Squealer in Animal Farm

What makes Squealer such a significant character in Animal Farm? Throughout the novella, Orwell uses the character Squealer, a silver tongued pig, to manipulate language to convince other animals on the farm. Orwell uses   Squealer  to mainly show how some governments and politicians  use   propaganda to brainwash the minds of their fellow people. Squealer is very much Napoleon’s propaganda machine. His manipulation of language is key to grasping the trust of animals under their leader Napoleon’s reign.Squealer is a very convincing actor to the animals and his persuasion used to justify Napoleon’s actions overcomes their doubts, â€Å"he could turn black into white†. He makes the animals turn against their trusted Snowball when Squealer deceitfully tells them â€Å"Squealer was in a league with Snowball†. Squealer himself does not voice much of his own opinion, he merely regurgitates orders from Napoleon as he knows he’s arguing from a certain position of knowledge that he thinks can be trusted.He manipulates the animals’ fear of Jones in order to increase Napoleon’s power. He gives the animal’s meaningless and often false statistics to convince them that life is better than it used to be, for example when he ‘proved’ to the animals in detail that they had more food not than before the Rebellion. In specific language terms, Squealer uses a lot of rhetorical questions limiting the animals from thinking for themselves and so forcing them to submit to his authority, ‘’Surely Comrades you don’t want Jones back? ’’.Squealer cleverly complicates the language he uses and practises jargon that the animals do not know the meaning of so that they will think he must be an intelligent individual and they must follow his orders. By complicating language, â€Å"A bird’s wing†¦ is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation†, he confuses the other animals. He also causes them to have a sense of hopelessness; the other animals feel they can never understand the truth without the pigs’ intervention and guidance. Combining the animals’ ignorance of the changing of history to suit the pig’s needs, Squealer changes the commandments to make the pigs â€Å"more equal. Furthermore, by radically simplifying language instead, like when he teaches the sheep to bleat â€Å"Four legs good, two legs better! † he limits the terms of debate. Additionally, Squealer's name fits him well: squealing, of course, refers to a pig's typical form of vocalization, and Squealer's speech defines him. At the same time, to squeal also means to betray and so this fittingly evokes Squealer’s behaviour to the other animals. Overall, Squealer is remarkably good at playing on the animals’ ignorance and gullibility. He redefines his words to prevent the animals from having a mind of their own.

Priorities and Responses Essay

This assignment will look at incidents and emergencies that can happen in a health and social care setting. Within my assignment I will be explaining possible priorities and responses when dealing with two incidents or emergencies in a health and social care setting. I will be discussing health, safety or security concerns that may arise from the incident or emergency. Then I will be discussing how I would respond to them. An emergency is defined as â€Å"a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.† (Oxford University Press, 2014). An incident is defined as â€Å"a relatively insignificant event that might have serious consequences.† (Collins, 2014). Anna is 56 year old woman who lives in a residential care home because she developed early-onset Alzheimer’s a few years ago and her daughter can no longer care for her at home, as her arthritis has also become more severe and she struggles to do basic things by herself now as it can become very painful for her to move at all at a moment’s notice. I am a carer who works at the residential care home that she lives in. A fault with the electrics causes a fire to start in the downstairs of the home. I am upstairs with Anna helping her get changed as she spilt her drink on herself, when we were alerted to the fire. By the time we were alerted to the fire it had already spread throughout the entire downstairs of the home so it was preventing us from exiting the building down the stairs. There is no other fire exit upstairs to the outside so I have no choice but to separate myself and Anna from the fire. To do this I take her back into her room as she has a room at  the fro nt of the house with a large window. I close the door and roll up her blanket and put it along the gap at the bottom of the door to stop any smoke coming in. This is a good preventative measure as a door can keep a fire back for at least half an hour while we wait for the emergency services to arrive. Unfortunately there is not a room in the home with a fire door as this would be a much better aid as it can keep a fire back for two hours. Once I have put the blanket under the door and made sure that any gaps there are covered I open the window as wide as it can possibly go and start shouting to alert other carers and residents as well as any other people who are outside that we are trapped inside the building. This way the fire services will make rescuing us a priority when they arrive. Unfortunately while I am alerting people outside Anna has become very distressed because of the situation and she has fallen over and bumped her head on the table. I immediately go to her and ask her if she is alright, she doesn’t respond, so I gently tap her on the shoulder. She still doesn’t respond, so as my priority is whether or not she is breathing I check this, fortunately she is breathing normally but her head is bleeding quite a bit, but as my priority is her breathing at the moment I put her in the recovery position with her resting on the side of her head that is bleeding to apply pressure to it. Once I have checked that she is still breathing normally I move my attention back to the fire, I check the door with the back of my hand to see if it is hot. It is not, so the fire has not spread up the stairs just yet so I keep the door closed so to not add oxygen to the fire which would only cause it to flare up. I do not touch the handle of the door as it is made of metal and could possibly be extremely hot. I then go back to Anna and check that she is still breathing normally. The home has an automatic link to the emergency services through the alarm system so the fire services have already been alerted by the fire alarms going off and shoul d be arriving soon. Moments later the emergency services arrive and they come to the window to help get us out. As Anna is unconscious and bleeding she is the one who needs immediate care so the priority is to get her out safely first. The fire men safely remove Anna from the room and take her down to the ground where an ambulance is waiting to transport her to the local hospital to receive the care she needs. Once the fire has been extinguished our next priority is to report her fall in the accident book, in case there is any  query later on. Within the accident book we record her name, what injuries she suffered, the time and location of it and a record of the first aid treatment she was given. My name was also recorded as I was the only witness as to what happened. A follow up review is then carried out to understand why the incident happened and to evaluate how effective my response was. This may take a few months in some cases. After the event I have to go and talk to a counsellor about what happened to check and make sure that I am not emotionally traumatised. After the incident the care home reviewed their policies and procedures to see how well they worked. The managers review how smoothly things were dealt with and see if it could have been dealt with any better. In order to avoid the same things happening again if something similar were to happen the care home implemented improvements to the establishment by adding another fire escape route from the upstairs to the outside. (Beryl Stretch, Mary Whitehouse, 2010). Jack is a 26 year old man who lives in a residential care home because he has severe learning disabilities. I am a carer who works in the residential care home that he lives in. One day while we are in the day room looking for something to do his behaviour starts to change. I notice that he is showing behavioural signs of becoming aggressive. He is tense and agitated, and when I try to talk to him he is responding loudly and abruptly. The muscles in his jaw are tensed and his pupils have dilated. His hands are tightly balled into fists and he is leaning over me invading my personal space. By now his behaviour has become aggressive towards me and he has started verbally threatening me. Unfortunately I do not know what has triggered him to become aggressive this time so I do not know what I can do or remove from the situation to try and prevent him getting out of control. My first response is to try and talk to Jack in a calm voice to try and stop the situation going in a violent direction. I am talking to him calmly without raising my voice to try and get him to calm down and not get too over-worked and distressed. Unfortunately my efforts to try and diffuse the situation by talking to him have not worked, so my next thought is to check for the nearest exit and slowly back away from him, whilst continuing to talk to him. Jack is blocking the only exit from the room and he is becoming increasingly aggressive and I am starting to become worried for my own  safety. Since his behaviour is becoming worse and he is showing signs of becoming physically violent, I continue to talk to him in the hope of calming him down, and I also discretely push the panic button to call for help without alerting him to it so that it doesn’t cause him to become anymore agitated or distressed. Unfortunately, he starts throwing things in my direction, like cups and bo oks off the table. He is about to pick up a chair to throw at me when three other carers come into the room. I continue to talk to Jack in a non-threatening, soft, calm tone to try and reassure him and explain to him and the other carers what is happening. â€Å"Hi guys, Jack’s feeling a bit upset today, I think we’re having a little bit of an ‘off’ day today, so we just need to try and calm things down a bit now†. As I am talking to him and the other carers, one of them disarms Jack by taking the chair away from him, and the other two physically restrain him, which allows them to control him without actually hurting him. They are fully trained in the correct way to use restraint techniques. Restraining him was the last resort as I did try to diffuse the situation by talking to him but this did not work and his behaviour became violent and our priority is not only the safety of him, myself and the others carers but also the safety of the other residents. As his behaviour became violent we had no choice but to restrain him not only for our own safety, but for his own safety as he could become a risk to himself but also to the other residents as he runs the risk of turning his aggression onto them as well as me. Once he has been restrained and had time to calm down he is much more placid and is no longer showing signs of aggression. We have to record the incident in the accident book in case there are any queries that may arise at a later date, possibly if he has any marks on him from being restrained. Also, we record it in an incident book for other members of staff, like other carers who work with Jack and also carers who may not work directly with him but may be around him in the home. This way they can see what has happened, and this way we can keep a record of when and where he becomes aggressive so that we can try and find a pattern to try and figure out what triggers him. So then we can try and prevent it happening again, so if he only becomes aggressive on days he has a certain food, like chocolate then we can try avoiding that particular food and see if it helps at all. Also the home reviewed its policies and procedures and set in place changes so that there must be at  least two carers at all times with Jack in case he suddenly becomes aggressive again. (Beryl Stretch, Mary Whitehouse, 2010).

