Reflective Practice Essay

Reflective practice is the process of looking back on the work you have previously done in order to get better understanding of yourself, how you work, your thoughts, feelings and anything you can learn from those experiences, whether good or bad. It is a way of learning by reviewing and thinking back over a situation or an activity. As a result you can identify your strengths and weaknesses and start working on improving yourself. Most of the time you do some form of reflection without even realising it. You can use different methods for a reflective practice: keeping a diary or a journal, writing down what happened can help you get a clear picture of a situation having a debriefing, supervision, group discussion as your colleagues and manager can provide a vital support and help in reviewing your practice simply taking a break and thinking about what happened can help you put your thoughts in order. Following an example of a reflective circle, that contains six steps, can give you an idea of how to reflect. 1. Description- think about what happened? 2. Feelings- what did you think and how did you feel about it? 3. Evaluation- what were the positives and the negatives? 4. Analysis- what sense can you make of it? 5. Conclusion- what else could you have done? 6. Action plan- what will you do next time? Reflective practice is important as it helps to improve the quality of service we deliver. It can give you an awareness of your own personal thoughts and feelings, your strengths and weaknesses. It can help you identify learning needs, which areas you need to improve and work on. In effect it’s a great professional development tool. Reflective practice can help you learn what works for certain service users, as they are all individual, sometimes different approach and attitude needs to be taken. You will gain the knowledge of what could be added or taken  away in order to provide an individual care package. It will help you to think about how you work, what you’ve done well and what can you do to improve the things in the future. Care Standards are essential when it comes to a reflective practice as they help care workers provide the same quality of care across the service. You need to know the standards to understand what is expected of you as a support worker, you should than reflect on them to make sure they are met in your every day work.

Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait Essay

This paper that in intensively researched, will examine on the reasons that led the Gulf war between Iraq and Kuwait, Saddam Hussein war invasion to Kuwait, Relations between Kuwait and Iraq, causes and effects of the war, the characteristics of Saddam Hussein, and the reason why he need money. According to the western sources especially from the USA, Saddam Hussein, a complex political leader, is portrayed as the â€Å"axis of Evil† in the Middle East. . He practiced cruel methods of leadership skills, his motivations, perceptions and decision making on behalf of the Iraq’s and his country neighbors for example the Kuwaitis. He has been pursing the development of weapons of mass destruction, despite the UN sanctions and terrorizing his associates especially in Kuwait. This information was gathered through the following sources. Information about â€Å"The Gulf Syndrome† www. geocities. com Retrieved on 6th April 2009 Information about â€Å"The profile of Saddam Hussein† www. mideastnews. co. Retrieved on 6th April 2009, Majid K. â€Å"War in the Gulf 1990-1991†, Information on â€Å"Persian Gulf War† www. encarta. msn. com Retrieved on 6th April 2009, Jerrold M. (2002), â€Å"Saddam Hussein of Iraq: Apolitical Psychology profile† and Information on â€Å"The characteristics of Saddam Hussein† www. qrmapps. com Retrieved on 6th April 2009 The historical background of Iraq and Kuwait Iraq was created under the British rule in 1932. The formation of this state under single administration resulted to third pole power in that region leading to unstable combination of people with collective influences that might lopsided its neighbors to the south. State of Kuwait northernmost emirate of Arabian isthmus dates its history as a take apart geopolitical body back to the founding of Kuwait City in 1710. It became independent from British. Following the 1973 oil crisis, the soaring oil prices brought with it extraordinary wealth to this small country. Relations between Kuwait and Iraq As Kuwait was declared a sovereign state, Iraq voiced objections to its admission to the Arab league but instead declared it an Iraq territory. In 1963 Iraq dropped the objectives and in 1980 they enjoyed close ties during war against Iran as Kuwait supported Iraq. Causes of the war The border between these two counties has been in question. Nominally, Kuwait was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 18th century. In 1899, it asked for and received