Professional Development in Nursing | Reflection

Professional Development in Nursing | Reflection In order to enhance knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed for a safe and effective nursing practice, this reflective piece aims to demonstrate the author’s commitment to the need for professional development contribution and personal supervision activities. Through leadership, peer support, supervision and teaching this account will further enhance the professional development and safe practice to others. To achieve these aims, backed with supportive evidence, the author shall use a case study to enable him make discussions and debates. To maintain confidentiality, names of people and places mentioned in this account has been anonymised in accordance to NMC code of professional conduct (NMC, 2010). During the mid-point of his final placement, Bruce was instructed by his mentor to assume the primary nurse role for 73 year old Alice who was detained in an inpatient psychiatric unit under section 3 of the Mental Health Act. Alice was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease dementia with a history of falls, self-neglect and aggressive behaviours toward staff and fellow patients. Following Alice’s CPA review, additional medication was prescribed to her after a mutual agreement between Alice, her family and the MDT as rapid deterioration in her mental state was a concern. CPA (2008) recommends that patients, family and carers should be involved in decision making in regard to their care plans. To promote medication adherence, NICE (2009) declares that, patients should be involved in decisions about prescribed medication to enable them to make informed choices. Bruce was not aware of Alice’s new prescribed medication because he had 2 days off from work. Upon return to work, Bruce volunteered to be the nurse in charge of the shift to enable him gain more confidence and build his leadership skills. Whilst Bruce was being supervised during the morning medication rounds as guided by (NMC, 2010). Alice noticed that there was a new medication so she asked Bruce purpose of the additional medication. Bruce could not confidently explain the purpose of the medication so he asked Dora his mentor who stood by to explain to Alice. Alice became extremely angry and agitated, hostile and physically aggressive towards Bruce accusing him of wanting to kill her however, staff intervened and managed to de-escalate the situation. NICE (2005) recommends that at the first signs of agitation or violent behaviour, staff should first try to calm the patient down using de-escalation methods. Taking the above scenario into consideration one can say that Bruce acted proactively by volunteering to co-ordinate the shift. However, Bruce should have been more concerned to find out the outcome of Alice’s CPA meeting as her acting primary nurse. NMC (2008) asserts that the care of people should be your first concern, treating them as individuals and respecting their dignity. Since Bruce volunteered to coordinate the shift, he could have delegated some of the task i.e. medication rounds to other qualified nurses to enable him to catch-up with what happened at the ward during his absence. Delegation of task enables the team leader to be able to devote more time to those tasks that cannot be delegated. With more time available, the leader can invest time and energy into developing practice, improving standards and influencing decisions that affect their service (Garland and Sullivan, 2010). It was a bad practice for Bruce to administer medication without knowing it purpose as a nurse. NMC (2010) affirms that, nurses must know the medicine’s therapeutic use, its normal dosage, side effects, precautions and contra-indications before administering it. Bruce should have checked the use of the newly prescribed medication in the British National Formulary (BNF) before administering it to Alice (NMC, 2010). Bruce could have also asked Dora about the purpose of the newly prescribed medication when he realised he was not familiar with it even before dispensing it into the pot for Alice. However, one can say that Bruce acted professionally by acknowledging his limitations and therefore asked Dora to explain the use of the newly prescribed medication to Alice. NICE (2009) recommends that as a good practice, nurses should provide patients with verbal and written information regarding their prescribed medication to promote medication concordance. Bruce in a meeting with Dora identified the need for developing his medication administration and management skills and agreed on an action plan under his mentor’s supervision. Care Quality Commission (2013) affirms that supervision provides opportunity for staff to review their performance, set objectives in line with the organisation objective and service needs, and identifies training and continuing developing needs. Bruce further identified the need for research on medication administration, management and medication training all these shall be accomplished under the supervision of Dora. Bruce also has requested to be more involved in medication administration and did a research and found out that, patients must always understand the reason for taking a particular drug. NICE (2009) recommends that, at intervals agreed with the patients, staff should review patients’ knowledge, understanding and concerns about medicines, and patients view of their need for medicine b ecause these may change over time. Bruce had the opportunity to learn how to write CPA reports, tribunal reports and continued to build his confidence in writing plans of care and risk profiles by assuming the primary nurse role for Alice. Bruce also seized the opportunity by being the primary nurse to Alice to gain a better understanding of the MDT working. DOH (2004) ten essential shared capabilities recommends that professionals, patients, family and carers should work in partnership to provide quality care. By volunteering to coordinate the shift gave Bruce the insight of the responsibilities and what to expect from a qualified nurse. Coordinating the shift enabled Bruce to research more about his leadership styles, improved on his communication and delegation skills and his management. Bruce also had the opportunity as the shift coordinator, to do an incident report about Alice’s physical aggression towards him under Dora’s supervision. It can be argued that Alice was not supposed to behave that way however, she could forget about her CPA meeting and the newly prescribed medication because of the symptoms of her illness. Wrycraft (2009) declares that, typical symptoms of dementia are loss of memory, confusion and a change in personality, mood and behaviour. NHS (2012) confirms that, common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease include memory loss, especially problems with memory for recent events, such as forgetting messages, remembering routes or names, and asking questions repetitively. Based on the above account, a nurse should always reflect and evaluate his or her practice then plan future practice areas for development.