Power breakdown in Pakistan

With drying of sea water, touching of oil prices to its peak, damaging of roads and streets, disappearing of electricity in cities is clearly giving idea of present condition of Pakistan. According to revolutionary Russian leader Lenin defined socialism as, â€Å"the electrifician of the whole country and the transfer of power to the people’s representatives† (cited by Kabir, 2002). For revolutionary development of any country, it is important that the country should be electrifying. As all industries and business which help to rise economy of country depends on energy in one form or another. Since many years, the looming energy crisis in Pakistan has covered us like spider net but, in recent months it has been increased and got a massive shape that could damage the economy and autonomy of the country. According to one report in The News, â€Å"this summer, the country faced an electricity deficit of over 2,500 megawatts (MW) †¦ it is feared that by 2010 the gap between demand and supply could reach up to 8,000 MW† (Asif, 2007). Breakdown of power supply to cities has devastating effects on economical and social aspects of country, which could reduce by some strategies and principles. According to environment report given by Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (2005), â€Å"Pakistan has 18 gigawatts of electric generating capacity. † This power generating capacity has been increased in few years with aids of foreign investors. Blackouts and transmission losses are still in tradition in some areas due to inefficient quality of infrastructure, illegal power supply (Kunda system), water shortage, poor co-ordination between power supply agencies, extraneous electricity decoration. There are only two main state-owned power sector in Pakistan i. e. Water and Power Supply Authority (WAPDA) and Karachi Electricity Supply Cooperation (KESC). Cooperation of these two sectors makes electricity able to transmit and distribute in all region of Pakistan.

Research Paper for Master of Midwifery Details to follow Essay

Research Paper for Master of Midwifery Details to follow - Essay Example to these are the development of rapid diagnostic tools in molecular biology like the polymerase chain reaction, microarray technology and DNA sequencing facilities (Berg et al, 2002; Mathews andVan Holde, 1996). In obstetrics, many antenatal tests are offered at different gestational periods (British Columbia Reproductive Care Program, 2003). Options for genetic testing are given to the mother once she presents as pregnant following the guidelines set by the country’s National Health Service (Department of Health, 2007). Issues that surround antenatal genetic screening are those that pertain to the safety of the fetus and the mother due to the sampling procedures, the implications for the termination of the pregnancy if the tests come out with a prediction or detection of serious genetic illness, the provision for an informed choice to the mother and/or father, and the roles that the medical practitioner play during the antenatal period (Rothenberg and Thomson, 1994; Kent, 2005). The aim of this paper is to present basic antenatal screening procedures, the difficulties and genetic counseling associated with the decision-making process towards pregnancy termination, the roles that health care personnel play during this period, and antenatal care of the mother who decides on the fate of her unborn child. Each person is different from all others because of his distinct DNA. This DNA codes for his genes, and these genes are translated to the proteins or enzymes that are involved in basic metabolic processes of life (Mathews and Van Holde, 1996; Alberts et al,2002). When there is a defect in the genetic code, an erroneous protein is produced and the metabolic process where this protein participates in is affected resulting in disease. There are many causes of genetic defects because of the several essential processes leading to the correct translation of the protein code (Kornberg and Baker, 2005). Single errors or mutations in copying a piece of DNA can lead a

Market Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Market Analysis - Essay Example Home players want appropriate individual experience while online gamers want opportunities of good time to cooperate and compete with other players and socializing. Based on the current access of internet statistics and patterns of buying games, researched by analyst groups, the number of online game customers in the United States is approximately 100 million. On the broader global market, this may extend to approximately 400 million customers. The content of the present paper is a market analysis of CanGo Company Inc. The purpose of this market research/analysis is to determine how the company can increase its sales volume before the end of this year. This analysis presents CanGo’s market strengths and opportunities. CanGo is a company that was founded in a couple of years ago and the goal of this market analysis paper is to get the company in the right channel. The largest opportunity of the company at present is to get a stable online game and run (Bloomberg, 2009). CanGo has established the right platform of increasing its sales volume and attracting a large number of customers. This is the fastest way of getting the name of the company in the market. Online gaming is currently touching millions of potential clients internationally. The size of the online gaming industry is currently experiencing a very strong growth. Most of the Digital Software Associations estimate that the total of online gaming sites’ users is currently increasing from 10 to 15 percent every month. In CanGo Company Inc. The estimates are that the customers of online gaming will adjust from $ 2 billion in 2013 to approximately five billion dollars by the end of this year. According to the Internet Moms. Com, E-Commerce is currently becoming more common. The reason is that internet shopping and hectic lifestyle with E-Commerce is highly convenient and time saving. There are predictions that the e - commerce market will

Killing With Keyboards Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Killing With Keyboards - Assignment Example sing the information to a pedophile to threaten Chris’ children; (4) altering the information to spread confusion just for the sake of fun; or, (5) harassing him for ransom. Vulnerabilities include: (1) Trojan horses, which are destructive programs that are sent into the computer system so that all important passwords and valuable information such as the social security number is conveyed to the thief. (2) Email phishing, in which the victim (Chris) is sent emails that scam him by leading him to a counterfeit website which inquires about his private information. (3) Viruses, which infect the systems and unlock all important information. (5) Social networking, which makes all shared information vulnerable. (5) Employee sabotage, in which a colleague gets unauthorized access to information. Measures include educating the internet users about their rights of protection so that they do not become victims at the hands of criminals (Newman, 2009). The more the awareness about the us er’s information security, the lesser will be the chance of fraudulent

FEASIBILITY REPORT ON A CALL DIRECTORY SUPPLIER Research Paper

FEASIBILITY REPORT ON A CALL DIRECTORY SUPPLIER - Research Paper Example Therefore, the Reens Nigria Limited will purely sell directional information to its customers. Nonetheless, the information is intended to change very moment; thus, the company has considering running or operating on state of heart information providing service that will ensure that the customer is provided with accurate information (Dowling and Reinke 47). Additionally, the same information devises shall ensure that the customer never fails to be informed on their concern. Notably, the company will deal with professionals who will be able to multitask, in this sense they will be able to provide the customers with all the information that they require only on a one call service. Moreover, the company intends to tell on providing entertainment information including information clients on what movies are scheduled in their cinema halls. The Reens Nigria Limited intends to make its services affordable to its entire customer. Notably, it call service number 07009009000 will cost a custom er N30 per minute of call. The calls will be on second billing and will be available for customers using landline phones as well as mobile phones. The company’s head office is physically on the Plot 6A Tecee Drive, in the Ehoru Estate along School Road, Elelenwo, and Port-Harcourt of the Rivers State. The call center agents are expected to be friendly and accommodative of the clients’ questions and concerns of their directions; below are some images expected of our call center agent. Pictures retrieved from http://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/callcenter.html. Pictures a, b, c, e, f, and g show our clients at work while d shows the network of client that each of our call service employee can service with 59 minutes. Notably, pictures a, b, e, f, and g show how workers at the call center will be verifying clients’ information for accurate information delivery. Introduction Many people usually seek information concerning place, transport systems, and enterta inment services. Most of this information is usually available at the disposal of persons seeking such information. Therefore, it will be quite advantage to the clients and persons seeking such information. However, it will be vital for the Reens Nigria Limited to seek the use of numerous technologically related business ventures that will help it ensure that it has all the information that the client may require. It should be noted that failure to provide sucking formation needed by the client will be deemed as a failure on the delivery of the company and this may lead to bad reputation; thus, affecting the functionality and profitability of the company (Dowling and Reinke 72). The Reens Nigria Limited aims at providing local and to certain level, long distance telephone services. Therefore, it must seek the consultation and collaboration of advanced technologies in the communication sectors that include wireless communication services, fiber optics, internet, and satellite service s. Additionally, since Reens Nigria limited is not only encompassed with providing geographical information only, but also entertainment information services, Reens Nigria Limited must incorporate cable TV systems to help it in providing the entertainment services. The use of high speed internet will never be an option but a must thing for the Reens Nigria Limited (Abels and Klein 132). It is through such speedy internet services that it can access Google maps among other GPR services to provide information to the customer without delay. It should be not

Terrorism in the 21st century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Terrorism in the 21st century - Essay Example This paper examines the Israel-Palestine conflict and terrorism in Middle East as well as all over the world. The paper also argues the role of western foreign policies and the strengthening extremist groups in the growth of world-wide terrorism. There are many countries i.e. the USA that tried to mediate the Israel-Palestine issue but at the end they remained unsuccessful. This conflict is a big terror for the world peace as the extremist groups of both Israel and Palestine are being strengthened. If the conflict does not get resolved within next few years, it would definitely cost a lot and whole world have to suffer. Extremists should not be given an opportunity to govern their respective states. They need to be discouraged by both sides through the right to vote. (Berrebi and Klor, 2006). The only way to make this world safer and terrorism free is the dialogue. The cross-cultural dialogues are the only things that can mediate the conflicts including Israel Palestine conflict. The Israeli operations in Palestine give birth to new terrorist attacks. The Israel-Palestine conflict is leading to the growth of terrorism not only in the region but also to a large extent all over the globe. The conflict started soon after Jews entered the Palestinian territory. The Arab nationalists joined the ground to defend the Palestinian homeland. This conflict became more vivid with the passage of time. There are many fundamental and extremist groups like Hamas still determined to keep the Israelis out of their territories. These types of extremist groups are at the both end. Israel also have religious extremist. These are extremist known as Jews Zionist (Naqib, 2003). Another reason that boosts terrorism in the region but all over the world happens to be the unemployment and rate of poverty. The rate of poverty and unemployment is rising day by day in the Israel and Palestine. The situation in Israel is still satisfactory but the circumstance in Palestine is something

