Social Forces Shaping Curriculum Planning Assignment

Social Forces Shaping Curriculum Planning - Assignment Example Educational institutions are supposed to there to nurture children of academic excellence as well as mould them to become highly motivated persons of good characters. The world demands that education should be fitted to transform every learner to become leaders and credible of human resource imbued with multi-disciplinary skills and deep understanding of moral values and traditions. The educational curriculum should therefore be designed by improving the universal values and traditions that are consistent to the quest for global peace and human solidary so that they, at an early age, can make or decided with moral choices and will grow to become conflict resolution managers in their respective fields and communities. There is also such need for educational institutions, to be sensitive to the children whose senses of values are gained from irresponsible parents and those whose limited access to education is also compounded with poor value system within the households. Added to these are social realities and forces that have strong influence in the advancement of educative process. Based on reports, the state has decreased the budget of $548 million for 40 states; the pre-K funding per child decreased in an unprecedented by $442 compared to $3,841 last year due to fiscal adjustments; only 15 states are able to maintain quality education; and there are more than 1.3 million learners that are covered under state-funded educational institutions. There is an apparent increase of enrolment too by 10,000 and thus an increase of learners that should be served. Hence, an expected stagnation and resource allocation problem is expected in state-supported institutions, including possible inability of the academe to meet its targeted benchmarks. But the educational institution, no matter how challenged, is always a product of social and economic life, legislative actions and policies, and even of contextual issues including the advancement of technology or the racial tensio ns. All of these are social forces influencing the educational system. But as these social forces are supposed to transcend beyond the sad condition of the educational system and to rise above the circumstances that influence learners’ knowledge acquisition, the education stakeholders should superimpose that curriculum for them to excel from such causality. The curriculum that must be developed should only be responsive to the needs of the corporate world but must also equipped them of knowledge and the universal values that are consistent to the dream of having a national resources that are brilliant, critical, skilled, resilient, culturally-aware, and responsive of sustaining a multicultural identity. As such, the curriculum must emphasize value formation aside from the usual academic courses on science, math, language, and communication. Value-based education uphold that philosophy on valuing self, people, and its environment by exploring all the ethical and moral theories that could be the foundation to improve the moral fiber of a child (Hawkes, 2013). Theories on human behaviours that could assist the young to learn what is right from wrong; moral and immoral; and to make them accountable in their life’s choices and the consequences thereof (Hawkes, 2013). Through this, they will be encouraged find leaders

