Fetching water †a Strenuous Obligation of Rural Women in India

Fetching water – a Strenuous Obligation of Rural Women in India Free Online Research Papers For women there are no developed countries. Implied in this statement is the truth that women everywhere works for longer hours, the plight of poor rural women is rather worse. Every dawn brings with it a long search of fuel fodder and water. It does not matter if the women are old, young or pregnant, crucial household needs have to be met after weary day. Traditionally, fetching water has been a woman’s job. The arduous task of fetching water is becoming nightmarish because of the underground water table and general ecological degradation. Fetching water is an extremely strenuous activity undertaken by rural women and it consumes an enormous amount of their time and energy. In Haryana where all the villages are provided with safe drinking water through community water supply since 1990, fetching water was found drudgery prone activity (Jindal: 1992). In the year 1999-2000, AICRP team of FRM conducted ergonomic evaluation of fetching water with the objective to see the risk involved in this activity. METHODOLOGY The details of the procedure adopted for the above investigation is covered as fallow: As the workload generally assumes to be modified by age, ten subjects each from the two age groups 20-30 yr. And 31-40 yr. were selected for the study on workload due to fetching water. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase all the home activities were tested for drudgery and fetching water was rated as most drudgery prone activity in the home sector. In the second phase ergonomic evaluation of fetching water was done which is discussed in this paper. The experiment of fetching water by 20 physically fit women was carried out both in the morning and evening in two ways: a) By sub-dividing the activity: i. Onward journey to the source with empty vessel(s). ii. Drawing/ pumping water. iv. Backward journey with filled vessel(s) to the storage place in the home. The observations were recorded for each sub-activity separately, for every min minimum for 20 minutes or till the activity is complete, which ever was earlier. Before the subject started the onward journey to the source, her resting heart rate/min for 5 minutes were recorded. She was made to walk up to the water source. During the activity, intend down the working heart rate/min and RPE. Then she was given rest and recorded the Recovery Heart Rate/min and RPE for a minimum of 10 min or till complete recovery. Similarly, the observations were recorded for (b) Drawing and pumping water (c) Backward journey with filled vessel(s). b) As a complete cycle: Fetching water was carried out completely in one cycle i.e. from onward journey with empty vessel(s) till she reached back and unloaded the filled vessel(s) at her destination. During the experiment, her working HR and Resting HR were recorded every minute till recovery. Research Associate, Department of Family Resource Management, I.C. College of Home Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar Physiological Stress Assessment The physiological stress of the activity was done using heart rate count per minute. Women attend to the activity of fetching water in the morning and evening. Therefore heart rate measurements were taken by tying the heart rate monitor in morning and in the evening. Bio-mechanical Assessment (analysis of the postural bends) Posture is the orientation of the person’s body parts of the work place arrangement so that the work is performed with ease. In activities involving flexi-curve was used to measure the spinal cord profile in the normal; position and it was drawn on white paper by marking cervical and lumber regions. Postural bends were taken in the identified body positions for each part of the activity using flexi-curve in the similar way and the deviation at the lumber region was analyzed for each age group against the normal position in standing. Measurement of Physiological Workload was done with the help of formulae given by Varghese et al (1994) as fallow: Energy expenditure (kj/min) = 0.159 xAHR-8.72 Energy expenditure (Kilo calorie /min)= 0.039AWHR TCCW ( Total Cardiac Cost of Work ) = Cardiac Cost of Work(CCW)+Cardiac Cost of Recovery (CCR) Where, CCW = Average Heart Rate (AHR) x Duration of Activity AHR = Average Working Heart Rate (AWHR) Average Resting Heart Rate ( ARecHR) CCR = Average Recovery Heart Rate( ARecHR)- Average Resting Heart Rate (AWRHR) PCW = TCCW/Total time of Activity Physiological Workload Index Rating on Perceived Exertion Very light 1 Light 2 Moderate 3 Heavy 4 Very Heavy 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Activity profile a) Type of vessel: Earthen pitcher was used mainly to fetch water (80%) followed by brass tokni (20%). However, the trend in rural areas is that they generally use brass tokni to fetch water but empty it into earthen pot after return. A brass tokni weighs on an average 3 kg whereas earthen pitcher ranged from 6-7 kg. However to fetch drinking water only earthen pitcher was used (Table1). b) Mode of carrying load: Head load was the only mode of carrying water to home. A woman carried one vessel at a time having a load of 5.8 kg during onward journey while she carried 24.2 kg (with water filled vessel) during return journey (Table 1).In a similar study conducted by Hyderabad AICRP team reported shoulder as the