Empire expanded to an unprecedented size; the empire stretched from River Nile in Egypt to the Iranian mountains, thereby nearly enveloping the modern Middle East. The empire’s ruling elite managed to control the empire despite its massive size primarily because they used efficient communication technologies that facilitated effective handling of administrative messages and records. Constant innovations in administrative technology facilitated the development of communication systems, which facilitated economic growth. One of Assyrians’ most prominent exports was technologies of social management and control, which entailed the technologies such as coercion, information management and control of the empire’s physical assets. Assyrians typically found effective ways of managing storage, movement an d management of goods, armies, people, information and capital. In order to sustain the empire’s massive population, Assyrian administrators developed an administrative structure consisting of four intertwining components that enabled effective communication throughout the empire. These components were the temple administration, the palace, the city or town administration and the provincial administration (Black, 2001). While all components had their individual hierarchies, as well as power bases, the ultimate power typically trickled down from the king. The four structures served to create a balance in power, allowing information and decrees to flow from the king to the common folk. These structures allowed Assyrians to construct a streamlined economic and administrative system that saved on administrative costs, while also controlling a vast majority of the empire’s internal production means. Administrators at the lowest structure (the town/city administration) were primarily tasked with collection of taxes and management of tax records, labor conscriptions, as well as military call-ups. As a result of the effective hierarchical system of communication, the king continually settled deportees from other regions of the empire and parceled out such land as favors in exchange for loyalty. This developed an extremely stratified society with minimally sized aristocratic elite, thereby keeping public expenditure at a minimal. Assyrian military innovation also enabled the empire to maintain a well-organized system of material and food distribution and storage for soldiers and the entire population. Communication problems were resolved through an effective chain of posts, which facilitated speedy communication between distant and capital province. They perfected the communication technology by using horses for military purposes and typical communication aims. One of the reasons why the Roman Empire was quite strong was because of its capacity to communi cate with the masses. Communication held the society together through beliefs in similar laws and myths, which demonstrated a common bond passed down from one generation to another (Black, 2001). Emperors in the Roman Empire used inexpensive means to communicate with the masses, for instance, emperors communicated by displaying gestures,

Engineering analysis 2 Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Engineering analysis 2 - Speech or Presentation Example This method, of course, introduces error due to the nature of the treatment that is given to the differential curve by division into small steps. This error term keeps on increasing with every step, and does not ensure high accuracy. The Runge-Kutta method however, has a very ingenious modification to this method, which makes it much more powerful by reducing error through RK4 by magnitudes of the order of 105. The modification that is made is to cancel out the error in every last step of the process. This is done by using the trial step just as in the Euler method: The last term is the error term associated with the second step, and it is much lower than the one in Euler Method. This form of Runge-Kutta is known as RK2. To reduce error further, further step error reduction formulae are used, which involve different coefficients of the higher order error terms. These are formulated in RK4 or 4th order RK method as: The table clearly shows how low the error percentage in the RK4 method is. This shows the power of the method, though it is to be made known that this is not the most powerful of all methods. But still, its ease of usage makes it the most common technique and the best choice when very high accuracy is not

Semantic Acquisition (Linguistics) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Semantic Acquisition (Linguistics) - Essay Example Usually, young children refer to the objects or people that they are familiar with in their early speech (Barrett 1995). It is interesting that most of the children follow the same process of lexicon acquisition (De Villiers 1978). The process can be divided into five different stages (De Villiers 1978). First, children learn proper names in the first stage as proper names only have one referent for each word (De Villiers 1978). Then, common nouns are acquired soon after the first stage (De Villiers 1978). This is because the structures of common nouns are more complex and children need time to master the application of these words (Barrett 1995). The third stage is acquiring simple verbs and adjectives (De Villiers 1978). These two categories share a similar complexity and similar properties (Barrett 1995). In order to study the verbs and simple adjectives, young children need to master the correlation and interaction between their perceptual development and lexical development (De Villiers 1978). The fourth stage is the acquisition of relational words (De Villiers 1978). These words have more complex meanings (Barrett 1995). It is somewhat difficult for young children to understand the concept of relational words since a comparison for the described object and the context is required (De Villiers 1978). The final stage is the acquisition of deictic expression (De Villiers 1978). Words in this category express the most complex idea of comparison (De Villiers 1978). Nelson (1973) has suggested that there are significant individual differences in the types of words that young children acquire in stage I (Katherine Nelson (1973) in De Villiers 1978, p. 124). Two kinds of children can be found in the early lexicon development of children (De Villiers 1978). They are identified as â€Å"referential children† and â€Å"expressive children†, respectively (De Villiers 1978). Referential children can be defined as those children who acquire and use words of

Cricket company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cricket company - Essay Example In 2005, it gave its customers the option of roaming outside their home market through â€Å"Travel Time†. Later in 2007, the Cricket Company did launch its EV-DO Wireless Broadband. Further, it expanded its wireless network to the Oklahoma state where it became a favorite for numerous wireless clients. Evidently, this illustrates that the Cricket Corporation has been able to acquire considerable success in expanding their customer base. Its expansion clearly highlights that they are producing impressive results. Employee morale entails the attitudes, confidence and enthusiasm of an individual to perform a specific task. In numerous instances, the morale of a corporation is influenced from the management level down to the employees. Most successful corporations have decent if not attractive employee packages. Surely, morale can be the fuel that directs an organization towards its objective. Cricket Wireless success has been contributed substantially by their employee’s persistence (Cricket Corporate Website 1). The corporation encourages innovation from their employees in enhancing their wireless service to a larger network of clients. The introduction of its wireless broadband services clearly indicates it promotes creativity and embraces new approaches of selling its service. As such, the firm actively engages its staff in the progress plans of the company that involve innovation and marketing the commodities of the corporation (Cricket Corporate Website 1). Empowering the staff is a primary ingredient for success especially in corporations in the technology business. These companies are dependent on the creative innovations of products and service delivery that their employees display. According to Cricket Corporate Website (1), the cricket firm has a 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan that provides opportunity for employees to create savings for future. Several benefits come from the 401(k) plan, for

