Nursing Care for Clients With Acute and Chronic Health Problems Essay

Nursing Care for Clients With Acute and Chronic Health Problems - Essay Example What the doctor would probably order A complete blood count that determines the number, size, volume, and hemoglobin content of red blood cells. Blood iron level and serum ferritin level which is the best indicator of total body iron stores(Killip, Bennett, & Chambers, 2007). Level of vitamin B12and folate, vitamins necessary for red blood cell production. Special blood tests to detect rare causes of anemia, such as an immune attack on your red blood cells, red blood cell fragility, and defects of enzymes, hemoglobin, and clotting(Weiss & Goodnough, 2005). Â   Significant parts of her history The most important part of the history is the fact that she was started on iron due to low HB levels but later stopped taking them due to stomach upset, this means that if she had a hematological problem, then with time it progressed to a greater degree(Bross, Soch, & Smith-Knuppel, 2010).

Clocks in the Vasculature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Clocks in the Vasculature - Essay Example An example is mammalian sleep rhythm or hunger, and its is now well known that there is a light-controlled master clock in the brain that controls these activities. Now the research is exploring the molecular mechanisms of these clocks in the peripheral tissues, which have been postulated to work through nutrient availability, although the exact mechanism is not known. heart which is essentially vascular tissue. This activity physiologically is autonomous, originating in the neurocardiac muscles of the heart and in health, occurs 72 times per minute in a regular fashion. In most and usual cases, human beings cannot control the frequency of these beats on their own. However, several neurophysiological conditions can cause change in this pattern and there is established roles of emotion, feelings, strenuous activities, stress in destabilizing this clock either to a higher or a lower rate, and there are physiological systems that tends to bring back these abnormal rates to normal through neural and humoral mechanisms. Small molecules interact with molecular hormone receptors module circadian rhythm. Catecholamines, vasoactive hormones, such as vasopressin and angiotensin interact with positive circadian regulators both centrally and at the peripheral vascular tissues to express circadian variations in heart rates, blood pressure, and vascular resistance (Harris, 2009). Genetic Mechanism Curtis et al. (2004) indicated the molecular mechanism of this clock. This occurs through pacemaker rhythms generated and sustained through positive and negative feedback loops. These in turn are mediated through transcriptional regulation at the genetic level (Curtis et al. 2004). Molecular Mechanism The drivers of this biological and molecular rhythmicity are transcriptional activation of of Per and Cry genes. These occur through transcriptional activation of feedback loop by heterodimeric bHLH-PAS proteins. It has been shown that these trascriptional coactivators and histone acetyltransferase initiate the key events in molecular rhythmicity. These, p300/CBP, PCAF, and ACTR, react with bHLH-PAS proteins, CLOCK and NPSA2, to lead to positive gene expression (Ko and Takahashi, 2006). Link to Vasculature The negative feedback loop is mediated by Cry2 mediated repression of NPAS2:BMAL1 through overexpression of p300. This leads to a circadian and time-dependent association with NPAS2 in the vasculature, which is timed in such a manner that it will precede the peak expression of the target genes (Westgate et al., 2008). Therefore, at the molecular level this is essentially a histone H3 acetylation. It has been correlated with the cyclical expression of the mRNAs

Statistics for managers individual work wk9 Coursework

Statistics for managers individual work wk9 - Coursework Example The high prices houses are said to be determined by the number of bedrooms, the age of the house, and the number of the bathrooms and their quality. The closeness to the cosmopolitan cities and the shabby (Byers et al 1997). The average selling prices of the houses in USA is also determined by other factor like the prestige associated by the locality of the house. A survey conducted on the Public opinion polls measure not only acceptance of the selling prices of the houses in USA by the citizens, but also public opinion on a wide range of social and economic issues that attribute to the prices of the houses. Public opinion is a critical force in shaping and transforming society most on the matter that influence and affect the public in general. Through opinion research, the public, the media and other interested groups have access to accurate measures of public attitudes and intentions on the issue of the selling prices of the houses. Sociologists can follow shifts of opinion on the major social problems and chart the evolution of the values. And citizens can now make themselves be heard at all times and compare their own view with those of others (Byers et al 1997). There seems to be two groups of academic researchers, in which one continues to support the high selling prices of the houses in USA and its positive impact to the economy, they believe that the main purposes of investment in real estate business is to improve real economic value. It is also agreed that housing leads to improvement in productivity, innovation, and job creation in every field of economy (Kraemer and Dedrick 1996; Agarwal, 1997; Shin 1999; Gray et al, 2000; Lee & Bose 2002; Laudon and Laudon, 2011; and Gecti and Dastan, 2013). The other group criticizes the bad impact of high selling prices of the houses on ecomony and the fact that high selling prices lead to development of low house quality leading to

