Hrm Learning Log free essay sample

The first lecture that we had was basically explaining the module and gave a brief outline of what we are going to be studying throughout the year. We then went on to discuss this in the seminar. Obviously there was not much work done for this week as we were just taking everything in and coming to grips with what the module entailed. Lecture number two started off with a series of quotes with people defining organisational behaviour. I consider the ‘organisational behaviour is one of the most complex and perhaps least understood academic elements of modern general management but since it concerns the behaviour of people within organisations it is also one of the most central’ as one of the most accurate and appropriate ways to describe organisational behaviour. The other two quotes were by no means inaccurate, but they were a bit brief and wouldn’t really explain much if you were trying to tell somebody what organisational behaviour was. We will write a custom essay sample on Hrm Learning Log or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This then brought us to the organisational iceberg, this is an interesting and key point. I have found a diagram from the internet to illustrate the iceberg I found this model very fascinating and the quote about what sinks a ship is very clever, because so much that goes on in an organisation is not seen. It is simply that an informal organisation is a ‘looser’ structured flexible organisation with informal relationships and a formal organisation would be an opposite one with a planned structure with a hierarchy. Hugh put some definitions of organisational behaviour up and I read them and found that they were both fairly strong definitions although one was a lot more detailed than the other. The next lecture was very much defining what an organisation is, different types of organisations and how we define them. This was a fairly big lecture and there was quite a lot to take in I thought. What is an organisation? I agree with the definition of JD Mooney that organisation is the form of every human association for the attainment of a common purpose, as well as Huczynski Buchanans ‘entity’ view because they are short yet strong and easy to understand and I feel that I would definitely be more likely to remember these definitions than Robbins’ definition for example, which sounds a bit more intricate. The next lecture brought us to something similar, giving us the chance to reflect on the organisational iceberg, and still defining organisational structure. I researched into tall and flat organisational structures this week and found this diagram on the internet which helps demonstrate how different organisations have different structures, and there is no better or worse structure, because each organisation requires a different structure. I found centralisation and decentralisation quite challenging, so I looked up the meanings to begin with on the internet. I found that centralisation is described as the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location or group. Alternatively, decentralisation was defined as the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people and citizen. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science, political science, political economy, sociology and economics. These definitions helped me understand the table in the lecture slides easier. The matrix structure was also covered in this lecture. This seemed a more complex structure where a lot of individuals are mixed together and each person may have to work under several managers at a time. For this week’s lecture we were given a SEMCO case study and some organisational charts to look at. We spoke about trying to define work and then got into small groups and came up with our own definition of work. It was very interesting how everyone’s opinions and definitions of work were so different. Although nearly everyone agreed that we work for money and for example in our group, we said that if you are not paid, for instance voluntary work, it is simply a hobby. We then went on to organisation theory and classical management. This focuses on then total design of the total organisation. This is different to scientific management because that focuses on the design and management of individual jobs. This was quite a difficult lecture to fully comprehend with again a lot of information to take in. Through research I found that Henri Fayol was the main classical theorist and he proposed the functions such as technical; commercial; financial; accounting; security and managerial. He believed the latter to be slightly different to all the rest. In our lecture it said that management is a process of planning, organisation, command, coordination and control. I found that Fayol was very influential to the modern concepts of management and proposed his own theory, called fayolism. I also discovered that there is a set of 14 principles of management that he devised and I found this quite thought-provoking. The lecture also told us about Taylorism, which is a scientific management theory. We then went on to Hawthorne studies, which I had previously learnt about in sociology at A level so I was fairly familiar with. Then it went on explaining that there is more to the work than just the pay, there needs to be a strong sense of belonging. I agree with this because I feel in today’s society too many people are driven by money and instead of opting for being happy in life, they would rather have more money. I feel that the media makes people feel that they should put money before a sense of belonging and I don’t think that is right. In this week’s seminar we went back to organisational structures and charts. Our group discussed that the needs of all organisations are very different so there will always be different structures suiting different organisations. Bureaucratic structures were brought up and we spoke about how they were suitable for larger organisations rather than smaller ones, also how they tend to stick to a tall rather than flat structure. I found other structures such as a divisional structure, where they group organisational functions into different divisions. I then looked back over earlier lectures about defining work, and the extrinsic purposes which are essential yet do not reap the same intrinsic rewards where workers should have a considerably high level of job satisfaction. The occupational structure- this is shaped