Bluechester City Council v Doncaster Wagons Ltd Case Study

Bluechester City Council v Doncaster Wagons Ltd - Case Study Example If any building or a fence is erected or any construction is done, it cannot be lawful without the consent of the minister. They will order inquiries as are directed by the commons act 1876. The county courts are entitled to convict the person or the organisation that constructed the fence or any erection has been done. The order mentioned above is subjected to appeal in the higher court according to section thirty of commons act, 1876. These are the conditions that apply to the land which is declared common before the possession of it was given to a person, lord, manor or to an organisation for any purpose of public or private interest. In such conditions the parking of vehicles, erection of cabin, construction of fence by Doncaster wagons can be considered illegal and can be complained to the country court or any relevant government agency. The problem lying here is that the Blue Chester city council did not take any legal action the 12 years of duration. Now the legal question ari ses that after this much term of negligence towards occupation does the Bluechester city council do have any legal right to take action on Doncaster Wagons ltd. (Swarb.co.uk, 2007) There is every chance for the risk of Doncaster acquiring the possession rights as the title to the land is not registered. According to part 9 of the land registration act 1980, after twelve years of adverse possession of the land, which have no title registered, the occupant can acquire possessory title. The limitation act 1980 s15(1) will provide no action to recover the land after the expiration of the limitation period of twelve years under adverse possession. According to this act the expiration of the limitation period will remove the right of the true owner of the land to recover it. The person who possessed the land for 12 years will get the right to get the title superior to all others according to Buckingham shire council v Moran (1990) Ch 623, 635, CA. The period of the possession will be counted from the commencement of adverse possession and that requires a degree of occupation or physical control. This can be coupled with the intention to posses the land without the p aper owner according to JA pye (oxford) Ltd v Graham (2002) UKHL 30 (2003) 1 AC 419. The occupation by the Doncaster Wagon Ltd can be termed as seized if the company gives written acknowledgement to the true owners title. Here in this case as the true owner; Bluechester city council have no title registered, there is no chance of that issue according to the 1980 law. The period of the possession of the land can be calculated from the day of the true owner grants a tenancy or licence to the occupier. In this case this did not happen and in the time being the Bluechester city council made number of objections to Doncaster wagons Ltd to vacate it and because they are trespassing. As there is no mention of the Doncaster Wagons Ltd did pay any taxes regarding the land they adversely possess, the right of the ownership that can be claimed after the 12 years of limitation period is at stake. This option will keep alive the hopes of the Bluechester city council to get the re possession of t h

Operation and Logistics Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Operation and Logistics Management - Essay Example Hence, it brings value to the firms, in the form of profits by raising its productivity and the ratio of inputs to outputs (p.3); and to customers in improving the quality of products (Klassen 2005, p.1). As a transformation process, OM evolved from the production systems used during the Industrial Revolution known as craft production where highly-skilled artisans individually manufacture goods using simple tools to produce high-quality customised products (Finch 2004, p.7). During these times however, process management was not considered as an integral concept within production, such that individual workers were given free reign on their crafts, resulting to a slow and costly production process lacking uniform standards necessary for effective and efficient operations (Stevenson 2005, p.19). It was not until Taylor’s introduction of scientific management, that processes were given attention in business operations (p.19). Adopting Taylor’s proposal that there is â€Å"one best way† to accomplish tasks workers must follow, Ford developed the â€Å"assembly line† in manufacturing his T-Model, which introduced mass production and the concept of interchangeable parts, revolutionising the automotive industry and generating tremendous cost and time savings (Finch 2004, p.8). As Ford describes it, this new manufacturing process is â€Å"constrained only by the capabilities of the workforce and existing technology† (Chase, Aquilano & Jacobs 2006, p.16). While Ford’s production processes increased productivity and efficiency, it resulted to quality deficiencies, especially when compared to Japanese products that were superior to their US counterparts. This spawned the â€Å"quality revolution†, shifting OM to focus on designing production processes that improved quality, just as much as productivity and cost-efficiency (Stevenson 2005, p.21). Apart from the growing importance of production

Criminal justice- diversion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Criminal justice- diversion - Essay Example This way, the non-standard provision of remedy may have the outcomes sought in flexible manner that potentially assures sensible change in the offender’s well-being through possible adjustments with the other capacities over mere focus on pertinent sanctions. (2) What do you think about the use of diversion in the criminal justice system? In my opinion, diversion if properly administered would attain to the principal goal of leading the involved parties at fault towards psychological renewal or even emotional reorientation for their own sake and the society that is directly impacted by their reformed attitude. Such desired end as characterized by a gradual change of heart in the process truly signifies relief for the system of justice given the number of other major cases or concerns in need of serious attention, however, some questions of equivalent weight inevitably tag along when this approach is brought to realistic as well as extensive implementation. A critique I think m ight readily necessitate raising certain levels of doubt regarding whether diversion means would be effective at length and to what degree and how conducive the settings are in facilitating the treatment of each offender. Moreover, it is further logical to ask how the financial investment would figure in covering the procedures necessary and if properly trained workers come in sufficient quantity and proportion with the erring subjects since handling the latter is such a sensitive task that requires inherent humanitarian values besides patience, time, thorough education, and specialized skills. (3) List 3 reasons with an explanation for the use of diversion, and discuss why it would be beneficial to the criminal justice system. In the U.S., one ground being examined for utilizing diversion is the quest for a solution on easing burdened courts off overcrowded detentions. This is meant to be sustained by case management whereby files of a detainee are technically organized to determin e essential needs on health, social, and other relevant aspects of development by which the person may learn to outgrow crime-prone attributes. Consequently, justice framework would be more systematized and versatile in dealing with a range of conflicts pertaining to criminal act. Another good cause for advocating diversion is that most youth in offense acquire the opportunity the opportunity of a 24-hour monitoring within aftercare duration that allows them exposure to a variety of educational and recreational activities that improve their stages at cure. Such was the case in the Key Program Inc. primarily held on Boston, MA in which a group of juvenile delinquents under diversionary supervision were taken to Harvard University and the visit to different parts of the campus paid off through interaction with the university students who conducted tutorial sessions in return while participation to motivational programs were also encouraged. With this fashion, justice administration ga ins direction in pursuit of enhanced objective at classifying how should the status for each culpable person settle according to the progress assessed in that event. Criminal justice system may also derive the advantage of minimizing expenditure on technologically advanced facilities for securing offenders since the use of diversion may possibly become a better substitute for the conventional means of