Religion, Spirituality, and Health Status in Geriatric Outpatients Essay Example for Free

Religion, Spirituality, and Health Status in Geriatric Outpatients Essay Daaleman, Perrera and Studenski wished to re-examine the effect of religiosity and spirituality on perceptions of older persons, operationalized as geriatric outpatients. The authors proceeded from two conceptual constructs.   The first is that self-reported health status is central to aging research.   The old know whereof they speak.   Self-ratings are valid because they correlate well with health status over time and, consequently, health service utilization.   The second construct is that, no matter how morally they lived as young adults, those in late middle age come to embrace religion and spirituality with more fervor. Prior research had scrutinized the relationship between religion and health perceptions.   Some results were inconclusive, an outcome that the authors attributed to failure to control for such covariates as spirituality. Definitions vary, the authors acknowledged, but they proposed defining â€Å"religiosity† as principally revolving on organized faith while â€Å"spirituality† has more to do with giving humans â€Å"meaning, purpose, or power either from within or from a transcendent source.†Ã‚   In turn, the dependent variable was measured by a single-item global health from the Years of Healthy Life (YOHL) scale, a self-assessment of general health (would you say your health in general is †¦) and a 5-item Likert response from excellent to poor. Fieldwork consisted of including a 5-item measure of religiosity15 and a 12-item spirituality instrument in a 36-month health service utilization, health status, and functional status study among 492 outpatients of a VA and HMO network, all residents of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The authors were remiss in not formally articulating their hypotheses for the study though one gleans that the alternative hypothesis could have stated, â€Å"Structured religion, a deep sense of spirituality, mental status and mobility, and personal and demographic variables materially influence measures of health status and physical functioning.† In the end, the data was subjected to univariate and multivariate best-fit statistics.   The key findings: Table 2. Predictors of Self-Reported Good Health Status (N = 277) Factor* Unadjusted OR (95% CL Adjusted OR (95% CI) Age 0.94 (0.89–0.99)†  Male 0.72 (0.41–1.25)†¡ White race 2.79 (1.51–5.17) § 3.32 (1.33–8.30) ¶ Grade school 0.1 (0.02–0.49) ¶ Some high school 0.28 (0.06–1.44)†¡ High school graduate 0.24 (0.05–1.14)†¡ Technical/business school 0.29 (0.06–1.43)†¡ Some college 0.31 (0.06–1.49)†¡ Not depressed (GDS) 32.4 (4.03–261) § Physical functioning(SF36-PFI) 1.04 (1.03–1.05) § 1.03 (1.01–1.04) § Quality of life (EuroQol) 1.69 (1.41–2.01)†  1.36 (1.09–1.70)†  Religiosity (NORC) 0.93 (0.85–1.02)†¡ Spirituality (SIWB) 1.15 (1.10–1.21) § 1.09 (1.02–1.16)†  OR = odds ratio; CI = confi dence interval; GDS = Geriatric Depression Scale; SF36-PFI = Physical Functioning Index from SF-36; NORC = National Opinion Research Center; SIWB = Spirituality Index of Well-Being. *Referent factors: age-1 year younger; female, nonwhite; college graduate; GDS score of 0-9; PFI-index of 1 less; EuroQol-score of 0.1 less; SIWB-score of 1 less. †  P = .01. †¡ P = NS.  § P .01.  ¶ P .05. After adjusting for all covariates, the authors tentatively concluded that spirituality was an important explanatory factor for perceptions of one’s own physical well-being.   That religiosity did not seem statistically relevant, the authors concede, could be due to having defined the variable partly as attendance at religious services, a behavior possible only if the patient was functional and ambulant.   Still, the authors argue, they did include other measures of religiosity and the regression model did hold being functional constant. While the study did establish a relationship between self-perceptions of health and spirituality, the authors themselves point out the possibility that the two variables are not independent.   The conceptual framework of the SIWB spirituality measure includes a â€Å"high degree of positive intentionality†, which strikes one as very similar to health optimism as independent variable. Article 2: Religious coping and psychological functioning in a correctional population Lonczak, Clifasefi1, Marlatt, Blume, . Donovan tested the relationship among religious upbringing, coping and mental health outcomes in the admittedly-stressful prison environment. This time, the authors do not mince words.   They preface the literature review with the majority’s belief in God (or some higher being) as the core aspect of religiosity.   Second, they point out that two separate meta-analysis carried out in 1983 and 2003 showed mixed results for a relationship between religiosity and coping.   Perhaps, they argue, this is because religious coping has negative-coping aspects, such as the conviction that all one’s troubles are due to abandonment by God. Since a search of the literature had revealed only one study concerning prisoners – the positive effect of meditation on recidivism psychological symptoms in India – Lonczak et al. thought to embark on this study of a neglected population.   Secondly, the authors hoped to advance theory by defining religious coping more specifically than had ever been done. There were multiple hypotheses attending this study: That the high degree of stress experienced by prisoners triggers an increase in religious coping behaviors (e.g., prayer, reading, spirituality, attendance in religious activities, etc.). That the positive coping encouraged by religiosity brings about comfort and solace and hence increases the likelihood of adaptive outcomes. That a religious upbringing provides individuals a repertoire of positive coping behaviors from which to draw strength. Coming to data processing and statistical â€Å"tests†, Longczak et al. employed principal component analyses using Varimax rotation.   