Hip Hop Beyond Beats And Rhymes - 846 Words

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Byron Hurt examined the troubling aspects of hip hop music. Hip hop was said to have brought masculinity back to the game. One aspect of this troubling masculine culture is the idea of hyper masculinity. The term hyper masculinity is defined as the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality. These three attributes create the disturbing facets of what hip hop music portrays to the media and the public. Hyper masculinity is embellished with importance on physical strength. Hurt’s documentary interviews Conrad Tillard, a black reverend, who touches base on the issues of hyper masculinity. â€Å"Playing a role since we are 7 years old. We are tested when someone calls us a sissy or a sucka and we start playing that role†¦ fathers punch their child in the chest and say nigga you gots to be ready for this â€Å" Hip hop shows how â€Å"important† it is as a man to show physical strength. This is shown in videos where artists such as, 50 Cent or LL CoolJ, have their shirts off on magazine covers and show off their buff bodies as a sign of strength. Showing black men shirtless greased up. Cultures in prison where men are â€Å"tatted up,† with no belts, pants sagging. It is sexualized but shows a masculine and â€Å"thug† side. To accentuate the strong body, hip hoppers use extreme gestures and body language that are synonymous to those made when fightin g. All these acts are made to assert manliness, andShow MoreRelatedEssay about Hip Hop: Beyond Beats Rhymes523 Words   |  3 PagesHip Hop: Beyond Beats Rhymes is a documentary created and produced by Bryon Hurt. The documentary challenges the dominant discourses of hyper masculinity and the misogynist treatment of women in commercialized rap. Of the many mainstream phenomenons that are discussed by Bryon in the documentary, the issue of hyper masculinity in Hip Hop is questioned greatly. Throughout the film, the producer was able to show the wide acceptance of hyper masculinity not only in Hip Hop but also American cultureRead MoreStudy Guide Hum 325 Essay1465 Words   |  6 PagesWhat is the definition of â€Å"rhetoric†? Hip hop culture is an extension of the African American Oral Tradition. According to Gwendolyn D. Pough, â€Å"bringing wreck† means: According to Gwendolyn D. Pough’s â€Å"I Bring Wreck,† the rhetorical strategy of â€Å"bringing wreck† is used by Black female MCs to: As discussed in lecture, Queen Latifah’s â€Å"U.N.I.T.Y.† is: Why does Gwendolyn D. Pough compare Common’s â€Å"I Used to Love H.E.R.† with Erykah Badu’s â€Å"(Hip Hop) Love of My Life†? In Patricia HillRead MoreHip Hop : The Commodification Of African American Women1717 Words   |  7 PagesHip-Hop Music: The Commodification of African-American Women Since its emergence in the 1980s, hip-hop has taken the world by storm; it has impacted and revolutionized the way people behave, dress, and think. Hip-hop music enables people to connect in a way they would never be able to with any other genre of music. Although, hip-hop has swayed different generations over the years, its influence has not always been positive. In the past, hip-hop focused more on current events in society, personalRead MoreHip Hop : The Root Of Black Culture1877 Words   |  8 Pages Hip-hop is the root of black culture. Hip-hop is the insight to black communities and was created in the ghetto (unprivileged black communities in North America). It was a will response to systematic violence in the community. To better understand hip-hop and the issue of gender one must question â€Å"at what point did violence, sexism, and homophobia become primary components of a subculture that once was founded on refusal of gang violence and the harmful side of street life and when did black womenRead MoreThe Bronx Of New York City990 Words   |  4 Pagespoverty-stricken area that was comprised of primarily Black and Latino residents. As a response to the systemic racism that these communities faced, young black men became vocal about their communities’ issues through the use of hip hop music. Thus, it was during this time that hip hop became a rising platform; and was predominantly influenced by the Black power movements which promoted black nationalism, liberation an d empowerment as a response to systemic anti-black racism. This platform allowed many youngRead MoreDon t Understand Hip Hop Music s Appeal And Why Youth901 Words   |  4 PagesThe first claim Carl and Virgil make is that adults don’t understand hip hop music’s appeal and why youth listen to it (Taylor and Taylor 210). That claim, however, doesn’t have any substantial, credible, information to back it up. In fact, in a radio broadcast by Talk of the Nation, â€Å"A Look at Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes†, they discuss that one man as an adult listened to hip hop music as well, stating it was part of the urban culture and he loved listening to it, until he started learningRead MoreRap Or Hip Hop Is More Than Just Another Music Genre940 Words   |  4 PagesRap or Hip Hop is more than just another music genre, it is a movement full of more aspects than one could imagine. The film â€Å"The Art of Rap† directed, produced, and hosted by Ice-T, exe mplifies the different aspects and explains the importance of Hip Hop while taking a journey interviewing many legendary MC’s, giving the viewer an inside perspective of this music and the art of MC’ing. This film also heavily resonates with the book Rap Music and Street Consciousness. Ice-T interviews many influentialRead More Hip Hops Effect on American Culture Essay3346 Words   |  14 Pages Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hops influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S.,Read MoreA Brief Note On Hip Rap Culture And Hip Hop1862 Words   |  8 PagesResearch Paper Hip Hop Culture â€Å"Hip-hop gave a generation a common ground that didn t require either race to lose anything; everyone gained.† -Jay-Z. I truly believe that the culture of hip hop really does have the power to bring people together. Hip hop is capable of bringing unity and even a sense of community amongst different people and different culture. The world is very diverse place filled with a mixture of various backgrounds, environments, beliefs, practices, etc., but Hip Hop can provideRead MoreThe Problem Of Hip Hop Music1721 Words   |  7 Pagesshould be considered artistic expression, while the prosecutors will claim that the song is either a criminal threat or has too many similarities to the actual crime that it should be considered a confession. The primary basis for this debate is that hip-hop music is a misunderstood cultural practice because of the racial divide between the defendant and the criminal justice system. The precedent for using rap lyrics as evidence can be traced as far back as 1994 in California, when they were used to