Terror in Tokyo Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Terror in Tokyo Case Study - Essay Example The casualties of the March 20 1995 incident show the intense capabilities of the group led by non-other than Chizuo Matsumoto or otherwise spotting the name of Shoko Asahara. The rapid expansion of the group in the early 1995 proves detrimental as chances are on the increase that the public is vulnerable to attacks by the cult members. The strict discipline and commitment that is in the doctrine of the cult further makes the new converts to the group more likely to perpetrate criminal activities to the public. Purchase of weapons and helicopters shows that the group was well preparing and ready to engage in any confrontation. Further acts of seeking military guidelines from allies in Russia makes the group even more threatening to the Japanese people. Kidnappings and forceful extortion of money from people especially in broad daylight shows that the group had no regard for the public. They were a real threat seeking to fund their transactions at all costs. The Japanese officious did not exactly respond actively to the threats posed by the group. They portray reluctance in dealing with the cult. As a result, the group continues with its activities of threatening peace and lives of the Japanese. Kariya (an accountant who victim to extortion of money by the group) had submitted reports that he was being followed. The daytime kidnapping of the man and disappearance shows the police were not doing their best to deal with the group. Though the police later tracked the kidnapping, they were short of time. The best recommendation that I would direct to the police is that they would have considered time as an issue of essence in the whole operation. Fast, timely and calculated efforts would have slowed or ultimately stopped the cult from using chemical weapons to kill and injure innocent Japanese people. There is a key lesson that the U.S law enforcement agencies, intelligence bureaus and other public service organizations

OpenChannel Flow Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

OpenChannel Flow - Lab Report Example A minimum specific energy indicates a steady flow with parallel streamlines especially in channels characterized with very small slopes. Hydraulic jump, a phenomenon that depends on initial fluid velocity, occurs when the transition velocity increases abruptly. As a result, the transition front breaks and curls back upon itself in conjunction with violent turbulence and eddy currents. The introduction of a weir along the channel of fluid flow results to an increase in the fluid level. An increased fluid head or level is determined by measuring the upstream of the hydraulic structure. According to ToolBox (2014), the rate of fluid flow over the weir relates with the level of the weir. To determine the discharge constant for the weir, individuals should conduct some fluid analysis and calibration tests. In most cases, the discharge coefficient remains constant for a given set of head ranges. A specific energy diagram determines the possible heights and depths of weirs. A low level that supports critical flow results to a decrease in the fluid level without affecting the upstream (Kay, 2015). After achieving the critical flow, an increase in the weir level leads directly affects the upstream fluid level. Typically, a subcritical flow produces a low vitality state while a supercritical state creates a faster and shallow flow. During a supercritical condition, waves produced by downstream eddies cannot travel upstream. On the other hand, subcritical conditions initiate upstream travel of waves produced at the downstream due to the slower flow of fluids. The diagram below demonstrates the water profile along the flow channel with various regions where subcritical and supercritical flows

A dance with the devil Essay Example for Free

A dance with the devil Essay When I was a little girl, my grandmother would always tell me stories. Some of her stories were for the purpose of scaring me. I don’t mean just to frighten me, but to actually scare me out of doing bad things. This is because, of course, my grandmother didn’t want anything to happen to her little kids. One of her stories was: when she was a young girl her mother didn’t let her go out, but she still went out. As she was heading to the party the devil stood in her way, and who knows what extra details my grandmother added. There was one story though that she swore was true and very close to home. The year was 1975†¦ there was a young woman who lived in San Antonio, Texas. She was a shy kind of girl, a homebody so to speak. Her friends were the ones known to go out every weekend dancing, but she was different. So one night, her friends pressured her to go out. She wasn’t really up for it. She had a bad feeling about it actually. Nonetheless she still got all dressed up and went out. Once she got to El Camaroncito Night Club, she felt out of place. Her friends were off dancing with partners they had found. This was while she was left off on the side like a wallflower. See more: Homeless satire essay There was a turning point in the night though. It was the moment that a young handsome man walked. He automatically grabbed every women’s attention. He was dressed in all white, and was a brilliant dancer. He wooed many of the ladies in the room, while the young lady stared in astonishment. Mid song he caught the young woman staring at him. Their eyes locked as he slowly approached her through the crowd. He asked her to dance and off they went. Together they danced so gracefully, it was as if they were floating in the air. Inevitably everyone stared at them. They gathered in a circle around them, hypnotized by their dance. Time seemed to have slowed down, but the music was as loud as ever. The handsome man grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer. Together they spun and spun. At this point, the young girl was finally glad she went out. She was having fun, with a handsome man. But little did she know of what was to occur. As they spun into the center of the dance floor, they spun faster and faster. It looked as if they were losing control. Now everyone really looked directly at them. They began to levitate into the air and it was as if there was a spotlight on them. They both were in the air now slowly spinning now. He was now smiling while she looked unconscious, her head pulled back. The man’s shoes had disappeared and in their place was a chicken foot and a hoof as his feet. The sign of the devil. Woman began screaming in horror as everyone began to evacuate. There was no time, the lights went out. As the lights came on the woman laid there on the floor motionless, she was dead. And the man had entirely vanished. Only a strong smell of sulfur remained, which is the smell of the devil. He was never to be seen again. The police were called but could not do anything. That is where the story ends. When I was a young girl this story scared me so much, but now it fascinates me. I don’t know if it really is true or not, but I don’t mind. I will say this though, I looked it up online and there were many articles on this story. Some details vary but for the most part they are all exactly the same story. It is up to you now to decide whether you believe this or not†¦