Total Environments, Health, and Safety Management in Nestle Essay

Total Environments, Health, and Safety Management in Nestle - Essay Example Employees are important part of any firm, whether big or small. Their behavior, attitude and personal hygiene plays a significant role in making the organization’s environment clean and healthy.Nestle considers the knowledge and attitude of its employees about health and safety and always come up with certain program which enhance the knowledge of its employees. The personal hygiene of the employees is the top most thing because a person can make the surroundings clean if only he or she is clean.Considering major element, it also includes the standards in every aspect. Nestle takes it as an important task which comprises each and every input, whether policies or plans, from process to progress. The best way to implement the above elements for healthy and safe environment is continuous monitoring and Nestle is doing the job quite impressively. Nestle plans such workshops which helps the employees in the identification of the hazards and related risk assessment. It includes the recognition of the health and safety hazards, its listing and risk rating of each hazard and the counter act for it. It also includes decision making and steps that may be necessary to reduce, minimize or control the risks.Nestle is organizing events like â€Å"Safety Awareness Week† in its factories with devotion, commitment and understanding to endorse safe working conditions of its employees, visitors and contractors. Not only this days like Environment Day and Earth Day is also observed at Nestle worldwide.... the knowledge and attitude of its employees about health and safety and always come up with certain program which enhance the knowledge of its employees. The personal hygiene of the employees is the top most thing because a person can make the surroundings clean if only he or she is clean. Considering major element, it also includes the standards in every aspect. Nestle takes it as an important task which comprises each and every input, whether policies or plans, from process to progress. The best way to implement the above elements for healthy and safe environment is continuous monitoring and Nestle is doing the job quite impressively. Nestle plans such workshops which helps the employees in the identification of the hazards and related risk assessment. It includes the recognition of the health and safety hazards, its listing and risk rating of each hazard and the counter act for it. It also includes decision making and steps that may be necessary to reduce, minimize or control the risks. Nestle is organizing events like â€Å"Safety Awareness Week† in its factories with devotion, commitment and understanding to endorse safe working conditions of its employees, visitors and contractors. Not only this days like Environment Day and Earth Day is also observed at Nestle worldwide. Efforts like this and many others have been done in Nestle so that a healthy and safe environment is created in the factories and offices round the globe. Following the above steps, any organization can bring the higher standards in their product and can built trust among its costumers. By making a safe and healthy environment we can move towards a prosperous world and also towards greener tomorrow. Safety Visions, goals and Objectives Nestle is one the leading multinational companies. Being the

ICT Usage by the Eldery Essay Example for Free

ICT Usage by the Eldery Essay In this unit of my coursework I shall be writing about an elderly lady with special needs who is helped with the usage of ICT. The person that Im going to be writing about is Mrs Ann Reynolds, an 87 year old lady suffering from arthritis, she lives alone in her own house that she has being living in for over 40 years, it is located in central Harrow. Due to her suffering of arthritis mobility has being very difficult for her, moreover she increasingly has become deaf in the recent years, however this old bird is still mentally tip top and alert and enjoys listening to the radio, in particular the womens programs. Mrs Reynolds has two siblings and two twin granddaughterss aged 12, who currently live in Southampton Some of her Personal needs include the need to move around the house with ease, something that has become increasingly hard due to her condition of arthritis, also she has the need to control appliances and regulate the heating in her house, with old age comes the reduced ability of regulating the bodies temperature, meaning she has the need for constant heating, moreover she also has the need to feel safe in her house, due to recent brake in she has being scared with memories of the incident and has increasingly grown scared of the outside world trying to get in, furthermore she also has the need to do the shopping, cmon old she may be but she still has to eat, in addition she also has the need to receive her medical care. Socially she has the need to be able to keep in touch with friends and family. CCTV Camera and a TV Mrs Reynolds has a special CCTV camera fitted into her porch, which is connected to the her TV inside which is located inside her living room, this empowers Mrs Reynolds to see who is at her door furthermore she also has the ability to speak to them. The CCTV Camera helps meet Mrs Reynolds needs due to it allowing her to see what or who is outside her front door/porch, it also allows her to speak to them if necessary, this helps meet Mrs Reynolds needs because now she can see who is outside her porch without actually opening the door, this therefore gives Mrs Reynolds the convenience of knowing that she can remain safe and unharmed inside her house. This goes back to the time that she was attacked by a bogus caller, which left quite a scar on poor old Mrs Reynolds, via the usage of CCTV Mrs Reynolds now feels safe inside her house and she feels much more independent. Telecare Mrs Reynolds uses a simple technology called Telecare its enables and empowers her so that she lives more independently in the community. Telecare is the new name given to advanced community alarm services. Community alarms plug into telephones lines and come with a call button (pendant) which can be worn by an individual such as Mrs Reynolds. Furthermore using the call button she in now enabled to call for help from anywhere in the home or garden. How does Telecare work? The Telecare unit is fitted to Mrs Reynolds telephone point and main power supply along with some sensors. Telecare sensors can also monitor where she is in her home and can detect if; * She has stopped moving. * Or if she has fallen. * Whether she has gone outside. * Also when she is in bed or sitting in a chair inside her house. Moreover other sensors fitted in her house -smoke detector and extreme temperature detector in her kitchen. When the call button is pressed or one of the sensors is triggered, its base unit will raise an alert through the service users telephone line to a monitoring and Response centre. In case of an emergency, or when the operator cant contact her at home, the operator will contact a family member, a friends or a neighbour to have them quickly pop round and see if everything is alright and that Mrs Reynolds is safe and healthy. If the operator is unable to contact any of the following above, the operator will alert the emergency services. All together Telecare helps meet Mrs Reynoldss personal needs, due to it ensuring that she remains independent and safe in her house, without fear of any incidents happening, even if god-forbid something does happen, most likely someone will be round to help her in no time. All-in-one remote control Mrs Reynolds uses a universal remote control that enables her to access her TV, DVD, satellite receivers and CCTV that is located in her porch, the remote control is fairly large and very easy to function, it is also easily functioned and the buttons are big and bright so its is easy for Mrs Reynolds to use them, furthermore they are highly sensitive to touch and are colour coordinated for easier use. Moreover the all-in-one remote control helps Mrs Reynolds switch between her different functions, for example if she is watching her favourite soap on BBC1 and gets a door knock, she can switch from AV1 to AV2 using the universal remote control, which means she can switch from TV on AV1 to her CCTV camera on AV2, which in response permits her to see and possible speak to whom it may be at the door. Furthermore the large universal all-in-one remote control helps meet Mrs Reynolds personal needs, because of its large shape it is easy for Mrs Reynolds to hold it in her hand and she is unlikely to misplace and loose it, moreover the large touch sensitive buttons, make life easier for Mrs Reynolds allowing.

