Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Chapter 13an American Renaissance: Religion, Romanticism, and Reform

Chapter 13An American Renaissance: Religion, Romanticism, and Reform Rational religion 1. The concept of mission in the American character 2. The development of deism 1. Roots in rationalism and Calvinism 2. Nature of the beliefs 3. The development of Unitarianism 3. Nature of the beliefs 4. Role of William Ellery Channing 5. Creation of American Unitarian Association 4. The development of Universalism 6. Role of John Murray 7. Nature of the beliefs 8. Comparison with Unitarianism The Second Great Awakening 1. Origins of the revival movement 2. The frontier phase of revivalism 1. Development of the camp meeting 2. Frontier reception of the revivals 3. Emergence of the Presbyterians 4. Role of the Baptists 5. The Methodists' impact 6. Appeal to African Americans 7. Spread of revivals on the frontier 8. Women and revivalism 3. Revivals in western New York State 9. Role of Charles Grandison Finney 10. Nature of Oberlin College 11. The Rise of the Mormons 1. Role of Joseph Smith 2. Characteristics of the church 3. Persecution of Mormons 4. The move to Utah Romanticism in America 12. Nature of the Romantic revolt 13. Transcendentalism as a Romantic expression 5. Nature of Transcendentalism 6. Margaret Fuller 7. Ralph Waldo Emerson 8. Henry David Thoreau 9. The impact of Transcendentalism The flowering of American literature 14. Nathaniel Hawthorne 15. Emily Dickinson 16. Edgar Allan Poe 17. Herman Melville 18. Walt Whitman 19. The popular press 10. Impact of advances in printing technology 11. Proliferation of newspapers Education 20. Level of literacy 21. Early public schools 22. Rising demand for public schools in the 1830s 12. Basis of demand 13. Role of Horace Mann 14. Leadership of North Carolina in the South 15. Limited progress 23. Developments in higher education 16. Post-Revolutionary surge in college formation 17. Conflicts over curriculum 18. Slow growth of technical education 24. Education for women Movements for reform 25. Roots of reform 26. Temperance 19. Heavy consumption of alcohol in the United States 20. Arguments for temperance 21. Early efforts at reform 22. The American Temperance Union 27. Prison reform 23. Growth of public institutions to treat social ills 24. Prevention and rehabilitation versus punishment for crime 25. Auburn prison system 28. Reform in treatment of the insane 6. Early state institutions for the insane 27. Work of Dorothea Dix 29. Crusade for women's rights 28. Catharine Beecher and the â€Å"cult of domesticity† 29. Advantages of domestic role for women 30. Status of women in the antebellum period 31. Seneca Falls Conference (1848) 32. Hindrances to success 33. Women and the professions 30. Utopian communities 34. Proliferation of utopian communities 35. Nature of the Shaker communities 36. Development and contributions of the Oneida Community 37. Robert Owen and New Harmony 38. The importance of Brook Farm 39. The decline of utopia Chapter 14: Manifest Destiny I. The Tyler years 1. Harrison’s brief term 2. Tyler’s position on issues 3. Domestic affairs 1. Failure of Clay’s program 2. Tyler left without a party 4. Foreign affairs 3. Problems with Britain needing solution 1. Suppression of African slave trade 4. Compromises of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty 2. Canada-U. S. borders settled 3. Joint patrols of Africa II. The Westward frontier 1. The idea of â€Å"manifest destiny† 1. John L. O’Sullivan 2. The western Indians 2. Plains Indians 3. Pressures from white expansion 3. The Spanish West 4. American attitudes toward area . Spanish colonization not successful in Texas 4. The Mexican Revolution 6. Movements for independence 7. Opened area for American expansion 5. E. Fur trappers in the Rockies 6. Move to Oregon country 8. Joint occupation with Britain 9. Mass migration of Americans by 1843 7. Eyeing California 10. Beginnings of Spanish settlement 11. Franciscan missions 1. Ob jectives 2. Results 12. The rancheros 13. Ship trading with the area 14. Sutter’s colony 8. Movement to Santa Fe 9. Life on the overland trail 15. Statistics 16. Indians rarely attacked 17. Difficulties 18. Gender roles 19. Great Plains ecology 20. 6. The Donner party 10. Fremont’s mapping activities 11. Efforts to acquire California III. Annexing Texas 1. American settlements 1. Role of Stephen F. Austin 2. Mexican edict against immigration 2. Independence for Texas 3. Anglo demands 4. Santa Anna’s actions 5. Rebellion 3. War for Texas independence 6. Battle of the Alamo 7. Independence declared 8. Role of Sam Houston 9. Battle of San Jacinto 4. The Republic of Texas 10. President Sam Houston 11. Efforts for annexation 1. Jackson’s delayed recognition 2. Calhoun’s treaty rejected IV. The election of 1844 1. Desire to keep the Texas issue out of the campaign 2. Clay’s evasion on Texas 3. Democrats nominate a dark horse—James K. Polk 4. Polk’s victory V. Polk’s presidency 1. Polk’s background 2. Polk’s program 3. Annexation of Texas by Tyler 4. Oregon demands 1. British hesitancy about war 2. Compromise treaty VI. Mexican War 1. Negotiations with Mexico 2. Provocation of an attack 3. The request for war 4. Opposition to the war 1. In various parts of the country 2. In New England 5. E. Preparation for war 3. Troops compared 4. Comparisons of other factors 5. Selection of a commander 6. Taylor’s conquest of northern Mexico . Annexation of California 6. Fremont’s efforts 7. Bear Flag Republic 8. Stockton’s claim of governorship 9. Kearny’s move to California 8. Taylor’s battles 10. Victory at Monterrey 11. Polk’s assumptions and suspicions 12. Santa Anna’s return to power 13. Battle of Buena Vista 14. Taylor granted leave and returns home 9. Scott’s move to Mexico City 15. Amphibious attack on Veracruz 16. Troop reinforcements 17. Attack on Mexico City 10. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 18. Terms of the treaty 19. Ratification 11. The war’s legacy 20. Gains and losses 21. Innovations 22. Debate over slavery

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Plato: Knowledge Essay

We all continue to learn new things in life day in by day out; incessantly increasing our knowledge is essential to sustain man’s life path on this earth. Knowledge can be sought in different ways but to truly seek knowledge, one has to read, understand through experience and believe what the word of God says about faith. Acquiring knowledge through our five senses and faith, both give us insight on competing ways of getting at the truth. A person who reads, write and believes in the word of God will become rich with knowledge but the latter will not. Moreover, in order to achieve knowledge, one has to be taught it or teach him or herself (because humans are not born with the ability of knowing; they must acquire it) through observation and reasoning through faith. Different views exhibit on how knowledge is achieved. One may say through common sense and observation, while another may say through teachers and peers. According to the philosopher Plato in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, â€Å"Certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blindness. The power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being. † In making this comment, this Greek philosopher argues that, everyone has the capacity to learn because knowledge is present in the soul thus we all can acquire knowledge and wisdom by recollecting and putting together what in fact the soul already knows. Plato is right that humans have the aptitude to gain knowledge, but he seems on more dubious ground when he claims that knowledge is already present in one’s soul. I find this to be unconvincing because humans seek education to learn something which they didn’t already know. For example an adolescent may ponder upon why the hairs on his arms and legs grow very short while the opposite occurs on his or her head. But through an education in biology in his or her later years, he or she will come to find out that each hair follicle on one’s body part will grow different depending on where it is located on the body part. The young adolescent never had this knowledge about hair follicles till he was taught it. So therefore, knowledge doesn’t already exist in the soul. One has to gain it in order to have it but we all have the ability to achieve it if we put in effort. In regards to observation, reasoning through faith must also be looked into to fully attain the knowledge that is essential to lead the best life and attain happiness. Observations only gives us half of the knowledge we need to acquire, faith gives us the rest. In Scully’s view from the X-Files, â€Å"As much as I have my faith, Father, I am a scientist, trained to weigh evidence. But science only teaches us how†¦ not why. † In other words, Scully is saying that, knowledge without faith leads us only half way†¦ we have to come full circle in order to completely gain absolute knowledge. I agree that this statement is true because without faith, one’s knowledge is worthless. For example, before Copernicus, most scientists believed that the earth was the center of the universe, thus the sun revolved around the earth. But through faith and reasoning, Copernicus came to conclude that it was rather the earth that revolved around the sun, making the universe we live in heliocentric; and his jurisdiction is held to be true till this day. The two concepts go hand in hand; one cannot achieve absolute knowledge without faith and reasoning/observation. In order to achieve knowledge through faith, we must walk through the ways of our spiritual leader. In The Francis Trilogy of Thomas of Celano, Thomas of Celano writes, â€Å"Ah! Inclined and strengthened by the Holy Spirit the blessed servant of the Most High, seeing that the appointed time was at hand, followed that blessed impulse of his soul. Thus, as he trampled upon worldly things, he made his way to the greatest good. † In other words, Thomas of Celano is saying that, St. Francis detached himself from matters of the world by following Christ, who fortified him with the Holy Cross and the Holy Spirit enabling him to transform his worldly ways to resemble the will of God, thus St. Francis gained his faith through the knowledge of the word of God. In order for St. Francis to have faith, he had to have knowledge of God, which he acquired through his experience; asking God for enlightenment and through the visions he had that directed his will to God’s. Reason and faith leads to wisdom and knowledge, without it, the knowledge that one acquires is corrupt and useless. Others may disagree saying that one can still have knowledge without faith, but knowledge without faith leads you nowhere because you still haven’t really gained full understanding of the subject matter.