Outline and assess the role of the police in the social construction of crime (50 marks) Essay

Social construction refers to the way in which crime and deviance in society might be created and shaped by society and social institutions. This can occur in a number of different ways. For example, they can influence public perception and definitions of what establishes crime and deviance, deviants or non-deviants. They can also influence the amount of crime in society by amplifying it therefore clamping down on it. They can add pressure for changes in legislation which can then alter definitions of crime and can criminalise activities previously regarded as legal. They can also influence the extent, trends and patterns of recorded crime in how they operate. Interactionism is an action approach which views society in a micro perspective. It argues that the definitions of deviance and normality are social constructions and are relative, meaning it will depend on a range of factors such as the time, place and social context in which the act takes place whether the behaviour is defined as a crime or deviant. Marxism is an example of the conflicting view as they argue that the law and social rules reflect the interests of the rich and powerful groups in society who have managed to impose their ideas and way of thinking on the wider population through coercion and ideological control. Therefore they are able to get their assumptions of crime to stick as opposed to the opinions of an ordinary person on the street. Functionalism however argues the consensus view that law and norms about acceptable behaviour in any society are simply a reflection of the wider collective conscience and these laws and social rules are created and enforced to the benefit of everyone. Therefore deviance is behaviour that breaks these agreements on what is acceptable. Functionalists view this defining process as straightforward and objective. The police are an institution that is assigned the duty to enforce the law and take action to those breaking these rules, in order to achieve order and safety in society. They are therefore considered as having a key role in the social construction of crime. The main way the police display this is through the use of discretion in the enforcement of the law. This refers to when police officers have to apply their own judgement to decide which laws are suited for the given circumstance. The choices individual police officers make would be greatly influenced by their own concerns and interests. Colman and German found evidence in their study which showed that there were individual racist police offers who apply the law more harshly to certain ethnic minorities. Reiner also suggested an explanation on the basis of police discretion which refers to culture. It is noted that the police force are overwhelmingly white males. Officers work long hours in each other’s company, being largely isolated from the public. This therefore results in the development of a very specific occupational culture. This is referred to as ‘canteen culture’. Skolnick suggested three of its components. The first being suspiciousness. This talks about the fact that officers, whilst carrying out their training, are taught to discriminate between ‘decent people’ and ‘potential troublemakers’. According to Reiner, they categorise and stereotype certain people as ‘police property’. For example, they regard young males, particularly youths from ethnic minorities as potential troublemakers. A second component is internal solidarity and social isolation. This causes police officers to rely on one another in terms of support when physically threatened and when denying accusations made by the public. Lastly, conservatism refers to those who join the police in the first place are rarely politically radical. However while the job of policing emphasises a non-political attitude, police officers must uphold the law; it also upholds the traditional values and nature of the state. There is a strong sense of conservative values evident in the police. A final component of masculinity was suggested by Graef. He noted how most police officers are male and drawn from the working class. Their culture therefore ultimately reflects traditional working class values of heavy drinking, physical prowess and heterosexuality. Racial stereotyping is also heavily emphasised and linked with assuming the role of the police officer. Cicourel attempted to discover what deviance is by examining the way in which some acts and individuals become defined or labelled as deviant. Cicourel therefore looked how a young person is defined as delinquent. The first stage is a police officer deciding to stop and interrogate the individual based on meaning held by the policy about what is ‘suspicious’ or ‘unusual’. These can be related to particular geographical areas for example. If the individual portray themselves as the ‘typical delinquent’ in ways they speak and in their demeanour, they are more likely to be arrested. The second stage applies if the young person has been arrested, resulting in being referred to a juvenile (probation) officer. The suspect’s background is then looked at. Coming from a ‘broken home’ and showing bad attitude towards authority are factors that would increase the likeliness of them being charged with an offence. Cicourel identifies how social classes can alter