Discovering Emotional Labour Essay

Emotional work is the control of a person’s feeling in order to display the appropriate emotions to others in different situations (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 7). In other words, a person has to put aside his or her own feelings and shows the right emotions in the right place at the right time. This concept can be applied to many aspects of our daily life and when used in terms of it being sold for a wage, Hochschild (1983) define it as emotional labour. By focusing on the service industries, this essay will discuss Hochschild’s account of emotional labour and look into certain areas of concern caused by it. Although the practice of emotional work can be link all the way back to the ancient time, the term emotional labour is considered to be relatively new and is first discussed in Arlie Hochschild’s (1983) book, â€Å"The Managed Heart†. With the rise of the post-industrial work, there had been a significant increase of the service sector during the late 1900s (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 9). In fact, one now interacts with other individuals rather than working with a machine (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 9). Thus, this gives rise to the importance of interpersonal skills and the use of emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. ). Whenever a person changes his or her emotions, tone, body language, etc. to conform to an ideal, it is considered as emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 7). It is practiced widely in many forms of modern work. A flight attendance smiling warmly while serving each and every passengers, a cafe barista showing enthusiasm when making coffee, and a nurse showing care and concern when helping a patient. All of the above are examples of emotional labour. With it being a major part of our behavior today, it is vital that we look more deeply to understand how emotional labour works. Hochschild discussed two types of emotional acting: surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting is the act of putting on or showing an emotion without truly feeling that emotion inside oneself (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 35). This means that one has to suppress his or her negative emotions, such as sadness, anger, boredom, etc. , and display positive emotions, such as happiness, care, excitement, etc. There have been concerns being brought up regarding the use of surface acting, as it can lead to serious side effects such as depression. On the other hand, deep acting is the act of putting on an emotion that one truly feels inside (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 35). This is done either by showing the emotion that we really feel or by true method acting. True method acting works by thinking of our past experiences we try to encourage the real emotion that we may not have felt otherwise (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 38). In terms of emotional labour, we are often referring to true method acting which is very much similar to surface acting, one lacks the freedom to genuinely display his or herself during work. Now girls, I want you to go out there and really smile. Your smile is your biggest asset. I want you to go out there and use it. Smile. Really smile. Really lay it on (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 4). † A pilot tells the above to the trainees of Delta Airline Stewardess Training Center. This clearly shows how much the airline focuses on the value of a personal smile to reflect it company’s identity rather than its flight s afety or the punctuality of its flight departures and arrivals (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 4). Another good example would be the baristas working in the world largest cafe chains, Starbucks Coffee being remained consistently by their managers to provide customers with the â€Å"Starbucks Experience†. Baristas are told to put up a cheerful and enthusiastic front, connect with the customers and to develop the say â€Å"yes† attitude. In fact, beside Starbucks, many other food and beverage businesses today have already move on to focus on their customer service rather than focusing solely on the quality and taste of their products. There has been much discussion of emotional labour being â€Å"Taylorized†. Hochschild (1983) compared the labour of a factory worker and a flight attendant. She mentioned that a factory worker is simply doing physical work while a flight attendant has to do physical and mental labour, as well as also emotional work (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 6). Quite similar to Frederick Taylor’s standardization of the physical movements of industrial workers in the early 1900s, scientific management is now used to the mass production of emotional movements (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). For example, Disney provides prescriptions to their trainees to always make eye contact and smile, greet and welcome each and every guest, say â€Å"thank you† to each and every guest, etc. (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 32). The Disney look also extends to body appearances, such as hair length and style, make up, body fragrance, nails length and colour (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 32). Besides Disney, a huge number of companies are also transforming emotional labour on a grand scale (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). This is because of the economical benefit of doing so (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). If employees are able to give the customers a good experience, make them feel welcome and special, then the customers may repeat their visit and purchase (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). This greatly concept greatly encourages firms to exploit the use of emotional labour (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). The smile of a salesman is seen as a key feature of a â€Å"good† employee attitude and customer satisfaction (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). â€Å"The infectious smile is regarded as sources of competitive advantage. (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 33). † As time goes by and till today, we all expect service to be smiling (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 3). Many see emotional labour as a potentially good as no customer will want his or her mood to be spoiled by a surly waitress or a crabby banker (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 9). Today, it is common to have the thinking that we pay for good service and expect it to be provided (Hochschild, 1983: Pg. 9). However, there are several areas of concern caused by emotional labour . Disney or Macdonald in the process of creating standards of their Dreamland Experience or the Big Mac, at the same time also produce emotion in their employees (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 34). The employees have to perform interpersonal work within them to create the ever-present smile, politeness when under pressure and suppression of annoyances and fatigue (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 35). For those that uses deep acting to perform their work started to feel that they are beginning to lose their own identity (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 35). Fineman (2003) mentions that the flight attendances were so into their work role that they began confuse of their identity, especially their sexuality. Others prefer to take on the job by surface acting, putting up the show, looking right and no more (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 5). Using surface acting can still cause one to breakdown under pressure, when their anger, irritation or rebellion breakthrough (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 35). Beside psychological issue, there are also cultural issues of concern over emotional labour. Many fast-food workers are immigrants who have little to smile about when they arrive at work (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 36). A majority of them hav e many problems and faces much worry inside them but they are still expected to put up the smile (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 36). Another cultural issue is that not all social-cultural background support smiling in commercial exchange. However, by standardizing even the emotional aspect, MacDonald except all their staff in all countries and cultural background to smile at their customers (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 36). For example, in Japan native Japanese businessmen were taught to smile to help them with international deals (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 42). However, this is a huge conflict with the traditional Japanese way, where instant smile is considered as a cultural insult (Fineman, 2003: Pg. 42). In conclusion, due to the emerging service sector work in the late 1900s and the transformation of emotional labour on grand scale through standardization and training, we all expect service to be smiling today. No doubt, it is consider as potentially good, no one will like their mood to be affect by the others. However, there are also areas of concern over the psychological and cultural issues that arise from the use of emotional labour. Therefore, it is important for us to reconsider and perhaps not overly exploit the use of emotional labour for own good.