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life Free Essays

string(54) " of the patient and the advice for out-of-hours care\." 1Introduction 1.1 Definition of Palliative care According to the WHO, Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychological and spiritual. Palliative care provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms, affirms life and regards dying as a normal process, and intends neither to hasten nor to prolong death. We will write a custom essay sample on Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life or any similar topic only for you Order Now 2 Palliative care integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patients care, and offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death. It also offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavements. In many countries, the terms hospice and palliative care are used interchangeably to refer to the support provided to people with little or no prospect of cure.3 In the United States, a distinction is made between general palliative care and hospice care, which delivers palliative care to those at the end of life; the two aspects of care share a similar philosophy but differ in their payment systems and location of services. Whereas in the United Kingdom, this distinction is not operative; in addition to specialized hospices, non hospice-based palliative care teams provide care to those with life-limiting illness at any stage of the disease. According to the Scottish Partnership for palliative care, palliative care is the term used to describe the care that is given when cure is not possible. The word comes from the Latin â€Å"palliatus†(covered or hidden with a cloak) and is used to mean â€Å"relieving without curing†.4 Although palliative care is historically associated with later stages of cancer, it is now established that palliative care should be a routine part of care for those living with and dying from a wide variety of non-malignant conditions, such as dementia, heart failure, Huntington’s disease, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s disease, renal failure and respiratory failure among others. General palliative care is an integral part of the routine care delivered by all health and social care professionals to those living with a progressive and incurable disease, whether at home, in a care home, or in hospital.4 Specialist palliative care is based on the same principles of palliative care, but can help people with more complex palliative care needs. Specialist palliative care is provided by specially trained multi-professional specialist palliative care teams and can be accessed in any care setting. 1.2 Public health context of palliative care Public health approaches to palliative care have a valuable contribution to make in understanding and developing community capacity related to , dying, loss and care acknowledging that carers of the dying and bereaved are an important group who have their own significant needs in end -of-life care.5 Primary care has a vital role in delivering palliative care. 6,7 In most developed countries more people die in hospital than at home 8,although substantially more people would prefer to die at home.9 Primary care professionals play a central role in optimising available care, but they often lack the processes and resources to do this effectively.6,10 The Gold Standards Framework (GSF) for community palliative care 11 is a primary care led programme in the United Kingdom that is attracting international interest.7 The framework enables general practitioners and community nurses to optimise practice by providing guidance through workshops and locally based facilitation on how to implement processes needed for good primary palliative care. It is supported by a plethora of practical tools, guidance documents, and examples of good practice.12 It is regarded by many as â€Å"the bedrock of generalist palliative care†. GSF is recommended as best practice by the Department of health End of life care strategy, NICE, Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Nurses and other major policy groups. 1.3 Care pathways in palliative care A care pathway is a plan of how someone should be cared for when they have a particular medical condition or set of symptoms. There is increasing evidence that using an integrated care pathway to manage care at the end of life is good way to implement and monitor best practice, and to standardise care in a variety of care settings. The use of pathways to manage the care of dying patients has gained considerable support from the clinical teams who have used them, as there is evidence that use of such pathways improves the quality of care in the last days and hours of life. A number of end of life care pathways have been developed but the first and most well known is the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patients (known as the LCP).13 A number of other pathways are available in relation to supporting the care of dying patients: – Pathway for Improving the Care of the Dying (PICD) (Australia) – Palliative Care for Advanced Disease (PCAD) pathway (USA) – Department of Veteran’s Affairs (DVA) Palliative Care Clinical Pathway (Australia) – Gold Standards Framework (GSF) for community Palliative Care (UK) – Preferred Priorities for Care Plan (PPC) (UK) The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is aimed at improving care and communication in the dying phase. In the UK, the LCP was developed to improve care for dying patients.14 The LCP was developed to take the best of hospice care into hospitals and other settings. It is used to care for patients in the last days or hours of life once it has been confirmed that they are dying. The LCP is designed to enable all healthcare workers to provide optimal care to dying patients, whether they are specialists in palliative care or not, by guiding clinical decision making. The LCP is a legal document which replaces the usual medical record at the end of life, and is structured to facilitate audit and outcome measurement.15 It promotes clear communication around the dying and death of the patient, and it supports psychosocial and spiritual care to the patients and their relatives, for example, by promoting adequate communication and support and giving relatives a brochure for bereavement after the deat h of the patient.15 The UK and 13 other countries are registered with the LCP Continuous Quality Programme. 16 In Scotland the LCP is applied by 12 of the 13 voluntary hospices; but only a quarter of district nurses reported in 2008 that they are currently using the LCP.17 In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 37% of the GP practices, 33% of the nursing homes and 47% of the wards in the acute operating division are in the process of implementing the LCP.18 1.4 Pharmaceutical care context of palliative care It is estimated that one in three people in the UK will develop cancer and one in four will die from it.19The survival rate for cancer is increasing with more patients being treated as day-case patients. The length of stay for in patients is also decreasing, therefore it is essential to ensure appropriate care continues in the community setting.20 Hepler and Strand defined pharmaceutical care as improves a patient’s quality of life.21 For pharmaceutical care to be successful, a quality system should be implemented to ensure appropriate patient outcomes. It is important that all pharmacy members of the healthcare team in different settings are included in the delivery of pharmaceutical care.22To ensure continuity of care, pharmaceutical care plans require to be updated when the patient’s needs change. Seamless care helps patients to move across healthcare boundaries without experiencing a gap in the standard of healthcare delivery, but this requires effective communicati on between primary and secondary care.23 In providing pharmaceutical care, pharmacists co-operate with doctors, patients and/or carers in designing, implementing and monitoring a â€Å"pharmaceutical care plan†. The pharmaceutical care provided aims to optimize drug treatment and achieve specified therapeutic outcomes. This has the potential to reduce drug-related problems and improve patient’s quality of life To support the local delivery of chemotherapy, models of care need to be developed and remote models of care need to be developed and remote patient monitoring performed which is linked to an electronic health record.24 The use of an electronic record would undoubtedly improve seamless care. It is therefore essential that improvements are made in the transfer of pharmaceutical care. Over the past decade, there has been a large increase in the number of patients receiving cancer treatments and symptom relief treatments at day-case chemotherapy clinics25. With the increase in the prescribing of oral chemotherapy and the use of ambulatory intravenous pumps which allow patients to receive continuous chemotherapy at home, there is increasing need for hospital pharmacists to liaise more closely with general practitioners (GPs) and community pharmacists to explain unusual indications for a drug or unconventional dosage regimens. This liaison is needed to avoid incidents reported through the in-house reporting system such as inadvertent continuation of intended short courses of medication, for example, dexamethasone prescribed for three days as an anti-emetic after chemotherapy. There is a need for the required clinical monitoring to be undertaken in primary care to minimise risks associated with these medicines. It is essential that detailed information on monitoring requirements is conveyed from the day-case clinic to the patient’s GP and community pharmacist, so that both are aware of the therapeutic plan for the patient and management of potential toxicities and possible drug interactions. Methods of transferring care require exploration and hence Julie Fisher et al,in their study examined and designed a documentation system to monitor pharmaceutical care between cycles of chemotherapy for patients who attended an oncology care unit.24 Their study confirmed a recognised need for continuity of pharmaceutical care between hospital and community pharmacists. The Gold Standards Framework Scotland (GSFS) was introduced in 2003 and is an adapted version of the GSF for implementation within NHS Scotland. The Gold Standards Framework Scotland provides a means of improving the quality of care provided by primary care teams in the final year of a patient’s life. The main differences to the core GSF are : addressing the needs of patients from diagnosis onwards; maintaining a GSF palliative care register, and ; advanced care planning, defined as a process of discussion between an individual and their care providers about individual’s concerns, their preferences for types of care and their understanding of their illness and prognosis.26 Across Scotland, 75% of GP practices are registered as using the GSFS.17 As of 2009, 80%of GP practices in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are signed up for the GSFS.18 The most recent development in 2009 has been the electronic Palliative Care Summary (ePCS). The ePCS allows, with patient or carer consent, the access to daily updated summary information from GP records for Out of Hours services and NHS 24. This facilitates structured and accurate information to be available in hours and out of hours to support palliative care patients and their families. The ePCS includes: prescribed medication, medication diagnosis, patients’ and carers understanding of prognosis, patient wishes about place of care and resuscitation.26, 18. The UK department of Health has proposed that Primary Care Trusts across England should invest in pharmaceutical care services giving patients access to more help from pharmacists in using their medicines.27 Evaluation of pharmacists’ interventions has shown that they can make a valuable contribution in secondary care settings such as hospices and hospitals.28 Lucas et al found that more than 60% of pharmacists’ interventions in an inpatient palliative care unit could significantly improve patient care.29 The pharmacist advised on the appropriateness of medication regimens, side effects and contraindication of medication and provided drug and prescribing information to patients and staff. Despite being perhaps the most accessible healthcare professional, there is limited research into the possible contribution of community pharmacists to community-based palliative care in the UK. A recent review showed that the delivery of palliative care to patients in the community is far from ideal.30 Inadequacies in knowledge and training of professional currently providing palliative care to patients at home may prevent the patient receiving optimum pain and symptom control.31, 32 Fragmentation and poor organisation of current palliative care services may result in a loss of continuity of care for such patients or hinder the timely availability of appropriate medication.33,34 Poor communication within existing teams and across organizational boundaries also limits the provision of effective palliative care to patients in the community.35,36 If community pharmacists were included in the local network of healthcare professionals, this would benefit all parties, especially patients and carers, and it would help to share the over-increasing work load in palliative care, due in part to an aging population. Needman et al, 37 assessed the effectiveness of community pharmacists’ clinical intervention in supporting palliative care patients in primary care using an independent multi-professional panel review. In their study, they suggested that when trained community pharmacists are included as integral members of the multi-professional team, they can intervene effectively to improve pharmaceutical care for palliative care patients in the community, providing additional support for them to remain at home; because majority of palliative care patients spend most of their last year at home under the care of their GP and the primary care team.38 It is only when the community pharmacist knows and have the details of the patient’s medical condition and prognosis , that she is able to suggest new therapies or to titrate existing ones. Unfortunately in the present UK community pharmaceutical services system, the community pharmacists are unlikely to know the medical diagnosis of the patients or other essential clinical details.39, 40 As a result, community pharmacists in general are unable to make full use of their knowledge and expertise o r to anticipate problems and advice on them. The recent NHS pharmacy plan advocates that personal medicine management services should be provided by community pharmacists in the future.27 The study of Needman et al showed that the personal palliative pharmaceutical care services are feasible in everyday practise when community pharmacist is included in the multidisciplinary palliative care team.37 In 2002, the Scottish Government through its publication â€Å"The Right Medicine: A strategy for pharmaceutical care in Scotland†, proposed a better use of pharmacists’ professional competence in planning and delivering services, especially in priority areas such as cancer, heart disease and mental health.41This policy document placed emphasis on the continued development of Pharmaceutical Care Model Schemes including palliative care, initiated in 1999 in collaboration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland. This work has developed and now all NHS Boards have developed Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Networks. Access to specific palliative care medicines within and out with working hours via this network is quality standards in all NHS Board areas.42 Within the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area 71 of the current 312 pharmacies are involved in the Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Network. This network was established in 2001 and is funded by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde18, 