The Religion of Ancient Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Religion of Ancient Egypt - Essay Example Ra was one of the main gods in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptian people worshiped Ra because the Sun (Ra symbolized the Sun) was concerned as the main source of life in Ancient Egypt; Ra was known as the ancestor of pharaohs, and the worship of Ra and a pharaoh as his son was sacred for ancient Egyptians; Ra was concerned as a founder of life on the Earth, so Egyptians worshiped Ra as one of the main gods among many others. This paper will support these three causes of the Sun God Ra worship. . The Sun (Ra symbolized the Sun) was concerned as the main source of life in Ancient Egypt: â€Å"The daily cycle, as the sun rose, then set only to rise again the next morning, symbolized renewal and so Re was seen as the paramount force of creation and master of life† (Ra). Ra symbolized eternal life cycle for ancient Egyptians; sunrise, zenith and sunset were associated with birth, life and death. Ra always was given birth in the morning (as a scarab beetle), rode on his boat across the sky in the day, and died in the evening: â€Å"At sunset, he is swallowed by the goddess Nut, who gives birth to him each morning again as Khepri. Therefore, the cycle continued with birth, life and death† (Ra).... .Ra was said, in fact, to be the direct ancestor of the kings of Egypt, and in certain hymns was even addressed as a dead king" (Egyptian religion). In honor of pharaohs such giant architectural masterpieces as pyramids were erected, and the worship of pharaohs was directly connected with that of the Sun God Ra. Pharaoh was the earth embodiment of Ra who provided his power over the nature: "While the king ruled earth, Re was the master of the universe so they were of the same nature and were in effect a mirror image of each other" (Ra). Egyptian pharaohs erected pyramids and temples in honor of Ra - they tried to underline their connection with Ra. The cult of Ra was transforming through the Egyptian history, but it was always associated with pharaohs: "Beginning with the Middle Kingdom (2134-1668 BC), Ra worship acquired the status of a state religion, and the god was gradually fused with Amon during the Theban dynasties, becoming the supreme god Amon-Ra" (Ancient Egyptian Religions ). Heliopolis was the main center of Ra worship during the New Kingdom - it was the time of the greatest development of Ancient Egypt and the cult of Ra as the main god of Egypt. So, ancient Egyptians worshiped Ra as the symbol of king power, and the highest development of the state was associated with the power of pharaoh and Ra as his embodiment. Ra was concerned as a founder of life on the Earth, so Egyptians worshiped Ra as one of the main gods among many others. Cosmological views of ancient Egyptians gave Ra one of the leading places in the pantheon of gods "The early Egyptians believed that he created the world, and the rising sun was, for them, the symbol of creation" (Ra). They believed that Ra created the Earth, haven and all creations on the planet. 3. As was

Abacus Business Solution Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Abacus Business Solution - Case Study Example Industry Definition Point of Sale is the checkout place where a transaction is completed. In other words, it is the point where customers make payments for the goods or services they have purchased. POS systems are usually used by retail industry and restaurant industry. However, in this context, the study will focus only on the restaurant industry. According to David Gilbert, COO of the National Restaurant Association, POS systems are one of the most essential tools for a restaurant as it helps to make their business operation secure, fast and reliable. POS systems are simply the synthesis of hardware and software and business model of the companies belonging to POS industry is also simple. In general, the supply chain model of the POS industry includes POS manufacturers and developers, POS distributors, POS VARs and business owners. Figure 1 –POS Supply Chain Model Some of the major players of POS industry are Micros Systems, Inc., Restaurant Data Concepts and NCR among others. The industry is characterised by variety in product features, services and prices. According to the reports published by IBIS World, the industry reached a value of $1.2 billion in the year 2012. The industry growth rate is 1.8 % annually, but it is expected that, the growth rate will be 2% for the next five years. The major customers of this industry include hospitality sector, retail sectors, and foodservices sector. The share of revenues of POS industry is presented below. Figure 2 – Share of Revenue in POS Industry

Development of a Perception System for Indoor Environments

Development of a Perception System for Indoor Environments Autonomous navigation is a well-known task in robotic research. It is associated to get the environmental information such as visual images or distance or proximity measurements from external sensors and to detect obstacles and measure the distance to objects close to the robot path[10, 35]. Most robots are equipped to distance sensors like ultrasonic, laser or infrared to be able to move through corridors and to follow walls in indoor environments. A[A1] control algorithm based on odometric sensorial information and distance measurements supplied by sonar sensors was developed to guide a mobile robot moving along a corridor or following a wall in [3]. The[A2] Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) structure was evaluated for wall following task using ultrasound sensors in [17]. a mobile robot control law for corridor navigation and wall-following, based on sonar and odometric sensorial information is proposed. The control law allows for stable navigation avoiding actuator saturation. The posture information of the robot travelling through the corridor is estimated by using odometric and sonar sensing. The[A3] ultrasonic sensors were also used to measure and obtain the distance and orientation of a robot utilizing a Fuzzy Incremental Controller (FIC) for controlling a wall follower robot [10]. Trajectory tracking task is an especial task of wall following which is no obstacle like walls to detect. So, distance sensors like sonar or infrared could not help the robot to follow the trajectory. Control[A4] algorithms based on vision sensors have also been introduced for indoor navigation. For example, a robot utilized a vanishing point of lines extracted from the corridor structure in order to identify the heading direction. But, a complex mathematical calculation is needed to capture the vanishing point [37]. A[A5] CCD color camera was used to control the position of a robot while it navigated towards a target position [15]. The images of this camera were processed