Social Housing Policy

Social Housing Policy In their article ‘Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy In England, Fitzpatrick and Pawson (2007) explain and reflect upon the changing environment of social housing in England. This essay will provide a summary of the article before analysing the position of social housing in Scotland compared to that described in England. Key similarities and differences between the two countries with regard to social housing will be provided with evidence from the current literature. Finally, the conclusion will attempt to assess if the positions of social housing are really that different in Scotland and England. The key questions asked by Fitzpatrick and Pawson (2007) are: who and what is social housing for? Through an analysis of the past 30 years and a description of the current social housing policy in England, the article explores the question of access. The underlying paradox of future policy and therefore access to social housing in England is explained as the â€Å"continuing commitment to the ‘safety net role† emphasised in the 2000 Housing Green Paper and the â€Å"explicit ambition† to provide a more mixed ‘tenure of choice thus widening the possible market. Fitzpatrick and Pawson refer to the work of Stephens et al to define the key element of social housing as a question of access â€Å"determined on the basis of ‘administrative criteria rather than just ‘pricing rationing. They then go on to describe the changing environment of social housing in England, housing associations increasing share of stock, the falling number of rented properties in general and the change of age structure within the sector as important factors. The history of the ‘needs-based allocation systems using the development of objective point scoring prioritisation is explained as the progressive orthodoxy of the 20th Century which still remains prevalent in todays legislation and guidance. A concise case against needs-based allocation is then provided with the key points including residualisation and the coercive nature of such a system leading to points chasing behavior. This background provides an excellent backdrop for the changes that occurred in the late 1990s when â€Å"the standard ‘take it or leave it social housing allocations model became increasingly difficult to defend in light of rising aspirations and expectations of consumer choice† (Mullins Pawson, 2005, p138). Choice-Based Letting (CBL) Schemes are provided as current government response to develop and open up the sector by placing more emphasis on the customers choice, and as a means of encouragement for otherwise unsuitable or unwilling participants in social housing. Initial findings show that vulnerable groups are not being excluded by the new system although there are certainly questions around the suitability and impact of a more choice led approachs effects on the poorest. In considering the position of Social Housing in Scotland, the social housing sector in Britain has historically been centralised and therefore genuine variation in policy and practice has been limited. However, devolution and the enactment of legislation to set up the Scottish Parliament have led to the opportunity for divergence within both (Walker et al, 2003, p177). Let us now consider some of the similarities and differences within the Scottish and English social housing sector as described by Fitzpatrick and Pawson. It is important to mention here that it is impossible to detail all of the similarities and differences and therefore only the most clear and important have been chosen for this discussion. There has been a global move towards private housing provision in government policy and therefore it is unsurprising that there are clear similarities between the English context described by Fitzpatrick and Pawson and the Scottish context. An important similarity is that housing has risen on the agenda and has been revived in both England and Scotland (Stirling Smith, 2003), this may be due to its importance in addressing and meeting new evolving community needs in todays societies when so much emphasis is placed on home ownership and stability. Another similarity is that both Scotland and England are facing a crossroads (CIH, 2006) as the purposes of their social housing sector differ from those in the 20th Century. The CIH, (2007) describes this crossroads as a choice to either continue providing for the housing needs of the most vulnerable or diversify to meet some of the wider needs of the community with a range of tenure options. This is exactly the same situation described by Fitzpatrick and Pawson which resulted in the CBL schemes in England. Finally, and key to the need for an evaluation of housing policy, is the changing demographic whom it is serving. Fitzpatrick and Pawson state that in England more than a quarter of all council tenants in 2003/2004 were at least 70 years old whilst in Scotland, single pensioners are the most common type of household found in the sector (CIH, 2006). According to statistics, this will change in future years, as the next generation is largely a home owning population who will not need the support of social housing. Both sectors are facing an increase of younger people as the new entrants into social housing and with that come new needs and mobility patterns. Fitzpatrick and Pawson state that commonly older renters â€Å"will have lived in the sector their whole lives, their low propensity for mobility stabilizing their local neighborhoods and tenure as a whole†. This will change in both England and Scotland and the possibility of a more transient need in social housing as discussed by Fitzpatrick and Pawson (2007) will be applicable. This development has been criticised as a reinforcement of the view of social housing as solely for the poorest and most vulnerable groups and as a ‘last resort for housing (Glynn, 2007). Adding to this hollowing out of those participating in the sector in both England and Scotland, is th e Right to Buy policy which encourages and supports households who wish to purchase their homes through regulated schemes. The Right to Buy means that the economically able are moving away from social renting, resulting in the poorest and most vulnerable making up larger percentages of the social housing sector (Satsangi and Dunmore 2003, p202 and CIH, 2007, p7). With regard to differences in Scotlands social housing sector, Midwinter et al (1991) state that â€Å"there has been acceptance in Whitehall that Scotlands housing needs are both qualitatively and quantitatively different from Englands† (p92). This is perhaps more evident since the devolution of parliament and in the difference in policies that are now emerging. Only one difference has been selected for this discussion due to its significance. Although the tenant basis of both England and Scotland are changing in similar ways, the starkest difference lies in the allocation process in the social housing sector. In England, as already mentioned, the CBL scheme is being piloted and successes are being reported (Fitzpatrick and Pawson, 2007). However, Scotland is being much more cautious in its approach and is keeping to its rights based traditions (Stirling and Smith 2003, p156). The Homelessness Task Force explain we are concerned that (CBL schemes) do not operate in ways which deny homeless people the opportunity of participating, or in ways which restrict the stock of housing available for homeless people (CHI, 2002). One of the main purposes of CBL schemes is to introduce choice. The Scottish Government is enhancing applicant choice through Common Housing Registers (CHR) that will ensure people have fair and open access to housing lists and assessment processes whilst working with landlords to encourage choice, response to need and the use of stock in lettings (Stirling and Smith 2003, p151). At the same time, the Homelessness Act 2002 removes the duty of authorities in England to have a register at all (Stirling and Smith 2003, p156). Fitzpatrick and Pawson conclude that in England â€Å"whatever the governments ambitions, in high demand areas at least, social renting will remain a ‘safety net tenure catering mainly to those in greatest need.† The social housing allocation policy may differ between England and Scotland but the outcomes here are the same; in essence, the safety net is still available for those who need it most. They further conclude that social renting performs different functions in different areas of England, with the delivery of choice being more successful in the North and Midlands and that this is the â€Å"congenial outcome of these policy endeavors† (Fitzpatrick and Pawson, 2007). Scotland is also being encouraged to diversify its social housing policy in order to widen the target population and bring regeneration to areas suffering from residualisation (Glynn, 2007) and that this will be more appropriate in some areas than in others. Therefore, in conclusion, this essay has attempted to summarise the Fitzpatrick and Pawson (2007) article regarding social housing policy in England, with some key similarities and differences given with regard to Scotland. Although there are significant differences in the social housing sector in England and Scotland, there are also significant similarities; most prominently and importantly is the desire to provide housing to the most vulnerable members of society. References Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) (2002) ‘Strategic Approaches to Homelessness: A Good Practice Briefing. (Coventry, CIH). Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) (2006) ‘The future for Social Renting in Scotland. (Coventry, CIH). Fitzpatrick, S. Pawson, H. (2007) ‘Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy in England. Housing Studies, 22, (2) pp.163-182). Glynn, S. (2007) ‘Safe as Houses. Scottish Left Review, Issue 42. http://www.scottishleftreview.org/php/upload/slr-140-I42SG.htm Midwinter, A., Keating, M. Mitchell, J. (1991) Politics and Public Policy in Scotland (Basingstoke, Macmillan). Mullens, D. Pawson, H. (2005) ‘The Land That Time Forgot: reforming access to social housing in England. Policy Politics, 33, pp135-148). Satsangi, M. Dunmore, K. (2003) ‘The planning System and the Provision of Affordable Housing in Rural Britain: A Comparison of the Scottish and English Experience. Housing Studies, 18 (2), pp.201-217). Stephens, M., Burns, N. Mackay, L. (2002) ‘Social Market or Safety Net? British Social Rented Housing in a European Context (Bristol: The Policy Press). Stirling, T. Smith, R. (2003) ‘A Matter of Choice? Policy Divergence in Access to Social Housing Post-devolution. Housing Studies, 18 (2), pp.145-158). Walker, R., Mullins, D. Pawson, H. (2003) ‘Devolution and Housing Association in Great Britain; Enhancing Organizational Accountability Housing. Housing Studies, 18 (2), pp.177-199). Bibliography Chartered Institute of Housing (CHI) (2007) ‘The Future of the Social Housing Sector in Scotland in Delivering Successful, Mixed Communities: CIH in Scotland Position Paper. (Coventry, CIH). Jellinek, D. (2006) ‘Social Housing In Scotland: Tenant Participation and Community Cohesion. (Authority Forum Report, CIVICA).