43, 44. The purpose of the project is to increase awareness of the community pharmacist’s role, their capacity to manage patients requiring cancer and palliative care support, reduce risks and effectively manage anticipatory care needs to minimise out of hours issues. The services of the network pharmacies includes: retailing a stock of more specialized medication which may be required for palliative care; a courier service for transport of urgent prescriptions and medicines, and ; provision of advice and support to other pharmacies, GPs and district nurses. In 2006, a new community pharmacy contract was agreed with the Scottish Government to modernise community pharmacy practice and to support the delivery of pharmaceutical care. The contract is based on four core services, namely the acute medication service, the minor ailment service, the public health service and chronic medication service (CMS) 45 of which palliative care is one. The Chronic Medication Service (CMS) will also require patients to register with a pharmacy. It will enable a pharmacist to manage a patient’s long-term medication for up to 12 months. Under this service, a patient can have his or her medicines provided, monitored, reviewed and, in some cases, adjusted as part of a shared care agreement between the patient, the GP and the community pharmacist. It is in this service that an emphasis on the systematic approach to pharmaceutical care is particularly apparent; it will incorporate the pharmaceutical care model schemes, serial dispensing and supplementary prescribing. In October 2008, the Scottish Government published â€Å"Living and Dying Well in Scotland. ‘Living and Dying Well’ is the first plan for the development of a single, cohesive and nationwide approach to ensure the consistent, appropriate and equitable delivery of high quality and person centred palliative care based on neither diagnosis nor prognosis but on patient and carer needs. The concepts of assessment and review, planning, coordination and delivery of care, of communication and information sharing and of appropriate education and training are addressed in this Action Plan. The Action Plan states that NHS Boards and Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) should take steps to ensure that patient with palliative care needs are included in a palliative care register and are supported by a multidisciplinary team. The Action Plan also emphasises the importance of proactive care planning and anticipatory prescribing to aid the prevention of unnecessary crisis and unschedu led hospital admissions, particularly out of hours. This also includes the planning for stages of illness trajectories that are likely to produce changing patient needs in the future. Key to the progress of â€Å"Living and Dying Well† is its emphasis on a person centred approach to care and care planning and on the importance of communication, collaboration and continuity of care across all sectors and all stages of the patient journey. In order to fully realise the necessary improvements in palliative and end of life care, NHS Boards should review their projects the â€Å"Living and Dying Well† actions and the actions set out in Living and Dying Well: Building on Progress – with particular priority on the following areas. – Early identification of patients who may need palliative care – Advance / Anticipatory Care Planning (ACP) – Palliative and end of life care in acute hospitals – Electronic Palliative Care Summary (ePCS) – Do not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) 1.5 Transfer of information in Palliative Care Access to specialist palliative care services must be more consistent across Scotland, according to a report published by Audit Scotland.17 Audit Scotland investigated the provision of specialist and general palliative care in all NHS board areas. It found a significant variation in the availability of specialist palliative care services and in the ease with which patients can access services.46 Although community pharmacists’ provision of palliative care medicines was not specifically reviewed by the audit, the report notes: â€Å"NHS boards reported that provision was well organised through the national community pharmacy scheme† Many people, who are terminally ill, do prefer to spend their last days in their own homes. It is therefore, essential that these patients have easy access to care and medicines that can help them if their condition were to change rapidly or deteriorate suddenly at night or during the weekend (as is common in terminal illness). However, the provision of out-of-hours specialist palliative care and the availability of palliative care medicines in the community can present major problems. Communication between professionals and patients/carers is an important aspect of palliative care in any setting. However, effective communication and co-ordination between professionals, especially across organisational boundaries, systems and structures, can play an even more crucial role in ensuring the quality of care and enhancing patient and carer experience. According to â€Å"Living and Dying well† in Scotland the aim of communication and co-ordination is – to ensure that all patients and carers with palliative and end of life care needs are supported to participate fully in developing care plans and making decisions about their care – to ensure that their needs are communicated clearly across care settings and systems to all professionals involved – to ensure that the care of all patients and carers with palliative and end of life care needs is co-ordinated effectively between specialists and across care settings and sectors. The transfer of appropriate information between care settings, including out of hours services and NHS 24, could be improved, and is known to have particular significance for those with palliative and end of life care needs. The Scottish Government is therefore facilitating development of an electronic Palliative Care Summary (ePCS) which is developed from the Gold Standards Framework Scotland Project 47 and is based on the Emergency Care Summary. The ePCS will, with patient and carer consent, allow automatic daily updates of information from GP records to a central store, from where they will available to out of hours services, NHS 24 and Accident and Emergency service. The ePCS is currently being piloted in NHS Grampian, and subject to successful evaluation, will be rolled out nationally from 2009. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland is currently developing National Key Performance Indicators for palliative care which address out of hours issues. The timely sharing of information betw een primary and secondary care, especially at times of admission and discharge and including transfer between home, care homes and hospitals remains a challenge to be addressed.46 The ePCS now provides a helpful framework for identifying the type of information from assessments and care pans which should be shared. NHS Boards will be expected to ensure, by whatever means are locally available, the availability over 24 hours of such information to all relevant professionals. 1.6 Electronic Palliative Care Summary The ePCS builds on the Gold Standards Framework Scotland project and the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). The ePCS will, with patient /carer consent, allow automatic daily updates of information from GP records to a central store, from where they are available to Out Of Hours (OOH) services, NHS 24, Acute Receiving Units, Accident Emergency Departments and shortly to the Scottish Ambulance service. The ePCS is now in use in over 23% of practices across 11 Health Board in Scotland.48 The electronic Palliative Care Summary (ePCS) allows practices to: replace the fax form used to send patient information to out of hours services, clearly see essential information on patient with palliative care needs, view or print lists of patients on the practice Palliative Care Register, set review dates to ensure regular review of patients. The information allows practises to build up Anticipatory Care Plans which may include: – medical diagnoses as agreed between GP and patient – patient and carer understanding of diagnosis and prognosis – patient wishes on preferred place of care and resuscitation (DNAR) – information on medication and equipment left in the patient’s home â€Å"just in case† – current prescribed medication and allergies, as per the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). ePCS needs to be developed to meet the needs of palliative care patients. This will require electronic transfer of appropriate information across care settings and to be accessible by recognised healthcare workers supporting patient care. This project will review the development to date of relevant electronic transfer systems. 2. Aim and Objectives Aim Describe current pharmaceutical care provision and make recommendations for electronic transfer of information through evolving palliative care summaries. Objectives 2.1 To conduct an extensive literature review to establish current published work as a baseline for describing information summaries to support pharmaceutical care of palliative care patients. 2.2 To describe relevant information summaries in current practice. 2.3 To describe current information transfer across care settings. 2.4 To identify developments in electronic transfer of care summaries and make recommendations on data fields to support information transfer based on evidence. 2.5 To make recommendations to support an electronic palliative care summary (ePCS) for use by pharmacists in different settings providing pharmaceutical care to palliative care patients. 3.Methods 3.1 Description of literature searching A literature search was conducted in order to identify relevant previous work and experiences in the transfer of information in palliative care to support pharmaceutical care of such patients. The findings are presented in the introduction. For the outline literature review the biomedical database MEDLINE was accessed and browsed via University of Strathclyde library services. The search was carried out using both MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) vocabulary and plain search terms, either individually or in different combinations. The inclusion criteria comprised articles published between 2010 and around 2000 and publications in English Language. The following search terms were mainly considered. Palliative careEnd of life careCancerChronic disease management Pharmaceutical care provisions Scotland United Kingdom Qualitative research Out-of-hoursPharmaceutical carePharmaceutical serviceCommunity pharmacyPharmacist Patient care Electronic palliative care summaries In addition, the Google search engine, PubMed, the Google scholar database indexing full texts of scientific literature and the search engine Bing from Microsoft were used and the web pager of several journals like the Pharmaceutical Journal, Palliative Care Journals, Palliative Medicine Journal, British Journal of General Practise, and the British Medical Journal were reviewed applying the same key words. In addition, the websites of a number of professional organisations such as NHS Scotland, NHS 24, and NHS Boards across Scotland, Scottish Government, Community Health and Care Partnerships, Audit Scotland, the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and the World Health Organisation were searched for government policy documents relating to palliative care. 3.2 Identification of current practice Face to face interviews and group meetings and telephone discussions were also deployed in this research work. Group meetings were held with the University team of the Macmillan Pharmacist Facilitator Project, head of pharmacy of NHS 24, a district nurse as well as a palliative care link nurse. The meetings helped as appropriate tools of information due to the fact that they enabled the participants to describe and talk freely about their experiences while retaining a focus on the subjects of interest. A method that facilitates the expression of criticism and the suggestion of different types of solutions is invaluable when the aim is to improve services.49 3.3 Current information transfer to support practice The head of pharmacy of NHS 24 advised making contact with district nurses or palliative care nurses and the need for them to participate in face to face interviews. The actual recruitment of one district nurse was co-ordinated by a Macmillan Pharmacist Facilitator and the palliative care link nurse agreed to a telephone conversation to capture clinical care issues arising as part of their daily practice. 4.Results The services provided to patients out-of- hours (OOH) are an essential part of palliative and end of life care, and the issues relating to OOH service provision were of paramount relevance in this research work. The recent changes to the General Medical Services (GMS) contract shifted the responsibility for OOH service provision from GP practices to NHS Boards. This has changed the way in which patients access care outside normal working hours. The establishment of NHS 24 has introduced a new model where 24-hour telephone advice is the single point of access to all OOH services. Patients are now unlikely to receive OOH care from a doctor who knows them and the importance of continuity to palliative care patients means that they are likely to be particularly affected by these changes.50More recently, the establishment of centralized services (NHS Direct in England and Wales, NHS 24 in Scotland) present a new model 24-hour telephone advice that will be the single point of access to all OOH services, even in rural areas. The intention is to benefit patients and carers by offering simple and convenient access to advice and effective triage, so that appropriate care can be delivered quickly and efficiently.51 Responsibility for healthcare is been transferred from GPS to local primary care organisations, which are currently setting up new unscheduled care services. There has been a progressive shift in the locus of care from the home and local general practices to more distant emergency clinics or telephone advice.52 An understanding of the needs and experiences of palliative care patients and their carers is essential to ensure that OOH care is effect as well as efficient. Alison Worth et al, in their qualitative study of OOH palliative care, explored the experiences and perceptions of OOH care of patients with advanced cancer, and with their informal and professional carers.50 this study made explicit the barriers experienced by palliative care patients and their carers when accessing care. The importance of good anticipatory care particularly provision of information to patients and carers along with regularly updated handover forms sent to OOH services, was identified as key by both patients and professionals. Professionals described the barriers to achieving individualised patient care and the problem posed by competing priorities, but saw potential for improvements through an expansion of OOH resources, particularly nursing and supportive care. Worth et al, compared their study to previous studies which suggested that good anticipatory care, particularly provision of information to patients and carers about sources of help OOH, and what to expect from services, helps maintain care at home and manage patients’ and carers’ expectations of services.53,54According to Worth et al, GPs and district nurses wanted 24-hour access to specialist palliative care advice on symptom management and medication use.55Access to palliative care drugs and advice via a community palliative care pharmacy network is a quality standard in Scotland.42 Many people who are terminally ill want to spend their last days in their homes. For this reason therefore, these patients should have easy access to care and medicines that can help them if their condition change rapidly or deteriorate suddenly at night or during the weekend. However, the provision of out-of-hours specialist palliative care and the