and the visual features of environment were fed through a neural network to enable a mobile robot to identify its own position. The task of orientation recognition was applied in order to follow a path in environment, too. The[A6] 3D trajectory estimation for unknown outdoor environments was investigated in [31]. This estimation was based on vision information captured by a trinocular stereo camera that is mounted on the robot. No prior map was used and the trajectory is found by tracking and detecting relative changes in the position of features extracted from images. Most techniques used complex mathematical equations and models of the operating environment to achieve the ability to move through corridors, to follow walls, to turn corners and to enter open areas of the rooms for an indoor navigation task [7]. Researchers[A7] used vision sensors to detect trajectory and to design their steering control law using the kinematic equations of motion[13, 34]. In these works which were considered in an off-road environment, the robot used both laser range finder and stereo vision. The laser was used to scan the close front ground for analyzing its roughness, and stereo vision apperceived drivable situation of far front ground. The path planning was performed using the data acquired from these sensors. Among three processes applied in outdoor navigation, including perception, planner, and motion control module, these works were focused on the decision of control laws of the robot, i.e. the longitudinal velocity, the lateral velocity, and the angles of sensor pan-tilts. The controller uses the information prepared by the planner. The characteristics of terrain like coefficient of longitudinal rolling resistance and the coefficient of lateral friction are known, and a description of trajectory space is presented according to the robots dynamic analysis. The[A8] Reinforcement Learning (RL) was applied to control a wall follower robot for learning reactive behaviors[30]. The environment is perceived in 3D using a stereo and mono vision. In this work, the images are processed to reduce the amount of relevant information and a small occupancy grid with 9 cells is created to discretize the state space. The controller utilized Q-learning technique and the action space was discrete, too. The most considerable works which have yet been done in outdoor robot navigation have constructed a grid map to determine the traversability of the terrains. The classical methods focus on a binary representation of the terrain from an obstacle occupancy point of view. Another approach is to characterize the presence of an obstacle in a grid cell by giving a continuous value. This value represents the probability distribution for occupancy of the grid cell by an obstacle. The more comprehensive methods evaluate terrain characteristics, too[9, 33]. For example, traversability is defined as a non-binary mathematical function of the slope and roughness of the terrain for each cell [18]. This traversability degree has not been interfered to robot local control directly and it has just been used in the path planner. They use some systems like GPS to find their locations and measure the distance they moved through. Kinect[A9] sensor was used to capture 3D point cloud data of outdoor environment in [28]. This data were fed to a 3D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm to localize the robot in the environment. This point cloud was projected into a 2D plane to make a 2D SLAM algorithm applicable, too. According to this research, the advantages of Kinect sensor are a considerably lower price, and the inclusion of color into the maps in compared to conventional laser scanners. A[A10] system with two main parts was applied on surveillance mobile robot and enable it to have an autonomous navigation [4]. One part is a reactive navigation system. It used Kinect data to avoid obstacles. In this part, the depth map with one row and 5 columns was created using each depth image and pixel intensity of three cells (left, front and right) are analyzed to compute the absolute minimum and maximum distances between sensor and obstacles. Eight different situations and their relevant action commands are determined. A classifying system trained possible situations of an indoor environment using Kinect data in second part of the system. [A1]a mobile robot control law for corridor navigation and wall-following, based on sonar and odometric sensorial information is proposed. The control law allows for stable navigation avoiding actuator saturation. The posture information of the robot travelling through the corridor is estimated by using odometric and sonar sensing. [A2]In particular we deal with the well-known strategy of navigating by wall-following. In this study, probabilistic neural network (PNN) structure was used for robot navigation tasks. The provided files comprise three different data sets. The first one contains the raw values of the measurements of all 24 ultrasound sensors and the corresponding class label Sensor readings are sampled at a rate of 9 samples per second. [A3]The robot navigation is based on wall following algorithm. The robot is controlled using fuzzy incremental controller (FIC) and embedded in PIC18F4550 microcontroller. FIC guides the robot to move along a wall in a desired direction by maintaining a constant distance to the wall. Two ultrasonic sensors are installed in the left side of the robot to sense the wall distance. The wall following control of the autonomous robot has been presented using ultrasonic sensors. The sensor data are used to measure and obtain the distance and orienta- tion of the robot [A4]Some control algorithms based on artificial vision have been introduced, where the robot is allowed to move by following the wall in the corridor like the one introduced by Durrant-Whyte et al. In other research work, Zhou et al. [20] let the robot in their work to identify the heading direction through a vanishing point of lines extracted from the corridor structure. The lines look like they are scattering from one point in the image of the corridor. This one point is the vanishing point. Although it looks easy to extract the lines, but capturing the vanishing point require a complex mathematical calculation. [A5]The problem of controlling the pose of a mobile robot with respect to a target position by means of visual feedback is investigated mainly. The proposed method enables a mobile robot to identify its own position using visual features of environment. At the same time, the robot performs an orientation recognition using the same recognition method of position identification in order to follow a path in environment We developed a visual perception navigation algorithm where the robot is able to recognize its own position and orientation through robust distinguishing