How Would You Evaluate an Organization’s Hrims?

In modernize era, more and more technology has applied in business and management. Human resource information management system (HRIMS) is one of the applications used for managing people in organizations. However, to have the objective perspective, there could be a efficiency and practical review in organization’s HRIMS. Therefore, this paper will have an overview about benefits and barriers of HRIMS, after that there will be the analysis the effect of HRIMS on organization’s performance and job quality, and the value it brings to company. At first, HIRMS is known as a informatics technology system in which the information is stored and analyzed for purpose of supplying the precise and opportune reports on the management in organizations (Raymond 2010). In addition, HRIS is another definition about technological application in human resource management that is more usually used. Raymond (2010) also quotes the poll of An Australian Human Resource Institute that a large number of firms used HIRMS for recruitment and performance appraisal. HIRMS has a lot of advantages and one of them is cost reductions (Marler 2009; Bondarouk, Ruel and Heijden 2009). The companies which apply electronic human resource management can improve the communication between employees and also enhance the team work spirit. Besides that this system can help the staff increases the abilities and knowledge through the details of individual indicators and applying the adequate training (Boundarouk and Ruel 2009). Last but not least, HRIMS can provide the efficiency to the organizations (Marler 2009; Raymond 2010). The managers and employees can catch the latest information timely to do work conveniently and quickly. On the other hand, HIRMS also has a lot of barriers. According to Bondarouk, Ruel and Heijden (2009), the privacy of statistics should be concerned. Individual communications may cause the conflict between manager and staff, for example, a blog. Next, the security of the system is also the big problem. The accuracy of data is very important so that is necessary to protect HRIMS. Finally, Strohmeier (2007) mentions that the work stress is one of the issue of HRIMS. All the analyzed figures and activities at the workplace is noticed by employer are the pressure of employees. Sometimes, HRIMS makes the distrust in organizations (Strohmeier 2007). Thus, both strengths and weaknesses make the manager to consider how to apply HRIMS in the company. Next, there is the evidence, which proves that human resource management has an important influence on the performance of the organization (Jimenez-Jimenez and Sanz-Valle 2008) and a modern system can help human resource division reaches good performance (Mishra and Akman 2010). The first impact of electronic human resource management is the support for top management. When HRIMS is used reasonably, it can provide the powerful management tools for human resource and improve efficiency and strategy (Haines III and Lafleur 2008). In addition, employers can analyze staff profile, salary fund and market trend and give suitable and timely dicisions (Reddick 2009). Besides that Reddick (2009) also emphasizes that informatics technology system increases the relationship of human resource with other departments. Because human resource division has the closely relation with others and HRIMS can help they communicate easily with less errors and support each other more effectively. Thus, performance of organization can used to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of HRIMS. Furthermore, job quality is one of factor to evaluate organization’s HRIMS. In fact, human resource management influences job quality including work environment and individual development (Mitlacher 2008). There are many researchers prove that the informatics technology application can enhance the acceptance and satisfaction of employees because of time saving and providing accuracy comments of their chief (Strohmeier 2007). In addition, employee can recognize their strengths and weaknesses and they would be directed to join development promotion training. As the result, right people in suitable position can help the quality of management (Altarawneh and Al-Shqairat 2010). Consequently, personnel is important part of company so job quality can used to assess HRIMS. Finally, the value, which HRIM brings to the company, should be assessed. Initially, type of the system must be depended on the size of corporation. Altarawneh and Al-Shqairat (2010) find that the advantages and disadvantages of HRIMS are different based on whether the company large or small. As the result, the differences between big and small company are cost and risk of the application (Altarawneh and Al-Shqairat 2010). For example, Bondarouk, Ruel and Heijden (2009) indicate that small organizations that have less five hundred employees prefer less cost and more flexible software. Two of the successful systems are SAP and Oracle that are used by large market of organizations (Lee, Olson and Lee 2009). Furthermore, managers can consider the advantages of HRIMS. With this system, they can organize all departments effectively, control the information closely and improve the work environment. For instant, paying salary exactly, which required precisely data of staff is a trouble in some organizations (Valkig and Stigdon 2008). The system can uses data immediately with fewer errors to calculate the wage accurately. Moreover, the executives can solve the barriers of HRIMS such as issuing company policy to help them to avoid legal problem (Raymond 2010) or enhancing the security measures. At last, managers should think about the friendliness of the system. They must consider the technology acceptance model which is useful and easy to use (Bondarouk, Ruel and Heijden 2009). Therefore, evaluating the value of the system can help the manager increase the benefit of HRIMS. Thus, in recent years, applying HRIMS in management is becoming more popular so the managers should have the overview of the effectiveness of this system on their organizations. At first, there should be a evaluation of the benefits and the barriers of the system. Next, the impact on the performance of company is also considered. How the system supports management and how it connects different divisions together. In addition, job quality is one of the most important factors. Employers should mention the effect of HRIMS on work environment and the personnel development of their staff. Lastly, the organizations should evaluate the value of the system. The accurately assessment would help the company to have the right strategy to develop.

Monday, July 29, 2019

HEALTHCARE ETHICS AND END OF LIFE DECISIONS Essay - 1

HEALTHCARE ETHICS AND END OF LIFE DECISIONS - Essay Example he wrongful birth is synonymous, in certain circles, to wrongful life and elaborates that the sheer birth of the defective child is entirely by choice of the medical personnel and not the parents. The parents sue for a claim to support the unexpectedly defective child. Parents are free to file this suit. However, they must give evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that they had no prior knowledge of their unborn child’s condition. The first case of wrongful birth became known in 1975 when the parents of a newborn with congenital defects sued the hospital for negligence. The child’s congenital disease arose from the mother during the first month of pregnancy. The mother contracted a disease, rubella that caused the newborn’s impairment. The courts allowed the suit and the parents got awarded damages. However, the damages allowed were only for the expenses pertinent to the care and treatment of the child’s defectiveness. No damages are awarded for noneconomic aspects such as the emotional pain and suffering. Since the mid-1970’s, the wrongful birth suits are, evidently, on an upward trend. However, for the suit to hold certain elements have to come out clearly and the information must receive corroboration from all the parties involved. First, there must be proof of the existence of a doctor-patient relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff. The doctor’s negligent failure to disclose to the prospective parents their child’s condition must surface. The plaintiff must give evidence of harm suffered and finally; the harm must be a result of the doctor’s negligence. The failure to follow standard care by the doctor amounts to negligence. Pozgar (2011) elucidates that a key ethical issue put forward by those against the wrongful birth is the increase in the rate of abortion in the event that the doctors disclosed the relevant information. Many suits also fail on this ground since parents can hardly use the averted abortion to state the

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Ethics & Criminal Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics & Criminal Justice - Essay Example Moreover, Schafer also contends that when confronted with an ethical predicament, most of us would try to involve balance in our decision making process which has either long term or short tem consequences. The author, furthermore, describes a 'fit' - a 'good fit' results to equilibrium while a 'bad fit' increases conflict. Thus, according to the author, leading an ethical life decreases our confrontation with ethical predicaments. As constraints in time limit clear thinking, individuals must make ethical choices giving sufficient considerations to the consequent 'dilemmas' which may arise from the previous choices we have made. For the author, ethical decisions 'consist of a series of choices', not a single decision, hence, as ethics cements and builds strength of personal character, it does not come free of pain (Schafer 2002). Similarly, defining ethical behavior does not come free of pain and constraints. Each of us has her own definition of ethics and morality molded mainly by our environment, our individual perception or our personal experiences and our cultures. Thus, the dilemma in ethics is also a dilemma in bestowing it 'justifiable' definitions. Our predecessors, as well as contemporary thinkers and philosophers from the age of antiquity, of various cultures and beliefs were not spared of this predicament. Consequently, one takes a subjective characterization of ethical standards based on our justice system, local regulations, religion, education, culture and our surroundings. What results is a more relative view of ethics versus the ideal ones proposed by Plato or Socrates or Heraclitus. The relative view versus the ideal and universal definition of ethics presents a dilemma since we do not know when to draw the line between realistic ethical applications from the ideal ethical propositions or wh en and how to apply both principles. Hence, I take the prevailing social and cultural view of what ethical behavior should be. Since society is a result of adaptation to the changes that occurred in our environment, and aims to provide protection of right and promotion of justice, social, legal and cultural standards - standards enshrined, for instance, in our Constitution, laws, social norms, acceptable behavior - of ethical principles, these standards should be the guiding principles of ethical behavior. However, the implications of these principles as defined by our system and aforementioned ethical bases are that, ethical standards and principles evolve over time. 'Evolve' for me, does not really mean 'improve' or 'progress' but rather 'change' for the purpose of adaptation or the preservation of life, liberty, respect for the rights of others and justice or fairness. These ideals, norms and even 'realities' of ethical standards are evident in almost every culture in every commu nity and units of society all across the globe. Thus, even though they are not perfect, ethical principles in my society are 'justifiable' definitions as, apparently, the same ideals exist in other societies, and therefore I take that what is right and 'just' in the society I live in, should be applied using the full force of the law, even if the application of such principles cause much grief. As aforementioned, such principles and ideals of ethics should evolve and