Elements Of Culture Corporate Artifacts Commerce Essay

Elements Of Culture Corporate Artifacts Commerce Essay Experienced captains know that navigating uncharted sea should be pay more attention to observe, analyze to predict potential risks and make proper decisions. As a manager, running an existing or setting up a new company also need these skills, strategic management helps corporate to focus ahead, understand the marketing environment and reposition business to effectively compete other companies. Corporate strategy management is related to different aspects, such as financial aspects, human resources management, organizational culture, marketing, etc. Organizational culture is one of these important aspects, which is an indispensable and intangible aspect of strategy management. The concepts of organizational culture and organizational strategy looks like different, but they have a closer relationship between each other. Normally one part of corporate success depends on the support of organizational culture to organizational strategy. Organizational culture is about expectations, valu es and beliefs learned and shared by the companys members and transmitted from one generation of employees to anther. The organizational culture generally reflects the values of the founders and the mission of the company. Culture gives a corporate a sense of identity: This is what we stand for. This is who we are. This is what we do. The culture includes the dominant orientation of the company, such as customer care at Hilton, innovation at Apple, product quality at Volvo, or RD at HP. It often includes the many informal work rules that the staffs follow without asking questions. These work practices over time become part of a companys unquestioned tradition. The culture, therefor reflects the companys value. (Thomas, L 2012) Apple Inc does well in their organizational culture, their culture was based on an ideal that self-motivated individuals will work harder if they do not have a boss micromanaging every action. This unique and successful culture helps Apple Inc develop the mos t attractive products and occupy the market rapidly. (Scribd 2010) Elements of culture corporate artifacts, shared values, shared assumption When you walk into a hotel, a resort, a university, a bank, what do you notice first? What do frist impressions tell you about the organization that you have just entered? How friendly it will be? How expensive it will be? What kind of behavior is expected of you? How will the staff approach and deal with you? Now look more carefully at the physical surroundings what positive and negative signs, symbols and signals do you get? How exactly are these being transmitted to you? These are all aspects of organizational culture. Cultural awareness will not only lead to more effective staffs, but also get more customers or clients and increase the customers loyalty. There are many elements of organizational culture, but three of them artifacts, values, and assumptions are the key elements, organizational employees create the sets of artifacts, values, and assumptions, no single element can build corporate culture. Corporate artifacts are the observable signs and symbols of an organizationa l culture, such as the corporate stories or legends, the organizations physical layout and the way guests are greeted, it is also a language and physical structure of the organization, the artifact may be as formal as the staff handbook or a hotel logo, or as informal as decoration in the front lobby. Artifacts are important because they offer the best evidence about a companys culture. In Hilton, there is a famous story, 80% hotels were closed down during the great depression in America. The hotels owner Conrad Hilton still told his staff dont forget the etiquette, the smile is always belong to the guests. After the great depression, Hilton hotel lead into the new flourishing period and became the leader in tourism industry. (Charles Kelly 2010) Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide organizational members preferences for goals or plans of action in a variety of situations, such as compassion, innovation, cooperation, compassion, integrity, service innovation, and the cr eativity. Values could demonstrate themselves in the form of corporate strategies, goals and desired qualities. Building organizational core values can be used to guide principles and wish the employees to insist to these. For example: Lenovo which was established with 25,000 RMB investment in a guard house in China, today, Lenovo is a US$21 billion personal technology company which ousts HP as worlds largest PC vendor. (Gartner 2012) Its success mainly depends on its strategy and corporate culture, its core value innovative spirit and customer service attract more talents and customers, which help Lenovo occupy the global market.( Lenovo 2012) Along with shared values , corporate culture consists of a deeper element shared assumptions. These are unconscious taken for granted perception or beliefs that have worked so well in the past that they are considered the correct way to think and act toward problems and opportunities. Shared assumptions are so deeply ingrained that you prob ably would not discover them by surveying employees. Only by observing employees, analyzing their decisions, and debriefing them about their actions would these assumptions rise to the surface. (Steven, L. 2008) Why do executives at Lenovo, Hilton hotel group and other companies pay so much attention to organizational culture? The answer is that they believe a strong culture is competitive advantage. Culture is one of the most precious things a company has, so the company must work harder on it than anything else.the effect of organizational culture depends partly on its strength. Corporate culture strength refers to how widely and deeply employees hold the companys dominant values and assumptions. In a strong organizational culture, most staffs across all subunits hold the predominant values. These values are also organized by established artifacts, which make it difficult for these values to change. A strong corporate culture potentially increase a companys success by serving three important functions: control system, which is deeply embedded form of social control that influence employee decisions and behaviors; social glue, which is increasingly important as a way to attract new staff an d retain top performers; and sense-making process, it helps employees understand what goes on and why things happen in company. Impact of organizational culture on tourism industry customers decision In tourism industry, the organizational culture also play an important role in its daily business, the organizational culture will have impact on the customers decision, employees service, the companys brand or reputation and the revenue. Organizational culture is the most basic determinant of a persons wants and behavior. It comprises the basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors that a person learns continuously in a society. Today, most societies are in a state of flux. Culture is expressed through tangible items such as food, architecture, clothing, and art. In the minds of millions of travelers worldwide, hotel means Hilton a place where they know they will find warm hospitality, comfort, value and rewarding recognition. This brand strength, coupled with Hiltons leading edge management systems, translates into an incredibly successful business model. Partnering with this iconic industry The culture of Hilton hotel group helps the corporate to attract more customers and inc rease their customers loyalty indirectly. Impact on employee performance Corporate culture not only have impact on customers decisions, but also on the employees satisfaction and performance, organizational culture has the potential to increase the corporate performance and employee satisfaction, the relationship between the culture and performance are that organizational culture can have a significant influence on a companys long-term economic performance and will probably be an even more important factor in determining the success or failure of firms during the next 10 years, the impact of organizational culture is also related to the service to the guests. Organization culture is important in hotel, because it sets out a control mechanism. It influences the the relationship between the employees and how decisions are made by managers in hotel. An example is where the hotel hire a new supervisor who make decisions without studying the organizational culture first, If the changes he makes conflict with the organization culture, it will confuse the employ ees behavior. In Hilton, the hotel management do it specially, other hotel put the customers in the first place, but in Hilton, they also put their employees in the first place, not matter you are the general manager or the cleaner of the back area, they think that in the hospitality industry fulfilled guests are the direct result of a fulfilled staff. The hotel offer scholarships ,travel plans, health schemes for the employees, and trust, respect, understand their employees, create the relaxed working environment to build team spirit and good mood. Hilton elevator program, which helps the Hilton Group develop a large amount of talented, internationally mobile employees and try the best to make sure every of them to the management level during 5-8 years from starting this elevator program, also helps the corporate retain their talent employees and attract more new employees. Impact on branding Nowadays, the most important thing lead brands famous or not normally is their strong culture. Successful organizations often ask themselves: how do we continue grow and promote the continuation of organization culture that makes them successful? Amazon purchased Zappos.com. Why? One key reason: because of their culture and potential to innovate the customer experience on the web and WOW them. What are the ingredients for the kind of brand culture that will fuel your companys sales, create customer loyalty and attract the right people to work with. When company begin to create culture, people are the companys asset. A company existing in the world now consist lots of people staffs, guests and suppliers. Thats why people and what they think and feel matter now more than ever before. The look of a companys advertising, design of the web site, coolness of its mobile apps are all important, but not as important as the voice and the actions of its people. Building a strong brand culture, then, starts with the people. The culture is not owned by the marketing team, it is owned by the entire company from the CEO to the customer service rep and everyone in between. And companies that nurture a distinct brand culture in the workplace will become a distinctive brand in the marketplace. Focus on developing your people and relationships and everything else will follow. Impact on leadership Organizational culture can have impact on customers decision, employee performance and corporate brand, it also can influence the leadership, leaders is created by the culture; culture created by its leaders, Leaders are supposed to be in charge of organizations, but the organizational culture also have huge impact on their decision-making in the workplace. If the leaders want to change something in company, their styles of leadership should be adjusted strategically and accommodated the organizational culture. Leaders have the roles to decide the daily business and program of activities according the basic assumption of the organizations. If the subordinates behavior are in accordance with the program outlined by the leader the value obtained is high, and vice versa when the behavior of individuals within the organization is far from the truth as set forth in the work program by the leader, then its value is low. Leadership is about supervising and guiding the following employees to wards a unified standard or target, by broadcasting as a positive impact and using motivational strategies. Leaders can be used to lead corporate through organizational, operational, structural and operational reforms.This phenomenon can be said to be similar to the growth phase of organization proposed by, especially in the second growth phase in which an organization grew on the basis of guidance (direction) of a leader that has been agreed upon by the organization. The phenomenon can be turned around, meaning leader could be created by the organizational cultural when the leader is born as a successor (succession) in an organization in which the organizational culture has taken hold and has become part of the life of the organization. An example is in the organization of government. A country or government was born from the foundations of the Constitution and the philosophy of life in which the state constitution and the philosophy of life is the basic assumption of the governmen t culture. New leader as the next generation will continue the previous leadership with the basic assumption that the new leader as the successor will hold and preserve the culture of the organization. It can be said that new leader was being created by the organizational culture. This thinking has been proven by. In his research, he found that the differences of the dimensions of transformational leadership, especially is on the charisma and inspirational motivation. U.S workers have greater leadership on the variables that focus on the vision, expected future, optimism, and enthusiasm in achieving business results. While in Germany, workers have less charisma and initiative. But there is no difference in terms of transactional leadership. Some cultural values may also predict leadership style, but only in small portions. This explains that cultural values have little affect on the leadership. How to learn culture? Building organizational culture should be taken long time, thus let the employees learn the organizational culture also be difficult, Culture is broadcast to staffs in many ways, the most efficient methods are the stories, material symbols, language and material symbols. Numerous of senior Nike executive spend lots of time to be a company storytellers to promote their organizational culture. And these stories they convey are about the Nike history. The executives always tell a story about their co-founder Bill Bowerman, he poured rubber into his wifes waffle iron to create a better running shoe, this story is about innovation sprite of Nike. When the new employees hear the story of Chinese runing star Liu Xiangs battles to be succeed in winning champion at the 100-meter hurdle race, especially he used Nikes equipment, this stroy tells the new hires that Nikes commitment to helping athletes. These stories are circulated through many retail shops and companies. Normally they will tell a narrative of stories about he companies co-founders, reductions in the workplace, rags-to-riches successes, relocation of employees, reaction to reduce the mistakes. The stories explain legitimate current practices and describe history. Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization what goals are most important, which people are important, and which people are expendable. One of the better-know is Walmarts company chant. Begun by the companys founder, Sam Walton, as a way to motivate and unite his workforce, Gimme a W, gimme an A, gimme an L, gimme a squiggle, give me an M, A, R, T! has become a ritual that bonds workers and reinforces Waltons belief in the value of his employees to the companys success. Similar corporate chants are used by IBM, Ericsson, Novell, Deustsche Bank. Many organizations and subunits within them use language to help members identify with culture, attest to their accpetance of it, and help preserve it. Unique terms describe equipment, officers, key individuals, suppliers, customers, or products that relate to the business. New employees may at first be overwhelmed by acronyms and jargon, that once assimilated, act as a common denominator to unite members of a given culture or subculture. If you are a new employee at Boeing, you will find yourself learning a unique vocabulary, including Boeing online data, etc. Conclusion Organizational culture has three main functions. It is the bridge that connect people together and makes them feel part of the organizational experience. corporate culture helps employees make sense of the workplace. Third, It is also a deeply embedded form of social control. Organizations with strong cultures normally perform better than those with weak cultures, but only when the cultural content is suit for the companys environment. Also, the culture should not be so strong that it drives out dissenting values, which may form emerging values for the future. As a manager, you can help the company shape the culture. All managers work together and can especially do their part to consider spiritually and its role in creating a positive organizational culture and to create the organizational culture. Often you can do as much as to shape your organizational culture as the culture of the organization shapes you.

Poetic Inspiration in Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner Essay

Poetic Inspiration in Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner      Ã‚  Ã‚   An examination of the characters that Coleridge presents in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan" and the situations in which they find themselves reveals interesting aspects of Coleridge's own character that are both similar to and different from the characters named in the titles of these poems. In particular, an examination of these characters with an eye toward Coleridge's conception of poetic inspiration and success can be fruitful.    In "Kubla Khan," Coleridge depicts a powerful character who "did ... a stately pleasure dome decree" ("Kubla Khan" lines 1-2). The fact that Kubla Khan is able merely to decree a pleasure-dome and know that his orders will be executed implies that he is a character of both strong will and great creative power. This faith in himself is not misplaced. The Khan decrees that a pleasure-dome be built and his order is immediately executed: "So twice five miles of fertile ground/ With walls and towers were girdled round" (6-7). Some aspects of the landscape and the dome echo the hardness implied by the chieftain's single-minded determination: the fountain "with ceaseless turmoil seething," the "dancing rocks" that are tossed into the air by the fountain, the "ancestral voices prophesying war," and the fact that the sacred river itself is "flung up momently" by the fountain (18, 23, 30, 24). As the Khan's creation, the dome can reasonably be expected to contain clues to his character, and th e characterization of the Khan harmonizes well with these clues about his character given by the pleasure dome: the image of a Mongol chief is one associated with danger, war, and a large amount of strength.    ... ... of a broken and essentially conciliatory force. When seen in these terms, it seems that the mariner may be the image with which Coleridge most closely identified himself, but both are symbols of his creative process.    References The Bible. Authorized (King James) Translation. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Kubla Khan" in Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. H J. Jackson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, in Seven Parts" (1798 text) in Romanticism: An Anthology, Second Edition. Ed. Duncan Wu. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1998. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In Seven Parts" (1817 text) in Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. H J. Jackson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.   

