Report to your line manager on the changes to the appraisal system Essay

Report to your line manager on the changes to the appraisal system - Essay Example In addition, the committee should set process-oriented goals rather result-oriented objectives. Besides, there should be clear communication channels between the supervisors and the employees. Other recommendation included instituting psychological appraisal systems that assess future performance potential. Moreover, the organization should institute a peer evaluation program that produces results for comparison with the supervisors’ results. Introduction Evaluation of performance is a primary feature of every organization. Performance appraisal is an element of performance management that concerns with examining an employee’s productivity against set standards (Kandula, S. R. 2006, 32)). This is beneficial to both the company and the employee. The employee benefits in terms of professional development. This is because one learns of unique strengths and weaknesses that are responsible for particular levels of performance. In addition, the employee learns of the gaps tha t one should tackle in subsequent performances. There are key objectives of this research. To begin with, it seeks to evaluate whether the organization’s goals can align with the employees goals during the performance appraisal process. ... This system is less empirical as it involves mutual discussions with the supervisors and employees on performance. In this method, the manager sets specific, measurable, and reasonable goals with individual employee regarding one’s expectation of performance. The manager discusses with each employee while paying attention to notable factors. To begin with, the manager considers the employee’s individual scenario. Individual scenario relates to the employee’s current position in the organization’s hiercahy. This suggests that the managers consider the tasks of the given employee in setting the goals. The manager, therefore, cannot set goals that exist out of the realm of one’s duties. In addition, the manager considers the limitations of an employee in performing certain tasks. This pays attention to the authority of the immediate supervisor and the unique jurisdictions that determine the behavior of the employee (Aswathappa, K. 2005, 167). Besides, the managers regard the level of skills of the employee. Since this is a continuous process, the past behavior and performance of an employee becomes a vital criteria in setting goals that reflect such deficiencies. Deficiencies refer to the gap between an actual past performance and the respective expected level of performance (Evans, D. 2001, 20). It is essential to have clear organization’s strategies in setting performance goals. Performance targets cannot only consider the employee’s situation because the organization has overall strategies that it wants to achieve through the employees (Kumar, R. 2011, 49). The organization’s goals are set in terms of the long-term view and short-term annual goals. The

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

Gap Analysis - Essay Example Today, California program has led to an improved patients health care needs. There has been complaining of burn out effects experienced by nurses both locally and internationally. With increasing health care demands, the number of nurses employed has been constantly undesirable. The impact is a reduction in standards of health care advanced to the patients, and the nurse-patient contact has significantly reduced. According to 2010 study by University of Pennsylvania, 29% of the nurses interviewed in California complained of excessive work and burned out effect (Levin 2013). In addition, 34% in New Jersey and 36% in Pennsylvania highlighted lack of minimum staff requirement as a great hindrance to quality health care (Levin 2013). High number of staff employed translates to quality of care given to patients. Where there are few nurses, there are a high number of complication of diseases and sadly, deaths. A comparative analysis of the two states indicated that there were 13.9% fewer surgical deaths in California than of New Jersey. Besides, according to the 2007 Medical Care Report, it proved that an increase of one Registered Nurse (RN) per patient translated to 24% reduction in time taken by the patient in the intensive care unit. Besides, there was a 31% reduction of time take in the surgical unit (Levin 2013). Basing on the consistency of the information, it is, therefore, important to enforce nurse-patient ratio. Evidence-Based Practice is consistent on the importance of having one nurse to one patient in intensive care unit while one nurse for six patients is desirable in surgical cases. The nursing staff ratio is critical in ensuring timely and appropriate nursing care is given to the patients. Levin (2013) states that the Nurse-patient ratio has been the subject of discussion in the health care for a few decades. As primary health care givers, their role is holistic, this is an evolutionary approach in responding to the

Outline the main features of ethnographic research and discuss when Assignment

Outline the main features of ethnographic research and discuss when and how it might be used - Assignment Example These are naturalism, understanding and discovery. Naturalism is the view that social research should capture the human beings in their natural environment directly. Understanding conveys that human beings do not give out fixed responses each time and each response has to be understood individually. Lastly, ethnographic research is defined as being inductive or discovery-based, rather than merely testing hypothesis. According to ethnography, cultural understandings need to be identified for research interest. An ethnographic study can overestimate the role of cultural perceptions or underestimate the role of objective forces. Ethnography can identify the relevant community of interest though often this isn’t easy. Factors like community, formal organization, informal group, and individual-level perceptions may affect the subject of study. An ethnographic focus may overestimate the role of community culture and underestimate the casual role of individual psychological or of sub-community forces. It is also believed that the researcher has complete knowledge of the subject under study including the language and customs of the population. In this case, the researcher may get influenced by his or her own culture during the