availability of palliative care medicines in the community can present major problems. Palliative care medicines are only readily available during normal working hours, Monday to Friday. Feelings of uncertainty and anxiety can be heightened in patients and carers, particularly OOH, if there is no easy access to familiar sources of professional help and advice or to the medicines needed to control symptoms that commonly occur in the terminal phase of a disease.11 The â€Å"just-in-case† six-month pilot study which was set up in three areas of the Mount Vernon Cancer Network was aimed to avoid distress caused by inadequate access to medicines OOH by anticipating pharmaceutical needs stemming from new or worsening symptoms; and prescribing medicines to be used on a â€Å"just-in-case† basis. The initiative was intended to support the â€Å"Gold Standards Framework†, a programme that aims top develop a practice-based system to improve the organisation and quality of care for patients in their last 12 months of life.56 the â€Å"just-in-case† box (blue plastic hobby box-27x20x10cm) where medicines were stored at the patient’s home. The prescriptions reflected the individual needs of each parient and were written up in the patient’s notes and on an administration sheet used only for anticipatory or when required medicines. An approved list of medicines for symptom control in patients in the terminal phase of an illness was made available through the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient15, 57 and this was adopted for the pilot. As a result, the medicines usually supplied on a â€Å"just-in-case† basis were diamorphine (for pain), midazolam (for agitation), cyclizine, haloperidol or levomepromazine (for nausea or vomiting), glycopyrronium or hyoscine hydrobromide (for respiratory secretions). Information transfer in palliative care is currently underdeveloped because most of the information is within the decision of the GP. Presently NHS 24 does not have access to patients’ medical records. Anytime a call is made to NHS 24, a record is made, a previous contact is seen and all reports are documented as well as the resources and advices used in the past. However, from May 2007, all NHS 24 centres are now able to access a patient’s Emergency Care Summary (ECS) provided patient’s consent is first obtained. The Emergency Care Summary (ECS) is a relatively new system which allows information on a patient’s medication and allergies to be automatically extracted from their GPs records. The security around accessing ECS is very strict and any time an access is made, it is logged so as to know who has been seeing it and this is especially doctors. The NHS 24 has access to ePCS but there is nothing on the ePCS that mentions medicines and that element of pharmaceutical care is missing in the ePCS. Legislation was introduced throughout the UK in 2000, which provided the framework for the supply and administration of medicines without the need for an individual prescription. This framework was Patient Group Directions (PGDs). According to NHS Education for Scotland (NES), a Patient Group Direction (PGD) is a written instruction for the sale, supply and /or administration of named medicines in an identified clinical situation.58 It applies to groups of patients who may not be individually identified before presenting for treatment. Before now, out-of-hours GP care in England, Denmark and the Netherlands has been reorganised and the Netherlands has been reorganised and is now provided by large scale GP co-operatives. Adequate transfer of information is necessary in order to assure continuity of care, which is of major importance in palliative care. Schweitzer et al, conducted a study to assess and investigate the availability, content and effect of information transferred to the GP co-operatives.59 According to their study, GPs in the UK were satisfied with the palliative care provided by their out-of-hours co-operatives, but satisfaction was less for inner city GPs who had concerns about the continuity of care.60 District nurses reported less satisfaction, especially with the quality of the advice, the reluctance to visit, and difficulties in obtaining medication.61 In their study , the total number of palliative care phone calls was 0.75% of all calls to the GP co-operative. Information was transferred and the content consisted mainly of clinical data. It was also found that half of the calls regarding palliative care resulted in a home visit by the locum, and that medication was prescribed in 57%of all palliative care calls. According to this study, a report from the UK stated that a lack of information can lead to problems in symptom control and an increase in unnecessary hospital admissions.62 This study recommended that GP co-operatives needed to develop and implement an effective system of patient information management. The potentials for improvement in the end-of-life care that is provided by the GP co-operatives was a factor of information transfer especially if an electronic patient file is accessible during the out-of-hours period, and this should contain information that is of relevance to locums. The two nurses who took part in the interviews suggested that the service provided for palliative care patients has improved a great deal over the past few years especially with the introduction of the Gold Standards Framework Scotland. An integral part of this improvement was said to be the anticipation of patients’ possible future needs [by the development of Anticipatory Care Plan (ACP)], so that the essential equipment and drugs are either already in place when they become necessary or else can be obtained without delay. This act was identified as reducing the need to call the local out-of-hours GP services over the weekend or in the evenings. The district nurse explained that patients and their carers/family were given details of how to contact the evening or night nursing service who was on call and when one action/plan was carried out the next nurse who is giving care to the patient is able to see what the previous nurse had done. This was done with the use of a â€Å" mobile computer†. The palliative care link nurse explained that the ePCS was not accessible by nurses yet but this is being looked into by GPs but nurses who needed access were allowed by their GPs. During out-of-hours, GP practices cannot provide essential services and general management to patients who are terminally ill. Following an independent review of GP out-of-hours services, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are also responsible for developing a more integrated out-of-hours system. (Carson Review). The Carson review envisaged that the needs of palliative care patients will be identified in advance noted on the NHS Direct database and passed directly without triage to the service they needed.63This followed from recommendations that transfer of information between GPs and their out-of-hours provider is essential to ensure continuity of care 62, thus forming one of the current GP co-operative accreditation standards.64 Burt J et al, conducted an audit across four co-operatives to assess progress of continuity of care within primary palliative care in England.61Across these four co-operatives, there were 279 palliative care-related calls (2.1% of all calls), form 185 patients du ring the audit month. The co-operatives held handover information for between 1 (12%) and 13 (32.5%) of these patients. Co-operative doctors had information about previous co-operative contacts for 7.5-58.1% of repeat calls. Three co-operatives faxed details of every palliative care contact to the patient’s GP the following morning, one did so for only 50% of calls. This system of alerting the co-operatives to the needs of palliative care patients was under-utilized. Even within the most frequently used systems, the diagnosis, prognosis and care preferences of two thirds of patients with palliative care were not made known to the co-operatives. 5. Discussion Information that encourages appropriate use of out-of-hours services needs to be made accessible for all patients and carers. Primary care professionals and community palliative care specialists share responsibility for advising patients and carers on how to seek help out-of-hours. Practices and primary care organisations need to develop and audit effective systems of patient information management and transfer. These could be included in quality standards. Reviewing the way calls are handled by NHS 24, in addition to their factual content, offers opportunities for communication difficulties to be highlighted and included in staff development. Effective out-of-hours community palliative care requires an integrated, multidisciplinary service that is able to respond to planned and acute needs. Continuity of care may be personal, informational or managerial, the latter implying a consistent and coherent approach responsive to the patient’s changing needs.63 In the context of curr ent primary care provision, personal continuity of care is increasingly unlikely to be provided out-of-hours, but informational and management continuity, supplemented by good communication, may suffice. There is a relative lack of communication and joint working between all health care professionals involved in the care of patients with palliative care needs and this is a major issue affecting the effective delivery of services. Since the district nurses are the professional seeing the patients more regularly, they are an important resource and a vital link person and pharmacists could consult them for information about a patient’s clinical condition or for clarification of problems caused by incorrect or incomplete prescriptions. As at January 2011, the ePCS is now in use in over 32% of practices across 11 Health Boards in Scotland. All three GP IT systems have software for recording ePCS information which is updated automatically to ECS when any changes are made. ePCS is the available to all out-of-hours-and unscheduled care users who already have access to ECS. The information in the ePCS is recorded in the GP system to form an Anticipatory Care Plan which will be availab le out-of-hours and includes medical diagnoses (as agreed between the GP and patient), patients and carers’ understanding of diagnosis and prognosis, patient wishes {preferred place of care and resuscitation (DNACPR)}, information on medication/equipment left in patients’ home â€Å"Just in Case and prescribed medication (this includes all repeat and last 30 days acute and allergies as per ECS. Though the patients’ medicines are not described in detail, that element of pharmaceutical care is not present on this current ePCS. (Appendix 1). The reason for this may be because of a skills gap for instance, independent prescribers might be few in this clinical area. The way pharmacists can adjust medicines as part of an agreement in the delivery of care to palliative care patients should be included in the ePCS. Boards across Scotland are aligning the rollout of ePCS with their plans for moving GP IT systems from GPASS to either InPs Vision o EMIS and local champions in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Dumfries and Galloway have encouraged uptake of ePCS. Work is at early stages in Ayrshire Aran, Fife, Orkney and Western Isles. Shetland is planning to start the rollout shortly. Grampian has completed connection for all EMIS and Vision practices and further rollouts will start shortly. Lothian has been using ePCS for a year, and is now planning how to maintain usage and encourage the remaining practices. Lanarkshire have a good uptake in Gpass practices and are awaiting the completion of the Gpass to InPs Vision migrations before wider rollout is commenced. Scottish Ambulance Services (SAS) is now piloting the use of ECS and ePCS in Lothian.48 According to Burt et al, co-operative doctors were required to provide care in a range of complex and time-consuming cases, including during the last days and hours of a patient’s life, with little or no information. Continuity of care within co-operatives was frequently threatened by a lack of information about previous contacts to the service by a patient.61 Within the present and new integrated out-of-hours systems, the effective transfer of patient information between all providers will be critical if palliative care patients and other vulnerable groups are to receive the care they need, especially where GPs opt out of providing out-of-hours care. Electronic patient records may provide a solution, although concise, up-to-date information will be needed and as services move to a more integrated approach (ePCS), a careful scrutiny of information transfer systems and encouragement of providers such as GPs and district nurses to update information, may help to ensure better co ntinuity of care. The current ePCS (see Appendix I) describes the patient’s medical conditions (current drugs and doses, and additional drugs available at home); the current care arrangements (syringe driver at home); the extent to which patients and carers understands the present condition of the patient and the advice for out-of-hours care. You read "Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life" in category "Essay examples" According to â€Å"Living and Dying Well 46, there is a need for communication and co-ordination between all professional who are involved in providing care to palliative care patients. This will help ensure that all patients and carers with palliative and end of life care needs are supported to participate fully in developing care plans and making decisions about their care. To ensure that their needs are communicated clearly across care settings and systems to all professional involved. To also ensure that the care of all patients and carers with pal liative and end of life care needs is co-ordinated effectively between specialities and across care settings and sectors. The introduction of more joint out-patient clinics for example the joint respiratory/palliative care out-patient clinic at Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow should be encouraged. 6. Conclusion Although the electronic Palliative Care summary (ePCS) is being rolled out in almost all Health Boards across Scotland, there are still some areas of care delivery that needs to be improved in palliative care especially during out-of-hours. A model needs to be fashioned out to enhance what the next step in the delivery of palliative care should be. If anything is done by one member of the palliative care team, other members need to know within the shortest time possible. The pharmacist who is an important member of the team, at the moment do not have access to the ePCS, this area needs to addressed. There is also need to use the new and emerging technology in the delivery of unscheduled healthcare, for instance strategic frontline application, which means upgrading the current IT and telephoning capability as well the potential for video conferencing in pharmacies. In current practice special notes (a flag facility that can be attached to a patient’s CHI number by GPs) used by GPs can be replaced by special texts in palliative care practice. Calls to out-of-hours through NHS 24 can also be by video calls and texts as this enhances telephone assessments especially in palliative care. Development of specialized care plans should also be encouraged. There should be equitable access to a range of health care professionals and support staff across the UK and this may well demand additional resources, particularly for district nurses. Partnership working with non-statutory palliative care providers should also be enhanced. Specialist palliative care telephone advice to unscheduled care services, including access to a consultant in palliative medicine, may need to be delivered through extended rotas in areas where there is a shortage of specialists. The ePCS should be able to provide more pharmaceutical care provision to patients. How to cite Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life, Essay examples