by several factors like bureaucracy, technology and the economy. Watson’s patterns are key points for the subject of occupations and the structure of work because he points out the key elements. Mobility is seen as a key part of occupational structure and there are factors which positively and negatively affect mobility. The next lectures brought us to organisational culture; there was a good quote to start the lecture saying that â€Å"The ideologies, beliefs and deep-set values which occur in all firms. and which are the prescriptions for the ways in which people should work in those organisations. † This got me thinking about organisation culture and what it was about. Organisational culture frequently refers to the collective patterns of behaviour, beliefs and values within an organisation. I also found a different definition of organisation culture saying that ‘organisation culture is a set of values, often taken for granted, that help people in an organisation understand which actions are considered acceptable and which actions are considered unacceptable. ’ Often these values are shaped in the course of stories. I feel that culture is significantly hard to define and measure. We covered socialisation in this lecture and it is quoted as ‘getting ones hands dirty’. I found that Socialization is the main way humans start to obtain the skills needed to carry out their task of being a member of society. The largely basic look of culture is set up at the individual level. Through both learning and teaching is the how cultural and social characteristics achieve permanence. I believe that the best quote of this lecture was that ‘to change an organisation in any significant or lasting way you need to change the values and beliefs that lie at the core. ’ This brings us to the iceberg and the onion. The onion illustrates that the core is shielded by many layers, and you have to change everything right down to the bottom to make a significant change for the organisation. Through my research I found some different information as to what was in our lectures on the several different types of culture, such as person cultures and task cultures. Person cultures are basically an organisational structure in a business which is constantly changing and has no permanent foundation, no real formal role and no sole objective. Where all the people involved believe themselves to be superior to the organisation, because of this some of these organisations struggle to cope, but can do because of the certain expertise each different individual possesses. On the other hand, task cultures are often found in a matrix type organisation, where employees tend to have similar roles and responsibilities, they solve problems as and it is often described as a business based around the high skills of an employee. More organisational cultures are power cultures, and role cultures. Power cultures I think are the most interesting because they are more or less based around one ultimate source, which everything revolves around and depends on. These are often found in small organisations and have little bureaucracy and a small number of rules. Role cultures is similar to that of a tall structure that I have spoken about earlier where there is a basic hierarchy of roles and power. In the seminar this week we spoke about different retailers and what kind of organisation structures they had. I found this seminar very enjoyable because we found out from each other in depth about what sort of organisations each company were and decided what frame they would be in and whether we would prefer to be in one or another. The next lecture was mostly on change, I found this fairly weird because there were not many things I could relate to or understand so I just had to try and take as much in as possible. Although it brought us to again this man Charles Handy. He said that â€Å"Less than half the workforce in the industrial world will be holding conventional full-time jobs in organisations by the beginning of the 21st century. Those full-timers, or insiders, will be the new minority. † This has obviously been proved correct to some extent, so Handy was right. Because of technology fewer and fewer people are needed from day to day in the industrial sector, because machines are replacing them. Today we again talked about the paradigm and how organisations all have different values and missions and how they go about them. I think the most powerful part of this lecture is the part where it says the only permanent thing is change. This is such a good quote because no matter change will never ever end, it can’t. Yet everything else can. This is another one of those quotes that gets you thinking. I liked the 7-S framework part because it helps me remember all the very important reasons of change. This week’s lecture was on organisational change. This was different to previous lectures because I didn’t feel there was much we could talk about. I researched more into organisational cultures again and found information on strong cultures and weak cultures. A strong culture is one where staff responds to stimulus because of their position to organisational values. In a strong culture, it is believed that the people do what they are told to do, because they think that is the right way to do things. In a weak culture things are fairly different. They do it their own way and things would be pretty much the opposite. Research suggests that organisations with a strong culture will achieve the companies’ goals a lot easier than a weak culture; they will also have higher levels of employee satisfaction, motivation and loyalty. We came on to leadership today, and spoke about management. It started with a man I was familiar with Max Weber again because of A level sociology so I was intrigued to how he linked in with this element. We then came on to Fayol’s 14 principles of management. I decided to research into these 14 principles out of curiosity and it is proved that Fayols principles still have a big relevance to contemporary management, so do his 6 functions that I mentioned earlier, however most people these days like to only talk about 4 of the 6 functions that Fayol originally proposed and they have been slightly tweaked into; planning; leading; organising and controlling. Taylorism popped up this week and we discussed the difference between the bosses and the workers, as Taylor says the bosses think as the workers do. Then onto other theorists such as