operation using a single vision sensor. [A6]This paper describes ongoing research at the University of British Columbia on the problem of real-time purely vision based 3D trajectory estimation for outdoor and unknown environments. The system includes an inexpensive trinocular stereo camera that can be mounted anywhere on the robot. It employs existing scene information and requires no prior map, nor any modifi cation to be made in the scene. [A7] Autonomous mobile robot achieves outdoor navigation by three processes, including the environment information acquired by the perception module, the control decision made by the planner module, and the motion plan performed by the motion control module[8]. Consequently, for safe and accurate outdoor navigation it is vital to harmonize the three modules performance. In this paper, the emphasis is focused on the decision of control laws of the robot, and objects include the longitudinal velocity, the lateral velocity, and the angles of sensor pan-tilts. In an off-road environment, the robot uses laser range finder (LRF) with one degree of freedom (DOF) pan-tilt (only tilt) to scan bumpy situation of the close front ground, on which the robot is moving, and employs stereo vision with two DOF pan-tilt to perceive drivable situation of far front ground. With the data accessed from laser and vision sensors, the passable path can be planned, and the velocities of left side and right side of the robot can be controlled to track the path, consequently, the robot off-road running is completed In this paper, a description of trajectory space[7] is presented according to the robots dynamic analysis, which is defined as the two-dimensional space of the robots turning angular speed and longitude velocity. [A8]This article describes the development of a wall following behaviour using a methodology for the learning of visual and reactive behaviours with reinforcement learning. With the use of artifi cial vision the environment is perceived in 3D, and it is possible to avoid obstacles that are invisible to other sensors that are more common in mobile robotics. the image is divided into a grid made up of 3 rows and 3 columns (Fig. 2(c)) for codifi cation. Each cell will have either free or ocuppied label, depending on the number of edge pixels it contains. Thus defi ned, the state space is 29, and in order to reduce it, it is supposed that if a cell in one of the columns is occupied, all those cells above it are also occupied. [A9]In this paper we investigate the suitability of the Xbox Kinect optical sensor for navigation and simultaneous localisation and mapping. We present a prototype which uses the Kinect to capture 3D point cloud data of the external environment. The data is used in a 3D SLAM to create 3D models of the environment and localise the robot in the environment. By projecting the 3D point cloud into a 2D plane, we then use the Kinect sensor data for a 2D SLAM algorithm. We compare the performance of Kinectbased 2D and 3D SLAM algorithm with traditional solutions and show that the use of the Kinect sensor is viable. Our research indicates that the Kinect is a viable option for use as a sensor for mobile robotic navigation and SLAM. It ofiâ‚ ¬ers signifi cant advantages over conventional laser scanners, such as 3D model building, pure visual SLAM, a considerably lower price, and the inclusion of colour into the maps. [A10]This paper presents the development of a perception system for indoor environments to allow autonomous navigation for surveillance mobile robots. The system is composed by two parts. The first part is a reactive navigation system in which a mobile robot moves avoiding obstacles in environment, using the distance sensor Kinect. The second part of this system uses a artificial neural network (ANN) to recognize different configurations of the environment, for example, path ahead, left path, right path and intersections. The ANN is trained using data captured by the Kinect sensor in indoor environments. This way, the robot becomes able to perform a topological navigation combining internal reactive behavior to avoid obstacles and the ANN to locate the robot in the environment, in a deliberative behavior

The Theme of Responsibility in An Inspector Calls Essay -- An Inspecto

The Theme of Responsibility in An Inspector Calls John Boyton Priestly (1894-1984) wrote ‘An inspector calls' in 1945 and it was first performed in 1946. The play was set in 1912. Priestly wrote this play to send out a message of responsibility to the people. Priestly believed that even in 1945 they were still the same as they were in 1912, which is why Priestly choose to set the play in 1912, along with various other reasons, such as he wanted the audience to have the benefit of dramatic irony. During the Second World War, the people had united to fight one common enemy. This unity was that he wanted us to understand and believe in. He wanted to give everyone a choice. Should we go back to the way it was before the First World War, when everything was based on class, where an individual had to look solely after themselves, and no one else, or should we move forward, walk into the society where everyone looks for one another, where we all are equal and we work together? He wanted people to choose. He demonstrates the difference with the older generation representing the society where you care for yourself, and some of the younger generation that represents a new society where you care for one another. Priestly used dramatic irony to discredit Mr. Birling’s pronouncements in the opening scene. When Mr. Birling, head of the family and a respectable business man, talks of things that the audience knows is wrong, such as his opinion of the ‘unsinkable’ titanic, we begin to doubt Mr. Birling’s opinions, because we already know that the Titanic does in fact sink. At the time of which the play was set in, there were bitter divisions between the rich and the poor, industrial towns such as ‘Brumley’ were ... ... was to change, he knew the adults were stuck in their own reality and will never change so he puts his hope into the children. However, Priestly also knew that some of the children like the adults will not agree with his ideals, which is where Gerald comes in. Gerald is just like Mr. Birling as he does not think that he has done anything wrong. For these reason I dislike him. J. B. Priestly’s message (told via the inspector) tells us that we should have collective responsibility, and share our duties equally between us all. Do we really want to live in a world where those of higher class choose our fate, or do we want to choose our own fate? His message is still relevant today, as I think we still live in a society such as the one Priestly desires, we still need to learn his message, as we need to remember our responsibility for others and ourselves.