Example Essay On Interprofessional Collaberation In Practice Nursing Essay

Example Essay On Interprofessional Collaberation In Practice Nursing Essay Section 1 According to Cullen et al (2003), in order to meet the demands of a modern National Health Service (NHS) professionals are encouraged to work collaboratively and form partnerships to ensure seamless delivery of care. Interprofessional Education (IPE) is advocated as a means to enable professionals to understand one another and break down boundaries between them. (p.427). The nature of nursing care is predicated on an idea of working within a team, and a premium is almost always placed on communication, not just as a means of caring for patients and ultimately saving lives, but also to alleviate the stresses and strains associated with frontline care. Whilst the idea of communication being important is not new, the formation of IP teams, particularly within the realm of nursing, is. Cullen et al set out in order to try and better understand what positive lessons could be learnt from such a process. This essay will seek to try and understand the thinking that went into this study, base d on the real life experiences of the author. Cullen et al conclude their study with the point that The development of IPE aided communication and collaboration between the academics and health professionals and helped to break down professional boundaries. Testing out new methods through action research has enhanced our understanding of the implications for students and teachers. (p.432). Whilst I ultimately found this to be the case, I would like to go into a bit of detail as to why exactly I came to these conclusions. Having met the group for the first time, we were all introduced and began to mingle. Given how short we had all known each other, it was difficult to establish any common points of reference. One imagines that within the workplace, where relationships are formed and cultivated over a longer period of time, always within a professional context, such relationships would be less artificial or constructed. Nonetheless, our different perspectives were in no way artificial, and it was useful to try and understand ever yones reasons for choosing to study what they do, even if few of us had had the chance to put those studies to consistent, long-term effect under the professionals rigours of frontline care. As such, many of the early discussions were very much more theoretical, idealistic even, than they might possibly be after a few years of experience within frontline care. There was however, a certain amount of agreement too. All of the students were aware of the positive benefits of IPE and felt that by virtue of being medical students, they were in some way isolated from the larger university student body as a whole. This had both positive and negative effects. Whilst some argued that it brought the students closer together, others admitted that they felt isolated at times. Either way, it is clear that stereotyping is not a positive factor in IPE. As Fraser et al (2005) acknowledge, Professional stereotyping is considered to cause barriers to effective working relationships and team approaches to care. Learning together at undergraduate level can promote different professional groups understanding and respect for one another and an appreciation of the importance of team working in the health sector. (p.271) This collaborative way of thinking helped us formulate our first group sentence, Poor communication is the lack of ability to articulate to and interpret information from other Health Care Professionals (HCPs), which then tied in closely with our second sentence: Negative attitudes towards other HCPs leads to a  breakdown in communication. As Koubel and Bungay (2010) showed, this is key for any multidisciplinary approach to have any sort of success. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to the question in hand, social work provides some useful analogues. Social workers form partnerships with people: helping them to assess and interpret the problems they face, and supporting them in finding solutions. They have to know how the law works and be fully up to speed with the social welfare system. They will liaise regularly with other professionals teachers, doctors, nurses, police, lawyers acting on behalf of the people they are working with. (http://www.socialworkandcare.co.uk) Furthe rmore, as Brayne and Carr (1999) point out,social workers are the creation of government; government is therefore accountable to the public for their work and obliged to regulate their activities. Second, social workers as caring professionals are themselves accountable to their users and to the public at large. (p.6) The same is very much true of healthcare professionals, and interprofessional relationships need to be understood in this context. There is a duty not only to provide the patient with the best care possible, but also to deliver value for money for the taxpayer. Accordingly, interprofessional relationships need to be fostered to deliver the most efficient and effective care possible. What exactly does this involve? Of course, in the professional arena, job roles are to a certain extent prescribed by job titles. However, within the stress of the workplace, roles can become muddled and confused. Accordingly, one of our major tasks involved role definition. It is not simply enough to be clear with one another: practitioners need to define their roles and act accordingly. As Skott (2001) notes, Professional nursing care is formed and carried out in a social cultural process. The discipline of nursing should study narrative communication to understand how individual and collective levels are connected in experiences of sickness and cure. (p.249) Nonetheless, Brereton (1995) has shown that there are still a great deal of holes in the critical thinking towards communication in nursing care: The theory-practice relationship and the use of communication and interpersonal skills in nursing have been recurrently identified as issues causing concernà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦there appea rs to be a reliance on mentors to assess student progress and determine whether they have knowledge underpinning practice. Classroom teaching was recognized as idealistic but the divisions in participants opinions led to difficulty in determining whether a theory-practice gap actually exists. (p.314). As a group, we all came to the conclusion that one of the key aspects of IPE is avoiding stereotypes. This was viewed as a fundamental basis for the following points: It is important to value each professions individual contribution to overall patient welfare. Varying perspectives exist, but any barriers must be overcome in order to promote holistic care. Pre conceived notions of any member of the Multi disciplinary team need to be challenged. Hierarchical states of mind have no place when a multi disciplinary team is working towards service user goals. Whilst communication and stereotyping avoidance may seem like natural bedfellows, it was interesting to be exposed to a group which arrived with preconceived notions of how the nursing profession worked. Whilst my experience of frontline care is limited, my brief experiences have shown that stereotyping is endemic. This may range from physicians making certain judgements about the role or usefulness of nurses, or even vice versa, but throughout the conference, it became clear that attitudes such as these had no place within the professional world of HCPs. Not only do they create a negative, hostile atmosphere, but they also prevent HCPs from doing their job properly, and ultimately, pose a threat to the treatment of patients. Word count 1195. Section 2: In many ways, learning about IPE has been a natural development from the direction my studies were already taking. Anyone interested in nursing