The result was a four-factor model with their respective Cronbach alpha reliability estimates: Spirituality (0.97); â€Å"Good deeds† and active participation in coping related activities (0.89); Pleading (0.83); and, Discontentment (0.74). In addition, the researchers administered the Brief Symptom Inventory to measure four dimensions: depression, anxiety, somatization and hostility. At the first stage of analysis, relationships between religiosity on one hand and either gender or ethnic group on the other were tested for in bivariate correlations, t-tests, ANOVAs, or chi square tests. Subsequently analyses involved four hierarchical linear regressions (one for each outcome) including both gender and stressful life events by each of the five religion measures.   In order to examine the relationships between religion-focused predictors and outcomes with and without separate statistical adjustment for sociodemographic variables, variables were processed in a given sequence (below) and non-significant terms removed from later analyses. Religious upbringing, participation, spirituality, pleading and discontentment in the first block; Gender, ethnic group, age, education, and stressful life events in the second block; and, Interaction terms in the third and fourth blocks. The findings provided support for the hypothesis that an upbringing characterized by formal or structured religion has positive mental health ramifications, including less depression and hostility.   Secondly, women are more adversely affected by discontentment-based coping.   Religious pleading notwithstanding, thirdly, prisoners who had experienced stressful life events were more likely to evince depression and hostility. Article #4: Effect of religion on suicide attempts in outpatients with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorders compared with inpatients with non-psychotic disorders Huguelet et al. also focused on religion, this time in relation to psychosis and, specifically the propensity to suicide. Among the 115 patients with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorders covered by the study, 43% had previously attempted suicide.   Broadly speaking, the team wished to find out whether religion was a protective or impelling factor in these suicide attempts. Suicide deserves attention, the authors maintained, because over 9 in 10 suicides are accompanied by a diagnosis of psychiatric illness.   Over the lifetime of a schizophrenic, in particular, meta-analysis has shown a 0.049 probability of death by suicide. Given the importance of reducing suicidal behavior, it seemed encouraging that spirituality and religious activities had ameliorate the risk.   Prior research on piety and spirituality had suggested that the coping mechanisms could involve both a more positive world view and a shield against stress. HYPOTHESIS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: No relationship could be found for religiousness and the tendency to attempt suicide.   Twenty-five percent of all the study subjects acknowledged that religion inhibited them from considering suicide versus only one in ten that articulated an â€Å"incentive† role for religion. Overview of Findings The four articles explored different facets of spirituality and religiosity.   Daaleman, Perrera and Studenski related spirituality to health perceptions.   Lonczak et al.turned their attention to whether a religious upbringing helped adults cope better with a stressful environment, imprisonment in this case.   In the case of Huguelet et al., the question was whether present religious beliefs encouraged suicide or strengthened coping mechanisms for resisting self-destructive compulsions. After adjusting for all covariates, Daaleman, Perrera and Studenski tentatively concluded that spirituality was an important explanatory factor for perceptions of one’s own physical well-being.   Religiosity was not a factor, for reasons already explained.   One doubts this will be the last word on the matter, however, since the study lacked rigor. Nonetheless, the finding about spirituality is helpful given that therapy is a way of expanding awareness and identity.   As well, Transactional Analysis â€Å"recognizes the spiritual dimension of each person as an important part of the therapeutic process† (Trautman, 2003).   On the other hand, one realizes the limitations of analyzing spirituality vis-à  -vis health perception when the two variables overlap, at least on the aspect of optimism. One is therefore led to wonder, might it not advance therapy theory and praxis if: a) Spirituality and religiosity were qualitatively tested as a compound, unified variable; and, b) Health-related research include objective measures of well-being as the realistic dependent variable? For Lonczak et al. the implications for counseling have more to do with discontent and religious pleading. Counseling might address the roots and implications of religious distress and assist patients in developing more adaptive coping strategies.   Notwithstanding the focus on a tightly defined population segment (older adults jailed for alcohol- and drug-related offenses), the authors are correct to point out the immense social good clinicians and prison administrators could foster if low-cost religious or spirituality-enhancing programs did contribute to â€Å"significant reductions in behavior management problems, psychological impairment, and subsequent recidivism.† Similarly, the findings of Huguelet et al. suggest that suicide rates among psychotic patients could well be reduced if therapy embraced reinforcement or revival of religious beliefs.   References Trautmann, R. (2003) Psychotherapy and spirituality. Transactional Analysis Journal, 33, (1) 32-36.