Nursing and Student

INTRODUCTION The aims of the assignment is to examine how the reflective account or our experience of facilitating learning opportunities assessing and teaching a student will help the future development with in the mentor or practice teacher role. In order to achieve this teaching session, educational theories. The formulation of a lesson plan wills be included focusing on my objectives rational for my action. In assessment session a brief Introduction will be given on relevant theories, concepts and principles of assessment in practice with further discussion of the assessment process. Assessing a student in clinical area will take place.Effectiveness of my mentoring will be critically analysed and skills in teaching and assessing will be reflected up on evaluation of developing my mentorship role will be discussed, highlighting any changes that can be made to my practice to improve mentorship. It has now mandatory requirement that qualified nurses and midwives becomes mentors affe ct one year of registration and practice (N. M. C 2008). Mentors play a vital role in supporting, teaching and assessing students in practice Quinn (2007) define a mentor as someone who experienced, and many cases more senior than the learner, and who provide support, encouragement, and guidance.PART II : ROLE AS A MENTAR An N. M. C. 2008 mentor is registrant who following successful completion of an N. M. C approved mentor preparation programme. According to N. M. C mentor should exclusive the knowledge, skills and competence are required to meet the defined outcome. Mentors are responsible and accountable for organizing and co-ordinating students learning activities in practice (N. M. C 2008). Mentor need to supervising students in learning situations and providing them with constructive feed back on their achievements. Mentor should assess the total performance including skills, attitudes and behaviours.The fitness for practice and purpose report of the U. K. C. C. post Commissio n Development Group 2001 looked at the competencies of newly qualified Nurses. They concluded that the mentor was to be responsible to contribute constructively to the learning environment for the evidence progress of student, be approachable and supportive to gain confidence of the students have knowledge of assessment tools to assess the competence in order to ensure patient safety, be competent to share knowledge of patient care, make time for interviews to discuss the specific requirements of the student.Provide time for reflection and encourage enquiry based learning. As per N. M. C 2008 there is a developmental frame work to support learning and assessment in practice. There are 8 dominants in the frame work. It includes: 1Establishing effective working relationship 2Facilitation of learning 3Assessment and accountability 4Evaluation of learning 5Creating an environment for teaching 6Evidence based practice 7Leadership As per N. M. C standard Student need to spend minimum 40% of the time with their mentor.As a role as mentor, their knowledge, skills and competency need to update ongoing basis. Each mentors as reviewed every 3 years to ensure that only those who continue to meet the mental requirements. Remain on the local register mentor at least two student with due regard with in 3 years period participate annual updating. Duffy states that N. M. C. Standard for the preparation of mentors provides a tool for preparation but it is the mentor knowledge, skills, ineffectively arrying out their role that protect the public by ensuring that students who are lacking incompetence do not progress to become registered nurse or midwives. The reality of being a mentor is that as per R. C. N tool kit for Nurses 2007 all mentors supporting students, gain registration, have responsibility to ensure that they are fit. Mentor should be prepared to assess student performance in practice and will be accountable for their decision to pass, refer or fail a student. N. M.C recognise that failing student may be difficult and that all assessment decision must be evidence based, mentor should recognise various assessment†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦that direct care, simulation, OSCES and other†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Common criteria for sign off mentor, the N. M. C states Registrant who makes judgement about whether a student has achieved the required standards of proficiency for safe and effective practise must be on the same part or sub part of the register as that which the student is intending to enter. Only sing off mentors and practise teachers that are the same part of the register and the same field of practise.May confirm to N. M. C that student have met relevant standards of proficiency for the particular programme leading to registration. Signing off proficiency must be assessed by all existing sign-off mentor at least 3 occasions. The role of mentor on the preparation of practitioners who are fit for practice is paramount. However mentor need to be supported in her demanding role (Glyniscells pellet 2006). Mentors in the study identified constraints on their role owing to staff shortage, busy clinical work atmosphere, too many students.This result in lack of time to spend with students and left mentor feeling guilty. Kathleen Duffy (2004) identified some mentors failed to fail students early on their programme, pick things up later. Nurse mentors are faced with many difficulties in fulfilling the dual role of facilitator and assessor (Sharples Ketal 2007) ASSESSMENT Assessment defined as the measurement of candidate’s level of competence in theoretical and practical Nursing Skills (Brooker 2001, as cited in Howard and Eaton, 2003, page 46).Assessment in clinical practice ensures safety and competent standard of practice. Assessment is a critical element of the mentoring process, as Duffy (2204) explains mentors must ensure that assessment of clinical skills does occur as required. Many mentors have been passing students who should have failed in the hope that they will improve later although they are aware that this puts patients at risk. Kathleen Duffy was commissioned by the N. M. C to investigate the reasons for this.The four main issue is that emerged in her report of January 2003 included the mentor leaving the indication to the student about their problem for too late in their placement, the mentor having difficulty