Home Alone Summary free essay sample

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday of the year. Christmas is about coming together and showing love with family, traditions, and gifts. Every family has their own traditions whether it is putting up Christmas lights as a family, or something simple like watching a movie together. After the excitement of Thanksgiving Day, my family sits down that night and watches the Christmas classic, Home Alone. This movie is not only hysterical and shows the importance of family, but brings my family together and prepares us for the Christmas season as it is revered as an all-time favorite and looked forward to every year. The movie begins with the gathering of the whole family including the aunt, uncle, and cousins of Kevin McCallister, the star of the movie, at the McCallister household the night before a Christmas vacation to France. All the excitement leaves Kevin angry because no attention has been shown to him. We will write a custom essay sample on Home Alone Summary or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Angry, Kevin makes a wish that his family would â€Å"disappear† as he makes his way to the attic where he is forced to sleep for the night because of bad behavior. Many of us experience similar feelings of jealousy around the Christmas season due to the fact that sometimes we view it as a time of receiving while others are in the spirit of giving. Quickly, we realize that everything is not about us and jealousy strikes. In the morning, the family wakes up in a panic because a power outage has caused their alarm clocks to be disabled so they frantically gather their luggage and count heads in order to make their flight. In their panic and rush, Kevin is forgotten. Kevin awakens to no one in the house which at first leaves him worried that his jealous wish came true, but this worry soon turns into happiness because of freedom from his family. As he parties because his wish has come true, two villains plan to rob the entire neighborhood while everyone is away for the holidays and their particular focus is on the McCallister house. While on the plane, Kevin’s mother realizes they have forgotten him and as soon as they land, they begin begging to be taken back home. This scene in the movie reveals that despite their belittling attitude towards Kevin at the beginning of the movie because of his size, age, and attitude, they truly care for him because he is a member of their family and are willing to do anything they can to get home to make sure he is safe. This proves the importance of the bond between the members of not only the nuclear family but extended members as well. The holidays are a busy time for travel and no seats were available on any plan. The mother sacrifices herself and allows the rest of the family to go to their residence in France while she stays at the airport and eventually bargains with an elderly couple to allow her to fly back to the states in their seats. Once again proving the sacrifice associated with love. When she finally makes it back to the states, no more flights are available to get her home so after causing a scene she gets the attention of a traveling polka band who offer her a ride in their rent-a-van. Many people allow the Christmas spirit to inspire them to give in any way possible. While a home, Kevin goes about day to day habits, proving that he isn’t the small, incompetent child his family accused him of being. He becomes aware of the robbers plan to hit his house one evening and he quickly devises a childish plan to defend his house by setting up numerous traps and gadgets to terrorize the villains. After completely humiliating and hurting the robbers, Kevin makes his way to the neighbor’s house where he has instructed the police to go and the villains are arrested. Here he was helped by the old man who is his neighbor that most assumed to be cruel and vicious. During the movie, he was able to overcome his fear and talk with the old man who simply missed his son and his family but couldn’t overcome his fear to call them. Each of these characters helps one another to conquer their struggles, developing a theme that revealed that not everyone should be judged by their outward appearance. Kevin’s family soon makes it home and he is welcomed with open arms full of excitement and amazement at his capabilities, a complete change from the family presented at the beginning of the movie. For me, the Christmas season represents the closeness of family and their ability to sacrifice for one another in order to assure the happiness and well-being of others. My family’s tradition of watching Home Alone every year serves as a reminder of this definition of Christmas. The importance of family is clearly evident in this movie, and as my family and I sit down and spend this quality time together, I am reminded of the importance of each of my family members and the love we have that is shown during each Christmas season.

Ways to Reduce Bullying free essay sample

Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever bullied someone? Sometimes what we think as simple teasing may amount to bullying in the eyes and the minds of someone with a sensitive mind. Therefore, this is a common occurrence which has repercussions which most of us may not foresee. Writing a bullying essay, can contain the feelings you had when either being bullied or bullying someone. On the other hand, it could be about the repercussions as mental trauma undergone by the victims. There are many ways in which to write this essay. However, firstly, we need to understand what bullying is. Defining Bullying Bullying is behaviour where one individual who is usually physically bigger act obnoxiously, annoying and physically and mentally disturbing another individual. Most often bullying comes from people who are either lacking in social skills or some form of personal affliction or a complex. Bullying is most common in young children. We will write a custom essay sample on Ways to Reduce Bullying or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are many instances where a small made child is often bullied by bigger and aggressive children. But we also see adults resorting to bullying younger children or more timid individuals. The Many Ways to Write There are many ways in which you can write the bullying essay. As it is a personal subject for many, they should try and avoid being too biased when writing the essay. You may be one who has been bullied many times during your life. This could affect your writing the essay if you are not careful. Why People Bully and Who is a Bully This topic will have you investigating the many reasons as to why bullying is done and what makes them do so. It does not matter if the bully is a child or an adult. Bullying will always remain a problem. Bullying comes from avoidance of facing a certain inadequacy or to reduce the fear of everyone seeing them for what they are. These are some elements which you can discuss when writing the essay. http://essay-writing-service. co. uk/blog/essay-writing/bullying-essay-a-topic-addressing-a-common-occurrence

Cooperation Is Important Essay Example

Cooperation Is Important Essay Example Cooperation Is Important Essay Cooperation Is Important Essay Cooperation has the most crucial part in our lives. If you want to possess a satisfied status in this social milieu, you have to collaborate with your team to have a great achievement. I reckon that only people who accomplish goals and solve problems with other people can achieve the real success. The example that is about Frederick Douglass can bolster my point of view. Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator writer and statesman. He fought for free and the black’s rights during his whole life.Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, or recent immigrant, famously quoted as saying, I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong. Capable of high attainments as an intellectual and moral being- needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of cultivation to make him an ornament to society and a blessing to his race- by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless!In his life, he has made many choices for example Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him out from his owner Colonel Lloyd, but was unsuccessful. In 1836, he tried to escape from his new owner Covey, but failed again. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore about five years older than he was. Her freedom strengthened his belief in the possibility of gaining his own freedom.On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Dressed in a sailor’s uniform, provided to him by Murray, who also gave him part of her savings to cover his travel costs, he carried identification papers which he had obtained from a free black seaman. He crossed the Susquehanna by ferry at Havre de Grace, then continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware.From there he went by steamboat to Quaker City, and continued to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York. In a word, without the help of others, Frederick Douglass cannot escape from the control of his slaveholder and he also cannot have such a great achievement. So the real success is achieved by people who accomplish goals and solve problems with the cooperation with others instead of on their own.

