A 64-year-old Caucasian female presents to the clinic with vague symptoms of non- specific abdominal pain, myalgias, constipation, polyuria

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A 64-year-old Caucasian female presents to the clinic with vague symptoms of non- specific abdominal pain, myalgias, constipation, polyuria

A 64-year-old Caucasian female presents to the clinic with vague symptoms of non- specific abdominal pain, myalgias, constipation, polyuria, and says she feels “fuzzy headed” much of the time. She had a fracture of her right metatarsal without trauma and currently is wearing a walking boot. She also had a bout of kidney stones a few weeks ago and she fortunately was able to pass the small stones without requiring lithotripsy or other interventions. She was told by the urologist to follow up with her primary care provider after the kidney stones has resolved.

The APRN examining the patient orders a Chem 12 which revealed a serum Ca++ of 13.1 mg/dl. The APRN believes the patient has primary hyperparathyroidism and refers the patient to an endocrinologist who does a complete work up and concurs with the APRN’s diagnosis.

Question 1 of 2:

Explain the processes involved in the formation of renal stones in patients with hyperparathyroidism. 

Question 2 of 2:

Explain how a patient with hyperparathyroidism is at risk for bone fractures.  

Case Study KPIs and Incentives

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Case Study KPIs and Incentives

Lance Wilkins is a retired account manager who used to work in the sales department of a television broadcaster. For decades, he made his living selling television advertising spots. He’d had a successful career, and, looking back at it, he considered himself lucky. During the last few years before retiring, he had witnessed a gradual shift in the viewing habits of the population. People started to watch less TV and spend more time online. TV program ratings took a hit, and advertisers did the logical thing: they cut their ad budgets for TV and increased them for online advertising. That meant that Lance’s job got harder and harder.

Lance retired the day he reached the minimum retirement age. He decided to move on to a new phase of his life: instead of riding quietly into the sunset, he took his retirement savings and invested in something he had been considering for years—he bought a small motel on the Florida coast. Lance was convinced he could easily manage a simple business like a motel without a restaurant, and fancied becoming an owner of a resort motel where he could oversee a business and feel like he was on a perpetual vacation at the same time. The reality proved to be somewhat different from that happy dream, however.

The property that Lance purchased was a 65-room motel called The Windjammer. Lance decided to make no personnel changes and to keep all 20 of the motel’s staff members, who all seemed to be decent, hard-working, reliable individuals. Lance himself had never worked in a hotel or motel before, so he studied the reports and financial statements of The Windjammer carefully in order to develop an understanding of the business.

Lance noticed that on most nights the motel had a large number of unsold rooms. It intrigued him that 25 to 30 units frequently stayed vacant while the other rooms were sold successfully. Why couldn’t all or almost all of the rooms be sold? He decided to do something to address that question, and, being a former salesman, he understood the importance of motivation. He talked to Barbara, who was in charge of the front office. It was Wednesday of the first week in March. He offered her an incentive in the form of a performance bonus for each sold-out night for the rest of the month.

“I think it’s possible to fill the motel, provided I have the flexibility to use different price points,” suggested Barbara. Lance told her he wanted to sell out on as many nights as possible and authorized Barbara to use whatever tactics she saw fit—after all, she was the one with the industry experience. They agreed to discuss the March results early in April.

One day in the first week of April, Lance and Barbara reviewed the motel’s reports for March over cups of coffee in the back office behind the front desk. The Windjammer’s occupancy rate showed a record high for the whole month. The motel had produced a monthly occupancy of 86 percent! Lance could hardly contain his satisfaction. Fourteen sold-out nights! They came really close to a full house on a number of other nights as well. Lance congratulated Barbara on a job well done and handed her an envelope with a check. The performance bonus was well deserved, he thought.

Lance kept studying the monthly reports after Barbara returned to her post at the front desk. He was pleased with himself and couldn’t stop smiling—until he saw the report on room rates. He cleaned his glasses and took a closer look at the printout, because he didn’t believe his eyes at first. The motel’s posted room rate was $75 in March. After all group discounts, senior discounts, and agency commissions were factored in, Lance expected the average net rate for March to be at least in the high $50 range. Anything over $56 would have been fine with him. However, The Windjammer’s net rate was only $32.18. Lance couldn’t believe it. Clearly, Barbara had discounted frequently and heavily to sell out.