British protection in return for autonomy in its local affairs. It was granted independence in 1961 and this lead to Iraq claiming that Kuwait had been governed as part of the Ottoman province in southern Iraq and was rightfully Iraq’s. It only recognized Kuwait in 1963. But since then, there have been occasional clashes between the two nations. The Iraq troops invaded Kuwait in August 2nd 1990 taking the emirates by one day headed by the strongest leader in this region, Saddam Hussein. The 150,000 of his troops from Iraq overwhelmed the 20,000 Iran’s troop staking control of the capital city of Kuwait and then controlled the whole country. Effects of war It had a vast impact to the oil industry and affects the future of the civilians in Iraq. This has reduced it from affluence to a third world status. This led to a large number of the US and British forces stationed in Kuwait and other gulf states as well as Turkey. There is an increasing rate of a multinational task force of warships patrols the red sea and the Persian Gulf which tries to prevent the illegal export of oil from Iraq. The war led to many environmental hazards such as the destruction of marshes, burning of hundreds of oil wells, hence polluting the global environment. Characteristics of Saddam Hussein He is a dictator who saw Iraq as a great country and as an extension to himself. He saw himself as the successor of Nebuchadnezzar. He once said that â€Å"Our nation has a message,† he once proclaimed. â€Å"That is why it can never be an average nation. Throughout history our nation has either soared to the heights or fallen into the abyss through the envy, conspiracy and enmity of others. † He is self-centered. He saw the Iraq treasury centered to himself. During the Gulf war, the Kuwaitis investigated on Iraq’s assets by Kroll Associates, a New York firm and the detected that he had $2. 4 controlled deposits which spread among 50 banks which were controlled by Hussein’s family. He used to skim five percent of the Iraq’s annual oil income and did business with other external firms in foreign territory. He is an exalted self concept. â€Å"Saddam is Iraq and Iraq is Saddam†. He made sure that he built a cult of himself allover Iraq. This can be proved by his images everywhere in Iraq. His name is linked to hundreds of public works projects. For example the Saddam housing companies and also the â€Å"Saddam Line† in Iraq. He named part of Kuwait to himself the moment he took over Kuwait. When he appears in public, he has created an environment where people cheer, clap, and even kiss his hand when he appears in a public gathering. He killed whoever who did not show enthusiasm to the great leader. He killed by imprisoning them, helicopter crashes, tortured to death, sealing their bodies to the coffins. He used a secret police unit to achieve his ordeals. He used his Messianic to achieve his ambition of political power. He is malevolent. He has cold canning behind his every action. His ruthlessness was found to be terrible leading to cruelty, for fun, leadership style of Vlad the Impaler. He was stupid because the boasts were proved to be hollow. His lies were proven false quickly His is also portrayed as the madman of the Middle East and his name means the one who confronts. He is a paranoid in decision making His achievements were the transformation of the country where he built new roads, improved housing standards; food was brought to the people’s tables, cut illiteracy by 11% according to the official estimates. The cultural aspects of Muslims were relaxed allowing women equal pay for equal work. Reasons as to why he needed money The oil money allowed him to accumulate the largest and best equipped military machine in the Arab world. Most of them were Soviet, French and from other nations. Most of them were first rated. He had an annual budget of $12. 9 billion which was an average f $721 per Iraq citizen ye the average annual per citizen was $1950. He therefore equipped his army to distress the regional balances by ruthless mass killings, He was the veteran in army in the region. According to Jordanian newspaper ad-Dustour, Saddam â€Å"awakened the desire in every Arab soul for a glorious Arab stand,† Saddam Hussein was a ruthless dictator who was used to terrorizing his neighbors and gassed his own subjects. He normally followed his mafia rules which were not well understood by many in the world including the United States of America. He grew up as a thug and a hired gun, yet he has a soaring popularity in the Arab world. The differences between a Totalitarian and Authoritarian leader A totalitarian political power is in the hands of a few groups while the authoritarianism refers political power is in the hands of one person. Hence Saddam Hussein can be equated to both an authoritarian leader and a totalitarian according to the definitions and his leadership skills. Reference Information about â€Å"The Gulf Syndrome† www. geocities. com Retrieved on 6th April 2009 Information about â€Å"The profile of Saddam Hussein† www. mideastnews. co. Retrieved on 6th April 2009 Majid K. â€Å"War in the Gulf 1990-1991. New York: McMillan. Information on â€Å"Persian Gulf War† www. encarta. msn. com Retrieved on 6th April 2009 Jerrold M. (2002), â€Å"Saddam Hussein of Iraq: Apolitical Psychology profile† New York: Pearson’s Education. Information on â€Å"The characteristics of Saddam Hussein† www. qrmapps. com Retrieved on 6th April 2009