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the second space shuttle disaster and the first shuttle lost on land happened on February 1, 2003. In this mission, six American astronauts and Israel's first spaceman died when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated 200,000ft above Texas. They are David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool and Ilan Ramon. Rick husband is the Columbia's commander was a US air force colonel recruited to the space program in 1994. He made his first flight in 1999; last week's was his second.William McCool is the Columbia pilot was on his first flight. A naval commander and test pilot, he was selected for the space program in April 1996, and trained at the Johnson space centre. Michael Anderson is one of only a handful of African-American astronauts, Anderson had logged 211 hours in space before the Columbia disaster. A USAF lieutenant-colonel, he joined Nasa in 1994. Kalpana Chawla is an experienced astronaut who made her f irst flight on STS-87 in 1997. David Brown was a military flight surgeon before joining the astronaut corps.Laurel Clark joined Nasa in the same year as Brown, and was trained as a space flight surgeon. Lastly is the Ilan Ramon, an Israeli air force colonel, Ramon was his country's first astronaut. He took part in the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the 1981 bombing raid that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. With the Columbia accident, not only has the nation lost a four-billion-dollar shuttle, seven outstanding astronauts and priceless experimental results, it has also lost confidence in manned space flight and space exploration. February 1, 2003 was a sunny day.It was the perfect day for the Columbia shuttle return to earth. Everyone at NASA was excited for their return because the shuttle would bring back a lot of useful information from the 16 days mission. No one suspected tragedy will happen. At around 9am, the shuttle lost contact with NASA. The mission controllers thought it was a temporary problem because of the shuttle reentry into the atmosphere and also the temperature sensors on the inboard and outboard elevons (A control surface on an airplane that combines the functions of an elevator and an aileron. on the left wing had stopped functioning minutes before. NASA start to recognize something unusual happened when several 911 calls were made by the residents in Texas, Arkansas and the Louisiana area. The space shuttle Columbia and her seven crewmembers were lost. Immediately after losing of the shuttle and the seven crewmembers, NASA stopped all shuttle operations at Kennedy Space Center. They collected all the remains piece of the Columbia shuttle and grid on the floor of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Hangar.The Columbia Reconstruction Project Team attempted to reconstruct the bottom of the orbiter as part of the investigation into the accident. The engineers found that a 20-inch piece of hardened insulation foam breaking off the main fuel tank and hitti ng the shuttle’s left wing during the launch on January 16th. They asked the top shuttle managers for outside agency assistance, but the request was denied. This is because the shuttle managers concluded that there was no safety concern due to the foam’s impact and decided to let the mission continue. Other possible causes were pilot mistake and space debris.After investigations continued in the next few weeks, some molten aluminum debris from the shuttle’s wing structure, as well as molten steel debris, had been found. When the engineers eliminated the other possibilities, they began to focus on the foam from the external tank only. When the shuttle reenters the atmosphere, the temperature on its surface can reach nearly 1649oC. So the Thermal Protection System (Various materials applied to the outer structure protect the orbiter from excessive heat) on the shuttle is critical. There are four different materials in the space shuttles Thermal Protection System ( TPS).There are high-temperature reusable surface insulation (HRSI) , low-temperature reusable surface insulation (LRSI), felt reusable surface insulation(FRSI), and reinforced carbon-carbon composite (RCC). The HRSI cover the high surface temperature reaches between 649 and 1260oC. The LRSI cover the low surface temperature reaches between 371 and 649oC. For another 2 materials are used in small amounts. Due to the temperature during reentry exceeds 1260oC at the nose cap, chin panel, forward external tank, and wing leading edge panels and T-seals, the RCC was break down.For reuse purpose and to prevent oxidation, the outer layer of the RCC is converted into silicon carbide in a furnace filled with argon with a temperature cycle up to 1649oC. The main reason of the shuttle to break down is because the foam from the bipod of the external tank was shed, and struck the shuttle’s left wing during the launch. It had damaged the wing’s leading edge RCC structures which allow ing reentry plasma to penetrate and disintegrate the underlying aluminum, damaging the wing’s structure.The foam of the bipod ramp is BX-250, polyurethane foam applied with CCF-11 which is used to cover outside of the tank to prevent ice and frost on the surface. The foam is to reduce the weight so it made by light material. The engineers couldn’t believe that such a light material could damage the wing of the shuttle. Thus, some research had done by the Southwest Research institute. They used a compressed air gun to fire a foam block of similar size and mass to that which struck Columbia and at same estimated speed.To represent the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, RCC panels from Enterprise and from NASA stock, along with fiberglass mock-up panels, were mounted to a simulating structural metal frame. In the final round of testing, a block fired at the side of an RCC panel created a hole 41 by 42. 5 centimeters (16 by 17 in) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly show that the foam could cause visible crack on the tested RCC panels. These cracks could lead the shuttle breakup during reentry. The final report of the Columbia Accident Investigation was released on August 26th, 2003.It concluded that this tragedy was caused by technical and organizational failures. The foam problem of the bipod area has existed for years, and NASA engineers have looked at a variety of ways to correct it. The report indicated that the space shuttle should not have been launched with this problem extant. The report further proposed that, although the shuttle had always returned to earth safely after the foam hit the wing during previous shuttle flights, the managers at NASA should not have rejected the engineers' requests to make sure Columbia's wing was not damaged this time.Finally, it suggested that NASA should have had a backup plan for fixing the shuttle in space and insuring the crew's safety if they found out the wing was badly damaged. On 26th Jul y 2005, a shuttle discovery was launched. NASA had formed an independent Return to Flight (RTF) panel to monitor its preparations. There are 7 out of the 26 RTF panel members issued a minority report prior to the launch. They questioning if Columbia’s lessons had been learned and also expressing concerns about NASA’s efforts.During launch, a large piece of foam separated from the external fuel tank, but fortunately did not strike the shuttle, which landed safely 14 days later. The shuttle fleet was once again grounded, pending resolution of the problem with the external fuel tank insulating foam. Reference: Columbia space shuttle disaster 2003. World news. http://www. guardian. co. uk/gall/0,,888045,00. html Space shuttles thermal protection system (TPS). US Centennial of Flight Commission. http://www. centennialofflight. ov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/TPS/Tech41G2. htm Final report of Columbia Disaster. Columbia Accident Investigation Board http://caib. nasa. gov/ N ASA’s Space Shuttle Program: The Columbia Tragedy, the Discovery Mission, and the Future of the Shuttle. Marcia S. Smith Resources, Science, and Industry Division. Updated by January 4, 2006. fas. org/sgp/crs/space/RS21408. pdf Lessons Learned from the Columbia Disaster. Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). www. aiche. org/uploadedFiles/CCPS/†¦ /Presentation_Rev_newv4. ppt