What are Emotions? Essay -- Psychology Emotional Essays

What are Emotions? What are emotions and do they affect those we relate to in our daily lives. Webster’s Dictionary describes emotions as an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, or the like is experienced. One can easily see emotions are a strong surge of feelings. These feelings could be happy, sorrowful, joyful, and anxious. You know these feelings and have probably experienced them all from time to time. Different situations will affect our emotions and cause them to change, but can our emotions affect the people that surround us? Do people adjust their attitudes and emotions according to those they are around? In Alice Walker’s, â€Å"Am I Blue,† she is deeply affected by the horse and the different emotions it displays. Blue’s emotions affected the way she was feeling. If she felt that he was happy, then she too felt happy. In Walker’s essay, she speaks about Blue’s reaction to loosing his companion and how he grieved. Alth ough he was in a beautiful place, with thousands of acres to run, he had no one to share this with; therefore he became devastated and sad. After reading this article, a pre-school/kindergarten teacher decided to see how her moods and emotions would affect her students. Would their actions and behavior depend solely on the emotions she was experiencing? After watching and observing them over a period of time and experiencing both good moods and bad moods, this is what she found. Emotions or one’s emotional state definitely affects how we function and interact with others, especially children. When a teacher is in a good mood, he/ she will exercise more energy and will display more patience with his/her students. This will have a positive affect on the clas... ...y will ask someone else. If the teacher continues to be in a state of emotional stress, his/ her students will begin to have fear. Also, they may not have the eagerness to learn; they won’t ask questions because they’re afraid to ask. Whether the teacher is in a good mood or a bad mood, their emotions will affect those they are teaching. In conclusion, one can tell emotions affect everyone in both positive and negative ways. On order to be a good teacher, one must exude energy, patience, knowledge, and creativity at all times. Therefore, it is very important for a teacher to try to leave any negative emotions; he/she may be feeling at home. If a teacher displays negative emotions, it will not only affect his/her students, but it will also take away from one or all the qualities he/she should posses in order to be a good and affective teacher.