mode of fetching water( Annual Report,2002). c) Number of vessels: On an average, a woman fetched 23 vessels of water daily in summer i.e. 17 in the morning and 6 in the evening (Table 1). This water requirement was for the purpose of cooking, cleaning, washing and bathing of self, family members and many times for animals, too. Hence, she had to make 23 trips per day to fetch water. d) Time spent: An average woman spent 6 min. per trip to fetch one vessel of water to home (Table 1). Hence, the total time spent per day on fetching water was 138 min. This indicates that she spends 105 man-days in a year to fetch water. Further, she could bring ten vessels of water in an hour. e) Distance traveled: A woman traveled a distance of 0.25 km per cycle of fetching water (Table 1). This depicts that she had to travel 5.75 km in a day only for fetching of water. f) Speed of walking: A woman walked speed of 2.8 km/hr during onward journey of fetching water while it was 3.5km/hr for backward journey. The walking speed of the woman increased while backward journey because she carried a head load and wanted to ease herself by finishing the task as early as possible. Physiological Stress Physiological stress of women respondents was determined on the basis of various parameters like average and peak heart rate, energy expenditure, total cardiac cost of work and rating of perceived exertion while performing the activity. This is discussed as under: a) Heart Rate: Table 2 reveals that average and peak heart rate of women was observed to be 103.7 bpm-1 and 111.3 bpm-1 while fetching water during morning hours for the complete cycle. However, there was a slight increase in average and peak heart rate (104.6 bpm-1, 111.4 bpm-1) during evening hours even though maximum vessels of water were fetched in the morning (17 vessels). The reason for the same could be due to gradual increase in fatigue as the day progresses. Both average and peak heart rate was maximum during drawing of water among both the age groups in the evening viz., 21-30 years (122.5 bpm-1 and 123.1 bpm-1) and 31-40 years (127.4 bpm-1 and 129.5 bpm-1) (Fig.1). Fig.1 Relationship between heart rate and energy expenditure b) Energy expenditure: Energy expenditure calculated on the basis of average and peak heart rate was found to the extent of 7.7 Kj/min and 9.0 KJ/min. respectively during morning hours. However, energy expenditure increased with the increase in age and as the day progressed to the evening (7.8 KJ and 8.9 KJ/min). It was determined to be maximum while drawing water (10.7 KJ/min) followed by backward journey (8.35 Kj/min.) (Table2). The reason may be that they were drawing water with the help of hand-pump fitted over the water supply tap due to low pressure, which required more physical efforts for fetching water. A significant positive correlation existed between energy expenditure and time spent during backward journey both in the morning and evening (Fig.1). c) Physiological workload: The average working heart rate increased up to 35% over rest causing stress. This could be perhaps due to manual lifting and carrying loads. The work joules (calories expenditure) indicated 8.4 kj/min or 2.0 Kcal (Kilo calories) and 37.6Kj/min or 8.67 Kcal/hr which were well within the acceptable limits of a healthy worker performing the same work for an 8 hr schedule. d) Physiological cost of work( PCW): Physiological cost of work was determined on the basis of TCCW and duration of activity. TCCW was assessed as 253.2 and 280.8 beats among two age groups respectively for the complete cycle of fetching water during morning hours. However, it was calculated as 243.8 and 276.8 beats during evening respectively (Table 3.). Unlike heart rate and energy expenditure TCCW also showed an increasing trend with the increase in age. Physiological cost of work was determined to be maximum during drawing water (73.3bpm-1). -74.3bpm-1). The activity was perceived moderately heavy on the RPE score. Again the HYDERABAD AICRP team showing higher heart rate, higher peak heart rate, higher energy expenditure made contradictory results and the fetching water was perceived as heavy activity (AICRP:2001-2002). It can be understand that the work â€Å"Water Fetching† is moderate heavy for the women in terms of subjective rating on perceived exertion and physical cost of work. By this it can be inferred that the energy wasted in supporting the losd is greater than the energy required completing the task as no technical device be used. Therefore alternative technical tools could be planned to give mechanical advantage to this manual work. Bio-mechanical assessment a) Postural Analysis: The spinal curvature at cervical and lumbar regions was recorded while onward journey, drawing water and backward journey during fetching water. i) Frequency of postural change: Bending posture was adopted for maximum number of times (40) while fetching water closely followed by standing posture. Bending posture was adopted for maximum time during drawing of water from the hand-pump (Fig.2.) ii) Spinal curvature at cervical and lumbar region: Table 4. Show the average cervical and lumbar angles obtained while onward, backward journey drawing water by women during fetching water. These angles were recorded to study the effect of bending on anterior posterior spinal curvature. Percentage deviation in the cervical region from the normal position was assessed to be 1.7 % and 7.3 % while drawing water among women belonging to two age groups viz., 21-30 yr. 31-40 yr. It was 2.9 and 3.1% respectively in two age groups during backward journey respectively. In lumbar region, percentage deviation from normal position was quite significant in case of drawing water among both age categories (10.0% and 8.9 % respectively). It was assessed to be 2.9 and 3.5 percent during backward journey for the women belonging to 21-30 yr. and 31-40 yr. of age respectively. It is evident that the anterior- posterior spinal increases during carrying load while it decreases during drawing water. Respondents complained of fatigue during work and also towards the end of the day. Postural stress could be a causative factor for high physiological cost and fatigue. This might lead to vertebral column related injuries or health problems in the long run which is evident from the body ache and pain. Musculo -skeletal problems: To study the muscle-skeletal problems, a body map was used to analyze the magnitude of body pain of women while fetching water. Very severe to severe pain was reported in shoulder joints, upper back and lower arm specially while drawing water. While carrying load back home, pain was more evident in neck, upper arm, shoulder joints, upper leg, lower back and calf muscles. Carrying heavy loads for prolonged periods covering long distance were the risk factors and against the acceptable mode of manual material handling and therefore strain cervical, shoulder and lumber regions. The musculo skeletal disorder of ligaments, joints, spinal discs is a possibility to occur due to the aforesaid risk factors. Put the postural muscles under continuos contraction leading to muscular fatigue, and if it sustained for longer period will cause severe muscular injury. CONCLUSIONS An average woman carries a head load of 24.3 kg. and fetches 23 vessels of water per day. She covers a distance of 5.75 kms at a speed of 2.8km/hr during onward journey and 3.5 km/hr for backward journey of fetching water and spends 138 min per day. Physiological cost of work in terms of energy expenditure was found to be the extent of 7.7 kJ/min during morning hours. However, energy expenditure increases as the day progresses to the evening (7.8 kJ/ min) and also increases with the age. A significant positive correlation exits between energy expenditure and time spent during backward journey and also for drawing of water. While drawing water percentage deviation in the cervical region comes to 1.7 per cent and 7.3 per cent among women belonging to 20-30 yr. and 31-40 yr. of age groups. In lumber region deviation was to the extent of 10 and 8.9 per cent. A woman feels very sever to severe pain in shoulder joints, upper back and lower arm especially while drawing water. Pain is mo re evident in neck, upper arm, shoulder joints, calf muscles while carrying load back home. It is important that a large-scale study is undertaken to investigate biomechanical disorders in fetching water,. establish causative factors and come up with solutions to minimise their cause. As, water carrying either on the head hip, back or shoulder has posture and biomechanical disorders associated with it. Solutions must be sort to alleviate these problems These may require new methods of transporting water. Rick management strategies: ? It is generally considered that the load to be carried by women workers should not be more than 30 percent of her body weight ? Body should be in alignment during carrying water. Proper posture should be adopted while drawing and bringing water. ? Women should use other sources of water for different purposes, e.g. for drinking cattle irrigation ditches and pond water can be used. It will save the additional trips of water. ? Rain water harvesting, recycling wastewater and saving water losses, are some of the simple techniques, which can help stretch the smallest drop of water. ? It is required to provide the water in the household premises to illuminate the drudgery and fatigue of the rural women. Haryana State, Government is pledged to provide the water supply within the household premises of all the villagers. ? Push Trolleys developed for fetching water by the Hyderabad AICRP team should be prorogated in the areas where the fetching water is drudgery prone activity. REFERENCES ? Annual Report 1999-2000. Ergonomics of Farm Women’s Drudgery – All India Co-ordinated Research Project in Home Science. Deptt. of FRM, COHS, CCSHAU, Hisar: 1-80. ? Annual Report 2001-2002.Ergonomics of Farm Women’s Drudgery- AICRP in FRM Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad: 1-95. ? Jindal, A.1992. Housing Needs in Content of Rural Women M.Sc. Thesis. Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. 1-165. ? Varghese, M.A., Saha, P.N. and Atreya, N. 1994. A Rapid Appraisal Of Occupational Workload From A Modified Scale of Perceived Exertion. Ergonomics, 37(3): 485-491. 