Drucker, he proposed the five basic operations of a manager. I very much agree with these five operations because at my workplace it seems that the managers are trying to set objectives, organise, measure, motivate and develop people. I think that managers are different to leaders. Yes some managers are leaders, but they are two completely different things in my eyes. As it says in the lecture slides managers plan, organise, direct etc, leaders envision, inspire, influence, leaders effect people more emotionally than managers do. We also spoke about how hard it is to describe leadership, who would we call a leader? How do we become a leader? These are all questions that I do not know the answer to. Yukl says that â€Å"Most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that it involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person over people†¦.. to guide, structure and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organisation’ I don’t think that this is as good of a description as â€Å"Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose. By Jacob and Jacques because they seem to hit the nail on the head because I believe leadership is all about giving a meaningful purpose to effort and be willing to do anything to achieve your goal. I still very much agree with Yukls view on leadership because what he says is true but I don’t feel it would give me anythin g that I can learn or think about whereas Jacob and Jacques’ I can. There were a lot of quotes in today’s lecture, some I felt more powerful than others. They have taught me a lot about leadership, one being that it there is not a definition. I even googled it and there wasn’t one. Another being leadership is what you make of it, from what I think will be different to what the next guy thinks, so I can understand why it raises so many controversies and discussions. I can understand why it proved virtually impossible to identify the particular traits that separate leaders from non-leaders. I believe that leadership is based on many things, personality being the main one. Many people would think you have to be at the top of the hierarchy to be branded a leader, for instance they would think of a manager of a leader. But a leader can be anyone, some people just possess a trait that makes them a natural born leader, for example a footballer that steps on the pitch and instantly tells everyone what to do, they all listen to him without question. Even though he may not be captain, he is the leader. In today’s lecture we looked at technology, a new topic. Technology has played a massive part in how businesses operate as of recent years, I didn’t find this as interesting as the previous few weeks but there were still things I wanted to look up on. We also touched on leadership again this week. This week brings us onto personality. This lecture was one of the tougher ones because there was a lot of material I have never heard of before. I agree with everything Robertson and Smith have put forward because for instance if there was no variety in the tasks, or if there was no feedback given or no significance of the tasks, then the employees job satisfaction would surely be lower, and I think it would be a hard job to try and make someone completely satisfied with their job in every aspect because nearly everybody isnt happy with atleast one aspect of their job. Our lecture this week was on motivation, learning about motivation was quite enjoyable. I find the american and chinese needs hierarcies quite interesting and how they differ. The american hierarchy has self-actualisation in individual development at the top whereas the chinese hierarchy has self-actualisation in service to society. This goes back to the collectivist and individualist cultures. I have found a slightly more detailed diagram of a hierarchy here: Another big difference is that the sense of belonging is in the middle of the american hierarchy and it is right at the bottom of the chinese one, maybe because the chinese people see society as a whole more important. I also find Hertzbergs two factor theory quite interesting because of what he thinks motivates and de-motivates intrinsically and extrinsically. Today we looked at perception. I was quite amazed at how the mind perceives things and it sees what it wants to see instead of what it actually might be. The quote â€Å"You see, that’s the problem with you Jerry. You think we’re arguing, I think we’re finally communicating! † defines what perception is really about. You think you are doing one thing, yet you are doing another. Throughout this year my favourite topic has definitely been leadership. I feel genuinely interested in this subject because it is so intriguing and there are so many talking points about it. I think one of the most meaningful and intelligent quotes I have ever heard has come from the leadership topic, managers do things right, leaders do the right thing. It has made believe that being a leader is such a good thing. Most people probably think managers are leaders, but they are really nothing alike what so ever, when you look into it in detail you realise. I particularly like how Bennis describes both Managers and leaders, saying that Managers ask how and when, leaders and what and why. Managers rely on people, leaders inspire trust. Managers focus on systems and structure, leaders focus on people, and so on. It is strange how they seem so true yet every one is the completely different. This proves surely that there is a real big difference between a leader and a manager. I was quite amazed at the perception topic though because it enlightened me slightly on how our minds actually work. Like the non-standard shaped polygon, I would never think it is one of those, yet that is what it is. Also the x’s and o’s in alternating rows is clever. One of the least exciting topics I would say is organisational change. It was challenging yet quite boring and I didn’t really enjoy the content in the lectures or the seminars around this time. One of the more tricky subjects I found was motivation. Although it was more interesting than most of the others, it was one of the hardest to understand and I found it hard to relate to this lecture because it didn’t seem like there was much relevance to business in it. It is definitely an area I will need to revise more for my exam. I have also found writing this learning log challenging as I have never done anything like this before. But it is different I guess.