After some time for reflection and more coffee, Lance realized that March’s incentive for Barbara had involved only one key variable, which could account for the problem. He wanted to be a shrewd hotelier, and, after a chat with Barbara, she accepted the new challenge for the new month. Lance would pay her a performance bonus for April if the motel’s ADR reached $60 or more.

April was a month of softer demand, but as far as Lance was concerned the motel had a good chance to keep its rates up. A competitor motel in the area started an extensive renovation project and closed down half of its rooms as well as its outdoor pool. Also, the new highway sign for The Windjammer was finally put up, and Lance had high hopes for that as well.

April was not as busy as March had been. Anyone could see that by simply looking at the number of cars in the motel’s parking lot, which Lance had a habit of doing each night. He also noticed that the vehicle models were somewhat different in April: he saw old, beat-up cars less frequently than he had in March and noted more new-looking SUVs and import autos. He prepared for the end-of-the-month meeting with Barbara with eager anticipation.

At the meeting, Lance was impressed by the increased ADR for April. He congratulated Barbara for reaching a record ADR of $67.48, and handed her another bonus. Clearly, Barbara had stopped the practice of indiscriminate heavy  discounting; this change had resulted in a dramatic ADR turnaround. In fact, she had not made any rooms available to OTAs, so the ADR was also the net rate.

Unfortunately, it was not only the ADR that changed dramatically in April. The motel’s monthly occupancy took a nose dive, dropping to 41 percent—less than half of the occupancy in March!

Lance scratched his head. He was learning the lodging business the hard way, he thought ruefully. He considered reading up on room statistics and hotel data analytics. He had recently heard about a key performance indicator called RevPAR that he needed to investigate further, and he also had read about the importance of monitoring variable costs. He knew it cost him, on average, $16 to clean one guestroom. He decided he’d better run some financial reports and look them over before discussing the next performance bonus with Barbara.

 

Discussion Questions

Question 1

  1. Which RevPAR is better for a hotel owner and/or a hotel manager: the one in March or the one in April? Is there a meaningful difference?

 

  1. Take the March hotel data (rate, occupancy, variable cost per room) and calculate it: what occupancy would be required in April with the new increased ADR to generate identical net room revenue?
  2. Take the April hotel data (rate, occupancy, variable cost per room) and calculate it: what occupancy would be required to generate identical net room revenue with the lower ADR of March?
  3. What did Lance learn after he developed the first and second performance incentives for Barbara?

 

Roles of Healthcare Professionals APRN RN

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Roles of Healthcare Professionals APRN RN

This assignment will be at least 1500 words or more. Reflect on the roles of nurses, and other healthcare professionals as the roles of physicians in the healthcare system moves from one of working in silos to a more progressive value-based system. Write a paper that discusses in detail why a value-based system may improve health care in the U. S. and address the following questions:
How has current policy transformed the current practice of nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals?
What distinction can you make between physicians/healthcare providers working in a fee-for-service system and a value-based care system?
How do you view shared power between physicians and nurses in your healthcare system? How does it impact care?
Assignment Expectations
Length: 1500-2000 words in length
Structure: Include a title page and reference page in APA format. These do not count towards the minimal word amount for this assignment.
Your essay must include an introduction and a conclusion.
References: Use the appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources utilized to answer the questions. A minimum of two (2) scholarly sources are required for this assignment.

Consistent Infection Prevention: Vital During Routine and Emerging Infectious Disease Care

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Consistent Infection Prevention: Vital During Routine and Emerging
Infectious Disease Care

Level One:

  • Cite professional/scholarly nursing reference using APA citation
  • Run a CINAHL database search accessed through the library homepage on the topic of basic care and comfort.
  • Write a one and half to two-page summary using APA format
  • Work individually to create a written product

ASSIGNMENT FOR:

LEVEL ONE:

Student Learning Outcomes:

Demonstrate familiarity with nursing journals/publications

Engage in an introduction to electronic resources using the DCC/CSN library home page

Engage in an introduction to using APA reference citation

Write a summary of an article using APA format

Written Assignment

Topic:  Choose a concept topic and look for an article that addresses nursing implications and/or nursing considerations. 