I Hate Kids

I Hate Kids I Hate Kids I Hate Kids By Maeve Maddox No, I don’t hate children, young people, babies, infants, toddlers, adolescents, teenagers, or youth. I hate the universal use of the word â€Å"kid† or its plural to denote any and all of the categories of juvenile human beings. The word â€Å"kid† has its uses, certainly. It can be a friendly word, a loving wordin certain contexts. It does not, however, belong in every context. Words have connotations, subtle nuances of meaning that color the denotation of the word. When writers begin to use certain words as if one size fits all, meanings become distorted and underlying facts are distorted. The word â€Å"kid† has so many connotations that it is rarely the best choice in the context of news reporting. In addition to conveying youthfulness, the word â€Å"kid† has connotations of irresponsibility, poor judgment, innocence, and mischievousness. Adult behavior is not expected of â€Å"kids.† â€Å" Kids will be kids†. â€Å"Kids† are not to be taken seriously. Whatever â€Å"kids† do should be forgiven, because, after all, they’re â€Å"just kids.† And since â€Å"kids† are not adults, what they do doesn’t matter quite as much. These connotations become problematic in a news story that reports misbehaving juveniles who vandalize stores and cemeteries and beat homeless people to death. By calling these young criminals â€Å"kids,† the reporter is unconsciously asking the reader to make allowances for their behavior. News writers need to think twice before referring to accused rapists as â€Å"kids.† I am probably beating a dead horse. A new medical facility is under construction in my area. It’s going to be called the â€Å"Kids’ Clinic.† I’m just waiting for the day when I go to an art museum and see a portrait of the Blessed Virgin and Baby Jesus labeled â€Å"Mother and Kid.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Redundant Phrases to AvoidAt Your Disposal10 Tips About How to Write a Caption

CRITICAL MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

CRITICAL MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVES - Essay Example Most contemporary literature in business and psychology strongly indicate that in order to gain high performance from employees, they must perceive a sense of belonging within the organisation. Very centralised organisations, which are being phased out by more inclusive decision-making models, simply cannot satisfy the complex needs of workers and produce negative psychological responses to management presence. Therefore, the role of line management within organisations is evolving with the necessity for managers to adopt more principles and ideologies that are aligned with contemporary human resources theory. Old school management models consider the role of management as being one of planning, organising, leading and controlling, however this is insignificant in the modern business environment if the organisation is to be adaptable to changing market conditions. Today, managers must take a softer approach to leading, a human resources philosophy that attempts to gain trust from emp loyees and where workers are considered highly valuable assets and management works directly to better develop their skills and competencies whilst serving as a role model to gain commitment and loyalty (Armstrong 2007). There is, therefore, an absolutely necessity for line managers to find congruence between traditional management practice and human resources to build a positive organisational culture that is cohesive and dedicated to achieving strategic goals. To develop this culture, which leads to competitive advantage through human capital development, managers must be visionary, communicate regularly with employees, and inspire to prevent resistance to change (Fairholm 2009). In an environment where change and adaptability is absolutely vital to revenue production and sustaining competitive advantage, line managers can no longer negate the absolute necessity to adopt human resource principles into their management models. This essay describes why such congruence in role respon sibility is vital to organisational performance and supersedes old-fashioned hard management models. What drives congruence inevitability Buchanan and Huczynski (2010) describe contingency theory which states that as external market conditions change, the organisation structure must be adaptable in order to remain competitively relevant. Pressures from the external environment mandate that the organisation makes changes to structure which often requires decentralisation in order to maintain flexibility and competitive advantages. In the traditional organisation with high levels of control and bureaucracy, organisational politics are part of the culture and there are significant levels of power distance between managers and employees. In this type of structure, senior-level managers attempt to coordinate power resources at the highest levels of the hierarchy which is defined as resources that one maintains whilst others lack. Such power resources can range from financial assets and b udget to knowledge. This type of organisational po

Rulfos Narrative Techniques & Characterizations of Humanity in El Essay

Rulfos Narrative Techniques & Characterizations of Humanity in El Llano de Llamas - Essay Example Rulfo attained most of his acclaim through his 1955 publication of Pedro Pramo. Yet many literary critics have thought that the genius of Rulfo's works are within his short stories, where "the elaboration of a single event of the introspection of a single character allows him to illuminate the meaning, often the utter despair, of a man's life" (Schade, p.ix). Rulfo utilizes secondary characters, often family members, to cause reactions from the protagonists. By this, we access the protagonists' humanity. In 'Macario,' character is accessed through use of time and place: the story and its events are chaotic. Macario is an individual, but impossible to understand for his complexity. His ideas and perceptions are contrasted with their opposites, all two thousand words of this piece's prose run in one single paragraph. It's difficult for the reader to orientate themselves within the text. More importantly, it is impossible to distinguish Macario's perception of the outside world, the frogs, the toads, Grandmother, Felipa, food, starvation, etc. There is no second character's point of view given within 'Macario' to counter the ideas or impressions stated. There's no one else's dialogue. Readers must take the information and the character as he is and interpret Macario's life, time and place as he gives it. I believe this is the basis for Gyurko (1972) to state that "Character is stripped external appearance and splintered into existential shards; plot is inconsequential or nonexistent; action decelerates into stasis. Narrative continuity is fragmented into bits of dialogue and truncated memory" (p.451). Macario's inner dialogue is difficult to follow. The sequences of his thoughts have a semblance of sequence or order, but in final interpretation, they are weird. Rulfo uses this stylistically. Macario's first sequence of inner dialogue opens the first paragraph of the first page of the first short story in 'El llano de llamas.' While Macario is musing over the frogs that he is waiting for, the readers are introduced to the idea of an individual's complexity and peculiarity: Las ranas son verdes de todo a todo, menos en la panza. Los sapos son negros. Tambin los ojos de mi madrina son negros. Las ranas son buenas para hacer de comer con ellas. Los sapos no se comen; pero yo me los he comido tambin, aunque no se coman, y saben igual que las ranas. Felipa es la que dice que es malo comer sapos. Felipa tiene los ojos verdes como los ojos de los gatos. Rulfo paints a portrait of a disjointed mind, incomprehensible to others. 'Macario' is then used as an overlay to the short stories that follow. The subsequent short stories have to do with tension between people, and often both viewpoints are easily perceptible, unlike Macario's inner ranting. Rulfo uses secondary characters as a tool to give readers feedback on the protagonists. Rulfo's protagonists are often extraordinary and peculiar individuals struggling to survive in un-ordinary and harsh circumstances, like Natalia in 'Talpa' and Ignacio in 'No oyes ladrar a los perros.' Such characters might be difficult for the reader to relate to or comprehend. For this, Rulfo utilizes secondary characters, usually family, like Natalia's mother and Ignacio's father, to build humanity and provide an

Gilberts short story The yellow wallpaper Essay Example for Free

Gilberts short story The yellow wallpaper Essay Gilberts chronical of her own descent into madness is set in a remote, isolated older home, with very beautiful surroundings, and more in particular and old nursery in which Gilbert is imprisoned for her own sanity. The ironic point is that it is the cure for her insanity that creates the insanity she ultimately adopts. The narrator is a repressed woman with nowhere to go except madness. As a parallel to Kate Chopins Story of an Hour in which death was the escape to freedom, Gilbert emphasizes that the narrators only escape to freedom was madness. The story is divided into time frames with each period detailling her descent into madness. In the first section it is wise to note that both John and her brother are prominent physicians and believe that she needs to be unstimulated in order to overcome post-partum depression, as was practiced by such prominent theorist as Sels Weir Mitchell, who was in fact Gilberts own physician at the time the story was written. ( as a side note: It is of interest to note that after reading Gilberts account of her own feelings in this short story, Wier Mitchell discontinued the use of rest therapy.) We discover in later time frames that John is in denial of his wifes deteriorating medical condition, mainly as a result of the societal stigmas of mental illness and the affluence of his status. The room that is the primary setting is very institutionalized and unstimulating. There is this dilapitated, detoriorating, smelly, yellow wall paper with a design representative of Gilberts madness, that eventually becomes her savior. As she succumbs to dymentia, the narrator has hallucinations of a women behind the wallpaper. The narrator becomes convinced this woman is trapped by the wallpaper but yet, manages to successfully escape even if only to slink around the shrubbery. The narrator identifies with the delusions, eventually forging with the delusion, making the separation of one from the other impossible. She describes in detail the horror of those around her as they become to realise the extent of the mental illness hidden in the narrator. The speaker  makes reference to feelings of paranoia that John and Jenny are going to somehow intrude on the relationship she has with the wallpaper, and admits that she liked the room inspite of the wallpaper, no because of the wallpaper. The wallpaper represent to the narrator., a chance for freedom and the cost was insanity, just as the intricate design that was a crime against all the rules of design that had been implied upon first consideration.