Environmental Economic Impact of Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Essay

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary with six major tributaries, the James, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Patuxent, the York, and the Rappahannock Rivers, feeding into the bay from various locations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (Chemical Contaminants in the Chesapeake Bay – Workshop Discussion 1). These areas depend on the Bay as both an environmental and an economic resource. Throughout the last 15 years the Chesapeake Bay has suffered from elevated levels of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater treatment plants, farmland, air pollution, and development all lead to reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, which harm fish, crabs, oysters and underwater grasses (Key Commission Issues 1). There are other types of pollution in the bay such as toxic chemicals, but because nutrient pollution is the most significant and most widespread in the Bay its effects are the most harmful to fisheries. Ni trogen and phosphorous fuel algal blooms which cloud the water and block sunlight from reaching underwater grass beds that provide food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue crabs, and other species (Blankenship 11-12). Algae plays a vital role in the food chain by providing food for small fish and oysters. However, when there is an overabundance of algae it dies, sinks to the bottom of the Bay, and decomposes in such a manner that depletes the oxygen levels of the Bay (11). The reduced oxygen levels in the Bay reduce the carrying capacity of the environment and these â€Å"dead areas† sometimes kill off species that can not migrate to other areas of the Bay, such as oysters (11). Increased abundance of algal blooms also led to the overabundance of harmful and toxic algae species and microbes such as the microbe Pfiesteria, which was responsible in 1997 for eating fish alive and making dozens of people sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be cont racted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species. The signing of the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement marked the first joint vent... ...able: http://www.virginia-beach.va.us/cityhall/planning/cbay.html (4 Nov. 1999). â€Å"Fish Health in the Chesapeake Bay: †¦Estimate of Seafood History Losses.† Available: http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/fish-health/pfiesteria/pfeconomics/sld005.html. (22 Nov. 1999). Glibert, Patricia M. and Daniel E. Terlizzi. â€Å"Nutrients, Phytoplankton, and Pfiesteria In the Chesapeake Bay.† Available: http://www.arec.umd.edu/policy/Pfiesteria/terlizzi/terlizzi.htm (22 Nov. 1999). â€Å"Impacts of Diseases and †¦ase Resistant Oysters† Available: http://biology.uroregon.edu/classes/bi130/webprojects/15/oyster.html (22 Nov. 1999). â€Å"Key Commission Issues† Available: http://www2.ari.net/cbc/old/cbc_issu.htm (4 Nov. 1999). Lipske, Michael. â€Å"Getting to Know You† National Wildlife, v33. (1995): 24-29. Parker, Doug. â€Å"The Economic Costs of Implementing the Maryland Water Quality Improvement Act of 1998.† Available: http://www.arec.umd.edu/policy/Pfiesteria/parker/parkertext.html (22 Nov. 1999). Santopierro, George D., and Leonard Shabman. â€Å"Can Privatization Be Inefficient?: The Case of the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Fishery.† Journal of Economic Issues, v26 n2 (June 1992): 407-415.