Regeneration and Delusion

Explore how Pat Barker portrays the theme of escape in Regeneration and explain what this tells you about the effects of war. â€Å"In peace, children inter their parents; War violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children. † † Herodotus (484BC – 430BC) Regeneration is a novel that tells the story of soldiers of World War One sent to an asylum due to emotional tribulation. Regeneration connects as a â€Å"back door into the present†, particularly with the theme of escape; and Barker chooses to portray this through her faction novel.Inveterate indications of escape throughout the novel are masculation, sex, death and a sense of reality. It is genuinely hard to be sure what the majority of people in Britain knew about the war and battles like the Somme from the media of the day. The newspapers and their reporters offered a wide range of styles and opinions – as they still do – but often walked a difficult line between pa triotic support for the war and a desire to convey its terrible nature. An extensive atmosphere of patriotism was generated by insincere information such as the propaganda.The media were supercilious, dehumanising the Germans to attract more soldiers, promising them that they would gain rare pportunities such as travel. Men, as well as women, were disillusioned. The reality of war was distorted and no longer became a heroic affair. Sassoon may be disillusioned when he mentions that this war may have been Justified â€Å"†¦ when it started†¦ † (Pg. 13). The authenticity of world war one was erroneous to the world surrounding the war. What the world saw was a picture that was glorified by the continuous mendaciousness made by the government and the commanding officers themselves.In Regeneration the reader is presented with Sassoon's ‘Soldier's Declaration' (Pg. 3) written in July 1917 to declare that the war is futile. Sassoon's declaration, a â€Å"wilful defi ance of military authority', clearly and logically states his decision to stop fghting as a soldier in world war one and clearly paints a vision of escape in the readers minds. He believes that the purpose of war has changed; what was once a war of liberation and defence has become one of aggression. This is a historical document and is one that was not suppressed merely due to the fact that Sassoon was a commanding officer.Because he was a commanding officer his document truly revealed the ways his beliefs got him to escape the war but make a trong argument too.. In Regeneration mental escape is the only way to relieve yourself of the war for a second until the next gunfire, the next shell blows or the next person comes into your care. Burns is a character who seems to be incapable of escaping his mental trauma caused by the war. He would tell you that the images of dying men and being ‘inside the stomach of a half blown German soldier' (Pg. 19) with the stench of rotting inn ards devouring your nostrils would scar you mentally. eing wedged into a hole; and the heroic adventure was not nearly as heroic as the oldiers would have hoped for, Barker represented this through the struggle of men being sent to Craiglockhart and still never escaping the trenches as victims were immune to normal human life and trench life was still attached to their lives. The verisimilitudes of the characters of this novel conform to our sense of reality. Barker uses unadorned dialect and language which was not used at the time to maintain a sense of veracity. It seems as though every character has a need to escape and Barker presents us with this idea through her language.Barker changes her use of language by changing the tmosphere and stripping away the dialogue, to romantic and poetic. She does this to remind us that Sassoon is sensitive and has a poetic side to him and this makes the reader feel closer to him, particularly when Graves identifies him as â€Å"Sass.. † A technique in which Barker depicts escape is bird imagery. This could be linked with religion in a way that white doves were a major symbol in Christianity and were symbolic of freedom and peace. Just the idea of birds makes the reader wonder about how they fly so freely and Burns manages to grab hold of this by â€Å"drifting off to sleep† (Pg. ) He is entering a dreamful state in which â€Å"he could stay there forever†. His dream reminds the reader of the