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Gender and contemporary art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gender and contemporary art - Essay Example The essay "Gender and contemporary art" discovers the gender in the context of contemporary art. If one pays attention to the historical development of art, it is possible to see that gender pays significant role in paintings, sculpture and other kinds of art. For example, in medieval art male and female nude figures had special sense, and our perception of these masterpieces occurs through the gender realization. Male nude figures were associated with heroics, family fathers and often - with real historical characters: â€Å"The idea of the heroic male nude continued well into the 19th century; here Napoleon, who certainly wore a fabulous uniform on the field of battle, is sculpted like a nude Greek god. Perish the thought that his nudity has any sexual resonance†. ). Nude female figures were associated differently in different times and epochs: they were symbols of sexual desire, fertility, motherhood, family and so on . So, gender plays significant role in art of all histor ical periods, and our time is not exception from this point of view. What is the role and context of gender in contemporary art? This paper will explain the answer in the next parts. . There is an idea and opinion that the role of gender in contemporary art is important and significant, and people often behold modern art masterpieces with gender idea realization. This idea is interesting and controversial. It is increasingly important in this age of numerous varieties of contemporary art forms and numerous approaches.... Many people believe that there are no gender differences in contemporary art, and that the gender idea in art is more inherent for ancient and medieval art, but these people overlook the fact that in many modern art masterpieces this idea is rather appreciable, and we as humans cannot ignore the gender idea in such significant kind of our activity as art. Furthermore, there are some art branches today which pay appropriate attention to the gender differences or in contrary the gender similarities, and many artists underline these ideas in their works of art. In this essay, I will argue that the role of gender in contemporary art is important and significant. Gender context of contemporary art, as well as gender differences in contemporary art of some regions will be also discussed. 3. Today the gender context of contemporary art is under influence of feminist approach to art. Modernism in contemporary art assumes that an artist uses freedom in his or her artistic experiments, but female artists today are not inclined to underline their female identity in visual art: "Even though modernism seemed to offer artists more freedom and autonomy, for women artists this meant the denial of their gender identity whereas the whole history of modernist art can be interpreted as the glorification of male creativity and sexuality" (Kivimaa K., 2000). Many artists today assert that there is "male art" and "female art". In other hand, there is a tendency of unisex in contemporary art. In this sort of art gender attributes are mixed, and women and men are demonstrated in unusual roles: "The principle of mimesis could be an effective tool for undermining various kinds of stereotypes, and it is

Friday, July 26, 2019

Health & Safety in the Nursing Home Industry Assignment

Health & Safety in the Nursing Home Industry - Assignment Example However, concentrating on work activities and categories with high incidences of nonfatal injuries, then healthcare is by far the most injury prone industry where work-related injuries occur. Further, the work-related injuries are also highest among the CNAs working at homes, a category of health professionals that are among the lowest paid professionals (Melnyk&Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Startling facts indeed, which various reports and survey evidence that incidences of non-fatal injuries are highest in the nursing assistants’ category working in the home care services. Thus, the course of this dissertation explores various elements associated with the subject of work-related injuries among the CNAs while reiterating the importance of the unit of nursing home care within the health provision services. The established recent findings from publicized health reports indicate that at least 60% of the certified nursing assistants working in the home nursing care incur the occupational injuries (Rice, 2013). These injuries are vast, ranging from back injuries to cuts as well as, human bites, lack eyes among many other injuries. Further, the cause of these studies reflects nursing assistants were working in the home care capacity often experience higher rates of violence from the very people they seek to help. For instance, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reflects that at least 12 percent of the CNAs sustain human bite wound or worse injuries, particularly for nurses assisting people with dementia among other critical health conditions (Rice, 2013). Certification of the care programs recognizes the significant impact that CNAs facilitate in caring for the patients.  

Thursday, July 25, 2019

BUS law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

BUS law - Essay Example er who is in a vehicle that is legally stopped for traffic violation, as long as the officer has reason to believe that the passenger is armed and dangerous (Richardson 525). This is the standard that is applied to an officer’s pat down passenger during a traffic stop. The stop starts the moment a vehicle is pulled over by police officers for the purpose of investigation following a traffic violation. During the stop the police officers present may lawfully seize the occupants of the vehicle for the entire duration of the stop (526). There is no search warrant required in conducting a pat down during a traffic stop. The search and pat down can proceed solely on the basis of probable cause provided the police officer reasonably suspects that the passenger may be armed and dangerous (525). If the suspicion is short of probable cause, it would not be sufficient to warrant a search on the driver or passenger because that would be infringing on their personal rights and freedoms which are protected by the constitution (536). Richardson, Mark R. The Vulnerable Passenger: An Analysis of the Constitutionality of Terry Frisking Vehicle Passengers Not Suspected of Criminal Activity in Arizona v. Johnson, 129 S. Ct. 781 (2009), 89 Neb. L. Rev. (2010) Available at:

Critical Analisis about Kate Chopin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Analisis about Kate Chopin - Essay Example The unique feature of Chopin’s work was her attitude of boldness and novelty in her writing. After her marriage, Chopin adopted a Creole nature to her work. She later entered a family life and gave birth to six children during her course of married life. Later, due to her husband’s death and debt issues she became little disturbed and depressed. Chopin in coming years had to look after the business and estate of her husband which inflicted her with depression. Later for living needs, Kate started her profession of writing. Biography of Kate Chopin Kate Chopin was born as daughter of Eliza and Thomas O’Flahertry in St.Louis in 1850. Kate Chopin had two sisters and two brothers, and all of them did not live longer than their adulthood. She was the only child who completed her 25 years of age among the children. She was sent to The Sacred Academy, a Catholic boarding school in 1855 when she was five and half years of age. Two months after her admission in school her father was killed in a train accident. Later she lived with her mother, grandmother and great grandmother. However, all these women were of single status as they were widows. It was her great grandmother who introduced Kate into the field of art where she was trained to speak French and play music. Since Kate lived surrounded by single and bold women she herself has a versatile personality. Later she returns to the Sacred Academy School and attained first position in her studies. She also won medals and was invited into be the member of the elite Children of Mary Society .During this period she developed a habit of dairy writing, and this could be taken as a first step in writing habit. Kate married at the age of twenty to Oscar Chopin and bore six children from the marriage. In 1882, Oscar died of a swamp fever and later Kate had to take over her husband’s business. It was to support her children and family that she started to write. Articles and response The first article which I have chosen is â€Å"Kate Chopin: In Search of Freedom,† written by Floramaria Deter. Here the author is writing about the sense of freedom desired by Kate Chopin. for the women in the 19th century. According to the author, Kate was different from other feminist writer because she understood the plight of women of her century and wanted freedom for women on all platforms such as education, politics and professional .The second article is â€Å"This American Story: Kate Chopin, the First Feminist† by Joseph F.Cotto. Cotto describes that Kate Chopin was a women far ahead of times. She presented the boldness, intelligence and unique personality unlike other feminist writers as she was involved in all field of human activity. She was a responsible housewife, mother to six children, a businesswoman and a creative writer. The author gives the message here that at a young age she married, looked after a business, and became a writer which was outstanding for women of that period. The third article is a brief one named â€Å"Kate Chopin† and gives an insight into the life of Kate Chopin .This article is a short one, but looks at Kate Chopin’s life from a different dimension. The critical point of Kate’s personality is depicted in this article which suggests that she was a fallen woman because she demanded for a higher position for

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Sales Management project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sales Management project - Essay Example For sales managers it is a very difficult task to select the people who will turn out to be great at what they do. Over the years a lot of scholarly work and research has been conducted about the recruitment processes that will ensure person-job fit at the managerial levels but very little attention has been paid on emphasizing and devising a proper strategy that ensures that the right people are hired on a sales force. According to Cravens et al (1997) one of the main marketing expenditures in the business-to-business marketplace is the field sales force and even then, little is done to make absolutely sure that the right people are hired on sales forces. According to Rich and Smith (2000) â€Å"The greater the skill used in evaluating potential salespeople, the more effective will be the hiring process; effectiveness being measured by lower turnover and greater productivity over an extended period of time†. Most organizations pay little or no attention on a standardized recruitment procedure that ensures that the right sales people are selected for the jobs even though most researches show that higher sales are generated by salespeople who are motivated and well-suited for their job. For organizations whose work centers around retailing of products and services, their sales force plays the most important of tasks of determining its success. Fort a better, more well-matched person to be inducted into a company’s sales force, it has been observed that a better recruitment process is necessary. According to Pitt and Ramasheshan (1995),â€Å"In the sales force recruitment process in most organizations, the organization’s requirements are typically positioned as the primary consideration†. Which generally means that more emphasize is laid on generalizing the demands of the organization so as to attract a larger number of people to apply for the jobs.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Human resource management and performance in health care organisation- Essay

