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Computers and the Moral Imagination
Get PDFIn this paper I want to look more closely at the relationship between new tools and historical challenges that threaten social well being and see human responses. My focus will be the technology which has come to symbolize, most characteristically, the last third of the twentieth century: computer technology. In order to discuss the impact of this I technology and its application to present challenges, it will be necessary to explore briefly some secondary themes: 1) the common sense of our age; 2) the meaning of freedom and authentic selfhood; 3) social contradiction and the moral imagination; and, one of the most daunting of our contemporary challenges; 4) the greenhouse effect
Beatrice: a Representation of Christ
Get PDFEveryone is subject, at some time in life, to an astonishment of the mind resulting from an awareness of something wonderful. Such an awareness creates awe and curiosity and makes one want to know more. In Dante\u27s life, it was simply the sight of the Italian girl Beatrice that moved him to such a state. Beatrice was the image that inspired all of his work and increased his worship and knowledge of God. She was an image of many things, in particular, virtue, redemption, new life, light and God are symbolized. But her representation as a Christ figure is most fascinating. Beatrice, as a Christ figure, guided Dante through a spiritual journey
Educating Nurse Practitioners on Palliative Care for Patients With Heart Failure
No full textThis project is dedicated to teaching providers about the benefits of early initiation of palliative care for patients with heart failure. The extensive literature review provides the scientific foundation for the project and outlines the barriers, facilitators, and future research needs of palliative care for these patients. Through the literature review, Newman’s (1999) Health As Expanding Consciousness (HEC) theory, Newman’s concept of transformation, and Mezirow’s (1978) interpretation of transformative learning theory, a scholarly project was designed and implemented to both teach and receive experiential data from current and future primary care providers. The project was implemented at a primary care clinic in Southwest Minnesota and in a classroom setting at a University. The scholarly project consisted of an educational session followed by a focus group discussion. Data was collected through pre and post-surveys completed by each participant. Through the data collected, it became apparent that both providers and future providers had a desire for more education on palliative care, initiating end-of-life conversations, and had a lot of insight into the resources necessary for successful, consistent implementation of palliative care for patients with chronic diseases in the primary care setting. Continued work, education, and resources for palliative care for chronic diseases, including heart failure, is needed and this project will continue to impact the future of advanced nursing practice as more and more people are diagnosed with multiple comorbidities and chronic diseases
Motivational Interviewing: Advancing Health and Agency
No full textuccessful management of chronic respiratory disease (CRD) involves considering several lifestyle changes and treatments to improve patients’ outcomes. The complexity of behavioral changes and treatment decisions that patients must make without guidance could diminish their motivation to address CRD treatment; therefore, leading to poor outcomes. Hence, motivational interviewing (MI) could enhance behavioral change to improve individuals\u27 health with chronic illnesses. Unfortunately, many health care professionals do not have adequate training in MI; consequently, they feel ill-equipped to utilize this approach when faced with individuals who need a lifestyle change and health coaching. Pulmonary nurses deliver holistic patient-centered approach care based on MI principles. In these patient-centered encounters, MI enhances personal motivation and commitment to health and lifestyle goals by exploring reasons for a change in an atmosphere of caring and compassion. This DNP project implemented an educational module tailored for pulmonary nurses. Parse’s Human Becoming Theory provides a framework to support MI as an alternative bio-medical approach to care. A conceptual model of care was created to educate nurses on methods for engaging and supporting individuals\u27 direct involvement in their care. Results of this project demonstrated a positive perspective on the MI approach to patient engagement of self-management. Pulmonary nurses can address the gap in care by providing the MI method in a collaborative partnership by highlighting skills specific to CRD medical management
Quiet Time: Supporting Rest and Healing in a Pediatric Medical/Surgical Setting
No full textHospitals aim to provide a healing environment, but the constant interruptions and high noise levels contribute to an unsatisfactory environment for rest and healing. Noise is an environmental stressor with negative consequences, especially for vulnerable, hospitalized children. Noise is also associated with adverse health effects and can have a negative effect on sleep, crucial for child development. Poor sleep may be impacted by loud noise and interruptions resulting in a reduction in quality and quantity of sleep while in the hospital. An uninterrupted hour of quiet time on a pediatric medical/surgical unit at a Midwest academic medical center was initiated. Watson’s caring concepts of providing a healing environment provides the theoretical foundation for the goal of this initiative to reduce noise, improve patient satisfaction, and facilitate rest and healing. The quiet time initiative is to provide a much-needed uninterrupted hour of rest for a pediatric patient, thus creating a healing environment. Results of the quiet time initiative will be assessed by providing randomized satisfaction surveys and comment cards. These surveys and comment cards will measure patients’ and the families overall satisfaction related to reduced noise disturbances and increased sleep quality. Findings will be reviewed quarterly and shared with staff on the pediatric unit for future changes and recommendations regarding the quiet time initiative
Comparing an exponential respiration model to alternative models for soil respiration components in a Canadian wildfire chronosequence (FireResp v1.0)