Response to the Film To Kill a Mockingbird essays

Response to the Film To Kill a Mockingbird essays The film To Kill a Mockingbird was based on Harper Lee's novel. It is set in a quiet Alabama town in the 1930s. It portrays deep racial problems and social injustice that existed in the South during Depression. It also shows poverty and growing up themes as it is told by a seven-year old girl called Scout. Racial problems and social injustice dominate the story. A black man, Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping a white farmers daughter, Mayalla. The film shows how racism affected the legal system. The central character in the story is Scout's father, the white lawyer, Atticus Finch who defends Tom Robinson. First, Atticus has managed to prevent the mob from lynching Tom before trial but he is helpless against social prejudice during the trial. A largely uneducated, white population finds the black man guilty, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Atticus shows evidence proving Toms innocence, and Tom also testifies he is not guilty. The ending is tragic for Tom because he is not given a chance to appeal. He is shot dead by a deputy when he tries to escape. The black people of the town are very upset but not surprised at Toms unfair treatment. The black reverend said: I aint ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man. Atticus is in trouble by d efending a Negro. Bob Ewell tries to threaten him and then attacks his children. Scout involves herself in a fight at school to defend her fathers work although she does not fully understand the issue. On the whole, racial problems and prejudice dominate the Southern society in those years. Another issue in the film is poverty. The inhabitants are simple folk, mostly uneducated and farmers stricken by the depression. Many people have worn-out clothes; children usually play outside without any toys or books of their own. Scout, Jem and Dill have fun in their tree-house or swing on a rubb ...

History, The Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 Essay

History, The Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 - Essay Example Nicolson, who was a member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, offers an important view of the peace process that resulted in the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919. Significantly, the author deals with the transitional phase between pre-war and post-war diplomacy and throws some light on the Paris Peace Conference. In the book, Nicolson presents his theses in the background of his memory concerning those congested days and offers a convincing explanation of the major consequences of the peace treaty. His main thesis of the book is that â€Å"Given the atmosphere of the time, given the passions aroused in all democracies by four years of war, it would have been impossible even for supermen to devise a peace of moderation and righteousness†¦ All that I hope to suggest is that human error is a permanent and not a periodic factor in history, and that future negotiators will be exposed, however noble their intentions, to futilities of intention and omissio n as grave as any which characterized the Council Five.† (Nicolson, 2001. P. 7-8). Therefore, the recollections of the British diplomat Nicolson in the form of the book Peacemaking 1919 has great relevance in realizing the consequences of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919. Similarly, the legendary economist of the 20th century, Maynard John Keynes, offers an essential treatise of social science in the book The Economic Consequences of the Peace. This paper makes a reflective exploration of these two important books about the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 in order to summarize the major arguments of the works, placing the works within the historical context of the period in which they were written. The Economic Consequences of the Peace by the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes is generally regarded as the most influential social science treatise of the 20th century, and this

HR General Manager Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

HR General Manager - Assignment Example BHP has its main operational branch in Melbourne, Australia and operates with around 30,000 employees globally. This section will comprise of a discussion related to important issues in human resource planning (HRP) that are faced by BHP at present. This section will also focus on the ways of sourcing appropriate labour for the organisation. Along with this, a discussion related to the major stakeholders who are directly involved in the process of HRP and anticipated issues will be undertaken. 