Nursing Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Nursing Decision Making - Essay Example The advancement of technology has fueled various practices even in the nursing profession that has in turn caused a revolution in the way that nurses make decisions. Nursing embraces technology especially since there has been tremendous revamp as a consequence of its incorporation in the nursing profession (Hardy, Garbett, Titchen, Manley, 2002, p.200). There are conditions where nurses have to make sober and most feasible decisions when it comes to patients suffering acute conditions. These patients have to be accorded precise care in order to ensure their comfortable recovery in health institutions. Many patients have faced situations where they do not recover out of their illnesses since nurses do not have ample reasoning skills (Del Bueno, 2005, p.202). This is a result of nurses not making correct assessment of the patients they have in their centers, where they are supposed to evaluate the most ill patients and offer them the help they need. This papers purports to evaluate the importance of critical thinking for nurses in their provision of healthcare to patients. The situation in health facilities is that ‘at risk’ patients are fitted with a device that notices complex fatal situations such as cardiac arrests and warns the health administration in order to offer them quick response (Ebright, Urden, Patterson, Chalko, 2003, p.635). Quite often though, the nurses in all over the world do not possess the right planning skills when offering administration of health care to patients. While the degree of complexity in diseases is increasing indefinitely, nursing profession has adopted the information and technology empowerment to offer their patients the best kind of healthcare. However, this has not been totally comprehensive in offering healthcare and it calls for additional endeavors to coach nurses. The profession management found it fit to complement nurses with teaching in critical thinking skills in an effort to reduce poor clinical reason ing. Research conducted by an Australian institution for instance, showed that the level of ‘unsafe’ nurses in the United States stands at 70%. This translates to the high number of fatalities of patients under healthcare and in retaliation critical thinking education scheme has been boosted to allow for better service provision. Critical Reasoning It is defined as the clinical way that nurses and other healthcare providers perceive the situations that face them in providing their services to patients. It may also be called problem solving, critical thinking, clinical judgment or decision making. Clinical judgment is assessing the problem a patient is facing. Nurses therefore need to be well equipped to make a distinction between symptoms, collecting evidence of illness, understanding them, evaluating the possible solutions to ease illness and implement the best possible solution. The process of clinical reasoning is the ability of a nurse to assess the situation of the patients in terms of their symptoms, understand them, evaluate possible solutions, implement the best solution, know the outcomes possible for the patient and to internalize the processes (Thompson & Dowding, 2002, p.50). There is not really a certain way that nurses have to make sober clinical reasoning solutions. The basic process however involves ?collection, description and understanding’. The reason why nurses should learn from these situations is because precedence is also a form of clinical reasoning. When for instance, a nurse encounters a problem in a patient they are best placed to make a decision if they had encountered identical problems in other patients and therefore make decisions based on

The Life of Kate Chopin Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

The life of Kate Chopin      Ã‚  Ã‚   Kate Chopin led a fascinating life filled with times of triumph but also times of great loss. Living in the South during the post-Civil War era, the setting and experiences of her life would have a great impact on the subjects of her writing. Chopin began writing as a way to express her frustration with life. This is why her emotions about life are conveyed so strongly in her writing. One of her short stories, "Juanita," is an excellent example of how Chopin's life affected her writing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The story of "Juanita" is that of a young woman who, though not incredibly beautiful, had many admirers. The people of her small town gossiped continually about which man she would marry. Would it be the man who had traveled all the way from the city for the sole purpose of seeing her? Or would it be the rich millionaire from Texas who owned a hundred horses? The townspeople all assumed she would choose the richest of her suitors, until one day Juanita announced that she had secretly married a poor one-legged man whom she loved very much.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To truly understand the characters of Chopin's stories, one must examine the history of her life. Kate Chopin was born as Katherine O'Flaherty to a wealthy Irish St. Louis family on February 8, 1851. While she was still a young child, her father died in a train accident. Only a few years later her brother died after being captured by Union forces during the Civil War. The loss of all the males in her life, according to Hoffman, led to the intense female relationships she shared with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. As a young woman, Kate treasured her independence. Late 1860's society was highly critical of her because she walked, unac... ... about the world as she actually saw it. For a woman to do this in the late nineteenth century was unheard of, and Chopin was highly criticized for it at the time. But after going through as much as she did in her life, she could not stay silent. Ker suggests that "after 39 years of trials and tribulations and just plain living, she finally had something to say!"    