Human resource management and performance in health care organisation- the NHS - Essay Example There is a range of approaches to managing the healthcare workforce for high(er) performance. In the UK, two streams of activity are evident: the first focuses on making the NHS a ‘good employer’ thereby recruiting and retaining ‘good staff’, which could be called human resource (HR) management; the second approach concerns rethinking how to provide ‘high quality services’ as ‘efficiently’ as possible, which could be called ‘different ways of working’. Such approaches are often referred to as ‘modernisation’ (see Bach 2002). However, Seifert and Sibley’s argument that ‘modernisation’ is not a neutral step forward but a highly coloured version of progress rooted in market-style efficiency’ (2005: 226) indicates the contentious nature of such terminology. ‘Different ways of working’ is an attempt to avoid value judgements on the process and outcome of the different ways of working for employees, employers and service users. Given that the UK NHS is the third largest employer in the world, employing 1.3 million staff in 2004, it provides a useful case study to illustrate the processes, outcomes and questions raised by both streams of work. The paper begins by outlining characteristics of the healthcare workforce in the UK and the challenges raised for managers. Against this background, the paper reviews the rationales put forward for HR management and different ways of working, providing recent UK examples of both types of initiatives. We use the Changing Workforce Programme as an example to provide an illustration of some issues which should be of particular concern to managers endeavouring to get the best from their healthcare workforce. Healthcare organisations are characteristically made up of a large proportion (around 50%) of professionally qualified staff providing frontline services to recipients of healthcare. This type of organisational arrangement has been called a ‘professional

Monday, July 22, 2019

Principles Of Support Essay Example for Free

Principles Of Support Essay Introduction The Health and Social care has many sections or Organisations that provide Healthcare services to people with special needs. Health and social care services use the Philosophy of Careto support vulnerable people by implementing their rights according to the right legislation and codes of practice. The legislation also provides way to protect the service users for harm and abuse. A person-centred approach used by the services ensure individual needs of service users. Although the philosophy of care is used to improve and care for service users yet there is still ethical dilemmas and conflicts that we face. As a care workers in ABC care home we have to do all the required training to always know and do what is expected of us when it comes to protecting service users and use the theories of human development that can help me manage with the considering of social processes to make recommendations for health and social care services to vulnerable people with others professionals. Principles are simply rules or guideline. In this case we are looking at guideline of support. Principles of support are useful to health and social care settings success. We can apply principles of support to ensure that individuals are cared for by promoting Anti-discriminatory practice. This is by lawful treating every individual with respect, by not treating them less favourable or disadvantaged. (Anti-Discrimination Act 1998. Tasmania). This can achieved by promoting and supporting individuals’ rights. People who need health care particularly long –term care they sometime feel like their dignity and independence is being taken away from them. Principles of support are applied to ensure that individuals are cared for in Health and social care settings by supporting individuals’ beliefs and identities. For example if they are Christians most of them some would be expected to have a need to church. To ensure that individuals are cared in health and social care is by applying the principles of support. Every Individuals confidentiality should be taken ser ious, this is very important in health and social care settings because it relates to personal information about patients. The purpose of a confidential care service is to protect the Patients information and restrict who can access it. The Data protection Act (1998) enforces service users information to be protected. (www.tutorcare.co.uk) Practising  promoting effective communication is another way of applying principles of support to individualism health and social care settings. Communication is a two-way process of interaction between two or more people, this involves sender, massage, medium, understanding and then feedback. (Hodder Education) Support and allow individuals to use technology to support themselves. For example, some services users can learn how to play computer games or other forms of computer related tasks and from there then they can always support themselves playing. (Skills for care) By supporting and allowing risk management and risk taking to increase individuals independence and choice. This is achieved by guiding and monitoring services users to get involved in some physical activities. For example playing football, running and others. (Skills for care) 1.2 OUTLINE THE PROCEDURE FOR PROCTECTING CLIENTS, PATIENTS AND COLLEAGUES FROM HARM. Protection in Health and social settings is done mainly in two ways. The first one is to protecting service users from harm and secondly is to safeguard vulnerable people from abuse. So protection in Health and social care is to safeguard from harm or abuse. Harm is damage or injury caused by people or event. Abuse is a violation of individuals human and civil rights. Safeguard from abuse is the multi-displinary work done by care services or other Organisations to minimise and manage risk to Adults that could be exposed to abuse. ABC care home Staff should to know who is behind enforcing the philosophy of care and how it’s applies to protect the entire ABC care home staff and the care home. To Protect ABC care home staff and anyone else that might use the services ABC Carers have to get induction and training when they start work. This is to ensure that ABC Carers have enough knowledge about ABC workplace. This is finding out information and facts for me to settle in ABC care home. This includes codes of practice, rules and regulations that run the care home hence protecting service users and one else that can come to the premises. Training can help Carers to protect service users at ABC care home form harm by learning how to manual handle. This is using my bodily force to lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or caring service users within the care home. The regulation that covers manual handling is. (The Manual Handle Operations Regulations 1992. amended 2000). This will enable ABC Carers to use the right equipment for the task and use  good handling technique to move the service users and this will reduce risk harming Service user. (www hse.gov.uk). According to (care and the registered managers award book) training has to be effective. For this to happen the effective training cycle was created and it has to be fully followed for effective training to be achieved. The cycle involve Identifying training needs, establish training objectives, developing training activity, deliver training activity, check training objectives made and measure improvements. For training to work effectively with in the ABC care home, Trainers have to ensure that they are using every part of the cycle step by step. This will not only benefit ABC care home but it will help focussing on the right service user for the right reason hence this leading to the desired outcome of training. (Health care and the registered managers Award). To be able to protect vulnerable people in ABC care home Carers have to make sure that their personal hygiene is up the standards of Health and social care settings. Hygiene can be achieved in appearance, dressing, behaviour and personal cleanliness. Due the fact that caring for vulnerable people in ABC care home involves serving food. Every staff that deals with serving food has to be clean so that they do not contaminate service users food and this can reduce service users from being food poisoned. More to that, ABC care home carer need to know about food hygiene. Food hygiene involves washing hands when starting work, after the use of the toilet, between handling cooked and raw food, after sneezing and so on. (http:/wwww.midsussex.gov.uk/8170.htm). This can minimise the chances of contaminating food that Carers could be handling. Food hygiene rules of food refrigeration have to be followed, food should not be overloaded or packed tightly, hot food should never be placed in the refrigerators, clean the refrigerators regularly, separate cooked food from raw, check food temperature control. To protect everyone at ABC care home from harm Carers should follow the Health and safety at work Act (HASWA) 1974 Regulations. This act was created to ensure that health and safety at workplace was less risky of harm and injury. Secondly, ABC Carer should apply the reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the health and safety Executive or local Authority. (RIDDOR) 1995. Furthermore, Management of Health and Safety at work Regulations (MHSWR) 1999. The regulation needs employers and managers to do risk assessment in work place. The application  of this Regulation can help reduce hazards. (Health and social care Diploma) The Disability Discriminating Act (DDA) 1995. It puts responsibility on employers to make sure that people with disability can get safe access and exit from the workplace. (Health and social care Diploma) Another Regulation that can really be useful in a care home is (COSHH) 2002. This means the control of substances Hazardous to Health. It provides a framework to reduce the risk to Health and safety in association with hazardous substances. (Health and social care Diploma). ABC carer should know a few techniques about first Aid. First Aid is the first help given to sick or injured person until full medical treatment is available. This will enable Carers to help service users in case of emergency. For example if a service user is unconscious and breathing they should be placed in the recovery position and so on. Carers in ABC Care home should use the Whistle Blowing Policy; (www.gov.uk/whistleblowing) If a member of staff in ABC care home is miss treating service users or other Carers its Carers’ job to report the crime to the manager or local council depending how big the problem is. Appling the Medicines Act 1968 would minimise the risk to service users in ABC care home by giving medicine to the right service user, right time, right medication, right dosage and route. (legislation.gov.uk). 1.3 ANALYSE THE BENEFIT OF FOLLOWING A PERSON CENTRED APPROACH WITH THE USERS OF ABC CARE HOME. The person centred approach was developed by Carl Rogers (1902-1987) a Psychologist. This was mainly in relation to the therapist and the client, he named it the client centred approach then later he renamed this theory a person centred approach because he wanted to minimise the individuals’ Autonomy. He developed a person centred approach as a way of counselling and psychotherapy. This approach is applied essentially as a Non Directive. Following a person centred approach in ABC care home would help in developing a service user focused service by ensuring that their needs are fulfilled. For example, Health care workers have to provide assistance to the disabled people by doing things for them that they can’t do themselves. For example, some disabled people can’t bath themselves in this case caretakers have to bath them. Using a person centred approach in ABC care home could help to find out Areas to be improved within the care home. This is by care staff in ABC home ensuring  that every individuals’ need is given the right solution. For example, the right wheel chair for different types of disability. Applying a person centred approach in the ABC home can help users to plan ahead for their lives. Care workers can support users achieve their long term goals. This is making sure that service users are well fed and given medication if they are sick to maintain a good health. Using a person centred approach in ABC care can enable users to have choice and control of their own lifestyles. (metro.gov.uk). For example, service users can decide what type of clothes they want to wear. 1.4 Explain ethical dilemmas and conflict that may arise while providing care, support and protection to users of health and social care services. The Ethical dilemma is ‘a situation in which a different choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable’. (Oxford dictionary 2012). The ethical dilemma that has been faced by ABC workers when caring for Mrs. M is that she has acute pains and painkillers prescribed by the doctors are not working due the fact that she likes drinking whisky that she has failed to cut down and this is affecting the painkillers from working. The conflict in Mrs. M’s situation is that painkillers are needed to be taken to reduce the pain she is having but the whisky Mrs. M likes taking is stopping the painkillers from working. 