is, almost by definition a communicator, as it is a profession in which discussion, listening, and mutual understanding are key. Nonetheless, the things I have learnt from IPE have helped me to understand previous experiences better. Reeves (2001) looked into the 15-month project which evaluated the effectiveness of interprofessional education (IPE) for first and second year medical, nursing and dental students on a community-based placement, using a process-based approach which tracked the education and social processes connected to IPE. Such an approach has helped overcome some of the problems of using before-and-after designs. (p. 269) He found that community-based IPE placements were deeply beneficial in aiding students development, as the on-the-job nature of the tasks they faced forced them to adapt on the spot, often needing to adapt with the help of other HCPs. In my experience this was also the case. When I was helping geriatric patients who were acutely ill, I found that IPE skills became increasingly important. Leff et al (2005) note that Acutely ill older persons often experience adverse events when cared for in the acute care hospital (p.798) Given the anxiety caused to elderly acutely ill patients, any efforts that could be made to accommodate them should be encouraged, and accordingly, the research is both worthwhile and timely. Whilst much literature exists regarding home nursing for end of life care, it is relatively sparse for elderly, acutely ill patients. Zarit (2004) in particular, using the case of disabled patients facing end of life care, note that family members provide a considerable amount of the care for people with terminal illnessesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and family caregivers must be recognized as an essential part of the treatment team. By clearly recognizing this role, physicians and other health care providers encourage caregivers to be more confident about their abilities to care for their loved ones. (p.170). Zarit goes on to argue that the role of family carer is not only beneficial to the part played by the healthcare professionals, it can also be a cost-effective way of giving patients the best palliative care that they need. He even argues that patient surviva l rates can be affected by paying close attention to family members at the front-line of care. Thus, he recommends that a psychologist or other health care professional familiar with end-of-life care included as part of the treatment team. Although time and effort are required, these strategies may help caregivers provide the care they want to and provide better home care at a reduced risk to their own health. (p.170). Furthermore, as Leff et al go on to point out, Patients, but not caregivers, had increased satisfaction with hospital-at-home care, and there was some evidence that substitutive models may be cost- effective. However, with some exceptions, most of these models would be difficult to distinguish from augmented skilled nursing services, community-based long-term care, or home-based primary care services in the United States. (p.798) As we can see, there are clearly a number of benefits associated with care at home. However, for the caregiver, such situations can also create a raft of potential problems. Whilst most academics agree that the influence of the family is generally a positive one, not much critical thinking has been devoted to what role the family play in allowing HCPs to perform their job as they should. Outside of the hospital environment, the familys role is much greater, and often, in my experience at least, they feel that this entitles them to a greater degree of say in the patients care. Whilst I would generally agree with this, I had one experience in particular which made me question this. Because of the increased role of the family in this case, they felt that they knew best about how to care for their acutely ill family member. However, there was evidence to suggest that they were not delivering the right level of care. Since returning home, the patients condition had deteriorated, and there was a strong argument to be made for readmission into hospital, something the family were completely against. Whilst the physician in charge was willing to watch and see how the situation developed, the critical care nurse was pressing for readmission, the difference in opinions shows the power dynamics between the physician and nurse and has been noted without in-depth discussion between the two, created a barrier to effective collaboration (Manias Street 2000). However, the family was a low-income family, and as such, used to receive visits from social workers. Accordingly, there was a great deal of IPE needed to deal with the situation. For example, whilst the social worker was not responsible for the health of the patient, and were visiting the family on other grounds, they were consulted on what they thought was occurring under the familys supervision. This involved the nurse in charge communicating with the social worker, an interdisciplinary approach that necessitated diffe rent public sector workers working alongside each other. The interaction between the nurse and social worker showed a co-ordinated effective collaboration between HCPs to provide a service to improve the quality and decision making process of patient care (Spry 2006). However, there were also certain problems at our end. The physician in charge of the patient seemed unwilling to get actively involved. He was well-known to be a poor communicator, and seemed more involved in other aspects of his work than dealing with the patients, particularly when they were no longer in the hospital. However, since nothing could be done without his authority, it was frustrating for myself and the nurse to get anything done with him dragging his feet. Likewise, although the social worker was very willing and able to perform their job, they felt put upon when discussing any problems that fell without their remit. As such, it was left to myself and the nurse in charge to orchestrate managing the problem. Cheek and Rudge (1994) look closely at the socio-aspects of nursing to deconstruct the power relations implicit within the socio-political context of the health care arena in which nursing operates. (p.583) They found that womens health and nursing practice were exem plars of the limiting effects of such discourses. (p.583) Seeing the reaction the female nurses inquiries, it certainly felt that her sex was a limiting factor on how she could get stuff done. The conference was very clear in that one of the major points of IPE was to avoid stereotypes. One of the largest stereotypes is that all nurses are women, and it felt like, the physician in particular, was labouring under some outdated view of nurses that was close to the era of Florence Nightingale than the present day. Of course, gender stereotyping works both ways. McDonald and Bridge (1991) found that Nurses planned significantly more ambulation, analgesic administration, and emotional support time for the male patient, despite the presence of individuating information. More accurate, effective nursing care is possible when nurses are aware of the effect of gender stereotyping on nursing care. (p.373) However, in this instant, it very much felt like the opinion of the nurse in charge was being undermined due to her sex. Although the patient was eventually readmitted, it wasnt done without much bureaucratic leg-dragging, and I was left feeling that this was a poor example of interdisciplinary care. It could have been improved by more willingness of those in charge to define roles clearly, avoid stereotypes, and place the care of the patient at the forefront of their concerns. I hope that in my future career I am able to learn from this, and apply the things I have learnt to an array of challenging real-life situations. Word count 1293.