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

Gap Analysis - Essay Example Today, California program has led to an improved patients health care needs. There has been complaining of burn out effects experienced by nurses both locally and internationally. With increasing health care demands, the number of nurses employed has been constantly undesirable. The impact is a reduction in standards of health care advanced to the patients, and the nurse-patient contact has significantly reduced. According to 2010 study by University of Pennsylvania, 29% of the nurses interviewed in California complained of excessive work and burned out effect (Levin 2013). In addition, 34% in New Jersey and 36% in Pennsylvania highlighted lack of minimum staff requirement as a great hindrance to quality health care (Levin 2013). High number of staff employed translates to quality of care given to patients. Where there are few nurses, there are a high number of complication of diseases and sadly, deaths. A comparative analysis of the two states indicated that there were 13.9% fewer surgical deaths in California than of New Jersey. Besides, according to the 2007 Medical Care Report, it proved that an increase of one Registered Nurse (RN) per patient translated to 24% reduction in time taken by the patient in the intensive care unit. Besides, there was a 31% reduction of time take in the surgical unit (Levin 2013). Basing on the consistency of the information, it is, therefore, important to enforce nurse-patient ratio. Evidence-Based Practice is consistent on the importance of having one nurse to one patient in intensive care unit while one nurse for six patients is desirable in surgical cases. The nursing staff ratio is critical in ensuring timely and appropriate nursing care is given to the patients. Levin (2013) states that the Nurse-patient ratio has been the subject of discussion in the health care for a few decades. As primary health care givers, their role is holistic, this is an evolutionary approach in responding to the

Writing for business purposes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Writing for business purposes - Essay Example Essentially, a corporate sales brochure is a marketing device that can also serve as a communication strategy in which it helps an organization to sell itself as a brand to its customer base or to their stakeholders within the business. On the other hand, an annual report is a business communication tool that provides a company’s comprehensive report on the activities undertaken in a just concluded financial year. Its target audience includes shareholders and other interested parties where the operations of a company are of concern to them, especially in terms of financial performance and activities undertaken by the company. With this, this essay will analyse the corporate sales brochure of Chelseafc.com and the annual report of Marks and Spencer both as forms of business communication tools. Within the English football league, Chelsea Football Club is a club whose year of founding was 1905 and its operational base is in Fulham in London. Chelsea’s home is Stamford Bridge whose seating capacity is 41, 837 and the club’s owner is Sir Roman Abramovich and managed by Jose Mourinho. As at 2013, the club was number seven in the most valuable team listed in the world with an estimated value of nine hundred and one million dollars, which was an 18% increase from 2012. In analysing its corporate sales brochure mounted on its website, the intention of this is to educate those that seek information from the site with up to date information about the football club through giving product specifications on the online platform. They include promotional information of the ongoing sale of merchandise and also information on the matches the team is to play as the current fixture. Other than this, the online brochure also helps to influence client loyalty in that it provides an online chat avenue in which those accessing the site can give feedback on various issues concerning the club’s performance. Ideally, using such an