to take action during their placement because such action could eventually cause critical consequences to the student, the mentor having to face the challenge of a weak student because Nursing is viewed as a caring profession and such action would be uncaring and lack of adequate time for assessors in the clinical environment to work with students (Fraser et al 1998), lack of support for the mentor from lecturers when faced with a fail situation (Sharp 2000). Stuart (2007 page 1) defined assessment as the judgement of performance during clinical practice and any other ways of measuring profession al learning. There are 3 methods of assessment. They are Continuous Assessment, Formative Assessment and Summative assessment. Continues assessment provides a measure of how the student is progressing according to the level and knowledge expected at each stage of their training (R. C. N 2007).The assessment consists of formative and summative dimensions, the later being as all the outputs from the student in the clinical area are observed, providing opportunities for Nursing Practice to be explored and not missed. Gibbs (1998) suggests that assessment should be continues as they are more authentic. Formative assessment occurs throughout the placement and during learning activities using feedback and feed forward and can determine whether re-explanation, arrangement of further practice or moving to the next level is required. Summative assessment normally takes place at the end of the placement and focuses on how much students have learned and have the learning outcomes been met. It does judge achievement of the specified competencies for the student to progress in training.The formative and summative assessment are reliant on each other as Formative Assessment provides a facilitating process which guides and increases learning and serves to give a series assessments whereby a summative assessment can be made. Regardless of the type of assessment, employed every effective assessment must meet the four cardinal criteria. Which are Validity, Reliability, Discrimination and Utility (M. Quinn 2007). Dogra and Wass (2006) note any assessment of clinical performance need to accommodate the diversity of patients and their needs. So performance is judged in terms of cultural sensitivity. A mentor has an important part to play in the assessment of practical work, as well as providing education, role modelling and direct feed back (Nicklin & Ken worthy 2000).We assess the knowledge of the students and how competent they are (what) (In the case of the student nurse, how c ompetent she is in administering oral drugs). The staff nurse achieved this by asking the questions set out in the lesson plan (appendix 4) and evaluating the return demonstration. We assess because (why) we need to test the progress of the student, provide feedback to learners leading to future improvement and demonstrate to students that they have attained a goal or acquired a new skill (Cox & Harper 2000). In this situation, the staff nurse assessed (How) the skills and competency of the student through questioning and observing the return demonstration.As part of the preparation for the role of the mentor, the assessment of the student nurse related to the practical procedure of drug administration began prior to the procedure itself. The student mentor assisted the learner previously with information about other topics and skills in the clinical environment which helps her to reduce assessment stress as the learner was comfortable due to previous interactions as predicted by Ca lnan, 1983. In addition to this, to ensure that all relevant issues were covered, the mentor observed the student throughout the lesson by using a performance checklist as stated by Quinn, 2000 (p. 231) which was designed to identify the knowledge, skills and attitude required for efficient performance.The mentor also communicated clearly and assertively, which helps to interact in a more effective way (Wondrak, 1998). He gave verbal guidance to the learner and informed the student, prior to approaching the ward area that feed back would be presented in the privacy of the office to avoid embarrassment and promote confidence and discussion between the two. When I assessed my student the assessment tool choose to use observation and the use of checklist. Questioning, an important part of the assessing was aided by blooms classification system which enabled the student mentor to ask questions at different intellectual levels to determine the level of knowledge of the student. The learn er received ample time to answer the questions to her full potential.To facilitate self reflection, the staff nurse encouraged the student to discuss (Muijs & Reynolds, 2005) upon her own performance and the students realised how the assessment enhanced here knowledge. A mentor is also provided with the privilege to provide feed back targeting the improvement of the student. The staff nurse chose to give constructive feed back where criticism follows praise and then ends with a positive note which is hoped to give the student adequate confidence to deal with more negative aspects of his/her performance (Neary, 2000). The assessing section of the teaching session proved comparatively easier. I used Blooms Classification system to formulate questions at different intellectual levels in order to understand extend of the student knowledge.The practical demonstration was easy to assess as the checklist provided the exact actions that I should be looking for an assessing. I felt confident while assessing the student and observed every step he took carefully. Assessing is something that I thought it is always done automatically rather than theoretically and methodically it was quite interesting to relate it to theory. My assessor was pleased with my performance and advised me to keep it up. I think my confidence in the subject influenced the student to learn more from me as the image presented through usually givers other a good impression. If a situation arises again I would try my best to keep up my good performance. I feel that the improvement I could make realise on time.I should probably try to make the session longer so that the student has enough and more time to understand, improve, reflect and perfect. It would also help me to build up a better support with the student. This session provided me enough confidence. TEACHING Professional