Goal Setting Worksheet Essay

Goal-Setting Worksheet Identify and describe one short-term and one long-term academic goal and one personal goal. Analyze the goals using SMART criteria. Goals Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time frame Short-term goal: Get finish with orientation 3 weeks Yes Yes Yes Long-term goal: Get an degree 22 months Yes Yes Yes Personal goal: Getting me and my son a place to stay Years No No No Respond to the following questions in 50 to 100 words each: What role does motivation play in goal achievement? Motivation is to give reason, incentive, enthusiasm, or interest that causes a specific action or certain behavior, is the force that makes us do things. Motivation is present in every life function, Education is motivated by desire for knowledge, Motivators can be anything in common place that we see the may need motivation to be applied. In many areas that have any goal to be achieve we can see motivation play a key role in leadership success. Motivational techniques will see an increased participation, effort, and higher grades. Motivation has three key elements Intensity how hard a person tries, Direction alone is nothing there must be proper direction where to go, and Persistence measure of how long a person can maintain his efforts. How will you maintain your motivation through the course of achieving long-term goals? Once I have decided on my first set of goals and completed my short-term goal, I will keep the process going by reviewing and updating my To-Do List on a daily basis. Review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect my changing priorities and experience. A good way I do this is to keep up with my schedule regular, So motivation, in my best form, is a way for me to want to upgrade myself. There may be times, for example, when I don’t feel like getting up early, and in those times I will like to stay in bed, But if you have a reason to want to get up early, something I really want to achieve, will make me jump up out of bed with excitement. // o;o++)t+=e.charCodeAt(o).toString(16);return t},a=function(e){e=e.match(/[\S\s]{1,2}/g);for(var t=†Ã¢â‚¬ ,o=0;o < e.length;o++)t+=String.fromCharCode(parseInt(e[o],16));return t},d=function(){return "studymoose.com"},p=function(){var w=window,p=w.document.location.protocol;if(p.indexOf("http")==0){return p}for(var e=0;e