Concept topics:

Assessment; Infection; Communication; Oxygenation; Elimination; Perfusion; Intervention: Medication Administration; Mobility

Go to the library and review one of the following nursing journals available in print and in the DCC/CSN electronic database on the assigned topic (within the past five years): American Journal of Nursing; Home Healthcare Now; Nursing; Nursing Made Incredibly Easy; Minority Nurse Magazine.

Guidelines:

  • Access CINAHL through the library’s home page
  • The search must produce a professional/scholarly nursing article within the past five (5) years
  • Provide a one and one half to two page double spaced summary of the article using APA format
  • The summary will include an overview of the content in the article.
  • A clinical evaluation “Satisfactory” or ‘Unsatisfactory” will be issued for the written assignment as this is a clinical assignment reflecting an understanding of patient basic care, patient safety, and/or patient comfort.

Requirements for turning in the written assignment:

Introduction

The quality of your written assignment is a reflection on you.  Your instructor is committed to assisting you to produce the best written assignment possible, while ensuring all work conforms to a universal style. You are responsible for following the procedure for submitting your work to your instructor, who will grade the format and content using the grading rubric.

Style:

The written assignment shall follow the guidelines described in the current Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Spacing:

Double-space the text throughout the work, both within and between paragraphs. Do not triple or quadruple space between paragraphs.  Paragraphs should be indented one half inch (0.5”).

Margins:

Regardless of the margin requirements dictated in the APA Publication Manual or approved alternate style guide, your margins shall conform to the following rules.

  1. The top, right, left, and bottom of each page will have a margin of one inch (1”).
  2. Do not justify the right margin.

Type Style (Font) / Size:

Utilize black type in 12-point Times New Roman font.

Title Page:

Submit a “Title” page with the name of the article, your name, course name, instructor’s name, and date. Each should be centered on its own line.

Follow the title page with the summary of the article.

Follow the summary of the article with the reference page.

 

Principles of Development and Sense of Self

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Principles of Development and Sense of Self

  1. Principles of Development.

     For each principle, provide an example from your life or experience or from your imagination.

PRINCIPLE EXAMPLE
Ø Rates vary

●   Between children

  
●    For the same child  
Ø Heredity & environment interact as they both  influence development

●   Characteristics influence treatment

  
●   Treatment influences characteristics  

 

  1. Sense of Self

For each factor, describe something a parent or teacher could do or refrain from doing in order to use this factor to positively influence a child or adolescent’s sense of self.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ONE’S SENSE OF  SELF SOMETHING A TEACHER OR PARENT COULD DO OR NOT DO

TO USE THIS FACTOR TO

POSITIVELY INFLUENCE A CHILD’S SENSE OF SELF
ü  Successes & failures  
ü  Other people’s behavior:

●  Comparisons

  
●   Treatment of self & others  
ü  Membership in groups  

 

  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Describe a self-fulfilling prophecy with a positive outcome and one with a negative outcome.  You may use an example from your life or create ones that don’t involve you. Be sure you include the prediction (prophecy) & the result (Indication that the prophecy actually came true).

An example of a self- fulfilling prophecy predicting a positive outcome  
An example of a self -fulfilling prophecy predicting a negative outcome  

 

 

 

Social Responsibility and Ethics Halo Corp Case Study

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Social Responsibility and Ethics Halo Corp Case Study

INSTRUCTIONS

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  • You will use only material indicated in this paper to answer two questions.
  • You are NOT allowed to use additional sources.
  • Both questions are compulsory.
  • Each question is weighting 50% of the final mark for this assessment.
  • The paper is maximum 2,000 words submitted via e-submissions on the module

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CASE STUDY: HALO CORP

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Overview

The management consultancy firm you work for has recently received an important briefing document from Halo Corp, a bio-engineering corporation seeking advice on the release of a consumer product they are currently innovating based on near-future technology – the Halo Chip. With a market release date of approx. 5-7 years, the product’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is to enable users to voluntarily enhance their tendencies towards sustainability (e.g. by reducing levels of unnecessary consumption, avoiding meat, increasing recycling behaviour, turning off lights and other waste-reducing behaviours).