Works Cited Chopin, Kate. "Juanita." A Vocation and a Voice Stories. Ed. Emily Toth. New York: Penguin Books. 1991. 86-88 Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Bantam Books. 1988 Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. "Kate Chopin: A re-awakening." http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/interviews.html Hoffman, Audrey. "Kate Chopin." http://www.kutstown.edu/faculty/reagan/chopin.html Ker, Christina. "Kate Chopin- Ahead of her Time." http://empirezine.com/spotlight/chopin/chopin1.htm         

Christianity Essay

Trade and merchants play a major role in Christianity and Islam from their origins to the 1500’s, and even though both had similar attributes yet differed as well. Christians and Islam both had a negative outlook, both had their religious viewpoints, as well as both changed their views towards trade. Despite this, Christianity began to open up to trade, even tolerating it, while Muslims became stricter on merchants and trade. Furthermore, Both Islam and Christianity had a negative attitudes for instance, in the Bible, Jesus preaches to his disciples how a rich man will never reach heaven. This is due to their behavior, for merchants are greedy and lying people whose only content is to get rich, which goes against Christianity’s belief. Moreover, Thomas Aquinas explains how unfair and unjust merchants are for they price their goods higher than what the product actually cost. By the tone of the document as well as how he explains trade and its problems show his dislike. L ikewise Ibn Khaldun describes merchants as weak, and disgusting men and how they negatively affect the government. His tone is harsher however, which indicates his anger towards the merchants. Merchants constants rip-off of the people by selling their goods at a high price as well s giving their all their goods to those who pay more. The Islamic Court in Ankara had to deal with a case in which merchants would give all their cotton to a single person, if they pay extra high price in addition to the merchant’s high prices. Document seven contains quotes from that of the people who have complained about the merchants. Both Christianity and Islam share the same pessimistic attitude towards merchants and trade because of their behavior and how they sell their goods. Anyways, I would have like to see a document from a merchant, it would have help me better indicate if merchants were really sneaky and unfair as spoken in the documents given. Some looked to the Christianity’s and Islam’s beliefs, to determine their view on merchants and trade for both religions impacted all their followers. In the Bible, Jesus says that no rich man will ever reach heaven. The small passage comes from the bible, which heavily every Christians view. Which is also why he emphasized how the quote from the bible and how i t fit into the situation. The Muslim Qur’an also circled around honesty and truthfulness which the Muslims and Muslim merchants had to follow if they wanted to reach paradise. Thomas Aquinas who was also heavily influence by Christianity, and its bible, for he states a line out of the bible. He indicates the bible  because he knows that adding the bible would persuade many of the Christians which was his intended target audience. Reginald, a monk of Durham also says explains the life of Godric and how he became a successful merchant, only to become tired of it and soon devoted himself to God giving away all his possessions to the poor. Reginald’s attended audience was Christian followers, he also helps justify document 1 in Godric went from rich to poor in order to devote himself to god. I would have liked a document from a person not Christian or Islam because it would have allow me to understand how much both religions influence the views of its subjects. Despite the similarities Christianit y religious views seem to rather negative and stricter than the Muslims were lighter and positive. Merchants and trade in the eyes of Christianity and Islam began to change significantly overtime. Ibn Khaldun says how beneficial the merchants are to the capital, for they buy goods in one area, only to sell at a higher price in an area in demand. Which the Qur’an also depicts, however it encourages trade as long as it is fair and truthful. Yet Ibn Khaldun gives us evidence of laws which were established in order to control merchant’s behavior. In addition, document 7 shows how the Islamic court had power over merchants and could affect their behavior as well as. Unlike Islam which began to become stricter, Christianity began look towards it positively, such as, letter C of document 6 describes an order being canceled for English wool, and the consumer seemingly brings god name into it, which suggest the consumer does not think of trade conflicting with Christianity. Which letter A also identify for both letters show how the merchant’s goal is to make a profit, and they see no problem with. In conclusion, Christianity and Islam attitudes towards trade and me rchants were similar in certain aspects as, of the beginning both viewed it negatively, and on a religious level. However, both began to change their views on trade and merchants. For Christianity began approving trade, while Islam began harsher treatment towards trade and merchants.