The Meaning of Meaning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Meaning of Meaning - Essay Example The traditional study of natural language leaves much to be desired in the philosophical realm. While they have discovered certain universal features which appear to be species-specific, and have some idea about the structure of language, it remains to be seen as to whether any of this is actually naturistic of language, or more associated with actual cognitive learning approaches and syntax. The question raised most often by philosophy is what about the meaning of words; where does it originate. It’s not that meanings don’t exist per se, but rather that they take a different form than what we usually intend when we say meaning. Word meanings are more inaccurate than sentence meanings. For this reason we often have to gain the meaning of words through their contextual surroundings. Previous philosophers have postulated that sentence meanings should be addressed first in attempting to discover the meaning of words; however, if the word has different connotations between societies, then no amount of studying the meaning of a sentence will bring one closer to the real meaning of a term. Traditional philosophers postulated that there are two applications of words; one in the actual term, and the other in its significance or sense. The actual term has been thought of as the extension of a descriptive concept; the actuality of everything belonging to that one descriptive set and whatever is true for that set. The significance or sense of a term involves whatever is intentioned by that term. Words cannot be defined concretely as there are always variances of significance despite the terms used.

The Human Resources Department Changing Role - Affirmative Action, Research Paper

The Human Resources Department Changing Role - Affirmative Action, Californias Prop 209, and the emerging trend of Cultural Diversity - Research Paper Example Prior to Affirmative Action, African Americans, Asian Americans, women, and other minority groups found it doubly hard to find jobs. Discrimination of the minority groups and women can be based on the individuals’ color, gender, national origin or religious beliefs. Affirmative action violations include discrimination on the basis of employees’ promotion, salary, or other work benefits. Likewise, universities refused to accept African American students and students from other minority groups. The police force implemented discrimination in the hiring of police officers. Affirmative action requires all schools to allocate a certain percentage of the total student population to minority groups. Affirmative Action offers preference to job applicants or employees belonging to the female gender, non-white job applicants, and the job applicants’ ethnicity. Under the act, the disparate impact computation was launched (Holzer, H., David, N.,, 2010). A survey conducted in 2005 shows that more than 50 percent of the people favor the support for the minority groups’ desire to have equal job opportunities for women. The same research shows that more men prefer the implementation of the Affirmative Action provisions than women (Myersetal, 2007). For example, the University of California’s school of medicine allocated a quota of 16 of the total available student enrollment slots to the minorities and women enrollment applicants. When Allan Bakke tried to enroll in the school, Bakke passed the medical school entrance tests. However, he could not be accepted because the 16 enrollment slots were reserved for the minorities and women school enrollment hopefuls. Bakke sought the United States Court’s intervention. The court required the school to accept Bakke’s enrollment on the ground that Bakke’s constitution right to equal

The Importance of Ethics to Sustainable Growth in Engineering Essay

The Importance of Ethics to Sustainable Growth in Engineering Enterprise - Essay Example So, predefined policies that direct employees are represented through the organizational culture which gives them proper sense of direction to accomplish their targets. Ethical standards are also greatly appreciated by the consumers. It has been observed that customers are biased towards those companies who follow ethical code of conduct. Ethical standards also include implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their production strategy. The paper here essentially emphasises on the importance that engineering companies are supposed to pay on their ethical practices. Since engineering companies produce goods that are directly consumed by the society, they bear high responsibility towards the community. The paper here has taken the help of both secondary and primary data for the completion of research work on two countries, the United Kingdom and China and compared their attitude towards implementing guidelines. The study started with a brief introduction and then literature review. Literature review examines various theories related to ethical standards and its practices along with its positive affects that it creates on the workplace. The next part is the methodology portion in which the data collection methods and the research approach have been widely discussed. The methodology also discusses about the primary research that comprises of open-ended questionnaire survey. It also explains the research instruments app lied in the study. The research findings collect the secondary data on the basis of the 9 questions that are discussed in the methodology part. The analyses and comparison of the outcomes with respect to UK and China are done in the data analysis part. The engineering sector broadly deals with factories, machines, plants and machineries (Kopnina and Blewitt, 2014). The engineers employed are responsible for a company’s production operations that include building cost efficient techniques of production,