Whilst the purpose of the product is potentially beneficial from an environmental viewpoint, elements of the product’s usage (an ‘intelligent chip’ planted under the skin that manipulates behavioural tendencies) are likely to be regarded as ethically controversial by some key public stakeholder groups. For example, whilst Halo Chip is aimed at enhancing sustainability behaviours the product’s core technology (genome reprogramming) could potentially have a variety of behavioural applications such as the lowering or suppressing of emotions (e.g. guilt, remorse, sadness, fear, insecurity etc). There is, therefore, substantial uncertainty around the commercialisation of this unique game-changing product and Halo Corp are keenly interested in knowing how key stakeholder groups might respond to the new product.

Halo Corp has selected your management consultancy to advise them on this issue because of proven expertise of their consultancy team on business ethics.

The document below contains all the information you need to complete the task. The document takes the form of a detailed letter from Halo Corp in which they have:

  • Highlighted potential ethical issues that may be of concern to stakeholders.
  • Emphasised the need to understand how key stakeholders are likely to respond to the release of the new product.
  • Identified the key stakeholders they want you to consider.
  • Provided a general description of the product – Halo Chip – and its intended application (without compromising intellectual property).
  • Provided links to key websites and documents that your team must use exclusively.

Letter from the Commercial Development Team, Halo Corp

Dear Sir/ Madam,

The last 20 years have seen a number of unprecedented global trends that present a potentially significant level of risk to public security. At the centre of concerns over population explosion, resource shortages and poverty are the profoundly damaging effects of climatic instability. Amidst growing concern, several governments have funded a variety of private sector projects whose principal aim is to develop radical solutions to manage the threat of climate change. In addition to the more well-known research into renewable energy technologies (solar, wind etc.) a vast amount of money has been channelled into bio-technologies (genetic modification). The first wave of such funding culminated in the genetic modification of food crops (e.g. wheat), enabling new strains of plants that could tolerate and even prosper in the event of harsh climatic conditions, lowering the risk of crop failure and global food shortages. A second, less known stream of funding was poured into research into human bio-engineering solutions. Our company Halo Corp was a key recipient of this funding, and has successfully developed a portfolio of bio-technologies that, with no side effects, modify the behaviour of humans in environmentally friendly ways (which will be outlined further below). The principal USP of our technology is to address climate change by reducing negative human impacts on the environment.

Currently, we anticipate that our flagship product – the Halo Chip – is around 5-7 years from commercialisation, subject to the mandatory screening procedures and regulatory approval. In anticipation of this, we are soliciting your expertise in evaluating risks and threats we may face in commercialising the Halo Chip. We are specifically concerned about the reaction of key stakeholder interest groups who are thought to be crucial in galvanizing public opinion, either for or against, the Halo Chip.

The Halo Chip

The Halo Chip is an unobtrusive intelligent microchip implant that moderates human behaviours via genome reprogramming. The core USP of the Halo Chip is to enhance behavioural tendencies in the user that, over time, lower their negative impact on the natural environment. Examples of this range from; enhancing the propensity to exercise daily, thus reducing use of private transport; developing good eating habits which, aside personal health benefits, may de-pressurise food systems; enhance toleration of low light and low heat levels which may reduce demands on energy consumption; stabilize the fluctuations in our desire states – which often result in wasteful forms of consumption such as ‘binge eating’, ‘impulse buying’ and ‘status competition’ (i.e. ‘keeping up with the Joneses’). It is often cited that the human desire for happiness fuels excessive levels of material consumption. The Halo Chip can be programmed (within acceptable boundaries) to produce and even prolong human satisfaction at lower levels of material consumption, disrupting the connection between more consumption and greater happiness. In addition to this, again within predefined limits, the Halo Chip can be programmed by the user to encourage particular behavioural traits such as heightened and/or prolonged empathy with others (e.g. humans, animals and ecosystems), so that we are more able to act in ways that don’t cause them harm.