2.1 Explain the implementation of polices, Legislation, regulations and codes of practice that are relevant to own work in ABC care home. A Cording to the Oxford dictionary (2010) a policy is ‘a course of actions, as of a government, political, or business, intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters’. Every Child Matters is one of the policies used in ABC care home for children welfare. (education.gov.uk). every child matters policy’s aim is to ensure that children are healthy. ABC care workers should make sure that children have good physical and mental health by giving them food, encouraging children to have enough exercises and giving them medication when they are sick. In ABC home Children are safe under the Every Child Matters policy. (education.gov.uk). The policy’s aim is to protect children from harm and neglect. Caretakers in ABC home should care for the children by giving the love and ensuring that their needs are  fulfilled. For example, washing their clothes. etc. Care staff in ABC should follow the Healthy and Safety at work act 1974 to minimise harm to children. For example, following (RIDDOR 1995) ABC care takers should report injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences the Healthy and Safety Executives to so that cases can be followed and investigated to prevent future injuries, diseases and so on. Children should make a positive contribution by engaging in community activities and being part of Society. (education.gov.uk). ABC Care staff should ensure that children are not anti-social and not doing any Crimes. The ABC home staff should encourage children to go school so that they don’t end up is gangs. More to that, Quality protects is another policy that was created by the Department of Health in 1998. (www.rip.org.uk) Quality protects’ aim is to support Local Authorities in transforming the way they manage and deliver Children’s Social services. One of the Quality Protects’ aims in ABC care home is to make sure that Children get a bond to ABC carers enabling safe and effective care for the period of Childhood. For example, there should be a father and son relationship between a Male carer and a boy service user. Secondly, ABC carers must protect Children from emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect. ABC Carers should not verbally abuse Children or beat then and ABC carers should do (CRB) checks before they can be employed by ABC care home so that children can be in good hands. Etc. Legislation. The rehabilitation of offenders Act 1974. (legislation.gov.uk). The Act would help service users in ABC care home who have committed crimes to be rehabilitated by enabling criminal convictions with some exceptions to be spent or ignored after a rehabilitation period. For example, crimes committed by mentally sick service users could be dealt with differently. Human Rights Act 1998. (Elizabeth et al. 2010). The Act protects rights given under the European convention on human rights. This Act points out that everyone has a right to live. In the ABC care home under the Human rights Act 1998 (equality humanrights.com) service users should be given a chance to live their lives the way they want and their needs should be fulfilled. Under this Act the right to live means giving service users food, medication and shelter. etc. The Human right Act 1998 protects ABC service users from slavery and forced labour. No service users should be treated  like a slave, ABC carers should not force use rs to do unpaid work around the ABC care home. ABC carers should not discriminate against service users under Human rights Act 1998. Carers should treat every service user the same regardless of where they are coming from. Carers should tolerate and respect Users cultures and religions. No service users shall be punished without law. (Equality humanright.com) ABC care workers should not beat or give any other punishments to service users without court proceedings. Codes of practice (Skills for care). According to skills for care website Codes of practise is â€Å"a list of statements that describes the standards of professional conduct and practice required of social care workers as they go about their daily work†. The code of practice help to protect service users in ABC care home (Skills for care) by protecting their rights and promoting the interest of service users and Carers. ABC carers can do this by treating everyone as an individual, respecting their cultural beliefs and religions, supporting and maintaining dignity and privacy of users. 2.2 Explain how Local policies and procedures can be developed in accordance with national and policy requirements. Local policies are principles of action developed by individual care homes to help safeguard service users from abuse. These principles are developed according to the service users the care home is caring for. For example some children’s care home principles differ from the elderly ones. Policies and procedures when developed they give employers and employees guidelines for fair and legal treatment to every service user in an organisation or care home. Policies create rules of how to run care homes and policies give ways how policies could be implemented within the care home. (www.ehow.co.uk). National policies are principles of action proposed by the government to help safeguard service users in statutory, private and voluntary organisations all around the country. ABC care home would implement the protecting patients from avoidable harm policy. (www.gov.uk/government) by using the five domains obtained from the three part definition of Quality First which states that; Quality care consist of: effectiveness, patient experience and safety. The five domains from the definition are: Preventing people from dying prematurely, ABC carers can prevent people dying prematurely by doing risk assessment, this can help find hazards within the ABC care home that could be life threatening. For example faulty electric switches, sockets and cables could be found by risk  assessing and fixed to ensure that the ABC care home is safe for service users. The second domain is enhancing quality of life for people with long term conditions (www.gov.uk/government). In ABC care home employers can help improve quality of lives of service users with long term conditions by giving them healthy food and encourage them to do exercises so that they can stay fit. Thirdly, help people to recover from episodes of ill health (www.gov.uk/government). With the ABC carers can help service users to recover from ill health by giving patients their medicine on time and by ensuring that doses are finished in the advised time. etc. Treating service users with respect, dignity and compassion policy. (www.gov.uk/government). ABC carers should treat service user with respect, this is by knocking on service users doors to get permission from them before cares can enter. ABC carers should treat service users with dignity and compassion. ABC carers should ensure that service users are not abused and should enable service users to maintain the highest level of independence, choice and control. For example, ABC carers should ask services users what type of food they want to eat by offering users food options. â€Å"Improving care for people with dementia policy†. This policy is implemented in ABC care home by increasing diagnosis rate for people with dementia because there is a low diagnosis for people with dementia in England as whole. For example invest more money in ABC care home to improve the project by buying better toolkit to ensure that ABC employers and employees provide a better service. 2.3 The Care Standard Act 2000 was put in place by the government on 20th July 2000 and came into effect April 2002. The Act was made to help reforming the regulatory system for care services in England and wales. These services include: residential car e homes, children homes, nursing homes, domiciliary care agencies, fostering and so on. The Care Standards Act 2000 aims were to extend the regulation of social Care from two white papers published by the Government in 1998 and 1999 entitled â€Å"Modernising Social Services and Building for the future†. (www.scie.org.uk) The Act established a new independent regulatory body for Social Care, private and voluntary health care services in England known as the National Care Standards Commission (www.scie.org.uk). This was to ensure that improvements in care through the Act’s triple functions of inspections, regulation and reviewing all Social Services. â€Å"The Act established the General Social Care Council† (GSCC). (www.scie.org.uk)To  regulate the quality and standards of Staff working in Social Care but was replace by the Health Professions Council (HPC) from August 2012. Another Act that helped in Social Care settings is the Safeguarding Vulnerable Group Act 2006. The Act is an important part of a bigger programme of work. It spreads across Gov ernment departments and it is created to solve the failures found by the 2004 Bichard inquiry from the Soham murders. Recommendation 19 of the Bichard inquiry report states that; ‘new arrangements should be introduced requiring those who wish to work with children, or vulnerable Adults to be registered. The register would confirm that there is no reason why an individual should not work with these clients’. (Safeguarding Vulnerable group Act 2006 fact sheet). The Act formed a body called the Independent Barring Board (â€Å"IBB†). The IBB establishes and maintains children’s and Adults’ barred list. The Act points out offences and writes down penalties for not complying with the Act. For example if a door is meant to be kept locked and the Manager opens it he could get fined 5000 pounds or six months imprisonment if Inspectors find out. The No Secrets policy document has guidelines on developing and implementing multi-Agency policies and procedures to protect vulnerable adults at risk of abuse. One of the No secrets principles is to recognise people who are unable to take their own decisions or protect themselves, their belongings or bodily integrity this helps to adults at risk of being abused. No Secrets’ â€Å"getting the message across† states that when it comes to employment people convicted of big offences do not have the protection of the Rehabilitation of offenders Act 1974 this could help stop adults being abused. The policy defines who is at risk, what way and what action to be taken when abuse happens to vulnerable people. The policy defines abuse as â€Å"a violation of human rights by any other person or persons†. REFERENCES https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/194272/No_secrets__guidance_on_developing_and_implementing_multi-agency_policies_and_procedures_to_protect_vulnerable_adults_from_abuse.pdf http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/pdfs/ukpga_20060047_en.pdf http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/guides/guide03/law/standards.asp https://www.gov.uk/government/policies?departments%5B%5D=department-of-health