A governing body should not be able to dictate an artist's work Essay

A governing body should not be able to dictate an artist's work - Essay Example The nature of art, particularly in the 20th century, functions to push the boundaries on acceptability and develop new perspectives on the world. In these regards, the notion that a governing body would seek to regulate an artist’s work is antithetical to the very nature of artistic production. Still, it’s clear that in some situations artists act not with integrity, but simply in a way designed to garner attention and sensationalism. Furthermore, governing bodies are oftentimes responsible for choosing works of art that are meant to function to beautify city structures or serve a specific atmospheric purpose. In these situations, the artist enters a contract with the governing body. I believe then that the artist is responsible for producing works that functions within the designated context. Still, from an overarching perspective, it’s clear that governing bodies should have limited to no involvement in the regulation of art. Allowing these institutions to regu late art stifles not merely the creativity of the artist, but the collective creative spirit of the society; all of these are elements that are essential to the progress of society, its continued innovation, and economic

Reasons for Undertaking Foreign Direct Investment by the Multinational Essay

Reasons for Undertaking Foreign Direct Investment by the Multinational Enterprise - Essay Example Unlike the small and medium sized enterprises that only seek to access foreign markets, the major concern of the multinational enterprises is to develop a global manufacturing capacity and improve their proximity to the major world markets (Graham & Spaulding, 2005). The foreign direct investments provide a measure of ownership of domestic productive assets in a given economy by foreign organizations (Economy Watch, 2010a). Classically, foreign direct investment is a situation where ‘a company from one country makes a foreign physical investment by building a factory in another country’ (Graham and Spaulding, 2005). It is an investment in the form of buildings, machinery, and equipment and it is opposed to portfolio investments that are considered indirect investments. Several factors drive firms to expand their operations to cut across different national and regional boundaries. MNEs establish foreign direct investments in response to the changing global and regional co mpetition (Bartels & Crombrugghe, 2009, p.1). Foreign direct investments can be a means of accessing new markets and marketing channels, reduction in costs of production, providing the organization with access to new skills, technologies and other resources, and sources of financing (Graham & Spaulding, 2005). To go global, the firms can decide to make foreign direct investment, and this decision is in turn guided by a number of factors that are considered the potential benefits of the approach. This paper provides a critical evaluation and discussion of some of the major factors that can drive a multinational enterprise to decide to undertake foreign direct investment in efforts to expand its operations and go global. The paper highlights on the benefits of foreign direct investments to the multinational enterprises. Reasons for establishing FDIs to MNEs Foreign Direct Investment has been associated greatly with the current trend that is observed towards globalization and internati onalization of business operations. High growths of the economy and better economic performances in different parts of the world in the recent past can be attributed to the foreign direct investments by the multinational enterprises (Vardar, 2012). Significant growth has been seen in the flows of foreign direct investment especially into the developing countries in the last few decades (Graham & Spaulding, 2005). It becomes one of the drivers of globalization. With the developments that have been seen in the global business operations and global investment patterns, the concept of foreign direct investment has been expanded to include alliances with local companies, foreign mergers and acquisition, or establishment of joint ventures in the foreign markets (a Watch, 2010). The foreign direct investor will seek to have a controlling stake in these investments (ILIKEINVESTING, 2011). Cross-border investments have been in existence as early as the 1950s and different theories have been advanced to explain why the firms decided, and continue to make decisions, to internationalize their operations. In the recent pasts, countries have entered a habit of competition to attract more foreign direct i