It is important to note that the chip only enhances and stabilises tendencies that are already ‘engineered-in’ by Mother Nature. In this sense it is not re-wiring the users’ DNA code but channelling it in ways that promote pro-sustainability outcomes. Moreover, the Halo Chip, much like a mobile phone, is voluntarily purchased and can be switched on and off at the discretion of the user. There is no element of coercion to use the product and it is highly customisable such that each user retains full autonomy. One additional aspect of the Chip – which we are yet to decide on- is whether we enable it to collect user-driven content over its lifetime. We would not envisage the product to be employed as a passive monitoring device but a user driven platform for individuals to interpret their own data. For example, users could download the information in the chip to a PC/Mac and observe trends in their behaviours over time. They could, for example, compare behaviours at times when the chip is active and inactive. However, due to inevitable concerns over consumer privacy we are, as yet, uncertain about this as a product feature.

Assessing Stakeholder Reactions

Whilst the sole purpose of the chip itself is to minimise the Global Risk of Climate Change to the maintenance of human systems, the nature of the product and its core technology (genome reprogramming) is likely to be considered by some groups as controversial and thus a public risk. For instance, there may be concern if it could be manipulated and/or used to achieve behavioural advantages in other applications (e.g. warfare, sports, education etc.). There is a historical precedent for heightened public concern when it comes to bio-technologies. Genetically modified (GM) food crops, despite enhancing global food security, were initially met by huge resistance from key stakeholders in the global public domain who successfully leveraged the media to mobilize negative public reactions (e.g. ‘Frankenstein Food’). If the public and media thought of GM crops as ‘Franken-Food’, might they see the Halo Chip as creating actual ‘Frankenstein Monsters’!?!

Because of some of these concerns, we anticipate mixed reactions to the Halo Chip from a set of key stakeholders [listed below], each of them representing a specific set of public interests. They are also powerful influencers of public opinion and have strong connections with other public interest groups and regularly attempt to influence media and government. It is absolutely crucial to the successful commercialisation of the Halo Chip, and thus the alleviation of climate instability, that we begin to develop an understanding of how these key stakeholders are likely to respond.

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QUESTIONS

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Using ONLY the case description and the sources indicated on the last page of this paper, evaluate the possible reactions of two key stakeholders from the list provided below. In particular, address the following questions:

Q1. Using the concepts and theories provided in lecture 4 (‘Normative Ethical Theories’) briefly explain why the Halo Chip presents an ethical issue to each stakeholder.

Q2. Using Mitchell et al.’s stakeholder salience model evaluate and synthesize the nature and intensity of stakeholder reactions.

Use evidence from the materials recommended on the last page to support your responses and to identify some limitations of the theory you have applied.

Stakeholders

Choose only two Civil Society Organisation (CSO) stakeholders from the list below that you consider most important and use their website as the primary source for your analysis:

Animal Aid www.animalaid.org.uk

Friends of the Earth www.friendsoftheearth.uk

Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org

Open Rights Group www.openrightsgroup.org

The Climate Group www.theclimategroup.org

Advice

When analysing these websites you should consider that these stakeholders:

  1. a) may be focussed on a particular ethical issue (e.g. protecting the environment, people’s civil rights or animal rights);
  2. b) may represent the interests of others who are somehow involved in a particular ethical issue.

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SOURCES

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Academic Sources

  • Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., and Wood, D. J. (1997). ‘Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really matters’, Academy of Management Review, 22(4): 853-886.

This article is the primary academic source for this assessment. You should use it to analyse stakeholders’ reactions to the Halo Chip (Q2).This article is available on Canvas in Units > Week 3 > Essential Sources.

  • The lecture about ‘Normative Ethical Theories’ (available on Canvas in Units > Week 4) is useful to address Q1.

Other Sources

  • The Guardian, 14 March 2012: “Bioengineer humans to tackle climate change, say philosophers” available at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/mar/14/human-engineering-climate-change-philosophy

  • The stakeholders websites (‘Animal Aid’, ‘Friends of Earth’, ‘Human Right Watch’, ‘Open Rights Group’, ‘The Climate Group’; choose only two stakeholders).

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