surrogate mothers Essay -- essays research papers

A Surrogate Mother is defined as â€Å"an adult woman who enters into an agreement to bear a child conceived through assisted conception for intended parents.† The couple is usually referred to as intended parents who enter into an agreement providing that they will be the parents of a child born to a surrogate through assisted conception, using an egg or sperm of at least one parent. 1 RIGHT - Surrogate motherhood is a right entitled to those who are ready and able to take on the responsibility of parenthood. Surrogate mothers fills a fundamental human longing. Procreation is a primitive instinct, and to many people it is devastating not to be able to become parents Surrogate motherhood is a solution to this age-old problem. Even in the bible, Abraham and Sarah resorted to a "surrogate mother" that produced their son Ishmael. 2NEED – Surrogate motherhood fills a need for infertile couples. 2.4 million infertile married American couples. It is estimated that one in six couples are affected by some degree of infertility. Many people are marrying later and are delaying having children. After age 45, about 95% of women are unable to conceive on their own. Surrogate mothers also fill the need for non-traditional families including the gay and lesbian population as well as single heterosexuals. ISSUES OF COMMERCIAL SURROGATE MOTHERHOOD Although compensation might not be the main motive for surrogacy, by making compensation illegal, it may decrease the amt. of surrogates available Some people may refer to surrogate motherhood as â€Å"baby selling† but surrogate mothers are not selling the child – they are just providing a service Medical Ethics professor at University of Texas stated, â€Å" Baby selling is you have a born child that is sold to another person. Here we’re talking about agreements made before conception has even occurred where there is no existing child. Secondly, the genes, in the case of gestational surrogacy, are being provided by the couple that is hiring the surrogate, thus, in a sense, it is their genetic child.† -the fee paid to the surrogate mother is not for the baby – it compensates her for her time and effort, initiating and carrying the pregnancy, giving birth, accepting the risks of pregnancy and childbirth (pain, depression, sleep disturbances), and possible loss of employment opportunities This $$ is often times seen as a gift to r... ...inancial REBUTTAL Children’s Reaction – my parents really wanted me or â€Å"I could have had a disease† Only 1% of all surrogate mothers change their mind and want to keep the baby as compared to 75% of birth mothers who change their minds in a traditional adoption The people who have struggled so hard to conceive their own child are probably the best candidates to be good parents, not the worst The American Fertility Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have recognized infertility as a disease. The statutes that are designed allow the surrogacy option only for those who are affected with a medically recognized disability. Baby M – a psychological examination showed that Mary Beth Whitehead would have a problem giving up the child, but he agency handling the transaction did not bother to read the report. $$$ - some agencies require that their surrogate applicants have some minimum family income level before being accepted into their program. $$$Money is a motivation just like it would be in other situations in which people are paid to be surrogate parents (nannies, workers in day care centers, foster parents, and teachers in elementary schools)