1.1 Key Issues in Human Resource Planning BHP operates with a varied range of businesses that are resource based and operate in various locations all over the world with diversified cultures. BHP’s HRP is aimed towards connecting cultures and values with the objective of effectively managing its people and assessment of performance levels. The table below shows the process by which the entire HR planning strategy is followed: Source: (BHP Billiton, 2007). BHP Billiton has set a unique ch allenge for the human resource department via charter and strategy. The human resource department seeks to effectively establish a common business context and culture through its global operational organisations. In recognition of the challenge, the strategy at BHP is formulated as such that it states people to be the foundation of the organisation on which the entire set of activities is dependent. The biggest problem or HR planning issue at BHP is that due to increment in the number of activities in the organisation, both within BHP and the industry, scarcity of people or human resources has developed. In order to be successful, BHP has to concentrate more on the identification, recruitment, training and development of activities for its manpower. At the same time, it should also focus on the development and retention of a diversified, talented, motivated and mobile workforce (BHP Billiton, 2007). A recent incident in the company discusses the impact of external concern on the int ernal operations of the firm. For providing threat to its Australian rival Rio Tinto which does not use contractors in its operational activities, BHP also decided to follow their rival’s trends and thus planned to cut 7000 contractor position and replace them with employees. This decision of the company is visualised as a pressure over the contractors’ effectiveness in comparison with their rival, acting with employees is safer than contractors (The West Australian, 2009). The following table demonstrates the forecasted demand and supply of labour at BHP as evident from their strategic move of HR planning. Labour Demand Labour Supply The growing demand of commodities, mostly driven by India and China will provide rise to shortfall in industry talent and expertise Retention of important talent along with attracting new talent and manpower planning is required The strength of the BHP brand in the employment market has to be capitalised Extension of excellence from

Lacoste Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lacoste - Essay Example The background is filled with clouds, portraying the harmony between the products and the brands claim of comfortable clothes and shoes. The advertisement is well designed in terms of not showing any gender biases, it clearly shows men and women both wearing the brand and enjoying the experience. Hence, it is directed towards both male and female populations alike. The ad does not have any hidden messages about not getting old or not looking cool if you do not wear the brand etc. The only message that it tries to convey is the lifestyle and the comfort one gets from wearing Lacoste. It tries to convince people that wearing the brand will make them feel fresh, confident and energetic. The ad strategy shows a slice of life lifestyle with young energetic people having fun and enjoying life as if they have been rejuvenated by fresh air. The brand has established itself as one of the high end brands in the apparel industry and its iconic green crocodile is a sign of quality, comfort and a fun loving lifestyle. The ad when compared to other brands such as Dsquared2, does well in terms of showing gender biases. Dsquared2 shows a man sitting on the floor and wearing a suit. Thus, Lacoste ensures that it targets both its markets equally while Dsquared2 focuses on men. As a result there are no two variances of the same advertisement. Furthermore, Dsquared2 ad shows a calm and serious lifestyle with a formal setting while Lacoste shows trendy, outgoing and fun loving people. The ad however has obvious hints of racism, as all five models shown are of white decent. When compared to other brands like United Colors of Benetton, who specifically show people of all races and types wearing the brand in the ad, Lacoste performs poorly. Another criticism that brand has faced is it that even if it enters foreign markets like India etc where there are colored people it

Prevention Strategies for the Development of Pressure Ulcers

Prevention Strategies for the Development of Pressure Ulcers This assignment will examine the process and methods used when gathering empirical evidence, for a chosen based care issue, using different search strategies and medical databases. An appraisal and discussion of the chosen evidence will also be made, identifying how the evidence was gathered and its relevance to the chosen based care issue. The process of collecting such evidence and the importance of its use will be reflectedupon using a specific reflective model. The practice based care issue which has been chosen is ‘prevention of pressure ulcers’. A pressure ulcer is an area of localised damage to the skin and underlying tissue (EPUAP, 2009) which develops when there is persisting pressure on a bony site, obstructing healthycapillary flow , leading to tissue necrosis (Lyder, 2003).The rationale for selecting this type of research is due to the high prevalence rate of pressure ulcer among patients and the current lack of knowledge concerning guidelines of pressure ulcer prevention (Moore Price, 2004). I am very interested in this topic and feel a deeper knowledge of pressure ulcer development and risk assessment tools will enable me to provide better clinical practice. According to Davies (2008) health care professionals are striving constantly to improve and develop standards of care which evolves from the integration of research evidence, clinical expertise and patient needs and values (Institute of Medicine, 2001),this is al so known as evidence-based practice. The reflective model that I will be using is Rolfe et al (2001) ‘what’ model which composes of three main areas, what? So what? Now