preciousness of escape â€Å"A shaft of sunlight filtered through the leaves (†¦ ) shone sapphire, emerald, and amethyst. † This is proof that he can in fact escape in his dream world. This shaft of light filtering through the leaves could be perceived as a motion of escape; Barker is hinting a glimmer of escape but not fully letting the light shine through representing the mental state of Burns. There is also a sense of escape though bird imagery again when Rivers is â€Å"under the spell of flickeri ng birds† (Pg. ) however this is in a different light. With Burns, his sense of escape was in a dreamful manner but with Prior's suffocation, the bird imagery sheds a new light, one of no escape. Even though Prior is out of war, his own problems still bother him and this shows that escape is Just an illusion. Another way Barker chooses to portray momentary escape is through the theme of sex and death. She chooses to depict her use of this type of escape through her creation of a character; Prior and her fairly new character, Sarah Lumb.Barker uses sensual language in the graveyard scene which is highly contrasting the general etting; sex in the midst of death. Generally, you are not meant to have this kind of interaction in such a holy place, this was a sign of disrespect. Barker could perhaps be commenting on how the war shook people's religious views. Living through the war and being surrounded by death must have changed people's views and no wonder attitudes towards sex cha nged as it was for some if only means of comfort and life affirmation. as Barker is subtly suggesting.However, the life ofa chick consists of living and dying in the hands of humans and this resembles the scene of the war; men were orn, sent to war, and slaughtered in the hands of human beings. It almost seems as though Barker is using allegory to describe the process of a hatching chick which ironically resemble the lives of the soldiers. (Pg. 1 52) â€Å"He remembered them struggling out of the eggs (†¦ ) curiously powerful (†¦ ) now the same chicks were scruffy, bedraggled things running in the coops. † Rivers escapes the environment of Craiglockhart however he doesn't escape his patients.He writes to â€Å"David Burns† which shows what a caring fgure he is. He also begins to address Burns as ‘David' and this shows how the relationship between hem is progressing. The perspective of escape changes when a female is finally given the opportunity to want to escape: Sarah Lumb. Barker being the omniscient narrator finally allows the reader to see how Sarah really feels. She needs to escape as she â€Å"began to feel distinctly green and hairy'. (Pg. 159) because the state of the men were too hard to handle.The irony of this is that men harmed man, but couldn't handle the sight of their destruction. Earlier Barker presented us with Sassoon's resentment towards the older generation for seeing the war as glory, and now Sarah Lumb also feels a sense of anger as â€Å"she trode on through the heat, not caring where she was going, furious with herself, the war†¦ everything†. She is angry at the country for sending all of these men to war as is Prior and this could represent a link between how men and women felt the same about war if you had been one of the very many to experience it.In a reader's perspective, this also shows and agreement between social class differences as Prior and Sarah are both of different class and shar e the same resentment which shows an escape of the social barrier and some sort of relief of the war. Herodotus' quote at the beginning sums up that in war there's no escape, you get hrown into a war torn asylum and spend the rest of your life, if any, trying to escape, through writing, through poetry, through art, Just like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.However there was a chance of escape if you were seriously injured, and even then you were seen as a shirker and a failure and never mentally escaped the torture of war. Propaganda lead to young boys wanting to go to the war to fght for their country, meaning the children did in fact inter their parents, and once theyd lived the reality and managed to get away and go home, their parents did inter their hildren. Older generations that didn't experience war saw it more as a playground of little toy soldiers they could fling around making it seem a lot more calm and fun than it actually was, but the reality was quite different.Men became so lonely in the trenches and at the hospitals that any kind of physical contact from women became precious and in Priors case, the feeling of war was â€Å"like sex† and euphoria. His escape was Sarah, and many other men would find sex through prostitutes and this shows through death; even then their souls would not be at peace and fully escaped as the ar would go on, but as one soldier departed the battle grounds, a new recruit would be put in his place allured by the propaganda and media.This displays a cycle of curtailed escape. There was no real escape in war as the pattern of death and new recruitment followed the cycle of life and even though this shows a great level of patriotism, futility is the only word to describe war. Bibliography Barker, Pat – Regeneration (England, 1991. Viking) Reusch, Wera – ‘A backdoor into the present' an interview with Pat Barker, Germany. Lolapress (Translated from German) Nixon, Rob – An Interview with Pat Barker (England, February, 1992)