teaching in Nursing, Midwifery and Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, teaching is an International Enterprise that a ims to facilitate learning. It is characterised by an acceptance of responsibility for facilitating other people’s learning by means of planned and purposeful educational interventions (Quinn 2007 p. 183). Teaching can either be formal or informal. Formal is normally pre-planned whereas informal teaching tends to be spontaneous (Hinchiff 2004).For effective teaching to be carried out, it is important to understand the process of learning. Reece & Walker (2000) defines learning as a relatively permanent change. There are different learning theories associated with teaching, firstly, behaviourism, this theory is based on stimulus and response Pavlow (1936 – 1949) among other physiologist experimented on this theory. The humanist theory is however linked to feelings and experience. Maslow (1971) defines this theory as motivation and hierarchy of needs. Meaning the student must identify what he or she wants to learn. Lastly, the cognitive theory, this theory involves think ing and the mind.According Hinchiff (2004) suggest that some key elements are essential in creating a good environment for the student, which are approachable staff, welcoming confident enough to share knowledge supportive, helpful, available and contactable and knowledgeable. Teaching session was carried out to prepare staff nurse to be a mentor oral drug administration was the topic chosen for this session. The rationale for this decision is the fact it is an integral part of a patients care. I notice that numerous management students have been failing their drug assessment test. There are two management students in our ward, next week they have a drug exam. I choose this topic to try to create a difference to these unfortunate occurrences.Knowles indicate that adults are self directed and expect to take responsibility for decisions motivated about by the identification of humanistic needs (Knowles 1985). My students are adult and thus I chose andragogy to teach my students. Andra gogy is defined as the art and science of helping adults to learn. In contrast pedagogy, which can be defined as the art and science of teaching children (Knowles 1973)? According to Knowles 1990, andragogy is where a student controlled approach is employed and thus enhance the students self concept, promotes autonomy, self direction and critical thinking. While encouraging reflection on experience and involves student in the diagnosis, planning, enacting and allows the student to evaluate his or her own learning needs (Knowles 1990).On other hand, Pedagogy implies that learning occurs as a result of the input of others, the student – teacher relationship is unequal – student’s look-up to their teacher, teaching methods is teacher-led and the teacher accepts responsibility for the students learning (Hinchiff 2004 p. 69). The session took place in the staff room at the acute respiratory unit on Tuesday afternoon at 16. 30 hrs commenced after coffee break. The tim e chooses as there would be less activity compared to morning time. The rationale for this decision was to maximize concentration by the student and me (Gibbs 1998). The room was calm and quiet and devoid of any disturbance. It was also well ventilated, spacious and bright which ensured comfort for everyone in to the room. The atmosphere was positive for learning. The session was well planned and the room was arranged beforehand to produce the best possible learning atmosphere.The student mentor prepared handouts for the students prior to the teaching session in order to provide record of what had to be taught (Hinchiff 2004). The mentor prepared a lesson plan before the lesson, thus ensuring that everything was prepared; she made SMART aims and objectives (Hinchiff 2004) to reach perfectionism. British National Formulary was used to teach the student where to look for information pertaining to groups of drugs. The domains of learning described in Booms Taxonomy were used for the se ssion. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, the Domains of learning include Cognitive, the Psychomotor and the affective (Bloom 1972). I started the session by introducing myself and my assessor to the students. In addition I explained the aims and objectives of the lesson.Then I asked some few question regarding the drug administration (Cox & Harper 2000) to understand the scope of the student’s previous knowledge us it. The staff used Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives (1956) to formulate questions at different intellectual levels (Bloom 1956) in the session. Staff Nurse described the N. M. C. guidelines and Whippscross Policy of oral drug administration. The Staff Nurse used a drug chart and explained to the student how to read it, explained the important document features to ensure safety. At the end of session the staff nurse demonstrate to the student the administration of oral drugs. The mentor followed the step by step policies of the N. H. S. efore and after th e administration of the drug while explaining the rationale for each action. After her demonstration, he asked the student for a return demonstration to facilitate evaluation. Finally, a short feed back session was held in the office and the student was provided with the opportunity to clarify her queries. The staff nurse began with positive feed back and then moved on to negative and constructive feed back. Ultimately the student asked to complete questionnaire to evaluate the session (see appendix 3). After the session, my assessor and myself sat down to reflect on the session. He gave me aspiring feedback about the session. ReflectionReflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and to inform learning about practice (Reid 1993). Reflection enables the practitioner to explore, understand and develop meaning, and also highlights contradictions between theory and practice (Johns 1995). Reflection can be two categories namely r eflection on action, which involves looking back at events that have occurred and reflection in action, which involves learning as it happens and adapting to new situations (Bulman & Schutz 2004). Baud et al (1998) defined reflection as an active process of exploration and discovery which often lead to much unexpected outcomes.Reflection helps to create an environment where professionals are helped to