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The impact of rape on the victims Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The impact of rape on the victims - Essay Example Rape can also be regarded as sexual assault and it can happen to both men and women of different ages. Rapists usually apply force to subdue their victims and it can be seen that rape is all about power where the sexual offender seeks to derive sexual pleasure from another person without his or her consent. To this effect, rape is a criminal offence which negatively impacts on the lives of the victims. Effective measures need to be put in place in order to deal with this cancerous disease in different societies. Research has shown that most sexual offences such as rape are mainly committed by members of the lowest socio-economic classes with a relatively low standard of education. For instance, Robinson (23) suggests that cases of rape are more common especially in poor communities and they often go unreported. This practice is mainly influenced by lack of proper education among the members of the poor communities. The victims are often threatened with death if they report the case t o the law enforcement agents. As a result of this situation, it can be noted that the victims often suffer in silence for fear of their lives if they report the case. It can also be seen that rape is usually committed by the relatives of the victims. ... Robinson (24) also posits to the effect that rape is often committed for ritual purposes. Many people who are infected with HIV/Aids especially in African countries believe that this deadly disease can be treated if they sleep with minors. However, the unfortunate truth is that AIDS is incurable so instead of solving their own problems, they will be creating similar problems on other people. Rape is also committed by people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol and these people use force in order to have sex with the unwilling victims. In some cases, the victims are also drugged so that they become powerless such that they cannot defend themselves. Men can also be raped by women though this problem is mainly rampant among females. However, some men are often ashamed of reporting such cases for fear of being ridiculed in their respective societies and this is the reason why some of these cases go unreported. Men usually feel inferior if they are raped by women especially tho se who come from patriarchal societies. There are several negative consequences of rape cases among different people who are victims. People who are forced into sex are often traumatized by the horrific experience they go through. For instance, minors often experience psychological problems that will affect their growth and development if they are raped and threatened with death. At the end of the day, these young people often suffer in silence but this affects their normal growth and development. In most cases, children who are victims of rape often behave in a queer manner such that they may perform dismally in their studies at school. If these children are not properly counseled, they may not develop in a normal way. This can in turn impact negatively

Compare and Contrast the Emergent and Intended Approach to Strategic Literature review

Compare and Contrast the Emergent and Intended Approach to Strategic - Literature review Example The authors have been carrying out research for over ten years on the topic and the intended audiences are the entrepreneurs and organization leadership. The topic has meet my expectations because it compares and contrast the intended strategy together with realized strategy in a diagram form, hence distinguishing deliberate strategies realized as intended from emergent strategies patterns realized in spite of intentions. The special features of the work that were helpful was the identification of different types of strategies and everyone embodying different degrees of what is called deliberateness. The authors are of high integrity; Henry Mintzber is heading the faculty of management at McGill University while James Waters is a lecture at York University in the faculty of administration studies. The authors concluded that strategies are tending towards being more deliberate in tightly coupled, centrally controlled institutions and more emergent in decentralized loosely coupled ones . According to my conclusion, strategy formation walks in two forms, deliberate and emergent.... since it contain the information on the school design context and contribution, four strategic management conditions that encourage an institution to move towards design school are explained. The helpful work was in the explanation of premises underlying the school of design since each premise explains the process of strategy formation. Mintzber who is the author is a man of high integrity and he is heading the faculty of management at McGill University. The authors concluded that the school has provided significant information on the discussion of grand strategy and it has given the notion that underlies all prescription in the field of management. I concluded that there is concurrence between external opportunity and internal capability in the field of strategic management. Ansoff, H., (1991). Critique of Henry Mintzberg's 'the design school: reconsidering the basic Premises of strategic management,' Strategic Management Journal, Vol.12 (6), PP.449-461 The main focus of this articl e is to critique the work done by Mintzberg's (1990) on design school of emerging strategic management. The design is evaluated using two criteria’s, methodological soundness and factual veracity, after the evaluation, it was found that the critique has deficiency by both methods. The problem of Mintzberg's work is associated with lack of logics in his presentation, his definition on strategy differs from the current practice in management and he failed to differentiate prescriptive and descriptive statement. In this critique, the author emphasis on methodological deficiencies and factual contradictions between Mintzberg's and real world of strategic management. Full description of Mintzberg's model was presented by the author and he found some valid contexts in Mintzberg's work. These