Research Proposal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Research Proposal - Assignment Example es, it will be setting precedence for the other foreign-based companies as well as the local ones to follow suit in implementing fair labor laws and enforcement of unions for their employees. The US government prohibition of the unfair labor laws and union in outsourcing jobs in their foreign-based companies will lead to setting precedence of the importance of labor equality and fairness locally and abroad. The audience targeted by this research is the investors and well as the legislator. They are both powerful entities within the nation as they not only make laws but they drive the economy as well. The legislators hold the official position to formulate and pass laws and hence they have the decision making power to prohibit these companies from outsourcing employees without unions or under unfair labor laws. The investors are the drivers of the economy locally and internationally through their decision making ability and hence hold the current view on the pros and cons of such an action being taken or not being undertaken by the government. The investors are also predictors of the economic turn based on their current view on world affair. This is important in case the legislation is passed or not and hence will provide advice on how the country is bound to benefit economically from such an action. The paper will target the top 5 multinational companies which have set shore in most international companies and which have been facing allegations of having unfair labor laws towards their locally-based employees (Habib-Mintz, 2009). This research will include the following major sections which will provide a clear picture of the importance of this research topic. Data will collected from both primary and secondary sources with the secondary sources being previous research on the topic and primary being through interviews and questionnaires to get the views from the companies, investors and other stakeholders (Naima, 2013). Analysis of the data will be conducted

Arm Crank Ergometry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Arm Crank Ergometry - Assignment Example Previous studies have considered issues linked to exercise efficiency. This line of enquiry provides important information associated with the relationship between the energy required to achieve a given amount of external work. In the context of a competitive athlete or a patient in a clinical setting, exercise efficiency provides a useful insight into functional capacity. When presented in either gross or net terms, exercise efficiency has been shown to increase in line with workload during both cycling and ACE. Several studies have also demonstrated there to be a clear interaction between crank rate and workload with respect to oxygen consumption during cycling and ACE. Additionally, previous studies have considered exercise efficiency in a number of different ways, including the calculation of gross, net, and delta values. Powers et al. (1984) showed that VO2 during ACE increased in line with crank rate. At workloads of 15 and 30W, VO2 was lower and exercise efficiency was higher, using crank rate of 50 and 70 rev.min-1 compared to 90 rev.min-1. Furthermore, when the workloads were increased to 45 and 60W, exercise efficiency remained higher using 50 compared to 90 rev.min-1. ... Furthermore Smith et al. showed that while variations in crank rate (50, 70 and 90 rev.min-1) influenced measures of exercise efficiency a relatively low workloads (30 to 70w) during ACE, these discrepancies did not exist at 90w. These data are interesting as they question the previously reported interaction between crank rate, workload and exercise efficiency. The purpose of this practical will be to further investigate 1) if exercise efficiency parameters change in line with variations in crank rate and 2) to determine whether or mechanical efficiency varies according to the external workload being achieved. In these respects, values of gross, net and work efficiency will be considered. RESULTS. The results of the experiment are summarised in the table 1 in the Annex. You can see that the index FE02 (fractional concentration of oxygen in expired air) was varied in the range between 16.2 and 18.5 ml O2/kg/min (range is 2.3 ml O2/kg/min). Consequently the mean of 35 measurements was equal