Implementation of knowledge management - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2009 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? 1. Obstacles to the implementation of knowledge management There are two main factors that affect implementation of KM, organizational culture and technology. Organizational Culture A pattern of shared necessary assumptions that a group has learned in order to solve their problems of outer adaption and inner integration, is a right way to be considered and therefore, to be taught to new group members as an appropriate method to look, understand, think and feel about those problems (Schein 1992:12) is a definition of organizational culture. In other words, it is a framework to perform different tasks within an organization. Culture plays a vital role in the KM initiative. Studies finding causes of KM program breakdown (Barth, 2000; KPMG, 2000) stated that organizational culture is one of the most important barriers to success than others (Tuggle, 2000). Organizational culture is a most crucial factor to create value through leveraging knowledge assets that add to organizations ability (Cole-Gomolski, 1997; Ruggles, 1998). If an organizations culture is aligned with KM then it can implement and use KM for their decision making process. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Implementation of knowledge management" essay for you Create order When a group or individual dynamically comes in contact with each other in an organization, it leads to the creation of knowledge that can be mobilized outside the boundaries of organization. For example, a new manufacturing process can fetch changes in suppliers manufacturing method that can lead to a new way of product and process or method enhancement in the organization. Knowledge can be transferred outside from the organization and knowledge from more than one organization interacts together to develop new knowledge (Badaracco, 1991; Wikstrom Normann, 1994; Nonaka Takeuchi, 1995; Inkpen, 1996). According to Krogh, G. V., Ichijo, K., Nonaka, I. (2000) organizations physical, emotional and virtual factors are responsible for knowledge creation. An obstacle to knowledge creation is, when individuals will unable to handle new situation and information. Organizational culture focuses on sharing of knowledge and fear of innovation as well (Microsoft Corporation, 1999). Knowledge sharing can be hindered due to employees different skills, academic and technical backgrounds, languages and expectations. Language difference can cause improper verbal and written communication. An organization should allow their employees to experiment in order to learn from previous failures. Organization must build friendly environment where employees should not be afraid of committing mistakes and must encourage sharing of lessons learned in order to avoid mistakes from being repeated (Ndlela and Toit, 2001). Technology Organizations must have good IT infrastructure that supports collaboration of knowledge workers and data repositories, support computer based tools for conferencing. Furthermore, organizations should have well developed technology that can be aligned with knowledge management. Improper alignment of IT and KM can lead to implementation gap. But it is really difficult for technology structure to fully support all KM aspects, technology is a critical aspect that allows and facilitates many KM processes and initiatives (Alazmi Zairi, 2003; Artail, 2006; Davenport et al., 1998; Hariharan, 2005; Hasanali, 2002; Wong, 2005). Hansali said although technology is important but it has to be used as a tool to support KM initiatives and not as the source of initiative. If technology tools such as intranet, virtual communities of practices could be formed, that can add up to the scope and timeliness of knowledge sharing (Ardichvili, Maurer, Li, Wentling, Stuedemann, 2005). Finally, the architect ure of information system within an organization that wishes to implement KM need to provide tools that support integration of all organizational computer components. 2. Knowledge capture Knowledge capture is a term related to knowledge creation in an organization. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), an ongoing cyclic process of socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation is known as knowledge creation. It is really vital process in knowledge management. According to Manasco, (1996), Knowledge management supports knowledge creation by utilising some mechanism, this mechanism identifies, captures and avail the knowledge. To do this it is important to find what knowledge has to be captured, why it has to be captured, what method is required to capture, how it has to be captured, how it has to be stored, how it can be retrieve and what are the ways it can be used. After answering all the above questions there is a chance in increase of KM initiatives overall success (McCampbell et al., 1999). Knowledge is created when individuals interacts among themselves or with others and with their environment. In knowledge creation when individual and enviro nment interact with each other, changes occur at both the levels, individual influences by themselves and by the environment with which they interact. Knowledge creation within an organization consists of three elements a) the SECI process (socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation), it defines the knowledge creation by conversion among tacit and explicit knowledge. b) ba, shared framework for creating knowledge. c) Knowledge assets such as inputs and outputs in knowledge creation. The above three elements need to interact among each other to form a kind of knowledge spiral that captures knowledge. The knowledge assets (input and output) of an organisation are shared in ba, but tacit knowledge which is held by individuals is transformed and improved by spiral of knowledge that consists of socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation. Garza and Ibbs (1992), suggested four techniques of knowledge capture, each is for capturing dissimilar types of knowledge:- Examining public knowledge:- it enables capturing of knowledge in order to familiarise people to understand the current thoughts and ideas on a particular subject. Interviews:- they are of two kinds structured and unstructured. Unstructured interviews enable knowledge holder to explain liberally their feelings about the key elements in their work. Structured interviews consists all the questions that of interest to knowledge capturer. In this the interviewee has to give answers of all those questions. Observation: this technique is used to capture knowledge by watching some live incident. Induction:- it allows to identify the gaps in existing rules and to analyse the cause of it by studying the case. According to me there are some other knowledge capturing methods that vary from one organization to the other, because the knowledge structure can differ between different organizations with in same industry. But still the above basic techniques will always be a building block for knowledge capture in any type of organization. 