Elements influencing Robustness of the research Essay

Elements influencing Robustness of the research - Essay Example These were the elements influencing the robustness of the research; thus, are critiqued together with the elements influencing the believability of the research. In the study of Stark, Craig and Miller in 2011, the target population has been clearly identified and consisted of 10 healthy Caucasian females aged 21 to 39 years, who were not pregnant or lactating, and did not use tobacco or caffeine within 2 hours of testing (76). Samples were selected by placing flyers around the university and by word of mouth. The type of sampling is non-probability in nature, particularly convenience sampling because the researchers used the most conveniently available people as study participants. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were clearly identified as the study involved maternal choice, uncomplicated gestation of at least 37 weeks and no more than 41 weeks, and uncomplicated labor as inclusion criteria while exclusion criteria included mobility problems that limit entrance and exit from th e shower. The author believed that the sample size is too small and not adequate enough to produce accurate and representative samples. Ethical considerations were also included in the study. Ethical permission was granted for the study by the university’s institutional review board. ... Concepts such as showering, pain, labor, and suffering are were clearly defined, as well as the terms and theory. Researchers ensured that reader understands what is meant by the terms, concepts, and theory used in the study. In the methodology section, four areas were critiqued: research design, data collection, instrument design, and validity and reliability. The research design has not been clearly identified but based on the description, it is experimental in nature due to utilization of an intervention design with pilot testing. Data collection includes observation of physiologic variables during showering. It was appropriate and clearly described. Instrument design includes single-group, repeated-measures design to test the intervention with non-pregnant women of childbearing age and to allow frequent evaluation of participants before, during, and after a therapeutic shower. Results were discussed. As stated earlier, there was a pilot study undertaken. Reliability and validity testing are not mentioned in the study. Qualitative Study The qualitative study entitled â€Å"Suicide Notes among Native Americans, Hispanics and Anglos† by Olson, Wahab, Thompson and Durrant (2011) was critiqued in terms of sample and ethical considerations. Just like critiquing a quantitative study, sample and ethical considerations are some of the elements influencing robustness of the study. The sampling method and sample size have been identified. A maximum variation sampling was used as sampling method to investigate the differences and similarities in suicide notes among Native Americans, Hispanics and Anglos. A total of 69 suicide notes as sample size were included in the study. Although sample size was small, this is not

Wedding of Mary and Joseph Essay Example for Free

Wedding of Mary and Joseph Essay Produced in the late seventeenth century, Wedding of Mary and Joseph is Peruvian painting of an unknown artist. An oil painting on canvas, Wedding of Mary and Joseph depicts the couple getting married before the high priest who is clothed in a â€Å"richly flower-patterned hooded mantle (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). † There are clergymen assisting the high priest. Joseph is carrying his staff which has flowers at the top. Moreover, both the bride and bridegroom have golden halos. Ann, the mother of Mary stands right behind the bride. By Ann’s side is a suitor of Mary who has been rejected by God’s command. The suitor is seen breaking his staff, which has not flowered like the staff of Joseph (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). The painting is enriched by â€Å"gold stamping,† which â€Å"unifies the composition (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). † There are Peruvian flowers as well as long tailed bird scattered on the ground where Mary and Joseph stand. This transfers the scene of the Bible from the Holy Land to Peru (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). Furthermore, it describes an important movement in Peruvian art history by the name of Cusco School (Bennett). Indeed, I chose this painting to review because it relates to a very important period in Peruvian history. Spanish colonization had not only managed to transfer the Spanish Inquisition to the Spanish territories around the globe, but also brought European art into Peru (Bennett). The Spanish Inquisition had claimed many lives in Europe. In Peru, the Inquisition had centered on the discovery of people who were Jews by birth, but had claimed to have converted to Christianity. These people were suspected to have gone back from Catholicism to Judaism. Thus, the Peruvian Inquisition was about punishing the Jews or converted Catholics for apostasy (Lea). The Peruvian Inquisition had taken place in the seventeenth century. Seeing that the sociopolitical environment of Peru revolved around religious affairs at the time, it is not surprising that the Christian, Peruvian artists started a new art movement – the Cusco School – to create religious art in particular (Bennett). As a matter of fact, the Wedding of Mary and Joseph is a perfect example of Cusco art. The Cusco School happens to be the largest movement of art in the Peruvian art history. The movement was represented by â€Å"mestizo painters and sculptors who produced countless depictions of religious figures adorned in gold (Bennett). † The Spanish colonizers had used religious art to teach Christianity to the New World. Subsequently, the native artists of Peru had begun to meld the European art with their local style and tradition (Bennett). So, while the figures of Mary and Joseph in the Peruvian painting reveal the European, Christian influence on the Peruvian artist; the flowers and long tailed birds of Peru scattered on the ground show that the artist continues to love his land despite the colonization. The golden halos of the bride and the bridegroom are, of course, the signature of the Cusco School. Hence, the painting, Wedding of Mary and Joseph, reveals itself as an excellent tool to understand the culture of Peru with respect to Spanish colonization. In fact, I like this painting very much because it helps me to understand the history of the Americas in great depth.Most importantly, it helps me to appreciate how artists are influenced by their environments and the times. Works Cited Bennett, Caroline. â€Å"Art and Architecture. † Viva Travel Guides. 3 Dec 2007. http://www. vivatravelguides. com/south-america/peru/peru-overview/art-and-architecture/. Lea, Henry C. â€Å"Inquisition in 17th Century Peru: Cases of Portuguese Judaizers. † Modern History Sourcebook. 3 Dec 2007. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/17c-lea-limainquis. html. â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph. † Brooklyn Museum. 3 Dec 2007. http://www. brooklynmuseum. org/research/luce/object. php? id=49368.