Consulting for a struggling firm Essay

Introduction All organizations in the modern society are faced with challenges in economic management. As a psychologist working for a consultation firm, I meet a CEO in dire need of help on future sustainability of works on stress management, diversity and motivation. Therefore, this paper seeks to analyze how the various challenges in the workplace can be mitigated so as to increase efficiency. Stress management Stress refers to a situation in which one feels pressure and cannot cope with it successfully, and results in varied physical, mental and emotional reactions. Stress management thus refers to techniques and therapies often with the aim of controlling a person’s levels of stress. In an organizational context the manager is charged with the responsibility for ensuring that each employee can work without pressure. Stress is common in very many workplaces, employees and the managers both experience stress. In workplaces, stress is often caused by lack of communication, career and job ambiguity, financial stress, personal stress, interruptions and strictness by the managers and poor working conditions. Stress management is important in a firm, in this case a firm that is struggling and needs to pull through. Work stress in this case is an important issue because it has financial impacts on the business, it is also important on legal obligations and organizational effectiveness. Practice of stress management in companies helps in the efficiency of the organization as the employees are able to know their roles thus doing tasks efficiently and thus making the organization effective, the employee’s working conditions are improved also,   as stress management helps to identify some of the problems that the employees suffer. Stress management boosts the morale of the workers as they are able to work with ease; it also ensures that equal opportunities in terms of promotion and training are given out fairly (Ivanko, 2013). In a situation that employees have been laid off, and some are remaining in the organization, those remaining are affected, and they develop stress. The type of situation can be achieved by applying ways of managing stress. One way would be to encourage the remaining employees to adopt a positive attitude and mindset towards their stress. Another way would be to emphasize on acceptance that some things cannot change; once something has happened we should accept and move on. Creation of time for recreation would also help to alleviate stress among employees; alterations of situations can also be an excellent remedy in doing away of stress. After layoffs the firm can rebuild by assessing and looking at the weaknesses and failures and try to address them, the organizational structure should also be changed, the employee’s working conditions and problems should also be addressed. A market research should be done to ensure that the requirements of the clients are identified, and more sensitization in terms of advertising should be done to get more clients and popularize the firm. Motivation Motivation in a firm often refers to an act of providing a reason to act in a particular manner. It can also refer to internal and external factors that stimulate and give desire to perform a task or job continually. Motivation is relevant to solving most problems in firms, it borrows a lot from   Ã‚  psychology, knowledge of work psychology is critical to the use of motivation. Motivation of workers is essential in building relationships with coworkers, improvement of production, time management among others things. The motivation of employees contributes to growth and development of the organization. In a situation whereby some workers have been laid off motivation can be used to enable the remaining workers to work harder and lift the body. Some of the ways of motivating employees include: increasing salaries of workers, creating   safe and friendly environment for the workers, recognizing and rewarding those employee’s that perform, developing good relations with workers, use of food as incentives, holidays to performing employee, introducing overtime in which the employees are paid for working for extra hours (Ivanko, 2013). This kind of measures can be taken in instances where there has been a laid off of workers as this helps the remaining workers to heal and ensure that the organization becomes more fruitful and able to cope with market dynamics. Diversity Diversity can take many forms; it includes differences in race, ethnic identity, gender, education, socio-economic levels and sexual orientation. The amount of diversity in organizations is often increasing; thus the need to manage diversity is essential. The number of aging workers is growing and there are more people from diverse backgrounds. In most organizations today, there are an increasing number of joint ventures, mergers and strategic alliances uniting people from different organizations and cultures. Handling diversity is an important obligation of leaders in contemporary times. A leader has to find the balance between promoting diversity and building a strong organizational culture. Managing diversity is important as it ensures creativity and innovation among the workers, it also helps in forming and maintaining better interpersonal relationship between workers, managing of diversity performance of the people for the value of all shareholders, it also helps in recruiting and retaining of employees (Bogda L. , 1998). Organizations have very many people of different backgrounds, in a case where the group has decided to lay off some workers; it’s of importance that the leader manages diversity for the remaining workers. Diversity can be accomplished by the following: by explaining the benefits of diversity to the organization, encouraging and other people who seek to promote tolerance of diversity, discouraging use of stereotypes to describe other members of the group, promoting respect for individual differences. Leaders can organize training programs that seek a better understanding of diversity problems and cultural differences and how to respond to them in the workstation. Conclusively, there is often a moment that an organization struggles and adverse measures are taken to laying off of employees. The body can bounce back by using motivation, stress management and managing diversity this would help in healing and development of a successful organization. References    Bogda, L. (1998). Diversity and Organizational Change. Retrieved December 12, 2014, from bogda.com: http://www.bogda.com/articles/DiversityandOrgChange.pdf Ivanko, S. (2013, September). Organizational Behaviour. Retrieved December 12, 2014, from uni-lj.si: http://www.fu.uni-lj.si/fileadmin/usr-files/Mednarodna_pisarna/ORGANIZATIONAL-BEHAVIOR-2013.pdf