A Frank Piece of Pie :: Free Essay Writer

A Frank Piece of Pie A new movie that came out two weeks ago is â€Å"American Pie.† â€Å"American Pie† is a teen sex comedy that is the most sexually frank and vulgar of a long line of recently released movies that fall in this category. Other such movies that have recently come out but are not quite as frank are â€Å"Can’t Hardly Wait† and â€Å"She’s All That.† When asking what exactly is a teen sex comedy the definition is hard to explain. A teen sex comedy is a comedy with a target audience age of about fifteen to twenty-five. It is a comedy that relates to its target audience and deals with its problems. The movie takes place in either a school or function that deals with people in this target audience. The film shows all of the aspects of this age groups life showing confrontations with sex, drugs, parties, police, parents and friends. â€Å"American Pie† is the most frank and vulgar when showing sexual tension, questions about sex and sex in general. Movies like this have been around for a while, but never one so frank and vulgar. Not every movie shows a guy chug back on semen filled beer, which they refer to as the â€Å"Pale Ale.† In the eighties movies such as â€Å"License to Drive,† â€Å"Fast Times at Ridgemont High† and â€Å"The Breakfast Club† all spoke of sex and joked of sex but not in the manner that â€Å"American Pie† does. When teen sex comedies were made in the eighties they could not be as vulgar for several reasons. One reason is that society would not accept them to be so vulgar. If films like â€Å"American Pie† were released in the eighties they would be bashed to death by critics that reviewed it and would receive a rating of NC-35. The second reason is that the movie was designed to be a good wholesome movie not one that is graphic and raunchy. However times have changed. In present times our society is more relaxed and is prone to these raunchy movies. We as movie viewers are more ready for these vulgar movies and know that each movie in this category tries to be more vulgar and frank than its predecessor merely to gain attention and snag more viewers. One problem with these movies being so frank and vulgar in present times is that they fail to mention that all of this casual sex could lead to someone getting a STD or aids.

Inferno Essay

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, are classifications of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians how to avoid committing any sins. These sins are actually recognized as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. One of the 7 deadly sins that man can commit but should not commit is the lust. Lust comes with the things about human sexuality. It has something to do with being attached sexually with someone whether opposite or same gender. Lust in layman’s term is the very strong sexual desire or excessive sexual desire for someone. In Dante’s Inferno, all the women that we encountered there seems to be there because of their misconduct connected to sexuality. These people have committed sins that gradually show excessive love and desire for someone else and because of this, they are punished with eternal damnation. Lust is caused by excessive love or desire for someone, but lust and love is a two different thing. Lust is self-gratification without thought or consideration of your partner. You just use him or her to gratify your urge. And this is obviously wrong on any level because lust is not taking responsibility for your actions, nor in having any forethought as to the consequences. Meanwhile, love is a strong emotion. It is an intense feeling of deep affection for someone or something. In this case, we could say that lust really is a deadly sin because most of the time we say that it’s love that allows us to do that, but the truth is we just often times mistake lust as love. Here in Inferno, people who were overcome by lust were placed in the second circle which is the Carnal. In this specific circle, Dante has placed all those sinners who committed sins because of lust. Dante condemns these â€Å"carnal malefactors† for letting their appetites sway their reason. And as a punishment, these souls are blown back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow one about needlessly and aimlessly. In this circle, Dante has placed several known people who were able to commit sinful crimes because of excess love and desire and most of these known people are women. If you have noticed, most of the women, if not all, are sinners of the second circle. These women were able to commit adultery and too much sexual passion for their lovers. One good example for this is Francesca. Francesca was able to commit adultery against her husband when she had a relationship with his husband’s brother which is Paolo. Her husband which is Giovanni have caught them while they were in a room and Giovanni have killed them both. As a punishment for committing adultery, their punishment in the second circle was to be whirled and buffeted endlessly through the murky air (symbolizing the beclouding of their reason by passion) by a great gale (symbolizing their lust). Next in line is Semiramis. Semiramis is a legendary queen of Assyria who assumed full power at the death of her husband, Nimus. Same punishment was applied to her. Another known woman can also be found in the second circle. Dido she is the Queen and founder of Carthage. She had vowed to remain faithful to her husband, Sichaeus, but she fell in love with Aeneas. When Aeneas abandoned her she stabbed herself on a funeral that she had had prepared. Actually, if you will follow Dante’s system of punishment, Dido should be placed in the Seventh circle with the suicides. But the reason why she was placed in the second circle is because â€Å"she killed herself for love† and that makes her sing more acceptable. Next is Cleopatra who committed a very lustful relationship with his lover Antony. Cleopatra was actually known to be the â€Å"Queen of the Lust† during her time. Cleopatra took her own life to avoid capture by Octavian (the future emperor Augustus); Octavian had defeated Mark Antony, who was Cleopatra’s lover (she had previously been the lover of Julius Caesar). Finally, Helen can also be found in the second circle. We all know that Helen committed adultery against her husband and so because of this she was placed in the second circle still considering that she was only able to do such sin because of extreme love for Paris. On the other hand, it’s not only women that are capable of doing such crime but also men. There are several men who were also able to commit sins because they were overcome by lust namely, Paolo, Achilles, Paris and Tristan. Paolo eventually was the lover of Francesca who committed adultery against his brother Giovanni. Next, Achilles as we all know was a warrior/fighter. He was placed among this company because of his passion for Polyxena, the daughter of Priam. For love of her, he agreed to desert the Greeks and to join the Trojans, but when he went to the temple for the wedding he was killed by Paris. Next to Achilles is Paris who eventually had an affair with Helen who was the wife of Menelaus. They have committed adultery that actually caused the Trojan war. Lastly, Tristan, nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, and Iseult (Mark’s fiancee) became lovers after they mistakenly drank the magic potion intended for Mark and Iseult. Mark shoots Tristan with a poisoned arrow, according to one version of the story popular in Dante’s day, and the wounded man then clenches his lover so tightly that they die in one another’s arms. Generally, the stories and sins of these souls shares a common ground and that is â€Å"everything in the name of love. † Because of this, people commit sins that they thought are acceptable because there is an intervention of love. Moreover, I personally believe that sinners like them do not deserve to be in the second circle and receive the lightest punishment. Why so? Simply because no matter what you do, committing adultery and destroying the sacred thing of marriage or union is a sin. It is a sin not only ethically but most importantly it is a sin in the eyes of God. Destroying a sacred union is an awful sin and receiving such light punishment should not be. I feel that these souls should also be given a harder punishment since they have committed a very big sin. In conclusion to this, the second circle generally is a circle for those who sinned by excess of sexual passion. It is the most natural sin and the sin most nearly associated with love, so its punishment is the lightest of all to be found in hell proper. But I still believe that since man has given the will and choice, each one of us has the power to follow our wills and choose our choices as dictated by ourselves but of course with considering all the possible factors. We always have a choice, so these sinners could have chosen to commit it or not.

Scarlett O’Hara

Scarlett O'Hara (full name Katie Scarlett Rollibard O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler) is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name. She also is the main character in the 1970 musical Scarlett and the 1991 book Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind that was written by Alexandra Ripley and adapted for a television mini-series in 1994. During early drafts of the original novel, Mitchell referred to her heroine as â€Å"Pansy†, and did not decide on the name â€Å"Scarlett† until just before the novel went to print. Scarlett O'Hara is not beautiful in a conventional sense, as indicated by Margaret Mitchell's opening line, but a charming Southern belle who grows up on a Clayton County, Georgia plantation named after Tara in the years before the American Civil War. Scarlett is described as being sixteen years old at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, which would put her approximate birth date in early 1845 [1]. She is the oldest of three daughters. Her two younger sisters are the lazy and whiny Susan Elinor (â€Å"Suellen†) and the gentle and kind Caroline Irene (â€Å"Carreen†). Her mother also gave birth to three younger sons, who were all named Gerald Jr. and died as infants. Selfish, shrewd and vain, Scarlett inherits the strong will of her Irish father Gerald O'Hara, but also desires to please her well-bred, gentle French American mother Ellen Robillard, from a good and well respected Savannah, Georgia family. Scarlett believes she's in love with Ashley Wilkes, her aristocratic neighbor, but when his engagement to meek and mild-mannered Melanie Hamilton is announced, she marries Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, out of spite. Her new husband dies early in the war of the pox, and Tara falls into the marauding hands of the Yankees. In the face of hardship, the spoiled Scarlett uncharacteristically shoulders the troubles of her family and friends, and eventually the not-so-grieving widow marries her sister's beau, Frank Kennedy, in order to get funds to pay the taxes on and save her family's beloved home. Her practical nature leads to a willingness to step on anyone who doesn't have her family's best interests at heart, including her own sister. One of the most richly developed female characters of the time on film and in literature, she repeatedly challenges the prescribed women's roles of her time. As a result, she becomes very disliked by the people of Atlanta, Georgia. Scarlett's ongoing internal conflict between her feelings for the Southern gentleman Ashley and her attraction to the sardonic, opportunistic Rhett Butler—who becomes her third husband—embodies the general position of The South in the Civil War era.