analyse and review their practice, thus enabling the professional to work in a more responsive, creative and untimely more effective manner (Redmond 2004). Reflection has been analysed by many and models have been designed to facilitate reflection. I choose the model, Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1998) to help me reflect on my session. I incorporated it into the teaching and assessing of my lesson for a methodical approach. Reflection is said to encourage practitioners to challenge the way they think, feel and believe (Burnard 1989). Reflecting on an experience is a highly skilled a ctivity, it requires an ability to analyse action to make judgements regarding their effectiveness in particular situations.Clearly, Boyd & Fales see self awareness and learning from experience as the key features of reflection. In Reflection, I felt that , humanistic approach was effective as it helped to make the student felt good about her. Contrary to my early fears, the students appeared to be confident about what she needed to know and asked questions accordingly. I would use pictorial demonstrations because this would have reduced the number of doubts that the students presented as many areas would have been self explanatory. Conclusion To develop the role of the mentor, I have made some recommendations. Staffs needs to be encouraged the student to teaching is a part of their role and need to be enthusiastic about this.Attending regular mentorship updates in order to provide relevant, evidenced based information and keep abreast of developments in students teaching may motiva te them and enhance professional development. A regular informal meeting at L. S. B. U between students and mentors to identify problems that arise and act accordingly. This would give both parties the opportunity to discuss what is expected and reduce barriers in the learning /teaching role and may improve the working relationship between mentors and students. Regular audit which are useful in identifying strength and weakness for teaching in the clinical area and all staff are to take part, they should be informed of date and time of audit and have the opportunity to participate in the ward evaluation. In conclusion becoming a mentor is one of the difficult roles of the nurse.It is a very big and serious responsibility because it is in the hands of a mentor to shape the development of the potentials and skills of the students. It is not just teaching a student, what he or she knows, it is about making sure that students will be knowledgeable and competent, enough to practice as a Professional Nurse in the future. Mentors are essential part of the Nursing Students and prepare the next generations to inherit our jobs and further improvement. To let students achieve their maximum potential, supportive and experienced mentors are required. An incompetent and different mentor could impair the students motivation to learn and thus create choose in the future.The N. M. C guidelines state that mentors are essential, however I am afraid they have left out the fact that enough time is also required to maintain the high standards set. This would ensure that students stretch their abilities to the maximum and that mentors are able to reflect upon their experiences and thus improve and perfect themselves to become much more experienced and competent. 10th December, 2008 To, Pauline Mills, Dear Madam, Please find enclosed herewith my mentorship essay preparation. Kindly check and re-correct the essay and return it at your earliest. Thanking you, Yours truly, SARAMMA KORUL LA Encl: Mentorship Essay (p. 1 -11)

Juvenile Delinquency related to drugs and alcohol Essay

To tackle this topical issue, it is fairly relevant to first of all define some key terminology employed in contextual jargon as regards the question at hand. At the fore, a juvenile can be said to be a minor of such age as may be stipulated by a particular state, usually below the age of sixteen (16) or seventeen (17) years, who may be in the frame of mind to willfully conceive criminal intent whilst perpetrating a crime, be it in the form of a robbery, murder or assorted other criminal acts. Along the same line, ‘juvenile crime’ denotes several offences committed by the said minors (less than 18 years), infamously referred to as juvenile delinquency, and may include acts which would be considered ‘crimes’ if committed by adults, and misbehavior like disobedience to parents and authorities or even instances of truancy. As may be warranted by prevailing circumstance, such youthful offenders may be put to trial as either full-blown adults or simply in a capacity as juveniles, as influenced by a variety of factors, inclusive of the severity of the crime in question. For the more weighty crimes, the juvenile offender may be tried in either a juvenile or adult court, then subsequently incarcerated among the adults or juveniles, as the presiding judge may deem fit. More serious criminal offences may even spell out prison sentences for the ‘minor’ (Stafford, 1991). However, the root causes of juvenile delinquency remain a baffling mystery, as clear-cut reasons are yet to be outlined for the same. However, it is clear that the major causes of delinquency are the use of alcohol and abuse of drugs and substances. Some theorists pen a myriad of intervention mechanisms to aid in arresting this situation before it grows into being the downfall of youths the world over. In this reaction paper, I endeavor to handle each of these issues, one at a time (Shaw, 1942).). Drug trafficking has become the major source of violence in the country with rival gangs engaging in extreme violence that sometimes leads to fatality. Drug abusers sometimes results to crime in order to acquire money to satisfy their addictions since drugs are expensive. Furthermore, drugs alienate one from reality and leads to aggressive behavior which results to violence or misdemeanor. A lot of attention has been given in this area and extensive findings exist. However, it is clear that there is room for more to be done since this existing literature has not resulted to a dramatic decrease from behavior that is considered wrong in society. Furthermore, there seems to be little or inadequate research on the effect of to younger siblings if their older counterparts are abusers of alcohol and drugs (Kuntsche et al, 2009). Causal Relationships Diverse theories have been