Free King Lear Essays: The Unaccommodated Man :: free essay writer

The Unaccommodated Man in King Lear In William Shakespeare's King Lear, betrayal is a common event that leads to the downfall of some of the characters. In today's society, there are two main attitudes that are generally taken towards these fallen individuals or unaccommodated men. The first attitude is more of a pessimistic, judgmental attitude. This attitude puts the majority of the blame on the individuals themselves. The individuals are portrayed as being responsible either due to ignorance or laziness, and it is thought that the individuals got themselves into their deprived situation and they can also find their way out. The second view is more optimistic and is usually more merciful and accepting. People taking this stance generally would take pity on the individuals thinking that their unfortunate situation was due to a simple case of bad luck, or that these individuals were taken advantage of or betrayed by others ultimately leaving them accommodated. In King Lear, the characters Lear, Gloucester, and E dgar were all betrayed by family members leading to their unaccommodated lives. Once again you can take the pessimistic, judgmental attitude or the optimistic, merciful attitude. When applied to the characters in King Lear, I choose to take the optimistic, merciful attitude. King Lear was betrayed by his two daughters Goneril and Regan. King Lear wanted to distribute his land according to the amount of love that this daughters had for him. Granted this was an illogical method, his intentions were not to destruct the family and himself. He was also very harsh to Cordelia, but the ultimate event that took place to leave him unaccommodated was the betrayal by Goneril and Regan. Lear put his trust in the wrong people, and it ended up placing him in a horrible situation. Now Lear did not make the smartest decisions, but what wrong did he commit in trusting his two daughters who professed their love for him to provide for his basic needs. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." ( I, iv,57). Lear voices his frustration with not being able to trust his own family members. Gloucester's downfall was also a case of betrayal. His illegitimate son, Edmond, betrayed him into thinking that Edgar, his legitimate son, was plotting against him. One might say that Gloucester was ignorant in believing Edmond, and that he was illogical in not confronting Edgar.

Market Research Proposal

Baby milk powder is growing strongly and rising as a necessary nutrition item for baby at the beginning of development state of life in Vietnam. According to â€Å"Baby formula price rise hits poor families† (2013), In recent years, many parents who very care about their children's development, usually choose milk which is imported from US or New Zealand because it may be more nutritious than domestic products although the price is higher than. Also, according to Euromonitor International (n. ), Vietnam is estimated as activeness and strongly develop economy, people are living ith the hectic lifestyles, shorter maternity leave and longer working hours lead woman spend less time for nursing their children. Therefore, they tend to nurse babies by infant formula which offers better nutrition and necessary vitamin for children. In this research, the research team aims to find the relevant information about infant formula market in Vietnam in order to help Oz Dairy Foods enter this market.By applying the qualitative research methods, especially in- depth interview, the research team wants to identify what Vietnamese parents expect and their perception toward foreign infant formula product. Through that, Oz Dairy Foods may have a suitable marketing strategy to achieve their goal. Secondary research a. Vietnam economy and population research According to World Bank, Vietnam is a lower middle income country which has Gross National Income (GNI) at 1,400 dollars in 2012. The GNI of Vietnam is still lower than average lower middle income level and the growth is Just parallel together.Comparing to other developing countries in East Asia ; Pacific, GNI of Vietnam is much lower and the gap will probably larger in the future. (Appendix: Figure 1) Moreover, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Vietnam's birth rate lightly grows to 16. 9 births/1000 people in 2012 which defines the increase in demand for infant formula. (Appendix: Figure 2) b. Market o verview Vietnam is highly competitive market for infant formula industry and dominated mainly by international companies including Abbott, Friesland Campina and Mead Johnson; and one domestic company, Vinamilk (Euromonitor, 2013).Dielac is the market leader of brand shares in 2012 and follows by Gain, Dutch Lady, PediaSure and Enfagrow (Appendix: Figure 3). Consequently, this will create many challenges in gaining and remaining market snares especially tor new entries. In general, powder ilks prices range from 1 50,000 to 800,000 VND/can that NET weight varies from 400gto 900g/ can. â€Å"Help growth and immune system† is the general message of current brands using to attract consumers. It tends to succeed in communicating outstanding quality of additional nutrition and vitamins to consumers.Besides many opportunities that Vietnam market brings to infant formula providers, they have to face with barriers from the government and consumers' expectation. According to Communist P arty of Vietnam online newspaper, Vietnam government applies tariff for imported brands at 10% that is highest in region. Moreover, the distribution system is fragmented and unorganized. The study of Euromonitor in March 2013 about infant formulas in Vietnam points out that Vietnamese parents are increasingly worried about nutrition in infant formula due to the negative effects of a series of scandals through media channels.The study also clarifies the challenge from Vietnamese government when there is a policy for restricted advertising on infant formula for children younger than two years old in effort to encourage breastfeeding. c. Forecast Despite the difficulty in economic growth, sale volume of infant formula is foreseen to each 53,402 tons in 2017 (Appendix: Figure 4). Consequently, the statistics proves that Vietnam is the potential market for infant formula. Research problem a.Research objectives – Identify Vietnamese customers' perception and expectations toward for eign infant formula product – Identify key factors that affect infant product marketing mix b. Research questions – Which constitutes that influence customers' decision in buying infant formula products? – What is customer's expectation towards price over value of infant formula product? – What is the most appropriate distribution and SCM for infant formula roduct to reach the majority of customers? – What kinds of promotion strategies and tools that could be successful in Vietnam infant formula product market? c.Research purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine Vietnamese customers' expectations toward foreign infant formula products; in order to construct appropriate marketing strategy that reaches the majority of customers. Without market research, the company might apply inappropriate marketing strategy; which might lead to failing in Vietnam infant formula market. Methodology a. Research method: Basically, to exploring the custome rs' perception and expectations toward infant ormula product, in-depth interviewing method will be applied as the most appropriate method for the company to chosen.Clearly, this is a type of qualitative research which could probably help the company to have a deep understanding about the infant formula market which focus group interview and quantitative methods cannot do. Moreover, two crucially important factors for doing in-depth interview are having more explanation and receiving better results when the respondent is not influenced by other respondents' opinions as well as there is more time and a comfort environment for the interview and respondent to discuss about he subjects. . Instrument development and fieldwork: In order to make the in-depth interview more completed, an interview guide which including prepared questions matching with the identified research problem and the research's needs will be created. Moreover, we will find around 10 appropriate respondents to do inter view with them in their preferred places. Furthermore, the chosen interviewer (from the group) needs to be trained and well-prepared before coming to the rendezvous to do the interview.For instance, the interviewer need to have a deep understanding about the research, the topics or questions need to be overed in the interview and also the respondents' background information to ensure that they can be able to control and lead the interview well. Additionally, when doing the in-depth interview, one member will take the role of an interviewer and the others member will take notes and record the interview. Namely, each in-depth interview between 1. 5 hours to 2 hours will be recorded on tape for the following analysis and completing the final report.At the end of the day, the whole group will collect all answers and analyze the data by using the data analysis methods mentioned below. c. Sampling: Target population: Demographic: infant formula product buyers (mother/father), married coup les tend to have baby – Geographic: Ho Chi Minh City – Gender: Male and Female – Age: Above 20 years old Sampling methods: Basically, there are two sampling methods including non-probability sampling and probability sampling. Probability sampling requires to have information from lists of available respondents; whereas, non-probability does not require them (Zikmund, 2010, pp. 37-338). Although results provided from probability sampling seem more accurate and credible, non-probability sampling is less expensive and save more ime to conduct. Thus, in the research of infant formula product, non-probability sampling method will be used. Specifically, convenience sampling which obtaining available information and respondents conveniently will be applied here. Sampling unit and size: Due to the limitations of time and resources, it is hard to do research on the whole HCMC's population so we Just can do interviews with around 10 respondents.Research Method Expected Sa mple Size Research Procedures In-depth Interview 10 HCMC'S citizens Step 1: – Prepare an interview guide – Prepare around 4 topics or 10 questions Step 2: – Contact with the chosen respondents for permission Step 3 1. 5 to 2 hours – Discussion and interaction – Record and take note Step 4: – Choose around 5 most relevant respondents to analyze : – Time frame: Data analysis method Firstly, field editing will be applied on the same day as the interview occurred to ensure that our group will gained appropriate information.To illustrate, the interviews will be double check by the whole team at the end of the day to avoid as much as possible problems. Clearly, the interviewer will go over his notes to find out inconsistence answers that are not correlated with the interviewee's answers. Secondly, coding open-ended questions will be used to categorize the interviewee's answers into different particular groups by sorting the key words from t heir provided answers.