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Expertise Has Been Defined As The Outstanding Performance Nursing Essay

Expertise Has Been Defined As The Outstanding Performance Nursing Essay Expertise has been defined as the outstanding performance and appropriate behaviour shown during an uncertain situation. However, Erricson Smith argued that expertise requires series of outstanding achievements under different circumstances. Additionally, Ericsson (1999) defined expertise as ability to take the right decision for a particular situation and performing it at the right time. Jensen et al. (1999: 23) had a totally different perception, that experts use specific knowledge to solve problems and the knowledge is learned by means of practice and experience. Therefore, a requisite for expertise is experience Benner (2001: 3). However, Higgs and Jones (2008: 123) said merely gathering of years of experience does not mean they will become experts. Experience is necessary for the attainment of expertise, but is not sufficient: some therapists do not attain expertise despite many years of experience. Therefore, it is not simply years of experience that is important; rather, to le arn and grow, is considered to be vitally necessary for individuals (Jensen et al.1999). King at al (2008:110) stated extensive, focussed, and challenging experience is considered necessary, but very little is known about how much of, what type of experience is required for the development of expertise. Nojima et al (2003: 4) notes that expertise and experience are interlinked. However, in physiotherapy practice, it does not necessarily follow that with increased years of experience, the quality and quantity of care always improves. Furthermore, Anon (1961) defined expertise as the skill or knowledge of a person who is highly experienced or has superior performance in a specific subject related to their study. However, Crosby et al (1990: 374) stated an expert is one who is trained in a specialty area, either by education, experience, or both. Furthermore, Higgs and Jones (2008: 123) stated expertise is continuous process of development rather than a static state resulting from different aspects like knowledge and problem-solving skills. The process of developing expertise is progressive, but not straight and continuous (Nojima 2003: 4). Benner (1984) puts forth, using the Dreyfus model that in acquisition of development and skill, a student passes through five levels of proficiency: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert. These stages from novice to expert highlight knowledge and decision making as essential requirements to expertise. In addition, Higgs and Jones (2008: 124) said expertise depended on detailed knowledge in a specific area, enabling them to distinguish the most critical and relevant information and to engage in effective action. Thus, expertise is a multi dimensional concept, these factors and characteristics serve the basis for understanding expertise (Jensen et al. 1999:23). There is an unbelievable rate of change in health care system, and significant advances in physiotherapy. Therefore, it is very important to understand how physiotherapists achieve expertise which will help in effective and efficient management of patients (Jensen et al. 1999:12). Thus, it can be seen that various factors contribute in developing expertise; however, understanding developing expertise helps one to become an expert from a novice. One such factor that contributes in developing expertise and will be addressed in this essay is knowledge, with the main focus on practical knowledge. KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTS Knowledge is defined as an understanding of the facts (propositional knowledge), values (personal knowledge), and procedures ( knowledge derived from theory and research (Higgs and Jones 2011: 154) e.g. there are five lumbar vertebrae in a human vertebral column. Non propositional knowledge or knowing how is created through practice and experience (Higgs and Jones 2011: 154) e.g. mobilization of joints. Non-propositional knowledge encloses tacit knowledge, practical knowledge and personal knowledge (self-knowledge) (Higgs and Titchen 1995: 526) e.g. of tacit knowledge is when a patient is made to stand from sitting, automatically the hand of the therapist supports the shoulder of the patient. Jensen et al (2000: 28) stated reality and knowledge are socially constructed. That is, reality exists because we give meaning to it. Thus, the individuals perceptions of reality, truth and knowledge have subjective dimensions or interpretations, as well as objective dimensions (reflecting the world out there). Knowledge is considered as a dynamic phenomenon undergoing constant changes and testing (Higgs and Titchen pg 521). For e.g. an expert physiotherapist has more knowledge than the novice which increases with experience. (Novice is a person who is new to the field or work where he/she is placed).An expert physiotherapist learns from experience, what typical events to expect in a given situation and how to respond to it (Benner 2001: 28). However, Higgs and Titchen (pg 521) stated knowledge is the product of a dynamic and indeed difficult process of knowing, or striving to understand. In such striving, the individuals depth and certainty of knowledge grows. For e.g.: An expert paediatric physical therapist collects multiple and selective cues through observation, handling of the child and conversation with the mother. The expert begins to see a pattern of motor delay that appears to be mild and knows the child would benefit from being encouraged to make specific movements whereas the no vice physiotherapist applies an evaluation framework, testing reflexes that he can remember. He tests child in all position and does not observe any abnormal responses to the tests he applies. Therefore, he concluded that the child has no problem (Jensen at al 1999: 21) Furthermore, knowledge is essential for reasoning and decision making, which lie at the centre of physiotherapy practice (Higgs and Titchen pg 521) for eg: an expert physiotherapist has to have knowledge about rheumatoid arthritis to choose the correct intervention for treating it. Jensen et al (2000: 28) argued that differences between experts and novices lay primarily in experts recall of meaningful patterns, that is, in the structure of the knowledge rather than in a problem-solving strategy applied to the problem. In addition, they postulated that problem-solving expertise was case specific and highly dependent on the clinicians mastery of a particular content domain. Developing and changing forms of knowledge are critical aspects of student learning, as they help students move from memorization of facts or information to understand key concepts and structure of knowledge. For example, if a novice can grasp the critical concept of testing muscles in gravity and antigravity positions and knows muscle structure and function, memorizing specific tests is unnecessary. Instead the novice can rely on knowledge structures. (Jensen et al 1999 pg 22).However, Higgs and Titchen( pg 521) concludes that it is possible to deal with knowledge and knowledge claims, using a flexible framework which consists of the four key elements apparently common to all knowledge-oriented activities, i.e. social interaction, personal commitment, development of the mind, and value implication of knowledge. Knowledge from one category can be transferred to other. For example: Practical knowledge can be transformed into formal, publically assessable propositional knowledge through theorization or rigorous critique. Propositional knowledge on the other hand also arises through basic or applied research. It can then be elaborated and arranged through practice to become part of the experience of individual (Higgs and Jones 2008 : 154). Practical knowledge is associated with the interpretive paradigm and is embedded in the world of meanings and of human interactions (pg525 Higgs and Titchen). However, in medicine and the health care professions, propositional knowledge is more valued than practical knowledge (Higgs and Titchen: 525).However, as discussed practical knowledge is considered important for expertise (Higgs Jones 2001: 154). Therefore, my focus will be on practical knowledge. PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE Smith et al (2003: 321) stated that it is both clinical and theoretical knowledge base, which enables physiotherapy experts to distinguish the most critical and relevant information and to engage in effective action e.g. in stroke rehabilitation, the expert knows how and when to make patients sit out of the bed whereas the novice will not make the patient sit thinking it is just two days of post stroke. However, King et al (2007: 224) argued experts can differentiate and selectively use the most important and relevant information because they possess structured and organized practical knowledge which provides a conceptual foundation. The practical knowledge of novice is stored haphazardly for e.g. a novice struggles to perform all the cranial nerve tests by memorizing the order of the tests, how is it performed and number of cranial nerves whereas an expert does it very easily (Jensen et al 1999: 32). Higgs and Jones (2011: 154) agreed that practical knowledge has supremacy over prop ositional knowledge by disagreeing to the medical model above, which follows rather than drives clinical knowledge. Furthermore, (Higgs and Titchen 522) argues that this compulsion of knowledge in its dependence upon propositional truth, limits acceptance and appreciation of non-propositional forms of knowledge. Although theoretical or propositional knowledge is useful in predicting the effectiveness of number of therapeutic interventions which might be helpful to the patient whereas practical knowledge helps the expert practitioner to use this theoretical knowledge in thze best interests of the particular patient or family member. The knowledge and awareness that arise through reflection are considered to be essential ingredients for development of clinical expertise (King 2008: 190).The experts reflect and learn from their experience whereas novice are rigid. Experience is the enhancement of pre-conceived notions and theory through encounters with many actual practical situations that add differences to the theory (Benner 2001: 36) It is this practical knowledge along with theory that makes enhancement possible for the experienced physiotherapist. Practical knowledge is generated through describing and interpreting phenomenon, particularly human phenomenon, exploring it, taking account into context, subjective meanings and intentions within the particular situation (Higgs and Jones 2008: 157). On the other hand, Benner (2001: 36) stated theory and research are generated from the practical knowledge, i.e. from the practices of the experts in a field. Moreover, expert physiotherapist relied on and utilized extensive physiotherapy knowledge to practice as compared to novice physiotherapists, who applied their existing theoretical knowledge to practice (Bonner 2007: 163). However, Jensen (1999: 33) argued that although experts posses more knowledge, it the organization and appropriate usage of that knowledge is important. Therefore, expert physiotherapists used multiple sources of knowledge in practice (Bonner 2007: 163). He also stated expert physiotherapists are better able to provide justification for their practice (Bonner 2007: 163). Experts continue to learn through experience by observing and scrutinizing their actions whereas novices thinking is governed by application of rules (Jensen 1999:17). Higgs and Titchen (1995: 521) stated physiotherapy experts construct their own knowledge rather than discovering it whereas novice rely on book knowledge and later apply it. Thus, knowledge is not simply transferred from the expert to novice; it is worked upon by the learner and incorporated into practice (Smith et al 2003: 324). Benner (2001: 2) stated there are many skills (knowing how) that are gained without knowing that. She also stated that one cannot always theoretically account for know-how for many common activities like swimming. OHara (2012: 66) stated Physiotherapy is a practice focused activity and thus requires a great deal of practical knowledge. Benner (2001: 4) stated Practical knowledge is gained over time, and experts themselves are often unaware of their gains. Bonner (2007: 163) takes the statement further and stated for expert physiotherapists, the practical knowledge which they learnt in their postgraduate level had been proceduralized into their routine practice to the extent that it is difficult for them to indentify where they had learnt something e.g.an expert no longer measurse ranges of motion of any joint using goniometer. Expert physiotherapists know exactly which intervention to be used not only theoretically but also practically (OHara 2012: 66). Whereas with slighted change in symptoms the novice will not be able to decide the type of intervention. OHara (2012: 66) stated Practical knowledge acts as foundation of understanding from which therapists make informed decisions about how to act in mostly uncertain situations. Bonner (2007: 164) argued it is not only the practical knowledge, but also clinical cues by the patient which helps to make decision in complex situations e.g. a patient might position him in a way to relieve the pain symptoms from back. Bonner 163: 2007 stated expert physiotherapist used multiple sources of practical knowledge to guide their practice. Moreover, Resnik et al (2003:1101) emaphasized experts use patient education as part of their practical knowledge to treat patients e.g. when a patient is taught what they have to do, why they have to do, then the patient automatically does it correctly so the work of the therapist lessens. King (2009: 186) argued that experts are more interested in observing how other expert therapists engage patients and in understanding the meaning of experiences for patients. Whereas the novice will not focus on other therapist and use their own rules of knowledge into practice. Higgs Jones (2011: 124) stated clinical reasoning brought progressive expansion of practical knowledge in a problematic situation that continued until the problem was solved e.g. when an intervention does not work, the physiotherapist reasons out for its failure. However, Jensen (1999: 266) argued clinical reasoning is theoretically quite simple but extremely difficult to apply in real clinical situations. Also, successful reasoning strategy might work in one can and may not apply in the second e.g. a low back ache patient might feel better with mobilization other may not. CONCLUSION The essay has demonstrated various aspects of knowledge and in particular practical knowledge which contribute in developing expertise in physiotherapy field. Practical knowledge is vital for skilful practice in physiotherapy. Efforts were made to appraise the best of literature and illustrate how expert and novice differ in practical knowledge and the effect on their clinical practice. This essay further concludes the importance and relevance of the practical knowledge in reference to developing expertise. Although, measures have been taken to appraise some of the key aspects of practical knowledge in depth. Other elements of practical knowledge can also be evaluated to develop expertise in the physiotherapy field.