to 17.1 and its standard error is 0.09. The variance of FE02 gross value was 0.34 and standard deviation - 0.56. The distribution of the sample was asymmetric and not normal (skewness is 0.72 and kurtosis 0.29). The values of median, lower and upper quartile were equal to 17.0, 16.7 and 17.4 correspondingly. The mean value of FECO2 (fractional concentration of CO2-exhaled) was equal to 3.660.08 while the variance and standard deviation was 0.24 and 0.49 respectively. The median of the index was 3.73 and the first (lowest) and third (upper) quartiles were equal to 3.45 and 3.98 while the minimum and maximum were 2.52 and 4.44 (range is 1.92 ml CO2/kg/min). The skewness and kurtosis were not equal to zero thus the distribution was not symmetric. The data

Micro controller -2 Assignments Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Micro controller -2 Assignments - Assignment Example A tool has been used to stipulate guidelines that guarantee little environmental collateral damage or harm at all, when implementing new development mechanisms. As such, it bears tremendous significance in exhibiting sustainable advancement (Cirp International Conference On Life Cycle Engineering, Nee & Ong 2013, 25). The Life Cycle Assessment is a cradle-to-grave technique that is used to assess and analyze the effect of production stages on the environment. It stipulates a detailed comparison of the services and products effects by making an analysis of the outputs and inputs alike. According to Baumann and Tillmann (2004, p. 1), it is an effectual technique that comprehends the environmental impact of a product through its Life-Cycle. The Life Cycle of a product hence starts from its phases of production, through to use with the eventuality of management of waste. The stages of the Life Cycle of a product/development are covered in the presentation below: Expression of the concerns of diminishing raw materials and sources of energy in 1960s led to the creation of LCA. The intent was to stipulate accounts for energy use in a cumulative manner and to give projections for the extensive future supply and use of resources. According to Schaltegger et al. (1996, 15), the first LCA publications presented by Harold Smith, covered calculations of requirements for cumulative energy for chemical intermediates production. The presentation was made at the 1963 Global Energy Conference. The later stages of the decade witnessed publications that made predictions into the repercussions of the changing populations of the world on the demand for energy resources and raw materials. Understanding the calculations of industrial energy use resulted from the predictions of the possibility of the depletion of the fossil fuel reserves and

Compare and Contrast the customs of Mexican Americans and Puerto Term Paper

Compare and Contrast the customs of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans - Term Paper Example There are as many Puerto Ricans living in the United States than those living in the small island that has a population of four million (CountryWatch, 2011). Puerto Rico became property of the United States back in 1898 after the United States won the Spaniard-American war. A common trait between both ethnicities is that they are typically bilingual (English / Spanish). The Spanish spoken by Puerto Ricans is a bit different than the Spanish spoken by Mexican Americans in terms of words and accent. The parents of Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans teach their kids Spanish at home and Spanish is often spoken in their households. Both races are sports fanatics. In boxing there is a big rivalry between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. The Oscar De la Hoya vs. Tito Trinidad bout at the time was the biggest revenue generating non heavyweight pay per view bout in the history of boxing. Oscar De La Hoya is the most successful Mexican American fighter in the history of boxing. Baseball is the national pastime of Puerto Ricans, while many Mexican Americans prefer to play soccer. The tourism and travel tendencies of the two groups are different as Puerto Ricans often travel back and forth from the mainland US to the island of Puerto Rico. Sometimes Mexican Americans due to immigration issues of their parents do not travel as much back and forth. When they travel Puerto Ricans do not have to worry about foreign exchange considerations since Puerto Rico shares the same currency with the United States. Both ethnic groups believe a lot in the value of being a good host to their guests. Offering food and drinks to guests is a mutual custom of both groups of Latinos. The traditional foods of each Latino group are very different. Mexican Americans often eat a diet associated with floor tortillas, corn, refried beans, and rice, and chilies, spices, vegetables, beef, and cheese (CultureGrams, 2011). In Puerto Rico the most common meal is