Essay on video games violence Essay Example for Free

Essay on video games violence Essay The gaming industry greatly impacts how people, from young children to adults, spend their time. According to Health Magazine (2009), â€Å"90 percent of kids aged 8 to 16 play video games, and they spend about 13 hours per week doing so (more if you’re a boy). † Whether its educational, or just plain fun and entertainment video games have evolved greatly in the last 40 years. Today’s sophisticated games are in a class of it’s own with it’s realism and impressive graphics. With this ever advancing technology, comes better games with realistic situations. There’s no harm in playing video games for recreation. However, the problem lies within the violent video games and the aggression that these video games cause in children. For years researchers and experts have issued studies linking video games to aggressive behavior. It’s a controversial subject, nonetheless, it shows just how powerful the affect the games have on children. To illustrate, CBSnews. com reports a story of a 17 year who bought the popular game, â€Å"Grand Theft Auto†. In this game, the player is encouraged to do as much illegal activity and engage in as much violent behavior as they can to be rewarded with accolades and higher points. The more heinous the act, the higher you move up in the game. After playing this game for nine months, the 17 year old gunned down three men, two police officers and a dispatcher in a county jail, in the same style he was trained from the video game. In the kids statement to police, he said : â€Å"Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime. † This is just one example of aggressive behavior as a result of violent video games, but there are many more cases. Children’s minds are very impressionable, and violent video games are harmful to their minds because of how interactive and realistic these games can be. According to research by child psychologist David Walsh, as further reported in the article, violent video games can be linked to physical aggressive behavior in children because of the brain. His study revealed that the teenage brain is not fully developed. Violent video games have a deeper impact on a teenage brain versus an adult brain. Walsh further states, it’s â€Å"largely because the teenage brain is different from the adult brain. The impulse control center of the brain, the part of the brain that enables us to think ahead, consider consequences, manage urges thats the part of the brain right behind our forehead called the prefrontal cortex. Thats under construction during the teenage years. In fact, the wiring of that is not completed until the early 20s. Therefore, since children’s mind are still underdeveloped, violent video games have a negative effect and cause children to believe aggression is appropriate. From the National Institute on Media and Family, six medical groups issue warnings as to the effects that violence has on children: (1) â€Å"Children will increase anti-social and aggressive behavior. (2)Children may become less sensitive to violence and those who suffer from violence. (3) Children may view the world as violent and mean, becoming more fearful of being a victim of violence. (4) Children will desire to see more violence in entertainment and real life. (5) Children will view violence as an acceptable way to settle conflicts. † From studies to real life examples of violent behavior, video games has shown to have an influence on children’s behavior. Violent video games will not be going away anytime soon. The only solution to combat the issue of violent video games is for parents to be actively involved in their children’s free time and take an interest in what their children play. Once parents are informed on their decisions to allow their children to play violent video games, they will know that if choosing violence, it will have an effect on the impressionable child mind.Parents beware. References Harding, A. (2008). Violent video games linked to child aggression. Health Magazine. Retrieved from http://www. cnn. com/2008/HEALTH/family/11/03/healthmag. violent. video. kids/ Bradley, E. (2005). Can a video game train someone to kill? Retrieved from http://www. cbsnews. com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261. shtml 2010. Fact Sheet. National Institute on Media and the Family. Retrieved from http://www. mediafamily. org/facts/facts_vlent. shtml.