Different Meanings of Hallmark

Different Meanings of Hallmark Different Meanings of Hallmark Different Meanings of Hallmark By Maeve Maddox Until recently, I attached only one figurative meaning to the word hallmark: A distinctive mark or token of genuineness, good breeding, or excellence. Here are some examples of the word used in the sense of a trait that denotes admirable excellence: The hallmark of a scholar is attention to detail. Indeed, if style, grace, intellect, and capacity for rebirth are the  hallmarks  of [a Renaissance woman], then Lois Wilson qualified in every sense. The  hallmark of an honest politician is  an innate understanding that their most sacred duty is to fulfill the responsibilities of their office.  Ã‚   Emotional intelligence is the hallmark of a good leader. Osbeck also noted a fourth writing trait- elegance- which he describes as the hallmark of great legal writing. Rereading, editing, and revising the initial draft into a good paper are the hallmarks of good writing. In each of these examples, the idea of excellence is implicit in the word hallmark. This connotation of excellence derives from the word’s literal meaning: â€Å"a mark or device placed or stamped upon an article of trade to indicate origin, purity, or genuineness.† The practice of placing marks of origin and authenticity on products made of gold or silver dates to the early Middle Ages. One such mark in England was a leopard’s head. In the 15th century, when a law required all goldsmiths to bring their wares to Goldsmiths’ Hall in London to be marked, the identifying device came to be known as a hallmark. Hallmark seems to have retained its connotation of quality and excellence until the 20th century. For example, the Hallmark Greeting Card Company was founded in 1910. Founder Joyce Clyde Hall felt that greeting cards â€Å"represented class.† Playing on the founder’s name and the goldsmith’s mark of excellence, the company adopted the name Hallmark in 1928. By midcentury, however, writers had begun using the word absent its connotation of worthiness: Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It’s resentment of another man’s achievement.- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957). Writers familiar with the word’s positive associations continue to use it to denote excellence. For others, hallmark has devolved into a mere synonym for trait or â€Å"distinguishing characteristic†: Ruthlessness, deception and devious behavior is [sic] the hallmark of the successful politician. Expression of multiple horizontally acquired genes is  a hallmark of  both vertebrate and invertebrate genomes. A Hallmark of Alzheimer’s Can Show Up in Young People Too There’s even evidence that some speakers aren’t too sure that hallmark means trait: Many researchers have also theorized that a lack of self-awareness is  a hallmark  trait of narcissists. Writers who prefer to reserve hallmark to denote â€Å"proof of excellence,† may choose from the following list for words to convey the idea of trait or characteristic: attribute feature property aspect facet peculiarity Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant Names41 Words That Are Better Than Good40 Words Beginning with "Para-"

An Introduction to Anasazi Puebloan Societies

An Introduction to Anasazi Puebloan Societies Anasazi is the archaeological term used to describe prehistoric Puebloan peoples of the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. This term was used to distinguish their culture from other Southwestern groups like the Mogollon and Hohokam. A further distinction in Anasazi culture is made by archaeologists and historians between Western and Eastern Anasazi, using the Arizona/New Mexico border as a fairly arbitrary divide. The people who resided in Chaco Canyon are considered Eastern Anasazi. The term Anasazi is an English corruption of a Navajo word meaning Enemy Ancestors or Ancient Ones. Modern Puebloan people prefer to use the term Ancestral Puebloans. Current archaeological literature as well tends to use the phrase Ancestral Pueblo to describe the pre-contact people that lived in this region. Cultural Characteristics Ancestral Puebloan cultures reached their maximum presence between AD 900 and 1130. During this period, the landscape of the entire Southwest was dotted by large and small villages constructed in adobe and stone bricks, built along the canyon walls, the mesa top or hanging over the cliffs. Settlements: The most famous examples of Anasazi architecture are the famous Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde National Parks. These areas contain settlements constructed on the mesa top, at the bottom of the canyon, or along the cliffs. Cliff dwellings are typical of Mesa Verde, whereas Great Houses are typical of Chacoan Anasazi. Pithouses, underground rooms, were also typical dwellings of Ancestral Puebloan people in their earlier times.Architecture: Buildings were usually multistory and clustered near the canyon or cliff walls and were reached through wooden ladders. Anasazi constructed typical round or squared structures, called kivas, which were ceremonial rooms.Landscape: Ancient Puebloan people shaped their landscape in many ways. Ceremonial roads connected Chacoan villages among them and with important landmarks; staircases, like the famous Jackson Staircase, link the bottom of the canyon with the mesa top; irrigation systems provided water for farming and, finally, rock art, such as petroglyphs and pictographs, dots the rocky walls of many sites surrounding, testifying to the ideology and religious beliefs of these peoples. Pottery: Ancestral Puebloans crafted elegant vessels, in different shapes, such as bowls, cylindric vessels, and jars with distinct decorations typical of each Anasazi group. Motifs included both geometric elements as well as animals and humans usually portrayed in dark colors over a cream background, like the famous black-on-white ceramics.Craftwork: Other craft productions in which Ancestral Puebloan excelled were basketry, and turquoise inlay works. Social Organization For most of the Archaic period, people living in the Southwest were foragers. By the beginning of the Common Era, cultivation was widespread and maize became one of the main staples. This period marks the emergence of the typical traits of Puebloan culture. Ancient Puebloan village life was focused on farming  and both productive and ceremonial activities centered around agricultural cycles. Storage of maize and other resources lead to surplus formation, which was re-invested in trading activities and feasting celebrations. Authority was probably held by religious and prominent figures of the community, who had access to food surpluses and imported items. Anasazi Chronology The Anasazi prehistory is divided by archaeologists into two main time frames: Basketmaker (AD 200-750) and Pueblo (AD 750-1600/historic times). These periods span from the beginning of settled life until the Spanish takeover. See the detailed Anasazi timelineSee details on the Rise and Fall of Chaco Canyon Anasazi Archaeological Sites and Issues Penasco BlancoChetro KetlPueblo BonitoChaco CanyonKivaChaco Road System Sources: Cordell, Linda 1997, Archaeology of the Southwest. Second Edition. Academic Press Kantner, John, 2004, Ancient Puebloan Southwest, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Vivian, R. Gwinn Vivian and Bruce Hilpert 2002, The Chaco Handbook. An Encyclopedic Guide, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City Edited by  K. Kris Hirst

Electronic communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Electronic communication - Essay Example It is with no doubt that the technology has lowered the cost of operation and increased profit margins and business productivity, however, its rapid growth and extensive use has brought along potentially harmful threats to the technology itself and to its users. The paper examines the potential threats related to electronic communication and recommends possible responds to such threats. Introduction Electronic communication, a form of communication involving the transfer of images, signals, data and signs through electromagnetic energy, radio, wire or photo-optical system was discovered in 1998 and its popularity has grown drastically ever since. (Kranakis, 2008) The technology has significantly improved and enhanced the speed, reliability and accuracy in communication including globalization of various business and organizations utilizing the technology. A part from the vast and evident advantages of electronic communication, there are a number of threats associated with overrelianc e on the technology. The use of loop holes in the technology by cyber criminals posses as the most critical threat among others. Malicious actors such as hackers have the habit of utilizing easily accessible tools to compromise and intercept electronic communication thus putting the user and the target infrastructure at high risk. (Kranakis, 2008) The threats associated with electronic communication presents a potential danger to a business organization’s assets including the data of the organization and the users, user authentication information and the physical infrastructures like the network and the computer systems. The assaults and severity associated with such threats as spam, viruses and network attacks have risen to the extent that it threatens the viability of electronic communication. Apart from the leakage of confidential user data, such attacks and threats causes increased and unpredictable hardware and software costs, disruption to email delivery and depletion o f IT resources. The threats associated with electronic communication can be widely categorized in to two including the following. System and Application Threats There is a possibility that data and information sent through electronic communication can be intercepted, copied and modified by unauthorized persons through such attacks as man-in-the-middle attack. This compromises privacy and exposes the user to great danger in case sensitive information such as banking details are exploited. In case of a hospital, the modification of intercepted patient information can endanger the patient’s health or worse off, life. (Melliar-Smith & Chuang, 2012) Password theft and unauthorized computer and network access by hackers or other actors with malicious intentions also posses as a dangerous threat associated with electronic communication. Hackers use special software and Trojans to attack and compromise the security of a target thus gaining unrestricted access to sensitive data and in formation which can be used against the business organization. Such security breach can do massive damage to a company’s reputation besides its competitive advantage in case sensitive and confidential information is lost in the process. In addition, intellectual property may also be lost in case of a security breach involving