what? This model aims to identify the following; what was I trying to achieve? What is my new knowledge of understanding? What information is needed to face a similar situation again? Ichose this particular model compared to John’s model of reflection (1994) as I found it the easiest model for organisation and meaning to the process of reflection. .Reflection involves accessing previous experience to help in developing tacit and intuitive knowledge (Johnsand Freshwater, 2005) and the main principles of reflection include becoming mindful, understanding and learning from experience. Reflection facilitates an evaluation of one’s own practice, both as individuals and with their teams (Sines, Saunders Burford, 2013). It is vital that Nurses reflect and practice reflectively as it allows them to learn from experience and make better future judgement, becoming critical practitioners and facilitating excellent patient care. The critique model I will be using for the critical appraisal and discussion is the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) as it is a clear tool which identifies the worth of the articles I have found (CASP, 2013). Critical Appraisal After researching for relevant articles, I decided to choose three of the most relevant articles to critically appraise. Each of these three articles involves a study evaluating the effectiveness of prevention strategies for the development of pressure ulcers. The first single blind randomised control study by Webster et al (2011) aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of two pressure-ulcer screening tools against clinical judgement in preventing pressure ulcers. This study had a very clear and focused objective which stimulated the reader to continue reading due to the study avoiding the use of jargon or buzz words (Carr, 2001). This was an experimental and correlation study showing the link between two factors with the aim of producing quantative results. 1231 patients were randomly allocated to either a water low or ramstadius screeningtool or to a clinical judgement group. Randomised Control Trials (RCT) are comparative studies with an intervention group and a control group; the assignment of the subject is assigned through randomisation(Melnick Everitt, 2008). The advantages of using RCT are that it removes potential of bias in the allocation of participants and that randomisation tends to produce comparable groups; that is, measured as well as unknown or unmeasured prognostics factors and characteristics at the time of random allocation will be balanced (Friedman, Furberg Demets, 2010). The researchers ensured that patients allocated were excluded if their hospital stay was expected to be less than 3 days or if they had been in hospital 24 hours prior to the baseline assessment occurring. This is to allow thorough and regular direct observation of the incidence of hospital acquired pressure ulcers, allowing the researcher to attempt to control the studies validity and reliability (Marshall, 2004). In a research study it is vital that the researcher ensures that the subjects are aware of the process of the study and have given informed consent. In the case of this study, for pressure ulcer screening and observation, consent was not required. However, signed consent was sought from any patient who developed a pressure injury in order to validate the assigned pressure ulcer through clinical photography. The researchers also obtained institutional ethics approval which included the right to access the patient’s medical record for audit purposes. The incidences of hospital acquired pressure ulcers were similar between all groups. The authors found no evidence to show that two common pressure ulcers risk assessment tools were superior to clinical judgement to prevent pressure injury. The authors felt that resources associated with the use of these tools might be better spent on careful daily skin inspection and improving management targeted at specific risks. This is supported by the work of Sarabahiand Tiwari (2012) who suggests a regular and rigid schedule of inspection must be followed as part of the patients daily routine. Nurses undertaking the trial were more familiar with the Water low scoring system which could have led to contamination in the clinical judgementgroup. The limitation of this study is that they did not use patients from acute settings who could be at risk and therefore cannot use these results as a representation of all hospital settings. The second randomised controlled study by Nixon et al (2006) aimed to compare whether differences exist between alternating pressure overlays and alternating pressure mattresses in the development of new pressure ulcers. This criterion for this study involved participants aged at least 55 years who had been admitted to vascular, orthopaedic, medical, or care of elderly wards, and had limited mobility. The methodology used for this study was pragmatic, open, multicentre and randomised controlled trial. An open label study is where the investigator and experimental units knows which treatment the experimental unit is to receive. Although this type ofstudy is simple and easy to design, it could cause the individual to favour the type of treatment, leading to possible bias (Ambrosisus, 2007). A multicentre method involves the study being conducted by several institutions. An advantage to conducting a multicenter is that it increases