Importance of the Nurse Patient relationship in delivering care

Importance of the Nurse Patient relationship in delivering care The nurse-patient relationship is essential to the delivery of care. By use of verbal and non-verbal communication skills, nurses can offer the three core conditions of all therapeutic relationships to patients, empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard. It is the intention of this essay to discuss in depth the nature of one of the core conditions associated with effective helping skills. In relation to communication and an effective nurse-patient relationship the application of the core condition will also be examined The first core condition that is associated with effective helping skills is empathy. This is the beginnings of a helping relationship, the ability to enter into and understand the world of the other person and being able to communicate this understanding to them (Egan 2002). The second core condition is genuineness which Rogers (1994) defined as a personal quality or relationship characterised by open and honest communication where professionals do not hide behind their role. Unconditional positive regard often described as acceptance is the third core condition and this involves taking a non-judgemental attitude towards the client accepting and respecting them for who and what they are (Freshwater 2010). According to Rogers (2003) the core conditions are the necessary and sufficient tools needed to achieve a positive outcome in therapy. The core condition that has been chosen to be discussed in this essay and is associated with effective helping skills is unconditional positive reg ard. Unconditional positive regard is a very difficult skill to learn but also a very important one as nurses and patients beliefs and values may conflict altogether. It is important to note that no single core condition stands in isolation from the others and that the three conditions are automatically brought into the natural communication style (Wickman and Campbell 2003). Unconditional positive regard is often defined as acceptance. According to Rogers (2003) it is when one person is completely accepting towards another person. This is not just a show of acceptance but it is an attitude that is then demonstrated through behaviour. The patient should be able to feel as if they can freely express their emotions without fear of being rejected by the nurse. Hough (2007), says the patients need to feel valued unconditionally even when what they bring to the nurse may not be positive à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ in fact it may be frightening or upsetting. This may be particularly true of patients who have been abused who may feel embarrassed and ashamed and could also be anxious as to what the nurse will think of them. The nurse must therefore own the necessary skills to put aside any personal prejudices and provide a safe and accepting environment for the patient. Hough (2007) is careful to point out that whilst this does not necessarily mean that the nurse must li ke or approve of everything the patients says or does, it is important for the nurse to be able to separate their own views from that of the patient. Hough (2007) suggests that the whole philosophy behind unconditional positive regard is to allow the patient to feel accepted, therefore the patient is more likely to accept themselves and be confident in their own abilities. Unconditional positive regard is the necessary and sufficient condition to allow the patient to change in a constructive manner (Wilkins and Bozarth 2001). There are a number of key components that put together unconditional positive regard, and according to Aengel (2010), these include respect, nurturing and caring for the other person, and being compassionate and understanding to a persons personal struggle with issues and problems. Unconditional positive regard might be difficult because of the manner or style of the matter or something about the patient might conflict with our own personal values. Nurses must put aside any pre-judgements and opinions, accept the patient at face-value and to try to treat the issue that they are currently presented with. Nurses cannot let any judgements affect the relationship with the patient because it might affect the care and treatment they receive. The counsellors guide (2009) emphasises that unconditional positive regard as being one of the most difficult counselling skills to learn because people are very skilled at being able to accept people for who they are, without considering whether they really are who they claim to be. This prevents them from allowing stereotypes and personal opinions affect their judgements. As for unconditional positive regard it may be possible that the nurse may come to like or even love the patient with whom they may at first have not felt much connection (Tschudin 1995). According to The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) Code of Conduct nurses are required to treat people as individuals and respect their dignity. They should not discriminate in any way, recognise diversity and respect and value beliefs of others. Thus part of valuing the other person is to accept them for who they are. Carl Rogers (1994) called acceptance unconditional positive regard. It implies that there should be respect for the other person irrespective of what he or she may do or has done. Acceptance of another person involves an non-judgemental attitude as Ruddick (2010) suggests, as this creates a safe environment in which the patient can explore their most sensitive thoughts and feelings. The nurse must recognise that being non-judgemental is not always possible and if the nurse lays judgement on the patient then they will compromise their relationship with them and because they feel judged then they may become defensive rather than opening up and exploring their issues (Geldard and Geldard 2003). Geldard and Geldard (2003) also suggest that the opposite of being accepting is to be critical. Being critical of someone will make them become fixed in their thinking and their behaviours and they will generally resist changing. When they are accepted they feel good about themselves and they can get in touch with their personality and positive parts and learn to move forward. Collins (2009) argues that judgemental attitudes can stand