put forth as relates to the chief reasons why there is the onset of juvenile tendencies in the first place, and why this eventually metamorphosis’s into criminality in the long run. Among those advanced include schools of thought which are modeled around historical and modern – day scenarios. These theoretical traditions range from deliberations on; Theories: –   Early theories – these peg the juvenile tendencies to the forces of nature, for example, spiritual beings and even demons. Key aspects in this arena include deliberations on naturalism (the science relating human affairs and eventual behavior to interactions with the forces of nature) and spiritualism, whereby deviance and criminal tendencies can be pegged to influences of nature, and the perpetrator’s inappropriate connection with supernatural powers that be. In this theory, offenses were considered to be against nature itself – The Classical theory, which goes on to rationalize personal choice, brings to focus the issue of humanitarianism. Theorists here are of the stance that proven perpetrators ought to be held personally accountable for their delinquent acts, and that punishment was best administered accordingly. This was based on the premises that humans are by nature reasonably rational, criminality being morally wrong and outlawed in society, and also that the civil society would play its role of disciplining wrong-doers as a form of deterrent mechanism, with such punishment being proportionate to the crime at hand (Loeber, 1989). – Biological theories, which detail the physiological developmental traits of juveniles, in relation to their physical development, mental (under) development, or even hereditary characteristics, and their eventual impact on human behavior. It holds that some people are naturally-inclined toward being deviant, and that it is woven-into their genes, with little or no chance of altering this state of being. The point of note here is that delinquency and its roots are traced to a person’s physical/ physiological predisposition, as opposed mainly to the question of free will. Chief among these are theories dealing with – hereditary issues (heredity), – evolution of man and his characteristics (atavism), as well as, – The development of certain bodily traits that are common amongst people already oriented toward behaving in a particular manner (somatotyping), to name but a few. – Psychological theories – these touch on psychopathic personalities, correlation between dysfunctional and/ or troubled childhoods and the prevalence of the juvenile mannerisms in individuals. These also ascribe deviant behavior to one’s surrounding environment, as may be influenced by chemical interplay in the brain, or an assorted number of reasons. Here, it is necessary to   point out that delinquents may not have a sense of right or wrong as they go about their deviant actions, and that not only can’t they control themselves, but also, their personalities border being christened ‘abnormal’, and the root of such can be re-traced back to their age as little children. These include; Psychopathology, which relates one’s lack of a viable conscience to deviant mannerisms and also, the dys-functioning of given personalities, conditioning, which details the response to stimulating factors prevalent in the environment, and Psychoanalysis, dealing with incomplete development of one’s personality. – Sociological theories – serve to link deviance to societal interactions and also the already existing caste structures, not to mention the inherent disparities in existence between the level of achieving goals and objectives and actually being in a position to go about the same. These include; – Differential Association theory, which deals with ways in which we as humans have the tendency of picking up all manner of behavior from those around us. It further posits that delinquency is an acquired behavior that is adopted from lifestyles of varying criminals. – The Structural/ Social Ecology theory, as pertains to structural conditions in a given area that may play a pivotal role in shaping the mental framework of individuals inhabiting that area. These include; overcrowding, unemployment, poor housing, poverty, sub-standard sanitation, and last but not least, illegitimate births. – Strain and anomie theory; anomie details the aspect of lack of norms in society, especially in instances where there may be experienced some upheavals like wars and the like. When this materializes, the traditional customs and regulations are no longer abided by. Conversely, Strain refers to a situation whereby there already exists a standard set of acceptable goals and means of achieving the same. The inherent problem however, is that not all members of society have the necessary resources to go about meeting this end, thus, a scenario of need is created with some members literally straining to make ends meet, as it were. Thus, lack of opportunity and inequality can be zoned off as the major bones of contention here. – Critical theory – has a lot to do with forces of subjugation in society, and also the capitalistic nature of shrewd individuals. Societal inequities play a major role in molding the character and adaptive mind-state of given persons, more so in the earlier years right after one begins the journey to discover him/ herself.   This is further broken down into; – Radical criminology; this has the general proposition that since the wealth and power in society have been inequitably distributed, then, those less economically – empowered will ultimately seek out alternative modes, mostly of criminal nature, so as to achieve whatever it is they are in (dire) need of. This situation is set to persist until control mechanisms are put in place by society to ensure that all and sundry are catered for as pertains to the same. – Conflict theory; the main assumption is that societal conflicts and tensions are part and parcel of society in general. There thus arises a distinctive classification of peoples, pitting the haves against the have-nots, with the latter being tagged in a relatively negative light. The theory posits that there subsequently arises the need for specialized institutions that can be employed to maintain a certain degree of law and order in society. Thus, in a nutshell, this theory serves to deliberate the economic tensions created, focus being placed on the political and economic systems in existence.