Christo and Jeane Claude Essay Example for Free

Christo and Jeane Claude Essay Christo and Jeane Claude are a husband and wife team. These two artists are famous for transforming the ordinary into fabulous artwork, such as wrapping buildings. They accept no government grants or funding, no donations, their only income is from the sales of their artwork. Nearly all of their artshows take place outdoors, often in public parks requiring no admission fees. Their identity or famous slogan as the wrapping artists came from their controversial work named Wrapped Reichstage, Berlin, 1971-1995, an entire German Parliament Building in silver fabric looking like a wedding cake. (Sternbergh,no date). Many significant national symbols have been transformed and giving new identities by many artists. Buildings, nature’s creations, world events have become best selling books, movies, musicals, songs and plays. Anytime an artist develops anything, adding their identity to it, the item takes on that new image. The Christos saw buildings in a way no one else saw it. The Reichstage building in Berlin became a piece of sculpture or artwork when Christo and Jeane Claude wrapped the building. Artwork expands on natural traditions, allowing others to use their imaginations to interpret the meanings. â€Å"The Christos have created some of the most breathtaking works of the 20th century using fabric in, over through and around natural and constructed forms† Powell, director of national art gallery. The Christos use fabric to give an original style to traditional paintings, sculptures and buildings† (no author, 2002).Wrapping the Reichstage building, giving the illusion of a wedding cake transformed the building into an artistic sculpture. Notes; Sternbergh, Adam (no date) The passion of the Christos; New York Entertainment; nymag. com date retrieved July 24, 2007 http://nymag. com/nymetro/arts/features/10897/ No author (2/4/2002) First American Survey of Christo and Jeanne Claude; artdaily. org; Date retrieved; July 24, 2007 http://www. artdaily. com/section/news/index. asp? int_sec=2int_new=48b=Christo%20and%20Jeanne-Claude

Design History Of The Chair Cultural Studies Essay

Design History Of The Chair Cultural Studies Essay For an insight into the history of design, it is no better place to start than by looking at the everyday object, the Chair. A chair is a piece of furniture that often goes unnoticed, yet really is essential to everyday living. It is generally taken for granted and not recognised for its valuable contribution to our lives. Many aspects, social, cultural, aesthetics, technologies etc can be seen through the evolution of Chair design. In this essay, I shall be looking at three different designers and their designs, particularly the function, form, use of materials, intended market and production methods. The first designer was Michael Thonet (1796-1871) Thonet was born in Germany (then called Prussia) His life began at the start of the industrial revolution. He did an apprenticeship in cabinet making in his hometown and shortly afterwards began experimenting with veneers and bentwood. Maybe it was significant that he was born around the time of the revolution, as he is certainly a good example of that period, as he formed a massive company that is recognised as a leading force in mass production. His Factory designed by himself, was very close to a beech wood forest, many other designers used wood that was flat, with lots of joints but Thonet had managed to perfect his designs by using the beech wood in a new and revolutionary bending method. He went on to use wood veneers, glueing lots together so they were flexible. He was known for his experiments to help him and this meant that he was able to go on to be one of the first designers in mass production. His chair was the first in flat pack furniture to be assembled at home by the buyer. The chair was designed to be cheap , strong and light and a good sturdy chair to sit . In the home it would have been used in the kitchen and living room. The intended market would have been to the middle and lower classes as it was a widely available cheaper chair. It was a mass produced chair and by 1900 an estimated 40 million chairs had been produced. My second Designer was Charles Rennet Mackintosh (1868-1928) Born in Glasgow he was an architect, designer and artist, is today celebrated internationally as one of the most significant talents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   At the age of 16 he became an apprentice to John Hutchinson. He also began attending evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art and met fellow artist Margaret MacDonald, who eventually became his wife. They were both members of the collaborative group known as The Four, prominent members of the Glasgow School Movement. Mackintosh became a partner of the firm Honeyman Keppie in 1903. However, at the turn of an economic hardship in 1913, Mackintosh left the firm Honeyman Keppie to open his own practice. After unsuccessfully trying to establish his own practice, he dedicated his time to landscape painting in France. Mackintosh returned to England in 1927 for treatment of tongue and throat cancer. He died in London in 1928. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1903 Black Ladder Back Chair Mackintosh was one of the leading exponents in the Arts Crafts Movement and one of the leading representatives of Art Nouveau in Scotland. The chair itself was a component of a house designed The Hill House and was actually not meant to sit on. The fact that the back of the chair is a long way over your head does add to the fact that it reassembles in my opinion a throne. Everything seems right about this chair: proportions, materials style. The chair was a one of design for the hill house to match the high ceilings in the house . the chair was not designed to be sat on but as a piece of art its self and as a decorative piece. The designer used would for the frame of the chair and upholstery for the seat . It was designed and built for ww Blackie the owner of the hill house . The chair still sits in the hill house bedroom. My third designer to look at was Charles and Ray Eames, they are the most important American designers of this century. Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended school there and developed an interest in engineering and architecture. He later extended his design ideas beyond architecture and received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he eventually became head of the design department. Ray Kaiser Eames was born in Sacramento. She studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles. Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California. In 1946, Evans Products began producing the Eamess moulded plywood furniture. Their moulded plywood chair was called the chair of the century by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. Eames Lounge Chair, 1956 Designed in 1956 this icon of 20th century design created by the Eames to provide a modern alternative to traditional club chairs. Since its debut in 1956, the chair and ottoman have been continuously produced by Herman Miller (A leading global provider of office furniture) According to  Charles Eames, design is simply a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose. The chair was designed to be a relaxing comfortable chair . and in Charles Eames own words a special refuge from the strains of modern living.. The first chair was a originally a gift for Billy wilder. The chair is also specially designed so that it can take all the weight of your lower spine helping you relax even more . And putting your feet up on the ottoman helps restore blood circulation after a hard days work. The materials used are natural wood such as natural cherry, walnut and santos palisander a rich grainy veneer. The chair is still very popular and is seen in many styl ish interiors. Conclusion An insight into the past can be seen all around us, but the chair, an item so important to us, from the plastic mass produced ones you see in fast food chain shops to our old comfortable armchairs, they all hold so much more information about the history of design. From the early designs and experimenting by Michael Thonet and his way of making bent wood chairs and furniture it would be hard to think that Charles Eames would have been able to go on to design his Lounge Chair. Then with Charles Eames designs and advances in production techniques and mass marketing of chairs it has become possible for everyone to have a classic piece of design history in their home or office. Or even own a reproduction of Charles Mackintoshs Ladder Back Chair for very little costs. The type of chair that someone chooses for their home can in say a lot about them. Victorian styles show that a person prefers the older styles. Art Deco has bright colours and geometric shapes. With most people, the most important factor to consider when choosing a chair other than the colour or style is comfort. If someone was suffering from back problems, for example they might require a designer to design a chair to suit their needs. When someone chooses a modern chair design for the office or in his or her home it says there forward thinkers, with modern tastes. So for an everyday object to so often go unnoticed is a shame, the chosen design and style of chair someone chooses can say allot more and can be I think a very good illustration of their personality.