Evolution of Human Resource to Human Capital: A Strategic Shift

As per the Darwin’s theory of evolution, everything has to evolve in order to sustain its identity. Corporate and its environment are changing every day as per the needs and behaviour of the customer. New strategies and concepts are evolving and the old concepts are either getting modified or are getting redundant if not practised. Knowledge of attracting, selecting, deploying and developing talent and strategies has given a competitive advantage to the companies.In line of this Human Resource, that was considered as a supporting coordinate in strategy formulation, now has taken a front lead in capital generation and hence regarded as the Human Capital. Peter Drucker famously defined a knowledge economy as one in which the human brain provides the primary means of production. He then noted the obvious corollary: that an organization’s most valuable resource is lodged in the heads of its employees and goes home with them at night. [Reference4].This is how firms have star ted involving employee participation at all levels for decision making and management forecasts (be it in any field, i. . Operations, finance, Marketing, Human Resource department etc. ) and not only a pre-selected group of individuals. Concepts like brainstorming of ideas have also evolved with the concept of human capital. In this article, let us first define human resource and human capital briefly. Human Resource was regarded as the set of individuals that forms the employee strength of any organization and its planning was typically considered as the process of anticipating and providing for the movement of people into, within and out of the organization.Previously firms were giving much importance to system implementation than human resource development as technology was much simpler. But with the advancement of technology and shortage of skilled manpower, firm has started giving respect to their employees and have initiated different measures to enhance their skills. This has generated the concept of Human Capital. Human capital narrowed the concept of human resource in terms of expertise and knowledge beneficial for the company. Human Capital describes the economic value of employees’ knowledge, skills and capabilities.This concept has highlighted the fact that success increasingly depends on an organization aptitude to manage talent and stressed upon the idea of â€Å"Compete through people†. In line of strategic planning that involves a set of procedures for making decision about the firm’s long term goals and strategies, human capital has taken the front seat. In the older model with the advancement of system technology, corporates started considering system before human resource. Their main goal was to make human resource as predictable as physical assets.But in last 40 years this concept has gradually changed and now the concepts like Toyota Production system pioneered the model that human resource come much before systems and that any individual on the production line had the capability often regarded as the ownership to point out problems and stop the line when proper standard operating procedures (SOP) is not being followed or some error has occurred. This has also extrapolated the idea that it is the human resource that drives and maintains the system and is not the other way round.It has also advanced the human resource processes to be continuous and not episodic as considered previously. Human capital is clearly different from the tangible monetary capital due to the distinguishing characteristic of human capital to grow cumulatively over a long span of time. Due to the shocks experienced in the business cycles it is difficult to maintain the linearity in growth of tangible monetary capital. During the period of prosperity, monetary capital grows at relatively higher magnitude while during the period of recession and depression; there is a dip in generation of monetary capital. Reference3].Contrary to this, human capital has uniformly rising rate of growth over a long period of time because the foundation of this human capital is laid down by the skills both technical as well as educational and health inputs. [Reference3]. The current generation is qualitatively developed by the effective inputs of education and health that will also benefit the future generation by its advance research and development. Thus the future generation gets refined day by day in terms of skills, production capacity etc. generating more human capital with superior quality.Firms have started banking upon their skill inventories for their business differentiation. Skill inventories list each employee’s education, past work experience, vocational interest, specific abilities and skills, compensation history and job tenure. IT hubs in Hyderabad, Bangalore etc. have banked upon their skill inventories and this has signified the rapid growth of Indian economy. Companies such as Mackenzie etc. has o ver a period of time emphasised and given inputs to develop a pool of human capital to gain the competitive advantage.Now the trategy formulation has moved from simple analysis to devising a coherent course of inputs and actions. Thus cumulative growth of Human Capital in India is evident. Countries like china have always banked upon their human capital for their economic growth. Many reasons explicitly explain the strategic change of human resource to human capital major of which is globalization. Globalization has led to multitasking of the employees where the work force is developed in a holistic manner to accomplish many tasks at one time. The resources are utilised in a much better way.Individual knowledge bases are continually changing and adapting to the real world in front of them. So the dimension of knowledge is not limited to demographic borders and has developed leaps and bounds. Training programs complement building the human capital by developing superior knowledge, sk ills and experience within the workforce. Managers of today are thriving to develop business agility in their team. Many development assignments are getting structured for employees, empowering them and ensuring that their job duties and requirements are flexible enough to allow growth and learning.Human capital is intangible and elusive and cannot be tapped the way organizations manage jobs, products and technologies. One of the reasons for this is that the employees, not the organization or system own their human capital. If valued employees leave a company, they take their human capital with them, and any investment the firm has made in training and developing those employees is lost. Technology advancement has also pioneered the shifting of human resource to human capital.Companies like Apple, Samsung are coming up with more than one product in a year where the human talent is used profusely to gain the technical niche. Advancement of technology tends to reduce the job openings that required little skill and increased the position that required considerable skills. This transformation has shifted the human resource from â€Å"touch labours† to â€Å"knowledge workers†, in which the employee responsibilities expand to map a richer array of activities such as planning, decision making and problem solving.Even the firm are preparing blue prints of programs to improve the skills of not only the upper management but also the middle and the lower management also. Firms are creating programs and awards like mentorship program, performance pay, incentives, bonuses and other awards for all level of employees to retain their human capital. Because employee skills, knowledge and abilities are amongst the most distinctive and renewable resources on which a company can draw, their strategic management is more important than ever. Reference2].Thus HR professional can concentrate more effectively on the firm premeditated direction instead of daily routine t asks. This blueprint can include forecasting personnel needs especially for firms planning to expand, contract or merge, planning for career and employee promotions, and evaluating the impact of the firm’s policies- both those related to HR functions and other functions- to improve the firm’s earning and strategic directions. But the main challenge comes in utilization of human resource as human capital.Without proper ownership and proper activities that capitalizes the workmanship of an employee, the part of the capital gets unutilized and goes as idle waste. Managers are architecting work for the employees in such a manner where they feel themselves connected and their skills are enhanced. This also catapults their full capacity utilization. The evolvement of this concept has inevitably changed the focus of firm from traditional Human Resource Management to strategic Human Capital Management.To be in the competition firms are using their human capital to implement bo th proactive and reactive change initiatives and are crossing the line to retain their human capital. Such is the magnitude of human capital in today’s scenario, where in a manager success is determined by the amount of human capital he has generated or retained in a year. The future depends on pursuing businesses that leverage human capital.