Get PDFForest fires modify soil organic carbon and suppress soil respiration for many decades after the initial disturbance. The associated changes in soil autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration from the time of the forest fire, however, are less well characterized. The FireResp model predicts soil autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration parameterized with a novel dataset across a fire chronosequence in the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada. The dataset consisted of soil incubation experiments and field measurements of soil respiration and soil carbon stocks. The FireResp model contains submodels that consider a Q10 (exponential) model of respiration compared to models of heterotrophic respiration using Michaelis-Menten kinetics parameterized with soil microbial carbon. For model evaluation we applied the Akaike information criterion and compared predicted patterns in components of soil respiration across the chronosequence. Parameters estimated with data from the 5ĝ€¯cm soil depth had better model-data comparisons than parameters estimated with data from the 10ĝ€¯cm soil depth. The model-data fit was improved by including parameters estimated from soil incubation experiments. Models that incorporated microbial carbon with Michaelis-Menten kinetics reproduced patterns in autotrophic and heterotrophic soil respiration components across the chronosequence. Autotrophic respiration was associated with aboveground tree biomass at more recently burned sites, but this association was less robust at older sites in the chronosequence. Our results provide support for more structured soil respiration models than standard Q10 exponential models
Teaching Body Image Resilience to Create Better Body Image
No full textThe purpose of this scholarly project is to develop and evaluate a support group and provide one on one education for adult women who are struggling with body image issues. Negative body image issues can lead to low self-esteem, shame, eating disorders, self-harm, a decrease in desires to participate in daily life, sexual problems, a lower overall quality of life and much more (Rollero & DePicolli, 2017). Self-objectification is the belief that one’s body is an object to be looked at and judged based on appearance (Rollero & DePicolli, 2017). These support groups will help to determine the goals and direction of this scholarly project throughout not only this project but also in future practice. They will also help to educate people on the topic of self-objectification and body image resiliency with the goal of helping people improve both
Patient Self-care Outcomes With Utilization of Integrative Primary Care
No full textThe United States (U.S.) healthcare system has inferior patient outcomes compared with other developed countries, and the quantity of primary care providers is insufficient. Novel ideas such as Integrative Primary Care are needed to improve patient outcomes and provider sustainability. Research is lacking regarding the effect of Integrative Primary Care on patient self-care or self-healing; however, patient self-management of chronic conditions with use of Integrative Medicine and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) have shown favorable results. This DNP project was created to diminish the gap in previous research and evaluated self-care abilities in adult patients with a chronic condition(s) before and after a customized, one-hour Integrative Primary Care appointment. Rosemary Parse’s Theory of Human Becoming guided the project, which was a one-group, pretest-posttest design utilizing a Likert-type survey. Three adult, Caucasian females participated and the outcomes were positive, demonstrating the significance of the integrative visit and healing environment. Unexpected meaningful provider outcomes were observed as well. The conceptual model created from the project portrayed the Integrative Primary Care as the base for development of a patient-provider relationship with focus on co-creation of self-care and co-transcendence into a new, healing paradigm. Validity concerns included a short interval for data collection, small sample size, and a no cost visit. However, numerous implications for advanced nursing practice resulted, including the importance for creation of new models of care with benefits for patient and provider. Further study is needed to determine long term patient outcomes, feasibility, and provider satisfaction with Integrative Primary Care visits
I Had to Call Them Out on a Very Tight Rope: Exercising Voice with K-12 Education Colleagues to Confront Racial Injustice
Get PDFThis paper uses Hirschman’s (1970) concept of exercising voice to examine how educators in the U.S. public education system speak to their colleagues about racially oppressive beliefs and practices. Limited research exists that examines the experiences of educators who exercise voice to challenge and engage coworkers and supervisors around issues of racism in their schools. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 25 educators and a flexible coding approach (Deterding & Waters, 2018), the authors found that participants described using cautious, covert, and indirect approaches with their White colleagues to increase the likelihood that their messages would be received and to decrease the personal and professional consequences they might face for openly challenging their colleagues’ racist beliefs or actions. This cautious approach serves to reinforce the dominance of Whiteness and White fragility (DiAngelo, 2018) in the context of anti-oppressive practice. Examples of an alternative to a cautious approach are presented and recommendations are made for future research and teacher education
Unpacking the Worlds in Our Words: Critical Discourse Analysis and Social Work Inquiry
Get PDFCritical discourse analysis is a rapidly growing, interdisciplinary field of inquiry that combines linguistic analysis and social theory to address the way power and dominance are enacted and reproduced in text. Critical discourse analysis is primarily concerned with the construction of social phenomena and involves a focus on the wider social, political, and historical contexts in which talk and text occur, exploring the way in which theories of reality and relations of power are encoded and enacted in language. Critical discourse analysis moves beyond considering what the text says to examining what the text does. As an interdisciplinary and eclectic field of inquiry, critical discourse analysis has no unifying theoretical perspective, standard formula, or essential methods. As such, there is much confusion around what critical discourse analysis is, what it is not, and the types of projects for which it can be fruitfully employed. This article seeks to provide clarity on critical discourse analysis as an approach to research and to highlight its relevance to social work scholarship, particularly in relation to its vital role in identifying and analyzing how discursive practices establish, maintain, and promote dominance and inequality