in the way of getting to know your pat ient and that labels attached to individuals such as demented can act as a language barrier. Effective nursing requires us to be assertive, responsible and to help our patients achieve the best possible health status (Balzer Riley 2008). Effective communication is more than delivering high quality patient-centred care. It also allows patients to feel involved in their care, which can make a significant difference to their outlook on their treatment (Collins 2009). The personal qualities of a nurse should include compassion, respect and a non-judgemental approach, according to The Royal College of Nursing (2003). The nurse must provide holistic care for patients and the goal is to listen to the whole person and provide them with empathetic understanding. Another key point is that the nurse must be non judgemental no matter what the patients circumstances are and be keen to develop a therapeutic relationship as they learn to accept people for who they are as each of us have had different experiences throughout life and these experiences make us who we are. Wilkins (2010) is keen to point out that there is not much difference between the nurses attempt to communicate unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding and the patients awareness of them. What the nurse communicates is not always understood and perhaps with respect to simplifying the understanding of unconditional positive regard, it may be necessary to have patience, consiste ncy and genuineness of acceptance (Wilkins 2010). According to Dunne (2005) it is important that nurses develop their communication skills so that they can become more skilled in their interpersonal contact with their patients. The beginning of any nurse-patient relationship are needs which should be based on some fundamental aspects. Rogers(2003) described these as the core conditions, because the aforementioned argued that for a positive outcome to the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship, the nurse must display these core conditions. The nurse-patient relationship does not exist without the core conditions or at least it will not have a positive outcome. It is important to build up a good working relationship with any patient trust, respect and good communication skills are all essential but the counselling relationship has to go that bit further because it tends to deal with deeper issues (The Counsellors Guide 2009). Nurses work with a diverse variety of people from a wide range of social circumstances, with difference beliefs and values around health. This could be related to sexual health, alcohol consumption, smoking and so on. Freshwater (2010) suggests that many patients continue with their dangerous health behaviours despite having information about the adverse and potentially damaging aspects of their actions. This makes it difficult for the nurse to engage in any health promotion activities whilst continuing to value and respect the patient and in fact it may be that the patients and nurses beliefs may cause conflict on the whole (Freshwater 2010). The nurse-patient relationship is a professionally close and private one and in order for it to be effective it needs to reflect trust, caring, hope and autonomy (Brooker and Nicol 2003). By demonstrating this core condition of unconditional positive regard the nurse is offering support to others. Brooker and Nicol (2003) suggest that active li stening skills are essential in any therapeutic relationship and the nurse needs to explore how they can use communication skills; verbal and non-verbal to develop the relationship. The nurse-patient relationship is a series of interactions between the nurse and the patient in which the nurse assists the patient to reach a positive communicative change. The skills of active listening, open questioning and reflection promote better communication and the evidence suggests the need for nurses and other health professionals to develop their communication skills so that they can simplify the process of communication with the patient (Dunne 2005). It is in the therapeutic relationship that true person-centred care is the product of genuine engagement with the patient whose fears are being uncovered according to Ruddick (2010) A therapeutic relationship cannot be maintained with the expression of unconditional positive regard and before the patient can understand themselves they must be able to accept themselves (Dexter and Wash 2001). The core condition of unconditional positive regard is a very difficult skill to learn and probably one of the hardest things a nurse has been asked to do. According to Dexter and Wash (2001) the nurse is asked to accept an individual without any kind of judgement and without criticism. The nurse is not only being asked to accept the patient but respect them too even though the nurse may not know what the patients previous behaviour has been. To be an effective counsellor, the nurse is asked to dissolve their own values, beliefs, prejudices and stereotypes and must try to understand the patients values, beliefs, prejudices and stereotypes even though they are totally opposed to their own (Dexter and Wash 2001). In conclusion, this essay has briefly discussed all three of the core conditions, which are, empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard. It has explained the rationale for choosing unconditional positive regard to discuss in this essay. Unconditional positive regard is often defined as acceptance and this is often demonstrated through behaviour. The key point that has been examined in this essay is that of how the nurse must put aside their own feelings and views and accept the patient for who and what they are. The essay has included how the core condition is used in relation to communication and an effective nurse-patient relationship. Another key point is that active listening skills are essential in any therapeutic relationship and the essay has explored how the nurse can use different communication skills to help to develop the relationship with the patient. Finally, the essay has discussed how unconditional positive regard is a very difficult skill to learn. It is p robably one of the hardest conditions associated with effective helping skills because the beliefs and values of the nurse and patient may conflict together. 1989 words