3. KM as a tool for supporting innovation Knowledge management and innovation are related to each other. Organizations have always searched for new and improved methods of doing business to acquire competitiveness. Organizations create and exploit knowledge in order to achieve advantage over their competitors this is what we call innovation. According to Roger (1995), innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption.. Innovation can also be defined as a decision making process by evolving change in technology, process and management approach. (Walker and Hampson 2003b, p238). Basically, the term innovation depends upon knowledge development. The transformation of one type of knowledge into other is known as knowledge creativity. Suppose if there is any knowledge involved in technology improvement it should be documented. According to Amidon (1997) there are two important aspects in KM as an approach to support innovation, first, knowledge is the main component of innovation and second, activities involved in managing knowledge flow and its use. Knowledge and knowledge workers are the intellectual capital of an organization. A companys KM performance is directly related to its intellectual capital, which affects its innovation (Wong, 2005). According to Egbu et al. (2001a), any organization that wants to gain competitive advantage needs to be innovative. Method related to the development of new product is called product innovation where as new ideas involved in the deployment of new and efficient method of production is called process innovation. The efforts related to innovation are to find, identify and deployment of new technologies, products and processes. These efforts are documented and available as information. This creation of information involves knowledge evolution. New knowledge motivates organizations into new kind of business in more rewarding industry, when knowledge management is influenced positively by findings of innovation. According to (Harari, 1994; Nonaka, 1994; West, 1992), organization that provides a framework to improve knowledge of their individuals is more likely to face present rapidly changing market and to innovate in the context where it wants to compete and do investment. Managers are responsible to underline their individuals skills and experiences which in turn evolve creativity. KM enables knowledge worker to contribute in facing new problems that requires new approaches of finding solutions and demand for innovative approaches. Today companies are interested in applying new logical approaches derived from contributed effort of KM and knowledge worker to give a better innovative way of success to their business. 4. Difference between Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems Knowledge management According to (Myers, 1996; OLeary, 1998; OLeary, Kuokka, Plant, 1997)., knowledge management is a process of transforming organizational knowledge obtained from available sources and associating human resource to that knowledge. In other words, KM aims to identify, create, collect, transfer and reprocess of knowledge to help organization to compete (Devedzic, 1999, von Krough, 1999). KM involves managing of knowledge according to organizations benefit. KM enhances production and production process of an organization. Knowledge will always available within organization but proper management of knowledge is of great importance for organization to achieve success. This is the reason why companies are using systematic approach for managing knowledge. According to KPMG (1998a), the aims of KM are, To improve response time, To improve decision making process by following KM initiatives, To increase productivity and profitability, Developing different business opportunities, Cost diminution, Staff retention and Increase share value. For example, KM can be used to develop or gather resources such as design, business, learning and training (Liao, 2003). KM also includes organizational learning, organizational memory and management (Thomas et al., 2001). KM can be viewed as an umbrella consisting of organizational learning that involves capturing and utilizing knowledge to create new knowledge, organizational memory that stores organizational knowledge in database repository and management that involves the management of knowledge to enhance its success by top management. To make knowledge serve the organization continuously, it has to be captured, compiled, stored and shared among human resource. Knowledge management system KMS is a type of system that automates the process of creation, collection, organization and exploitation of knowledge. In general the aim of KMS is to automate the KM processes and create knowledge out of knowledge. KMS is a combined form of IT and KM. According to Abdullah et al. , (2002), KMS is a special kind of system comprised with information technologies and communication technologies, that automates KM processes (creation, collection, organization and exploitation of knowledge) by interacting with computer systems of the organization. KM system consists of knowledge repositories, intranets, web portals and decision making tools by which individuals can access the organizational knowledge (Ernst and Young, 2001). KMS must integrate all computer components within entire organization to provide its full feature. If the entire organizations computer components are not integrated properly with KMS, it will lead to implementation gap due to which organization will not be able to c reate new knowledge by exploiting the existing one and hence the organization cannot remain innovative. Finally, I can say that KM is a concept and KMS is used for implementing this concept. The role of organisational memory in KM Knowledge is very important for an organization. Managing that knowledge is really crucial for an organization to achieve success and to be competitive. KM is a concept used for managing knowledge. Today organizations are really interested to know what they know from their past experiences. Organizations forget what they have done, how they have done and why they have done it in the past. Organizational memory keeps the track of it and shares it among individuals within organization. Organizational memory stores and magnifies knowledge by creating, capturing, accessing and reprocessing knowledge of their employees. According to Stein and Zwass (), the process by which knowledge can be brought from past to apply it on present activities, resulting in each level of organizational effectiveness. This organizational effectiveness ultimately improves the performance of organization. Walsh, J. P. and G. R. said, organizational memory is information stored in some database that comes from o rganisations history and can be used to make present decisions.