Skills Development for Child Nursing Course

Skills Development for Child Nursing Course Provide an in-depth reflective account that demonstrates how learning, during the three years of the child nursing course, has been achieved in relation to two areas of your practice which has informed and enhanced your development towards qualification as a Childrens Nurse. Introduction Reflection is a vital component of the development of nursing competence and reflexive nursing practice. Although reflection functions on many levels, including the personal level, in allowing student nurses to review experiences and incorporate them into their internal schema, one of the most important levels of reflection is the process of asking questions about practice, and through asking those questions learning about the self in practice, and the role of the nurse (Bowden, 2003). Reflection is an important aspect of developing competence in practice, as well as developing practice itself (Durgahee, 1998; Gustafsson and Fagerberg, 2004). Some authors view the ability of the nurse to reflect on practice and in practice as a fundamental component of providing truly holistic and client centred care (Gustafsson and Fagerberg, 2004), while others view reflection as a self-limited, flawed and biased practice which is of little or no use to developing nursing professionalism (Jones, 19 95). I believe that reflection, if properly used and structured, provides powerful insight into the self, into practice, and into the ways in which competence and practice develop over time and through experiential learning. Therefore, I have concluded that to make reflection effective and useful, it is important to use a reflective model, such as that of Gibbs (1988), which I have chosen for this essay. Although there are limitations to Gibbs’ (1988) model, particularly in applying it to the requirements of this essay, it provides clear guidance and useful questions to ask about the experiences that contribute to the reflective process. I have adapted this cycle to suit the processes and analyses of this essay, and so, while two cycles of reflection are outlined below, the conclusions are developed collectively. For the purposes of this essay, the final stage of the cycle is to be found within the Appendix (see Appendix 1), and thus the Action Plan is adapted to become the P ersonal Development Plan. The purpose of this essay is to engage in an in-depth, detailed process of reflection on two areas of practice and learning that have been important to me through my studies in the three year child nursing course. Using a reflective cycle to guide and direct the reflective process, I will explore the process of professional development, towards competence and expertise, in relation to Benner’s (1984) stages of development, examining the nature of competence in each designated area of practice. The first chosen area of practice is the skill of managing an intravenous infusion, because the use of intravenous infusions and the provision of intravenous medications is an important component of many clinical paediatric nursing scenarios, and the management of intravenous access and infusions is particularly problematic when nursing children. The other area of practice and nursing professionalism chosen is communication, with a particular focus on the development of communication skills with staff, in relation to the nursing handover within the acute hospital environment, and the development of communication skills with patients, using the example of providing health education and promotion for a patient with Type 1 diabetes. I have chosen to focus on specific examples of communication skills in practice because these relate strongly to my own experiences, and also allow for a deeper and more critical analysis of practice and my own development. This will also allow for a more co ncrete development of a personal development plan to encompass identified development needs and actions to achieve these during the first six months of practice as a Registered Children’s Nurse. The focus on critical analysis allows for the development of a skill of great value for my professional practice, deconstructing practice and reviewing it in the the light of other knowledge (Burns and Bulman, 2000). However, because of the complex nature of practice, and the reflective processes which question feelings and thoughts as well as actions, the reflective process is complex (Wilkinson, 1999). Thus, although there are two issues being reflected upon, they are drawn together in one discursive thread which signposts the learning and development, the acquisition of professional understanding, which signifies the transition from novice to competent practitioner. Discussion 1. Clinical Skill Development: Intravenous Infusion and Medication Management in Children’s Nursing Practice. Description: What Happened. During the three years of nurse training, the development of the skill of managing intravenous infusions, either of hydration solutions or of medications, was one which I developed almost from the beginning, when it was taught as a clinical skill in the university setting. The typical approach to teaching clinical skills was to provide the students with a lecture on the relevant theory, complemented by a practical skills session to apply the knowledge in a simulated environment, utilising mannequins. Every acute ward area of my clinical practice involved the care of patients with intravenous infusions, which included caring for children while the intravenous cannula was inserted, and then monitoring and care of the intravenous cannula site, and of the infusion itself. This skill was therefore not only a basic skill for nursing competence throughout my training, but also an important opportunity to promote health, prevent infection, and was fundamental to other aspects of care and tre atment. Over the three years, I first learned how to set up an intravenous infusion, safely and in a sterile manner, how to check the infusion, and how to check the infusion rate manually (ie, without the use of an infusion pump, although infusion pumps are standard best practice in children’s nursing). During clinical practice, I learned how to support a child during the cannula insertion, monitor the site, check the infusion and infusion rate, set up and check different types of infusion pumps, and how to change the IV line (which must be changed regularly). I also learned complementary skills such as drug and dosage calculations for infusions, and fluid balance calculations, both of which required numeracy skills Feelings: what were you thinking and feeling? Throughout my training, management of intravenous infusions was stressful, but in particular, the associated aspects of care were challenging. Supporting children who have intravenous infusions is problematic, particularly as the experience is often painful and distressing for them. Carrying out drug calculations was terrifying at the beginning of my training, and even by the end, despite increased competence and confidence, I would still have more than one colleague check calculations and dosage rates, and check infusion rates on pumps, to ensure I had made the correct calculations. I felt very lacking in confidence in this area. I also felt that while I focused on safety aspects of IVI use, including risk management and prevention of infection via the IV site, other colleagues did not seem to pay so much attention to this aspect of care. Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience? It was good that I identified important aspects of this clinical skill, and the complexities of practice surrounding it. What was not so good was the lack of transparency in colleague’s practice, particularly in my earlier clinical placements. Analysis: What sense can you make of the situation? I became aware during my reflection on this element of my learning that it was very much something which became assimilated into the almost intuitive elements of nursing competence (Benner, 1984). This was because apart from the elements of the process which had been identified as distressing for the child, such as cannula insertion and removal, managing the IVI had become ‘second nature’, and checking the line, site and rate of the pump were activities that the qualified nurse carried out without any overt signifying of the action, as part of her interactions around the patient/bedside. Thus, making this overt was almost counter-intuitive. Certainly, it appeared to me that many staff did not record these observations every time they were made, and that they did not always communicate these observations to others, including me, as a student. As a student, a learner, I was required to take more time over such observations, to note their significance, and to evaluate their place within my nursing work. I was required to develop specific skills around the use of IV infusions and the management of whatever medication or fluid was being infused. This was a protracted learning process, which developed throughout the three years. I learned the importance of this for my practice. â€Å"Possible complications associated with short peripheral venous access include infiltration of infused fluids (nonvesicants) into the surrounding tissue, extravasation of vesicant medications or blood into the surrounding tissue, and phlebitis† (Hinkle and Hadaway, 2006 p 122). The clinical skill here also, therefore, included the component of determining when such complications had occurred. I also had to learn to observe for infusion reactions, which could range from mild to severe (Hinkle and Hadaway, 2006). Competency can be viewed as behaviours which are achieved or approved of in relation to the completion of a task, and competency is described in relation to that task (Gonczi, 1993). However, developing competence in IVI management is much more than simple task proficiency, and this may be true of much of professional competence in nursing (Preston and Walker, 1993). Not only does it appear that no single clinical requirement can be reduced to single task, but also, competence in that task may be affected by other contextual factors, including the presence of others, and how their contribution or lack of it can affect performance of clinical actions (Ashworth and Saxton, 1990). If we view competence as the ability to manage any situation holistically, making use of collaboration with colleagues (Meretoja et al, 2002), then even this process of reflecting on a clinical skill is very limiting, because the skill alone does not signify the whole of the learning process associated with th at area of practice throughout my training. One of the important elements of learning around this particular skill, however, was the gradual recognition of my own competence, which was signified most clearly when I no longer become ‘overt’ about assessing the IVI and monitoring it, but carried out this activity as part of my practice, almost automatically. Here, the skill had many facets, but this kind of ease was never achieved with the drug/dosage/infusion rate calculations. Numeracy competence is important for nurses, and nurses are required to demonstrate acceptable levels of numeracy in order to qualify (Bath et al, 1993). However, this was an area I struggled with, not because I had ever considered I had difficulties with numeracy, but because applying numeracy to clinical situations seemed to make drug calculations much harder. Over time, I found that if I visualised the calculations myself first, and wrote them out longhand, then checked them with a calculator, I usually reached the right conclusion, which showed that my own learning style influenced my ability to come to the right answer(Bath et al, 1993; Galligan, 2001). Hinchliff (2004) descrives Bloom’s (1972) learning domains, and this learning experience, throughout the three years, involved all three areas: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. In relation to the cognitive domain, I learned knowledge to underpin practice, consolidated this knowledge over time. In relation to psychomotor skills, these were about the practical ability to carry out necessary procedures and actions, including running fluids through an IV line, identifying, choosing, priming and setting up the correct line for the correct infusion pump, and the skills around removal of the cannula and dressing of the cannula after insertion, along with changing an IV bag. The affective domain refers to the attitude formation, which can be seen above to be about a positive attitude but an internalisation of much of the knowledge and practice to the point that aspects of these procedures became almost innate. It became apparent that this clinical skill could not be viewed in isolation, and also incorporated a great deal of discussion with the family and the patient, and in the case of most children, informing them of the need to take care of the IV line, and educating them about infection control, thus engaging them in their own care and in their own health promotion (Long et al, 2008). Prevention of trauma to the IV cannula or site, and ensuring maintenance of patency of the cannula and line, are important in minimising the amount of times the cannula needs to be resited, which is desirable because of how distressing this procedure is for most babies and children (Thomas, 2007). I became aware of this after viewing resiting of cannulae in a number of patients, most often due to either traumatic accidental removal. 2. Professional Skill Development: Communication in Practice: The Nursing Handover. What Happened During the three years of training, communication was identified as a professional skill, and it soon became apparent that this skill formed the basis of the majority of nursing actions and roles. Because of the complexity of communication in nursing practice, during this reflection I chose to focus on one aspect, that of providing handover for a designated patient, or group of patients, under my care, to the nurse taking over care. Engaging in this activity was a significant aspect of my development. Initially, in the first clinical placements, I observed this taking place, but did not really understand all the components of the process. Over time, I was encouraged by mentors to provide the handover report myself, and I found this demanded communication and information processing skills perhaps unique to the process and to the situation. I discovered that I needed to know the terminology and abbreviations used, the format of the report, and to remember the patient information and pr ovide a comprehensive report that did not omit important elements of care. During the initial experiences of this, I did miss out elements of care, but was always supported by a mentor who could augment my limited report and ensure patient needs were communicated. However, by the end of my clinical experiences I was expected to provide reports myself, and I did so, but became increasingly aware of the limitations of this form of communication, and of how it had become ritualised in practice (Strange, 1996). Understanding the nature of this element of communication became an important element of my learning, perhaps because I had found it so difficulty initially Feelings: what were you thinking and feeling? During successive experiences of handover, I came to a growing realisation that the format and nature of the handover report was not only extremely ritualised (Strange, 1996), but also constituted a unique form of communication, with certain expected behaviours and standardised formats. However, I started to feel, quite early on, that information was not necessarily being fully communicated, and I found myself increasingly frustrated with the process, because instead of providing a comprehensive report, it was more a kind of focused tick list of tasks, which did not really relate to my concept of holistic approaches to nursing care. I found myself learning how to give a ‘proper’ handover but wishing I could give a ‘good’ handover. Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience? The good aspects of this experience were the fact that I was able to identify what was happening, and able to realise that I was frustrated with the process of handover, and the way it had become habitual. This prompted me to explore the evidence base surrounding this important aspect of nursing communication, which then enhanced my understanding. However, to cite what was bad about the experience, I must focus on the limitations of the process, because it made me feel that the handovers were, quite often, inadequate, and very limited, reducing patients to a list of problems and actions. Having said this, it also became apparent that handovers conducted at the patient’s bedside were an entirely different entity, and that communicating at the bedside included the patient and their family in the handover, and made them much more holistic and comprehensive. But it may not be appropriate to do this in all situations. Analysis: What sense can you make of the situation? Developing professional skills is part of the complex acquisition of nursing competence, and this process can be viewed as an apprenticeship of sorts (Benner, 1984). Much of the professional competence that is assessed during nurse training is related to the standards set out by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2004), and are realised through a process of learning, negotiation and assessment which predominantly occurs through clinical practice. While a lot of this learning is directed and planned, development is through experiential processes, as in this case, in the development of the required verbal communication skills for providing ‘handover’ report. This emerged as a significant area of practice for me, particularly in relation to responsibility and autonomy after the transition from student nurse to staff nurse, because of the different expectations of the latter role. While in relation to performance, clinical skill and professional skill, the senior studen t nurse and the newly qualified staff nurse are similar, in relation to role and responsibility, and expectation, there is a sudden shift and competence takes on new meaning for the newly qualified nurse (Wade, 1999). Thus, I can see that my concerns about the nursing handover, and my ability to provide an appropriate, comprehensive report, were very clearly linked to this notion of responsibility, because a poor handover could impact on patient care (Sexton et al, 2004). The nursing handover report is a process which involved the communication of key information about patients on the ward, care plans, actions and imminent needs, and about the stage of their care journey (McKenna, 1997). It usually occurs as a communication between nurses at the point of shift change (McKenna, 1997), but it can also take place when a patient is transferred from one clinical area to another. According to Hopkinson (2003) the nursing handover is an important and significant activity in the hospital setting, relating to the proper management of care and the provision of continuity of care (Kerr, 2002). Although handovers have the same basic function, I have observed that they can vary from ward to ward, but that within each location, they seem to have a certain format or shape. While in some areas tape recorded handovers are used, in others, the staff provide a handover at each bedside. More commonly, handover occurs in a designated room (to ensure confidentiality), and may then in some circumstances be followed by a ward round to introduce the next shift to the patients and their family. It is important to include the family in this communication, because most sick children are accompanied by a parent or carer during their stay in hospital, for a large proportion of the time. The nurse may either hand over the care of one patient, a group of patients, or the entire ward, if they have been the nurse in charge of the ward for that shift. This requires that the nurse providing the report must have a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the patients, their needs and diagnoses, trea tments, and any pending results or procedures. Not only is it a process of communicating this information, it is also the time when colleagues might ask questions about care, and therefore also serves to demonstrate what the nurse has achieved, or not achieved, during the preceding time period, and tests the nurse’s knowledge of the patients. Yet some evidence suggests that handovers are limited and undermined by forumulaic approaches to providing the information, by incomplete communication, use of cryptic terminology, jargon and abbreviation, and can require that nurses have ‘socialized knowledge’ in order to understand them (Payne et al, 2000). Thus, it can be difficult for the student, or even the newly qualified staff nurse, to fully understand this communication because they perhaps are not fully socialised into the clinical area. Terminology and units of language may acquire different significance in specific areas of practice (Payne et al, 2000). Another identified limitation is the tendency to prioritise biomedical and physical aspects of care, reducing the patient to their disease and its treatment (Payne et al, 2000). The handover forms the initial part of the process of care planning for the nursing staff taking over care, although this is supplemented by a thorough examination of the patient records, and discussion with the patient and family. Having observed and participated in such processes, it is understandable that this communicative act developed some significance for me in relation to professional development, particularly in relation to future practice as a qualified staff nurse. Competence takes on new meaning at this transition (Amos, 2001; Ashworth and Saxton, 1990), because it signifies the point when I have to become responsible and accountable for my own actions, with no one else to cover any inadequacies or mistakes (Gerrish, 2000). Because it is viewed as a fundamental component of good quality nursing care (Pothier et al, 2005), ‘getting it right’ is understandably important. Handover can be viewed as a communicative act from a number of perspectives. It provides a forum for discussion, debate and questioning, as well as expressing one’s views and feelings about a particular case or cases (Hopkinson, 2002), which to me suggests that it is more than simply the presenting of information, but is also a form of self-expression for the nurse. However, it’s main purpose is to provide the information that nurses will then use to formulate their plans for care and their prioritisation of their workload for that shift (Hopkinson, 2002). For example, in one handover a colleague did not inform staff that a chest X-ray had been carried out, which meant that the next shift ordered another chest-X ray with resultant delays and confusion. Providing a good quality handover may be more significant than ever in the current clinical paediatric nursing environment, where every aspect of healthcare appears to have become more complex, requiring more multiprofessional input and collaboration, and in which patients are subject to complex and multifactorial assessments (Pothier et al, 2005). There is some evidence to suggest, however, that important patient information can be lost during the shift handover (Pothier et al, 2005), which reinforces my own conclusions about this communication. This may not, however, be due to simple acts of omission, but also due to the culture of ward areas and the ways in which nurses behave and exercise power, albeit a small degree of power, over the information they possess (Hardey et al, 2000). Some research suggests