Electronic Health Record Essay

In the proposed scenario, a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) with a Post-Masters Nursing Informatics Certificate has decided that the 100 bed hospital that she works in would benefit from transitioning from paper charting to using an electronic health record (EHR) system. She has done initial clinical research and has a solid foundation of best-patient-practice reasons that support this change. She has also researched and studied the information on the government’s websites HealthIT.gov, and CMS.gov pertaining to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. HITECH is a stimulus package approved by the US government allowing $19 billion dollars to be divided between hospitals and doctors â€Å" who demonstrate â€Å"meaningful use† of electronic medical records†(ARRA HITECH Solutions, 2015). She knows that the best way to select and institute an EHR is to assemble a team of m embers with various specialties pertaining to the goals outlined in the stages of HITECH. Stage 1- Data capture and sharing, Stage 2- Advance clinical processes and Stage 3- Improved outcomes. Each of these stages has it’s own meaningful use criteria. As seen in the diagram to the  left. The CNS begins by choosing the members of her team from various disciplines in the hospital. Because this will mean corporate wide changes and adoption. Her list includes the following, from the IT department, a Clinical Nursing Informatacist- chosen for a specialty in how nurses interact with software and what is required for nurses to effectively care for patients, and the Director of Clinical Informatics- chosen for an overall knowledge base of the hospitals informatics resources and requirements including what software and hardware is currently available, what has worked or failed in the past and what changes will need to happen to keep the hospital compliant with patient privacy and safety regulations. She will also need a Corporate Project Manager to organize and disseminate information to the various off-site entities related to the facilities that will need to be on board with this change across the corporation. A Chief Medical Information Officer will be key in providing the perspective of the physicians and their particular needs and goals, and to be a liaison for the staff physicians when the EHR rollout occurs. A Chief Information Officer will bring knowledge about the hospital’s day to day functions that will need to integrate into the new EHR along with how those systems currently function. A Chief Nursing Information Officer will have their finger on the pulse of each nursing unit and be aware of the different user interface requirements that will be needed by different departments for the the specific type of flow and care given. Lastly, a Chief Financial Officer will be able to guide the team on topics concerning governmental funding and current assets along with helping to create and maintain a budget as required with the acquisition of new software and hardware, he will also be able to work with each department’s budget makers when the time comes for allocating training hours and equipment purchases. Along the way the team will need to bring in sub-specialists to give information and feedback as they hone the new system, but for now the assembled team will be responsible for researching, choosing and implementing the best EHR for their hospital. A.2 a-e) Choose 2 real-life computerized management systems and analyze them by comparing their advantages and disadvantages, recommend the best choice to meet the ‘MU’ requirements, describe how the features of the recommended system meet the guidelines outlined in the three stages of meaningful use, describe the impact on quality of patient care, documentation and outcomes. The team is aware that currently they have a computerized system that they use for reporting and tracking labs, radiology and scheduling, but all documentation is paper based. They consider the price point involved with adding modules to the existing McKesson software vs purchasing and implementing an entirely new EHR called EPIC. EPIC appears to be user friendly and able to seamlessly connect all of the facilities under the umbrella of their corporation. They make a list of some of the pros and cons associated with each system. McKesson has the upside of being a system they have already worked with and it has different programs that can be pieced together to meet some of the meaningful use (MU) criteria for compliance. They already have a working relationship with this vendor and some experience with the product. Once the discussion gets going, the team realizes that there are many more bad points than good with McKesson. In their experience, the software modules are connected in a piecemeal fashion that makes it difficult for programs to interface. Quite frequently data is just lost and not retrievable. There are different data entry systems for the different types of departments i.e. OR, ER, labor &  delivery, Med/Surge, radiology, and pharmacy. The different systems do not allow for across the board data harvesting and that makes it difficult and time consuming to track reportable nursing and CMS indicators. The aesthetics of McKesson are something that is frequently complained about by the staff, due to lack of distinctive color transition and eye fatigue. Lastly, the group is very reluctant to continue on building their EHR base with McKesson because the PCPs in the area will not be able to access hospital records, and office visit information will not be available to the hospital based staff. Due to the need for increased man hours in servicing McKesson, lack of discrete data sampling, and the poor continuity of care related to PCPs not having access to hospital data and vice versa, the team decides to choose Epic instead. Epic has the down side of being a system that will require a large initial outlay of funds. The hospital will have to purchase software, and related hardware. They will have to expand the IT and biomedical engineering departments to support and maintain the new system and equipment (something that would have been necessary to a smaller degree with McKesson). They will have to address some retrofitting needs related to wiring and computer instillation and lastly training will be a very big issue. Despite the potential down sides, the team comes up with a long list of reasons that EPIC is the right system to choose. To begin with EPIC is all one system. It allows for seamless interdepartmental interfacing. The PCPs in the area already use a version of EPIC and this will allow for easy data exchange and a patient’s information will follow them easily. The EPIC system has a medication reconciliation form that is easily viewable to all care givers and pharmacies in the area, keeping track of each patients reported medication dose and frequency. EPIC has a ‘my chart’ feature that allows patients see labs, after visit summaries , and to interact with physicians about scheduling, medications and lab results. EPIC has  many built in safe guards, including password protection, continuous backup and recovery programs so no dat a is lost, and the vendor provides continuing support as needed. EPIC comes in 3 pre-bundled, customizable templates, each already set up to meet the Meaningful Use (MU) criteria without having to alter the program. The team can look at the three available options and determine if one fits them perfectly, or find the closest one and alter it to fit their specific needs. Some examples of how EPIC will meet the Stage 1 MU criteria are computerized physician order entry, checking for drug interactions and allergies automatically, tracking demographics, keeping current diagnosis, medication and allergy lists, allowing patients to have electronic access to discharge summaries, and it gives patients electronic access to physicians. Once the hospital has used EPIC for at least two years, some examples of how EPIC will help meet the Stage 2 MU criteria are ongoing patient data entry and discreet sampling for report generation. The team will continue to develop the software that demonstrates interoperability in sharing of lab results with other providers and systems. Security risk assessment will be ongoing and built into the system. Smoking status will be tracked on all patients 13 and older and the EPIC software is designed to guide the facility from meeting the Stage 1 criteria to meeting the Stage 2 criteria. Stage 3 MU objectives are projected to improve outcomes. The team is waiting on the final ruling for what the Stage 3 guidelines will be and in the mean time they have a projected goal of focusing on primary prevention measures and improving overall population health. This will include recommended vaccination reminders, smoking cessation assistance, healthy lifestyle and meal planning recommendations, and yearly checkup reminders generated by primary physicians that will crossover to hospital patient charts. Some of the better benefits of EPIC include point and click tabs in the assessment fields, this allows for discrete sampling of information. EPIC utilizes a reporting workbench that will harvest requested, reportable data  and assemble it into a user friendly template. This will benefit the hospita l by reducing former man-hours required to find and collect data for clinical quality measures, public health reporting, and CMS indicators. Discrete data sampling from EPIC will make the hospital a benefit to the community as well by allowing it to track trends and provide information to community health nurses. EPIC comes with the ability to establish hard stops and reminders that allow real-time users to be aware of needs for care coordination and patient specific follow-ups or recommended testing related to treating chronic conditions. It will also allow for symptom driven order entry fields to be immediately available in emergent situations where time taken to look for those things could mean a worse outcome. This is especially important when people present with symptoms of stroke or heart attack. Another EPIC benefit is the different levels of bedside specific PHI protection related to sensitive care. EPIC has a ‘break the glass’ functionality pertaining to all sexual assault and psychiatric admits. This function only allows relevant staff to open and view these patients charts, any others are shown a pop-up warning and a notice is sent to start an investigation of any other person who logs in to theses charts. The team is impressed with the information provided by EPIC concerning scanning patients and medications at the bedside and the reduction in medication errors this causes. The scanners will integrate with the medication dispensing machines already in use at the hospital. One of the major benefits of EPIC is the order entry build. Each physician, with a minimal amount of training, can customize the order entry process to reflect their needs. Medication orders are instantly linked to a pharmacist to double check for allergies, and correct dosing information, and then the medication becomes available, via PYXIS machines on the unit for the RN to administer at the bedside. The bedside dosing requires the patient and medication to be scanned, further eliminating potential erro rs, and provides a pop-up warning if an emergency override is required during any of these steps. While the team acknowledges that training and time to become familiar with the new charting and bedside routine changes will initially impact patient care in a negative way, they have a plan in mind to keep the patients educated on the new system changes and the anticipated better care available to the patients across the board from instituting an EHR system. Having the patients ask questions and give real time feedback will help the team tweek their training and bedside routines to give better, more organized care that results in trackable outcomes. This is just an overview of some of the many functions EPIC has that persuaded the team to choose it as the new EHR system for the hospital. (EPIC and McKesson related information was culled from the authors own experience with the systems and personal interviews with multiple members of the informatics department at St Francis Hospital, Indianapolis campus). A.3 a) Use of Quality Improvement Data EPIC has point and click assessment tabs and a standardized documentation format that links related data. This allows for discrete data sampling related to things like CMS indicators. The hospital will be able to track compliance with things like ‘door to EKG’ times in the emergency department, Foley catheter use and resultant CAUTIs, and the time from when a patient presents with stroke symptoms until a cat scan is done and/or whether the patient receives antithrombolytics as a result. The hospital will also be able to generate reports on errors that occur the via the Risk Monitor Pro incident tracking software. This will allow them to continue researching and improving processes. A. 3 b) Security Standards and Methods EPIC has 24 hour monitoring of staff use while logged in, and the records they access. This is important because hundreds of staff members will be using the system and there has to be accountability if employees were to look up their own records, or the records of friends or family. This  information can be tracked and the employee interviewed and disciplined if needed. EPIC also comes equipped with incident reporting software called Risk Monitor Pro. All staff members are encouraged to use this format to report any incident that might warrant further investigation. It covers every location, type of employee, type of equipment, patient, visitor or vendor. Risk Monitor Pro forms are used to report potential or perceived injuries, faulty equipment, sentinel events and things that have the potential to cause harm or damage. This information can be followed up on by the risk management team, so that process improvement is an ongoing process. The team works with members from the IT department and plans for primary data storage with a redundant back up storage unit that simultaneously updates so if the primary server fails there is no loss of information. They have also planned for a second, off site data storage center that can be used in case of emergency to ensure continuity of services, and keep things up and running while the primary system is off line for upgrades. Lastly back up tapes will be kept at a third site in case both of these areas are compromised, and the system can be rebooted and running again within 72 hours. A. 3 c) Explain how the system will protect patient privacy and meet HIPAA requirements EPIC will protect patient privacy in a number of ways. End User access is limited to only being able to access the information needed to do their jobs. Making the accessible information different for nurses, physicians, registration clerks, radiology technicians, committee members etc. Personnel will only be granted access once they have completed security training and have signed documentation stating that they understand the legal risks and responsibilities when accessing protected health information (PHI). Individuals outside the hospital will have access to EPIC as well, for example nursing home physicians. They will have a read only access granted, but will require multiple patient identifiers to access the information. Also, as mentioned earlier, EPIC will employ security related  chart hard stops like ‘Break the Glass’. A. 3 d) Explain how the recommended system meets HIPAA requirements EPIC helps to meet HIPAA requirements with automated enforcing of access policies, and pro-active alerting that links directly to the risk management department, requiring strong password policies, and automatic logout at end user work stations. EPIC allows providers to protect the integrity of data and recover original data in the case of it being altered or damaged. EPIC users are required to have appropriate training to be able to access the system, and can be locked out in the case of termination. Portable devices carry encryption software that does not allow for third party data extraction or access. EPIC can also quickly generate reports with discrete sampling related to various forms of access. The majority of compliance will be the responsibility of the staff with written policies, documented sanction programs and investigation that is on-going, consistent and documented. A. 3 e) Describe how adopting the system will reduce costs to the organization Instituting this new system will initially generate more costs, but in the long run will save the hospital money in many ways. Meeting the ARRA/HITECH Act requirements will help to offset those cost with financial incentives and avoiding fines and penalties. Having readily available test results will decrease the costs and labor associated with repeating lost or illegible results. With superior organization and data summary tools, the cost for labor associated with studying charts individually and generating reports will be exponentially lower. The need for transcriptionists will be greatly reduced by utilizing dictation software. Facilities for storage of paper charting cost money for upkeep and staffing. An electronic database should make billing and insurance claims easier to process and thereby generate revenue faster. The time it takes for physicians to spend going over complicated medical histories with patients is greatly reduced by  having that information readily available in a database. â€Å"According to a recent study, when hospitals rely on advanced electronic health records they can save up to 10 percent per patient admission† (â€Å"Advanced EHR Cuts Hospital Costs By 10% Per Admission,† 2014). 4. A) Explain why active nursing involvement in the planning, selection, and implementation of the systems is important to the success of the implementation process and meeting meaningful use requirements Active nursing involvement is important to the success of implementing any process that affects care given at the bedside. For the system to be optimized for use, nursing suggestions and feedback are critical. EPIC knows this and has a team of nurses on staff to work with the facility  in developing end-user interface. ‘Nurses’ from the hospital include the advocates, CNS’s, NP’s, LPN’s, managers, and bedside care givers, each with a specific focus and experiences that are valuable when helping to decide how charting should work. Any thing that pulls a nurses attention away from the patient, or is distracting or difficult to work with decreases the perceived level of care and increases the potential for errors. The health care goals of meaningful use include improving efficiency, safety and quality while decreasing discrepancies, involving patients and their families in their care, improving public health outcomes, improving care coordination, and advancing security and privacy of PHI (Gregory & Klepfer, 2010). All of these things are the foundation of every interaction a nurse has with a patient. This is why nursing is one of the most trusted professions, according to the Gallup pole website, nurses come out on top at 80% when people were asked to rate â€Å"the honesty and ethical standards of people† in different given fields (â€Å"Honesty/Ethics in Professions | Gallup Historical Trends,† n.d.). Because standard nursing care already meets the goals outlined for meaningful use, the most important thing the average  nurse can do is to work hard to be competent utilizing the selected EHR software. Advanced users and nurse leaders are important to help guide the EHR selection process in the direction that will improve the bedside interactions and user interface. Clinical nurse specialists have advanced educations and bring the nursing philosophy to the selection and implementation process. All of these roles are vital to the success of any EHR implementation.