the way the juvenile probation officer would consider their choice of action. When a middle class juvenile is arrested they are less likely to be charged with an offence due to their background not fitting the typical criteria of a delinquent. Moreover, middle class parents are better able to negotiate successfully on their child’s behalf. Due to this, middle class juvenile is often defines as ‘ill’ or accidently straying from the path of righteousness, allowing them the chance to reform. Middle class juvenile are more likely to be released with just a warning. Cicourel concluded that justice is negotiable and his theories reveal the power and control both the police and the juvenile probation officer have over a young individual’s life. This therefore implies that it is these two agents who contribute towards the social construction of crime as they are given the authority to select certain individuals and undergo the process of labelling them as deviant. Taylor, Walton and Young however criticise Cicourel’s conclusion as he fails to explain how subjective meanings held by the police and juvenile probation officers of the ‘typical delinquent’ originate in the first place. Marxists agree with considering the police as a key agent in social construction of crime and deviance but they believe it reflects the ideology of ruling class. Gordon argues that crime is rational and individuals must fend for themselves in order to survive. This is particularly true of the American poor as America has minimal welfare services compared to many other advanced societies. Gordon stated that most crimes in the USA share the similarity of representing rational responses to the competitiveness and inequality of life in capitalist societies. Gordon argues the law enforcers in the USA support the capitalist system in three ways. Firstly they select members of the subject class and punish them as individuals – they are viewed as ‘social failures’ and responsible for their criminal activities. By placing this focus on an individual, it draws away from capitalism which is primarily responsible for their criminal deviance. Secondly the imprisonment of members of the subject class is a way of eliminating those who may have shown opposition to the capitalist society – reducing the opposition of the system. Finally by imprisoning the criminals who are ‘enemies of the state’, they are sweeping away an embarrassing extreme outcome of capitalist society. If something was done to help these people, if their difficult situations were made public then it would throw doubt on the capitalist society – as it produced them initially. This reflects the idea that enforcers of the law serves to maintain ruling-class power and ideology. Therefore suggesting that the police and courts exert their power and control to further strengthen the ruling class and continue to force submission of the subject class. The laws and the ideas of crime and punishment are argued to have been constructed based on the ruling class’ preferences. It is also argued that the police are not a significant factor of the social construction of crime and the informal agent of social control which is media has a greater influence. The media shape wider social definitions of what is criminal and deviant. They can also configure the public’s perceptions and fears in terms of what they choose to report and how they choose to represent this. This therefore implies that what is considered as deviant is linked to the influence that the media has on the public, causing them to react in a certain way. The police can therefore be argued as just victims of the media as it pressures them to act against these negative social groups which have been categorised as public enemies, and if they don’t choose to take action, the reputation of the police could be threatened. ‘Moral panics’ is a concept used to describe the media’s reactions to particular social groups or acts that threaten societal values. Their reaction is often out of proportion to the real threat and puts pressure on authorities to control the problem. Marxists believe that moral panics serve an ideological purpose. Stuart Hall studied the media coverage of black muggers in the 1970s and concluded that it served the purpose of dividing the working class, diverting attention away from the mismanagement of capitalism by the ruling class and justified severely restrictive laws and policing that could be used against other problem groups. Stuart Hall’s theory however is criticised for being too deterministic and ignoring the centre of activity. Functionalists would argue the influence of the role of police in the social construction of crime is wrongly exaggerated. They would describe the police as having a close relationship with the local area being policed. Therefore the role of the police force is being to represent the shared interests of the majority of law abiding people to defend them against the minority of offenders. They would disagree that the enforcements made by the police are revolved around the interests of the ruling class as they argue that police officers are drawn up from the community therefore ultimately reflecting its characteristics. They also believe that individual offenders are caught as a result of complaints made by the community not due to the individual police officer’s view and attitudes affecting the decision.