Development Of Metro Rail Tourism Essay

Development Of Metro Rail Tourism Essay The functioning of Mumbai depends mainly on the transportation system for the movement of people and goods in, out and around Mumbai. It is evident from the past that introduction of railways in Mumbai has resulted in the economic growth of the city. The current public transportation depends largely on the trains and buses. As per the data by Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport, 2003 and Indian Railways, 2002, Mumbai is the only exceptional city in India which has most extensive rail network carrying more than 5 million passengers a day- 58% of total public transport passengers as compared to 42% by buses (cited in Pucher Korattyswroopam, 2004). Even after a decade, the population of Mumbai is heavily dependent on the railways as their primary mode of transportation. The citys suburban railway was built to accommodate 1700 people, but today carries more than 3 times its actual capacity. Moreover, it is said that a fleet of around 200 railways make more than 2000 trips across the city which is still proving to be insufficient day by day. The suburban trains handle a commuter population of 6 million every day, which is equivalent to the size of Sydney city. The trains also run at a very good frequency providing the right kind of option for travel (Nallathiga, 2008 p. 38). Buses too are being exploited and the roads are not capable enough to hold the burden of ever growing population. The roads, railways and the buses are getting more and more congested due to urbanisation. Moreover, there is no scope to extend this city as it is geographically surrounded by water. So the only options which remain are either to shift the traffic under the ground, over the ground or on the water. Owing to this situation, it becomes essential to investigate the transport system and come up with solutions capable enough to handle the burden in the future. It would not only strengthen the backbone of this financial capital of a rapidly growing country but will also release a l ot of pressure on the current transport facilities. Over the years, there have been many suggestions and recommendations which have been given for the development of Mumbai. Many of these projects are successfully completed or are either under construction. This research will primarily focus on the upcoming Metro Rail project which is being considered as a subordinate to the overcrowded suburban railways. The study will revolve around the difficulties faced by the project managers in implementing their decisions on such a huge scale and the strategies they need to overcome these problems. At this current stage the construction of the Metros first line which is 11.7 km stretch is under construction and is considered to be almost ready for the testing. The original deadline for the project was August 2012, but due to delays in getting right of work (ROW) permits from the government and other clearances for the project, the project will eventually see operations by the end of this year (Kumar, 2012 [online]). This can be treated as the f irst failure of the project and its management as it will be not be able to deliver the Metro Rail facility as per the committed schedule. At this point of time, a comparison of the project reports of Delhi and Kolkata Metro projects can prove handy in avoiding mistakes committed in past. Critical analysis of these reports can help in foreseeing the approaching management issues and take necessary steps. Metro rail is a huge project (as seen in figure 1.1) with many expectations to fulfil. Efficient and scheduled performance will not only benefit the economy but will also provide relief to the people of Mumbai, Government and the over stressed suburban railway. The findings from the project reports of the Metro Rail in Delhi and Kolkata can help in recognizing the threats that might affect the development of the Metro Rail in Mumbai. It will also find out the main weaknesses due to which certain plans in those projects had difficulties in successful implementation. Similarly, it wil l also benefit to understand the strengths of this project as well as the opportunities it has or will have in the future to capitalise and develop the project in a way that will pass on maximum benefits to its consumers and stakeholders. Developing a sustainable and robust transport system will contribute a big deal by laying a strong foundation to the progress of this city. The success of this research is necessary as this may further instigate a movement for a better and an efficient model of transportation system in urban cities and bring out the importance of project management in government projects across the country. mumbai-map.gif Fig 1.1 Existing Suburban Rail Map with upcoming Metro Rail routes [Source: www.urbanrail.net] Theoretical Underpinnings: The pursuit for conducting this research began after watching a couple of documentaries on the city of Mumbai. The first one was a National Geographic production known as Megacities which looked into various aspects of working models of huge cities around the world. Mumbai was the city in one of its episodes. The transportation system portrayed in it fascinated me. This was followed by a bit of research and then I came across a documentary on Bombay Railways presented by the BBC. Being born and brought up in this city, I have experienced the crowd in the trains and other public transportation. But after watching the documentaries, it inspired me to conduct a research in this area to understand the way in which projects are planned and managed at such a high level where the pressure of performance and urgency to deliver is enormous. My next point of reference was a report published by McKinsey and Company in the year 2003 which laid a plan for rehabilitation of the city of Mumbai. The se few intelligence sources form a background to my research. The focus then shifted to one of the recommendations given out in the McKinsey report being constructed in Mumbai which is the Metro Rail. This forms the main topic and the research will be conducted to overview the project management difficulties and complexities faced while carrying out such a big project in the huge city of Mumbai. Mentioned below are the theoretical academic sources that form a part of obtaining knowledge for the chosen topic. Project Management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling (2009): To commence every research, one needs a solid foundation of understanding the subject area. For project management the above mentioned book stands to be a guide. After the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), the official project management guide by Project Management Institute, this is referred as a textbook for the certificate examination. The book is in its 10th edition written by Harold Kerzner, with more than 2500 citations. This book explains projects in various stages and gives a systematic approach towards its management. This book suits a beginner level of understanding of Project Management giving an easy understanding of basic principles. It accepts and inculcates changes taking place in the current business scenario and moreover explains them by giving case studies. The main purpose of using this book is its thorough explanation on organisational structure which would prove beneficial to understand the complex organisational structure of the public sector organis ation in India. It also includes chapters on Time and stress management, risk management and quality management which can prove beneficial for the comparison of the ongoing metro projects and its various dimensions. Successful Project Management (2005): This research deals more with the success and failure of projects. For Government projects, many like the metro rail that is being analysed in this research, it is important to maintain the balance between demands of the public, project that has been undertaken and the final product that is being offered. Successful Project Management is a book written by Trevor L Young. It starts by defining success and what it means to various people measuring it. It even takes the reader through the technical terminologies of project management and leads its way through to the steps of managing projects successfully. This book has no more than 30 citations but will be very useful for this research because the Metro Rail project needs to be measured for its success. Success means a very big deal for the projects like Metro as it is being constructed to improve the present infrastructure of a city. Moreover it even uses public funds for its construction; therefore the expectations of return from the stakeholders will be higher than any other private projects. Mass Urban Transportation in India (2008): This journal article helps in shifting focus from the project management literature to understanding the issues in mass urban transportation system, especially in Mumbai. The article is written by Ramakrishna Nallathiga who explains the growth and urbanization of Indian cities and its relation with the development of three modes of transportation i.e. rail, road and water. It tests three different cities for its development in mass transportation systems and gives out recommendations for its growth. The author takes Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad as samples, defines the background of each of these citys transportation systems and tries to prove the importance of developing a robust transport system. Though the paper is not very well written, it can prove beneficial for this research as a source for a lot of valuable data compiled by the author, which would save a lot of valuable time and resources. Evaluation of Public Transport Systems: Case Study of Delhi Metro (2005): As the research gains more depth and focus, the next step will be going through the case studies. Since Mumbai Metro project is yet to be functional it might be difficult to gather all the required data. Also comparing similar Metro Rail projects already constructed in other cities of India can help in getting an idea of the issues faced by the management and examine the factors which can affect Metro Rails success when it starts in Mumbai. This journal article helps creating a literature base of the case studies. There are similarities in the objectives of this journal article and to what this research is trying to find out. The authors Mukti Advani and Geetam Tiwari try to test the success of introducing Metro Rails in three different cities in India. This will assist me in developing a critical vision to inspect the intelligence data and the documents collected from the respective organisations. This document has covered Metro Rail projects in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, two of wh ich shall form to be a part of this research too. Hence, linking this journal article with the Mass Urban Transportation in India article will help in gathering a lot of data and can create a platform to develop arguments once all the documents and intelligence that will be gathered. The academic sources mentioned above can set off this research with a strong base of knowledge and provide direction to further research and analysis of the secondary data and intelligence sources. These four sources are connected to each other in order of which they have provided guidance and focus for the topic of this research. The topic chosen will no doubt have many complexities, which will be systematically dealt with the proper use of research methodology. Research Methodology: This research proposes to look into the complex issues of the transportation system of one of the worlds biggest cities. It focuses mainly upon the upcoming project of Metro Rail in Mumbai and the factors affecting its construction and the problems that might affect its functioning in the future. Gathering secondary data and intelligence would prove insufficient because of the nature of this research. Collecting firsthand information and primary data particularly focussing on this research can actually help in understanding the difficulties faced by the local authorities in implementation of the plans. Hence, most of this research will be conducted in Mumbai where I will as a researcher involve myself as a part of it. Having interest in photography as well, I plan to even take some pictures for the research by myself. The research is related to social science shaping into the path of interpretive paradigm. This approach proves to be beneficial to the research because of various reasons. Interpretivists attempt to minimize the distance between the researcher and what is researched (Collis Hussey, 2009). This helps in accessing and analysing the information and is a part of the researcher himself. However as the participants are human beings, the reality is subjective and multiple depending on their view points. On the other hand it also provides a benefit to the researcher to keep an open mind and think in different directions as per the data collected. It also links to the methodological approach being used to conduct a research. Interpretivism uses an array of methodologies to help the researcher build up on a strong research. This research will be primarily based upon the intelligence such as documents provided by the local transport authorities, newspaper articles, etc. supported by the evidence in academic journals, research papers and books. Document research will be the methodology applied in analyzing Public documents. Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions have setup an initiative known as Right to Information Act, 2005 giving power to the citizens to avail the information published by the State and Central Government Legislation. This would prove beneficial to gain access to the documents related to the project. Mumbai Metro Rail project is the joint venture of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) which is a public body, funded by the Reliance Infrastructure, a public limited company. Familiarizing oneself with these kinds of research materials can be an extremely time consuming activity, mainly because of the vastness and det ail of documents associated with official events and enquiries (Bryman Bell, 2011 p.550). It stands to be the main drawback as it might prove costly in conducting research with limited time. This will need a lot of time management which no doubt is challenging but if followed properly, will turn out to be the main feature of this entire research. The other drawback of document research is the validity and credibility of the data being used. The question of credibility raises the issue of whether or not the documentary source is biased (Bryman Bell, 2011 p.550). At this point of time, intelligence sources like newspapers, websites and magazines will help in confirming the validity and the credibility which might help in getting a clear view of actual scenario. Critical analysis of the public documents will be a priority in conducting this research. The public documents provide a lot of information both qualitative and statistical which would help a great deal in understanding the si tuations in which strategic decisions are made. Kolkata was the first city in India to adopt the Metro rail system. Delhi is also equipped with this system in the recent past. Therefore a case study analysis will also form a part of this research in which the project management of the Metro Rail systems in Kolkata and Delhi will be tested to provide data that will help in suggesting recommendations to the Mumbai metro rail project and build up a strong base of literature for the research. Studying cases of Kolkata and Delhi will also help in understanding the change in the strategic decisions taken over the period of time while undertaking the construction of these projects. This data will be collected from the secondary sources like journal articles or periodicals written by the government authorities to review their decisions taken on a particular project or by the management researchers conducting independent research. This approach will slightly direct the research towards quantitative research methodology. But this method wil l help in acquiring a lot of useful quantitative as well as qualitative data within a very short period of time and within the available resources. Secondary analysis is the analysis of data by researchers who will probably not have been involved in the collection of those data, for purposes that in all likelihood were not envisaged by those responsible for data collection (Bryman Bell, 2011). There are various advantages for using this method of data collection. The most important one is that the data collected will be reliable and of high quality as it will go through rigorous examination and scrutiny being conducted by the organisation itself to analyse their performance. At the same time there will be some drawbacks of using this methodology too. Complexity and lack of familiarity with the data will need some attention while using this research technique (Bryman Bell, 2011). Analysing and filtering the data as per the need of this research will be important to ensure the quali ty of work. This particular research is being carried out for a taught masters dissertation which puts a restriction on the time limit. Taking this research to a further level it would have been interesting to interview people who have worked for this project and also to interview commuters to ask their experience by travelling in Metro. That would have helped in understanding the effort and planning applied by the project managers and also the true success of this project. Time Plan: The main research is planned to be undertaken after the proposal is marked and accepted. As it is planned to be in Mumbai, I will fly back there on the 30th of May 2012. I shall be returning home after almost 10 months, so I wish to take a break and go on vacation with my family for 15 days. From 15th of June 2012, I shall start with the data collection process of my research. I have divided the whole data collection process in two different stages. The first stage will be going to the offices of MMRDA and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and collecting as much data in the form of public documents relevant to the research. The process is quite lengthy and time consuming and shall require a lot of formalities too. Therefore, I have allotted around a months time for the same. I also wish to take some photographs of the site where this project is being constructed. In the meanwhile I will start with the stage two of the data collection process i.e. collecting literature on the Project Management and Managing Transport related projects. After having sufficient literature for the topic and gathering data, I plan to start with analysing the data. From 20th of July, I shall start with the analysis of the data with the help of intelligence sources like websites and newspapers. Simultaneously, I shall even start preparing the drafts of the dissertation. Co-ordinating with my tutor, I shall send my first draft by the first week of August. Once I start writing the dissertation I plan to send drafts to my tutor every 10 days for 3 or 4 times. I have set a deadline of completing the dissertation by the first week of September i.e. before the 9th so that it allows me ample time to get it proof read from my friends who work in organisations as managers themselves and also from professionals/ managers in the Mumbai Metro project if at all they are willing to help me with it. After it is finalized and approved the final copy will be printed and bound before submitting it on t he 25th of September 2012. I even plan to take up a job after going back home, which I look as a potential threat in my research process. But completing my graduation stands as a priority and as much as possible I shall stick to the plan that I have chalked for the entire process. Ethical Consideration: By conducting this research, I accept the responsibility of doing it professionally. I assure that the research shall be within the framing of Basic Research Principles. I also assure to do this research with honesty without abusing or exploiting the trust and knowledge of the respondents. I shall not make any false or misleading statements regarding my own information or my institution of research. There would be no harm, physically or mentally to any of the participant or to those of whom the information is being used. Its findings are unlikely to cause any damage to others who are not involved in it and the participation of the respondents shall thoroughly be voluntary. I ensure that the research shall be designed, carried out, reported and documented accurately, transparently and objectively. I take the responsibility of producing this research in limits and framework designed for research practice. The research will not use any kind of controversial interviews or questionnaires which could breach the personal space or integrity of the participant. The case studies and articles used to gather secondary data and samples will not be misrepresented in anyways and will be purely used to give out positive effects towards the research and society. This research will not violate any community standards by any means. (Source: www.esomar.org [online]).