the number of patients available to participate (Bhandari Joensson, 2011), which in the this trial is a large 1972, leading to the findings beinghighly likely to be representative of what would happen in usual clinical practice. The design of this study involved patients beingallocated to either an alternating pressure overlay or an alternating pressure mattress, within 24 hours of hospital admission, with the expected length of stay of at least seven days. Clinical research nurses assessed skin status twice weekly for 30 days and then once a week up to 60 days for the development of pressure ulcers. A limitation of this study is the lack of blinded outcome assessment due to difficulty in disguising or masking the mattresses, however, according to Khan, Kunz, Kleijen Antes (2011) only few observational studies manage to implement appropriate measures to achieve blinding. The researcher tried to combat this through independent skin assessments which were taken by the Nurses to avoid any bias.Ethical approval for this study was approved by theNorth West multicentre research ethics committee and local ethics committees in order to undertake this research. This study had a clear aim to evaluate the effects on p ressure ulcer risk and was able to undertake the study with fairly low rates of ulcer incidence, meaning the patients were subjected to minimal harm.The most important issue arising in the ethical review of scientific research involves preventing human participants, is risk of harm (Smith Waddington, 2013)therefore it was extremely important that the researchers were able to conduct this study with low incidence rates. The results of this study were that the patients allocated to either an alternating pressure overlay or alternating pressure mattress that developed a new pressure ulcer of grade 2 or worse did not differ, highlighting the need for other preventive measures. The final study by Moore et al (2011) aimed to compare the incidence of pressure ulcers among older persons nursed using two different repositioning regimens. The researchers aim is very clear, evaluating the effectiveness of positioning patients 3 hourly and 6hourly at night time. The methodology used was a pragmatic, multi-centre, open label, prospective and cluster-randomised controlled trial, similar to the study above, the findings are highly likely to be representative of what would happen in usual clinical practice due to a multicentre approach being commonly accepted as providing a more representative population (Luchetti Amadio, 2008). Cluster randomised control trial involves randomizing professionals so it is much easier to keep the intervention separate from the control groups but methodological, statistical and ethical issues must be taken into account in making sense of cluster trials(Gilbody Bower, 2010). This study did indeed ensure that ethical approval was received by participants before the study commenced. The results obtained through the research were that repositioning patients with a pressure ulcer every three hours at night, using the 30 degree tilt, reduces the risk of pressure ulcers compared with usual care which issupported by the recommendations of the International pressure ulcer prevention guidelines (2009). Arguably, the research is well written with a good amount of supporting literature, stating clearly the incidence of pressure ulcers with a good rationale for the studies aim. This study included results of other similar researchers who have found similar results of repositioning, giving scope for further research such asDefloor et al (2005). The limitation of this study is that the target of 398 participants was hard to find which caused the variance in the size of the clusters to be different, which could have had a major effect on the research gathered. Another limitation is that most participants were 80 years or older which means it cannot be a representative of mos t patients, as expected. Reflection Using the Rolfe et al (2001) reflective model, I will evaluate the actions in undertaking my searches and what I found. As mentioned above, the stages of the reflective model includes what? So what? Now What? The first stage (what?) involved the process of searching for my articles in relation to the subject issue‘pressure ulcer prevention’. Using the databases,Pubmed, Scopus and JSTOR I searched for articles using key words such as, prevention, pressure ulcer, pressure sore and risk assessment. In order to limit the amount of results gathered I used the Boolean operators ‘and’ and ‘or’ as well as advanced searches such a ‘UK based’ and ‘No older than 2005’; ensuring a realistic amount of hits were gathered, relevant to the subject issue. In order to identify relevant articles, I read through the titles and abstracts, as this gave me an idea of how relevant the articles were. Once I read through a few studies, I was able to choose 3 studies to critically evaluate. The second stage (So what?) involved identifying the difficulties which I encountered when conducting the search. I found the searching quite challenging as many of the results either came back as a large amount of hits or a small number of hits based around irrelevant research to my subject. Using keywords and re wording phrases such as ‘pressure sores’ instead of ‘pressure ulcers’ enabled me to widen my search. The final stage (Now what?) involved reflecting on the search which I had undertaken