First impressions Essay

In my opinion it is your first impression of something that ultimately gives you the perfect vantage point in which to accurately assume the true nature of something. Your notion of this something is then unaffected or swayed by any outside sources or by second guessing yourself. Upon first experiencing this first time offered course, I immediately felt right at home concerning the direction in which the course was headed and also with the enthusiasm and involvement of the professor. The first class began as any other, anxiously awaiting an unknown professor and the educational information he bears. With a proverbial collective sigh of relief, the class was greeted with a pleasant professor offering a most interesting lesson plan on the writing in the discipline of psychology. After welcomed introductions class was underway and a new appreciation for my major was attained. Our first homework assignment required us to read and analyze an article entitled â€Å"Making Science Understandable to a Broad Audience† by Richard Reis. The article portrays the notion that we as those in search of educational advancement must accommodate the manner in which we write for individuals many whom are otherwise unaware. This piece I believe sets the tone for this course in its entirety and my perceptions as to what is seeks to achieve, in that to truly know and understand an idea or concept one must have the ability to correctly perceive and present information of the utmost importance to the vast majority. Throughout my college career I have strived to put forth my best effort and achieve a great standing in all my courses. I plan on not doing any different here, so upon perusing the course syllabus I noticed many assignments wherein groups were involved. In my past experience, sadly I have had many instances in which fellow group members became ‘clingers’ to my dedicated work whilst I labored on it. Assignments listed as anything prefaced by the dreaded utterance â€Å"Group,† made me question my position here. Despite my reservations I believe that those fellow students in my class are just as dedicated as I and wish to succeed just as much. Without further explanation of the group work involved, much of it looks fairly familiar to projects that I have done in past classes both in college and high school concerning poster presentations and literature reviews. My worries, other than those aforementioned, lie in the â€Å"Individual Components† of the course description and what they might entail. At least for me, when work pertaining to that of doling out constructive criticism is required I simply feel inadequate in telling others how to go about their work. Other than that one hiccup, the rest of the work to be done individually seems common or at least manageable. In the past I have kept a record or journal of daily events of significance, in that I can see doing well in keeping a research journal. Being accustomed to modern times and technology use should help serve me in using the â€Å"Learning E-Portfolios,† and submitting assignments online. My major is in psychology and therefore have read extensively on the subject as well as taken previous writing courses, all of which will hopefully aid me in doing well this semester. I feel as though this course will play towards my strengths and will be successful overall. Although, I do not expect to go without surprises, I trust this course to challenge my writing ability as well as my grasp on psychology ASSIGNMENT REFLECTION FORM 1. How would you describe your experience in working on this assignment (Was it difficult to begin? Did the ideas come easily or with difficulty? What obstacles did you face in the process of writing? How long did it take you?)? A: As with any paper, I found it slightly difficult to begin because I enjoy taking the time to organize my thoughts into a cohesive and coherent piece. In the writing process I found it difficult to completely fulfill the requirements in that the book contained in the courses required reading section had been backordered and in an attempt to continue, I had purchased a copy on Amazon.com and am sadly still awaiting its arrival. From beginning to end this essay took me around two hours to complete in its entirety. 2. What do you see as the strengths of this paper? A: I believe the strengths of this paper to be my honesty involving the course. It may or may not help with improvements and or changes in future assignments and course direction. 3. What do you see as areas for improvement in the paper? A: Not to sound clichà © but I believe that all papers still require improvement. No matter how many edits or drafts it takes there will always be one idea or point that may have been over expressed or a central one that had been simply left out completely. I may need to improve upon my ordering or overall flow of my paper to achieve a better read. 4. What did you learn (about yourself, the subject, writing, or reading) from doing this assignment? A: While writing this piece I learned that I truly enjoy expressing myself through writing. Although I consider myself to have a limited vocabulary I find nothing more exciting than to surprise someone with my work.

Immigration Issues in the News - 2641 Words

H. R. 2604 (2012): Help Separated Families Act of 2013 is a Federal bill introduced by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat in Californias 40th District. After the introduction of this Federal bill it was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means: 113th Congress, 2013–2015. The bill, (H. R. 2604) was introduced to the Senate floor as of Jun 28, 2013 (GovTrack.us, 2013). This bill would ensure that immigration status alone does not disqualify a relative from being a placement for a child whose parent (s) has been deported. Understanding the Problem Immigration issues have been in the news; and have been debated by politicians. Political parties over the years have been vocal in voicing their concerns about American immigration (Russit, 2013). The problem is if you are an undocumented immigrant and you are stopped by an arresting agency you will be detained and deported according to the current immigration policy (Russit, 2013). Russit (2013) explains the judicial branch of our Supreme Court has ruled over this issue for over four decades. They have determined the federal government has the exclusive power of regulating immigration. These powers are based on the Commerce Clause, Naturalization Clause, Migration and Importation Clause and the War Power Clause of Article I of the US Constitution. The courts have ruled that any state or local law that attempts to regulate immigration is in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and isShow MoreRelatedImmigration And The United States1464 Words   |  6 Pages Immigration has always been a complex issue in the United States. Previous and current administrations have had great difficulties in setting policies and programs in place to address this problem. During the course of American history, laws were enacted to address such issues. There were numerous legislative milestones in regards to immigration in the United States. 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