that the handover process is where tensions an institutionally-derived conflicts and drivers for nurses can become evident (Parker et al, 1992). It would seem that it is more tha n a simple process of dialogic communication (Kerr, 2002), but also serves a range of other functions, including social and protective functions (Strange, 1996). To me, this knowledge and understanding of the deeper and wider aspects of communication, of what is being communicated, how and why, during this process, signifies the journey of learning and development as a student nurse. Initially, I was the novice, viewing this process as a mere interchange of key information. Gradually, however, I developed an intuitive knowledge of the handover and its communicative role, intuition based on experience and on the processing of a range of cues and sources of information (Benner, 1984), leading to a degree of awareness that the handover signified more than simply an exchange of facts. It demonstrates competence in communication, but in adherence to cultural roles and expectations, and the ability to mange the competing demands and tensions of the nursing role (Kerr, 2002). Thus it empha sises a shared valued system amongst the nurses within the given context (Lally, 1999), which in some ways can demonstrate competence and acceptance, of me by qualified colleagues, signifying I have achieved nurse status, but also which can mean an enforced compliance with local behaviours and expectations which may be at odds with my own philosophy and principles of professionalism. Therefore, I realised that the communication skills of the nursing handover are both verbal and personal, involving managing myself, managing information, and managing the work environment and my colleagues (Lathlean and Corner, 1991). Achieving competence in the effective verbal communication skills associated with the handover is problematic, because from all that I have learned through my education, and my exposure to the ideals of professional nursing, the handover should be a detailed, comprehensive communication delivered without jargon or abbreviations, and which is inclusive of the patient and their carers. However, the conventions of the handover in different areas may oppose this. This is an area of development identified as important for my personal development plan. Conclusions The first conclusion I draw from this reflection is that it is impossible to see any area of nursing competence, or any clinical skill, as a discrete entity or area of practice. Every skill and professional role is inextricably linked with others, with aspects of practice, with other skills, demonstrating the complexity of practice and of the learning and development processes which lead me towards expertise and confidence, as well as basic competence. As I have demonstrated above, managing an intravenous infusion involved a range of skills and actions, including numeracy calculations, risk management and prevention, health promotion, patient support and education, care planning, and communication. Thus, it becomes evident that what may be identified as a discrete clinical skill intersects with multiple areas of practice and competence. This perhaps reflects holistic models of nursing, because it demonstrates that the nurse cannot deconstruct practice to such an extent as to make it fully task oriented, due to these intersections and the interconnectivity of different tasks. It would appear, from my reflections, that the ideals of ‘holism’ which are expounded in relation to nursing ideologies and philosophies can be viewed on the ‘micro’ level in practice, as well as the ‘macro’ level of the nursing philosophy. Every part of clinical practice is an element of a complex, yet connected, ’whole’, and therefore, competence in every part of practice is important in order to provide optimal standards of care in every respect. This is an important realisation for me, and one which I believe to be appropriate for this stage of my development. It might be that coming to this realisation earlier on in my professional development journey would have been too overwhelming. Coming to this realisation now, when I can signpost my own learning, development and competence, is more motivating than challenging, because it underl ines my commitment to providing the best possible care that I can, which in turn must be based on ongoing professional development, diligence and a focus on the patient’s needs. The second conclusion I draw from my reflective processes is that while a reflective cycle can guide reflection, it cannot provide the answers to the questions that are raised. The value of reflection lies in the ability to take those questions, answer them honestly, and to seek out the knowledge and information required to explore those answers in relation to practice as well as in relation to the self. As with my previous point, the process of professional development has led me to understand my role as one aspect of a greater whole, a complex network of professionals and roles, where roles and activities may overlap, but where the competence of each individual contributes to the whole, and where, if one component is missing, or lacking in some way, the whole is affected. If my communication skills are insufficient, this affects the work of others, their ability to meet patients’s needs, which impacts, sometimes significantly, on patient wellbeing and the patient experience. For children, who are perhaps the most vulnerable patient group, the impact is likely to be greatest. Therefore, reflection is no mere academic exercise, it is the means by which I can remind myself of my place within this network, and value my contributions whilst also appreciating the responsibility of my future position. Again, this is a motivation to provide excellence in practice, to ensure the continued quality of the whole. While the development of nursing expertise is viewed as a foundation to professionalism (Hodkinson and Issit, 2004), I would argue that expertise is still poorly defined because in nursing it is very complex, and the intersections of various domains of practice are blurred, such that, for example, clinical skills are inseparable from other skills. Personal effectiveness in the nursing role may be more important in terms of professional development (Hodkinson and Isset, 2004). There are implications of this, however, for my role as a newly qualified staff nurse, because the change in expectations (on my own part and on others’), may lead to challenging transitions and some degree of reality shock (Evans, 2001). My reflections here have identified the fact that the socio-occupational integration into my qualified role is probably the most problematic (Evans, 2001). However, it is apparent that having engaged in a good degree of reflective practice throughout my training, I have developed the skills to be able to analyse and reflect upon experiences and situations, and to take this reflection further, by applying theory and evidence to my own practice. This requires not only a great degree of professionalism, but a commitment to ongoing professional development, preparing myself for the transition (Yonge, 2002), and continuing to view my working life as a continual process of learning and development. References Agnew, T (2005) Words of wisdom. Nursing Standard 20(6),pp24-26 Amos, D. (2001) An evaluation of staff nurse role transition. Nursing Standard 16 (3) 36-41 Andrews, M., Gidman, J. and Humphreys, A. (1998) Reflection: does it enhance professional nursing practice?. British Journal of Nursing 7(7) 413-7. Ashworth, P. and Saxton, J. (1990).On competence. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 14, 3-25. Bath, J.B., Blais, K. (1993). Learning style as a predictor of drug dosage calculation ability. Nursing Educator 18(1), 33-36. Beaney, A.M., Black, A., Dobson, C.R. et al (2005) Development and application of a ris