as well as the results obtained. I had to conduct many different searches and keywords to find effective results. The problem I encountered was that many results obtained were regarding wound care and not prevention; if I was to repeat this search again I would ensure I put ‘NOT wound care’. I feel further exploration of medical databases would be beneficial for future research to give me a better understanding of search terms and criterion available. Prior to carrying out this assignment, I was certain that risk assessment tools played a major part in the role of pressure sore prevention. However, risk assessments such as water low, have been criticised due to its poor validity, particularly for the tool to underestimate the numbers at risk (Pancorbo Fernandez, 2006). Thestudies which I have critically evaluated have made it clear that observation and repositioning is key to pressure sore prevention. As identified by Guyatt et al, (2000) Nurses do not feel sufficiently competent to be able to appraise research findings because they lack the necessary understanding of information retrieval techniques, research design and data analysis and therefore it is important that Nurses are educated in pressure sore management, for clinical practice to be effective. This assignment has expressed the importance of evidence based practice for effective clinical practice,although contradictory findings from different sources and a lack of critical appraisal skills can make interpretation of evidence difficult. It has taught me the value of observation when caring for patients and made me become mindful of reading and evaluating research to learn and improve my clinical practice. I am aware that repositioning and skin integrity checks are a major pressure ulcer prevention and that risk factors such an nutrition also need to be monitored closely, I feel I will confidently use the knowledge I have obtained when in practice. This assignment has put into perspective the importance of identifying all factors when caring for a patient and aiming to prevent pressure sores. For future development I would like to do further research on methodology as I believe this will help me to evaluatethe studies in much more depth, especially seeing ascertain study methodological designs are likely to be more reliable compared to others. Conclusion In conclusion, this essay demonstrates an effective search strategy for research studies on ‘preventing pressure ulcers’ which have each been critically appraised. A reflection on the process of the research was carried out using Rolfe model of reflection (2001) highlighting learning outcomes as well as encouraging me to exploreimprovements for my future practice and search strategies.

Crucial Role of Women in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman Essay

Crucial Role of Women in Death of a Salesman    In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, women play a crucial role in Willy’s life and in the lives of the other characters. While the roles themselves have not changed since the play was written, society’s opinion of these roles has changed greatly. When it was written, Miller’s representation of Linda was seen as a portrait of the ideal American wife. She was a nurturing wife and mother, loyal to her family, and almost overly supportive of her pitiful husband Willy. The other women in the play, however, were seen as â€Å"working women,† or women who care about money as opposed to emotional support. This view has almost spun 180 degrees since the feminist movement rocked society. Critics rethought the role of women in society and in marriage (Murphy and Abbotson 6), and concluded that the women in the play are much more complex and powerful than earlier interpretations had given them credit for. Not only are the women a recreation for the men in the play, they can be seen as heavily influential on the lives of the men with whom they come into contact. Willy’s entire pathetic life could have been turned around if only Linda had encouraged him to follow Ben to Alaska rather than insisting the couple cling to the seemingly safe life they had begun to build. The secretaries, who at first glance seem to exist merely to perform such menial tasks as typing, actually are able to block Biff's and Willy's entrance to the offices of the powerful men who could advance their careers. (Stanton 131) In addition to being far more powerful than early critics of the play recognized, the women in Death of a Salesman also are far more complex. Women are not simply good or bad - supportive wive... ...Works Cited and Consulted: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. 50th Anniversary ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. Murphy, Brenda and Susan C. W. Abbotson. Understanding Death of a Salesman: A Student Handbook to Cases, Issues and Historical Documents. The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" series, Claudia Durst Johnson, series editor. Westwood, CT, London: 1999. Stanton, Kay. "Women in Death of a Salesman" Readings on Death of a Salesman. Ed. Thomas Siebold. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 130-137. Guth, Hans P. and Gabriel L. Rico.   1993.   Discovering Literature.   "Tragedy and the Common Man" by Arthur Miller.   Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Oakley, J. Ronald. God's Country: America in the Fifties. New York: Dembner Books, 1990. 245.