Saturday, July 20, 2019

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George Essay -- My Side Moun

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George This book is told from the diary of the main character, Sam Gribley. Sam is a boy full of determination. He didn’t give up and go home like everyone thought he would. He is strong of mind. After the first night in the freezing rain, with no fire and no food, he still went on. He is a born survivor. He lasted the winter, through storms, hunger, and loneliness, and came out on top even when everyone expected him to fail. â€Å"The land is no place for a Gribley† p. 9 The story starts out with Sam remembering how he first got to be in his tree in the Catskills. A run-away, Sam Gribley, a young boy who lived in New York City with his family of eleven in a small apartment. None of them liked living there. His father used to talk of the family farm in the Catskill Mountains and the time he ran away to them. Sam decided this would be a way out of the dismal life he had in the city. He prepared himself well by listening very carefully to his father’s stories on survival and read books to be prepared for his planned new life. When it was time to go, he took only a penknife, a ball of cord, some flint and steel, forty dollars, and an ax. The flint and steel were for starting fires. He hitched a ride from a trucker to the town; Delhi, nearest the old family farm. He set out in May, set up a camp in a terrible storm, couldn’t get his fire going was tired, and hungry and realized in order to survive he would have to keep his wits about him. When the storm was over he set out to find his great-grandfathers farm. He found some of the old foundation and the carved name on a tree and knew he was on the family compound of his dreams not terribly far from his soon to be home in the Hemlock tree. Some major problems that presented themselves were the elements, hunger, and loneliness. After surviving the terrible storm he knew he needed to build a safe warm haven for himself. He also wanted a spot that would be not noticeable. He finally decided on an old Hemlock tree where the roots formed a hole and the inner part of the tree was rotting. It took him six months to carve and burn out the Hemlock that would accommodate a bed he made with ash slats and boughs from the Hemlock and a chair for sitting and viewing the weather when it was terrible. As his survival techniques improved he was able to use his intellige... ...ide of the Mountain, 30 years later, and a decade after that penned the final book in the trilogy, Frightful's Mountain, told from the falcon's point of view. George has no doubt shaped generations of young readers with her outdoor adventures of the mind and spirit. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter Ingram In this enthralling story, a boy builds a treehouse in the mountains and learns to live entirely by his wits. "(Emphasizes) the rewards of courage and determination."--The Horn Book. I agree with it being an enthralling story. It has influenced many lives, and in many different ways. One way is that it has encouraged people to take up falconry. One good example would be Robert Kennedy Junior. He and a group of falconry friends all have said that her book has contributed to them being falconers today. I myself am considering the sport now. I also agree with the statement â€Å"No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons.† I can’t vouch for the entire population of people who have read this book but I will say that that was my personal feelings. I even tried making some hooks once. It didn’t go so well.