Organizational Responsibilities Essay

According to the American Medical Association (AMA) an impaired physician is unable â€Å"to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety due to mental illness, physical illness, including but not limited to deterioration through the aging process, or loss of motor skill or excessive use or abuse of drugs, including alcohol† (API, 2011). The scenario presented for this assignment involves Dr. Smith a talented and skillful cardiac surgeon on staff at a local community hospital, who is currently engaged in a divorce. On multiple incidences, hospital staff members observed Dr. Smith to be intoxicated. On one of these occasions, a nurse observed him the night before he was scheduled to operate, inebriated, and notified her supervisor. On the morning of surgery, Dr. Smith called in sick. There is great concern on the part of the hospital administration that Dr. Smith may perform surgery in an impaired state, noting he recently has made errors during surgery. A Health care organization’s ultimate responsibility is to the patients it serves, and to make certain that physicians, either employed or privileged, are competent and functioning appropriately while providing quality patient care (Ohlsen, 2006). Under the doctrine of corporate negligence, â€Å"the hospital is liable if it fails to uphold the proper standard of care owed the patient, which is to ensure the patient’s safety and well-being while at the hospital† (Pozgar, 2010, p. 242). Hospitals hold certain nondelegable duties unrelated to the negligence an employee may commit. Two nondelegable duties include monitoring the quality of care rendered by the medical staff, and hiring and keeping competent physicians (Pozgar, 2010). Allowing Dr. Smith to operate with the knowledge that he has committed errors during the performance of†¦ [continues]

How to Build a Professional Portfolio Essay

Professional Portfolio -Copies of all certificates and degrees -Copies of your resumes -Course Completion transcripts or certificates -Evidence of a Clinical Practicum -Awards and Recognition Developing your professional portfolio isn’t an easy task, but once its complete you can update it periodically and relatively easily. The portfolio will allow you to be organized when you start to complete applications. You can develop an online portfolio but you should probably start it using a 3 ring binder in effort to keep all of your copies. What Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors Do Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors advise people who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction, eating disorders, or other behavioral problems. They provide treatment and support to help the client recover from addiction or modify problem behaviors. Work Environment Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors work in a wide variety of settings, such as mental health centers, community health centers, prisons, and private practice. Most work full time. How to Become a Substance Abuse or Behavioral Disorder Counselor Educational requirements range from a high school diploma to a master’s degree, depending on the setting, type of work, state regulations, and level of responsibility. Pay The median annual wage for substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors was $38,520 in May 2012. Job Outlook Employment of substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors is projected  to grow 31 percent from 2012 to 2022, much faster than the average for all occupations. Growth is expected as addiction and mental health counseling services are increasingly covered by insurance policies. Similar Occupations Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors with similar occupations. More Information, Including Links to O*NET Learn more about substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors by visiting additional resources, including O*NET, a source on key characteristics of workers and occupations.