Person-centred Care Essay

Person-centred Care Essay Introduction: Reflective essay on person centred care Modern day Healthcare has increasingly embraced concepts of client-centred practice and empowerment. However, Taylor (2003) posits that existing literature on the subject does not give clear and unambiguous descriptions of the ways by which nurses can empower clients. Nonetheless, nursing practice is inclusive of people from very different backgrounds. In my ward for example, a high proportion of the nurses did not get their initial qualifications and experience in the UK, and my mentor too did not start of as a nurse from the UK. As a result of this, in the absence of well defined guidance for patient empowerment as a practice concept (by regulatory authorities), nurses and other healthcare practitioners will always encounter difficulties in the performance of their duties in recognition of patient empowerment as a concept. The way patient care is manifest in hospitals has evolved over time and now centres around collaborative working with different teams coming together to ensure that client care and outcomes are improved (Hansson et al 2008), (Hewison and Stanton 2003). Working in this way requires that the patient is an inclusive and active partner in his care planning and care delivery. This new way of working has also been emphasised by the government introducing the agenda for patient-centred care and patient empowerment. The Department of Health stipulates that the NHS needs to empower patients more and give them control over their healthcare (DoH 2008) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) also requires that patients are always consulted before any procedure is carried out on them (WHO website). The whole concept of empowering patients may not be new to healthcare practitioners because some healthcare practitioners are known to have spoken about making efforts to carry the clients along in the process of their care delivery (Stewart et al. 2002), but Paterson (2001) claims that some healthcare professionals have also been known to use subtle and covert ways to avoid fully implementing the patient empowerment requirement even at the risk of going against regulation to empower patients. Empowerment has been (in essence) practitioner defined to suit the practitioners. As an example, at the MDT meetings I attended, the patients views were not adequately promoted, and considering the requirements of the patient empowerment agenda, the patient is supposed be in charge of his healthcare. I raised this with my mentor and the ward manager, and recommended that the patient be consulted before, and updated after every meeting that has to do with his care delivery. Acknowledging client empowerment as a way forward and in emphasising the need for this modern way of working, the Prime Minister in a key message in January 2008 said that patients are to be treated as active partners in their care. Brown et al (2006) consider that for care to be client-centred, care delivery must be focused on the client and empower and engage the client to his/her full potential as a partner in his/her care delivery. Whereas the client-centred concept requires that what is best for the patient is done, patient empowerment requires providing clients with adequate information and the knowledge required to make informed decisions and take control of their lives (Kielhofner 2002). The issue of patient empowerment raises an issue about empowering intellectually disabled persons who cannot make suc h decisions on their own. If an adult with intellectual disability does not have complete ability to communicate, their choices can be diminished which in turn can make it particularly difficult to ensure that their opinions are heard (Cameron and Murphy 2002); and even in instances where a nurse is designated the health facilitator for the client, there is no guidance as to how much decision making can be undertaken on his behalf (Martin and Carey 2009). These further complicate issues in nursing management for a qualified nurse and will call on good managerial skills. Modern healthcare practice environment is a highly regulated one with stringent requirements of the healthcare practitioners. The continued drive for improvement in both healthcare delivery service and the patients experience and quality of life (DoH 2005) have led to the promotion of improved integration between healthcare disciplines and agencies, and regulatory requirements to promote the concept of patient empowe rment (DoH 2008), (Corsello and Tinkelman 2008), (Glasby and Parker 2008). Empowerment is a natural phenomenon and is essential to humans. Patient empowerment may be resisted by nurses because of existing nurse-patient relationships (Nyatanga and Dann 2002) and so a deliberate cultural shift needs to be pursued to inculcate nurses with the shift in paradigm. To achieve, the nurse will need additional training, and the clients ought to be carried along in drawing up treatment plans. The more the client is involved in the treatment planning, the more the client appreciates his/her part in the patient empowerment agenda, and the more the satisfaction with the care delivery service. I have used simple courtesies like saying thank you to the client, and realised it brightens their day very much and also makes them much happier and willing to discuss their feelings and opinions with me. The convergence of management and nursing has evolved over the past few decades and management is often cited as the reason for failings, and also as the likely solution (Pollitt 1993) to many of the problems in the NHS. Management was first f ormally defined by Henry Fayol (1949) as the composite function of planning, organizing, coordinating, commanding and controlling activities or events. More recent definitions in management theory look at management from the perspective of empowerment, total quality management, organizational culture etc. (Hewison and Stanton 2003). Leadership and management skills in nursing overlap to a very large extent but whereas leadership skills are needed in the more personal aspects like mentoring and motivation, management skills are needed to meet organizational targets and the management of available resources. Summary With the problems associated with recruitment and retention of nurses in the health sector, and the attendant high turnover of nurses came an additional expectation of nurse-managers to help reverse the trend (even though several of the pioneering nurse-managers had not had formal managerial training) (Contino 2004). Contino (2004) described the managerial skills required of a good nurse manager to include change management, communicating plans, managing the flow of information, managing nursing ROTAs and managing finances (income and expenses). Courtney et al (2002) rate financial management knowledge as one of the top requirements for a nurse manager in order to understand financial forecasts, financial plans, financial ratios and financial performance ratios. A nurse manager needs to be very conversant with current practices and concepts. A good understanding of service improvement and knowledge (and use) of the available developmental resources for nurse improvement like the Lead ership at Point of Care programme (Janes and Mullan 2007) are essential for successful nurse-management. Carney (2009) reported that clients were more likely to be dissatisfied whenever they felt the nurse leader was incompetent. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requires that the nurse is conversant with and aware of current developments in practice by way of continued professional development after qualifying as a trained nurse. To manage a team well, a nurse will need very good communication skills in addition to the authority to take decisions within the boundaries of his/her responsibility (Cross and Prusak 2002), (Carroll 2005) as and when necessary. A nurse manager should be a good team-player and able to multi-task (Jaynelle and Stichler 2006) and possess very good communication skills that go beyond language and/or grammar, to listening, being assertive and ensuring that the nurses decisions are enforced especially when the nurse speaks on behalf of a client (or helps to amplify the clients voice) (Harris 2003). The nurse manager should ensure that adequate communication links are established between the client and the MDT so that client views are always considered. The nurse manager should patiently try to clearly understand the patient (Lynden 2006) so as to be able to ensure clients views are accommodated in clients care delivery. In situations of acute ailments, clients can present with intellectual disability or a moderated ability to communicate verbally which can make it difficult to understand their opinions or wishes (Cameron and Murphy 2002) for their care process. To be a leader, todays nurse will need to be able to command the respect of other team members. To achieve acceptability nurse managers need to be people with high integrity and people management/motivation skills and be able to work in a collaborative setting (Carroll 2005). Integrity in this perspective is synonymous with honesty (Kouzes and Posner 2002) and several studies have highlighted the importance of honesty fo r nurse management or leadership because people (clients and nurses alike) will want to assure themselves that their leader is worthy of their trust (Kouzes and Posner 2003). During my placements in an adult care unit of a major hospital, from observation and interaction with patients and healthcare staff, my attention was drawn to a plight of some of the patients in my care: I realised that some of the patients were not being allowed to determine the course of their treatment as required by the patient empowerment agenda (DoH 2008) and this was more especial in patients with acute ailments. There was a lack of full management implementation of the Patient empowerment agenda, with particular emphasis on the relevance given to the patients choice (or voice) in the patients care delivery. The quality of care delivery is assessed by its ability to improve patient care through the collaborative team work of healthcare professionals and how patient-focused the care delivery is. For the purposes of this work, I shall refer to a renal patient in my care during my placement as Mr. B (not real name). All references to him or a hospital do not identify either. When Mr. B was †¦ and was refusing to be compliant, I approached him and had a talk with him. I discovered that his lack of compliance was in protest of the fact that he was not aware he was being put on †¦ reinforcing the position of Corsello and Tinkelman (2008) that clients will respond better to care that encourages their participation and is considerate of their specific needs. To ensure that this did not happ en again, I brought the patients complaint to the attention of my mentor and ensured that the multi-disciplinary team was made aware by adequately documenting my findings and observations. I regularly sought advice and guidance from my mentor because mentoring and role-modeling are active ways of knowledge transfer in large organizations (Carney 2009) and improves the care delivery service. Service improvement remains a core requirement for the Knowledge and Skills Framework for a registered nurse (DoH 2004) and requires an all-party embracing culture of seeking continuous improvement (Janes and Mullan 2007) where honest and periodic performance appraisals are evident. Service improvement in the NHS has been an issue of high importance and has necessitated the establishment of groups that are charged with charting out improvements within the NHS like the NHS Improvement (NHS Improvement Programme 2008). Practicing nurses are encouraged to keep abreast with developments from such groups. A new service improvement concept of patient-safety is gaining popularity in healthcare although regulatory definition is not yet specific (Feng et al 2008). Flin and Yule (2003) claim patients can be injured through the actions of healthcare staff, and Feng et al (2008) insist that a blame and shame culture inhibits learning from mistakes and can exacerbate incidences of mistakes. To this end (in the UK) an Expert group was established that recommended that the culture around error reporting shifted towards finding the cause of the error rather than the culprit (DoH 2000). Nurses are often under pressure from shortage of nursing staff, and a change in the nursing environment can improve patient safety and outcomes (Lin and Liang 2007). During my placements, I observed that Mr. B was often in bed for prolonged periods between nursing visits. I appraised the risk of the situation and ranked his needs by priority. He looked like he was beginning to get sore from immobility, so I delegated his need for exercise to the physiotherapist in the MDT, and having assessed the competency level of the HCA on the ward, I delegated the tasks of keeping Mr. Bs environment clean and regularly turning him to air his back to the HCA. The HCA had been previously supervised for this task and had been assessed as competent to perform it satisfactorily. Conclusion To achieve the required improvements which accompany patient empowerment that the NHS strives for, there must be a change from the current culture where the nurse sees the client as a patient (Nyatanga and Dann 2002) towards seeing clients as part and parcel of the decision making in their care delivery. Quality will be improved when patient empowerment/voice in patient care is active, client engagement is on a regular basis, and nurses are more patient in hearing patients out and in attending to patient calls. Patient safety issues including the security of the patient, proper risk assessment, maintaining cleanliness of his environment and regular visits should be the norm