Of Mice and Men Chapter 2 Analysis Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men Chapter 2 Analysis Essay The purpose of my essay is to look at how Slim is presented as a threat to George and Lennie later on in the novel Of Mice and Men. The first time that we meet Slim in the novel is on page 34. Steinbeck goes into a very detailed description of him, describing him in a beautiful manner, and then the first thing that we hear from Slim is Brightern a bitch outside. All throughout the novel, George has been telling Lennie not to trust anyone, dont talk to anybody, you cant trust them. Yet when George first meets Slim, there very first conversation is a philosophical one. They talk about traveling, and more specifically traveling together. George says its nicer to travel with a friend, which could foreshadow a vulnerability on his part. George is already trusting Slim too much, he has only just met him, he shouldnt be so trusting of Slim. Even though Slim seems to be a gentle and kind person, George has just met him and should not be so trusting. George is beginning to contradict himself and what he told Lennie, not only by being so trusting of Slim, but he told Slim that he was his friend. Yet he told the boss that Lennie was his friend. This essay has looked at how Slim can possibly present a threat to George and Lennie in the novel.

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Essay -- Facility Ownership Finances Accounti

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a method for assessing the total cost of facility ownership. It takes into account all costs of acquiring, owning, and disposing of a building or building system. LCCA is especially useful when project alternatives that fulfill the same performance requirements, but differ with respect to initial costs and operating costs, have to be compared in order to select the one that maximizes net savings. For example, LCCA will help determine whether the incorporation of a high-performance HVAC or glazing system, which may increase initial cost but result in dramatically reduced operating and maintenance costs, is cost-effective or not. LCCA is not useful for budget allocation. Lowest life-cycle cost (LCC) is the most straightforward and easy-to-interpret measure of economic evaluation. Some other commonly used measures are Net Savings (or Net Benefits), Savings-to-Investment Ratio (or Savings Benefit-to-Cost Ratio), Internal Rate of Return, and Payback Period. They are consistent with the Lowest LCC measure of evaluation if they use the same parameters and length of study period. Building economists, certified value specialists, cost engineers, architects, quantity surveyors, operations researchers, and others might use any or several of these techniques to evaluate a project. The approach to making cost-effective choices for building-related projects can be quite similar whether it is called cost estimating, value engineering, or economic analysis. DESCRIPTION A. Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) Method The purpose of an LCCA is to estimate the overall costs of project alternatives and to select the design that ensures the facility will provide the lowest overall cost of ownership consistent with its quality and function. The LCCA should be performed early in the design process while there is still a chance to refine the design to ensure a reduction in life-cycle costs (LCC). The first and most challenging task of an LCCA, or any economic evaluation method, is to determine the economic effects of alternative designs of buildings and building systems and to quantify these effects and express them in dollar amounts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Viewed over a 30 year period, initial building costs account for approximately just 2% of the total, while operations and maintenance costs equal 6%, and personnel costs equal ... ..., Design, and Development Process, Cost-Effective—Use Economic Analysis to Evaluate Facility Investment Decisions, Cost-Effective—Consider Non-Monetary Benefits such as Aesthetics, Historic Preservation, Security, and Safety, Sustainable, Productive, Functional Publications Building Economics: Theory and Practice by Rosalie T. Ruegg and Harold E. Marshall. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Energy Price Indices and Discount Factors for Life-Cycle Cost Analysis, Annual Supplement to Handbook 135 by Sieglinde K. Fuller, Amy S. Rushing, and Laura I. Schultz. NISTIR 85-3273-19. Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, April 2004. Also available from the DOE/FEMP Help Desk at 1-877-EERE-INF (1-877-337-3463). Engineering Economy by G. J. Thuesen and W. J. Fabrycky. Prentice Hall, 1993. ISBN 0-13-277491-7. GSA LEED ® Cost Study Life-Cycle Costing Manual for the Federal Energy Management Program by Sieglinde Fuller and S.R. Petersen. NIST Handbook 135. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1995. Simplified Energy Design Economics by Harold E. Marshall and Rosalie T. Ruegg. NBS SP 544. Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards, January 1980.

African American Injustice Essay

â€Å"In the eyes of white Americans, being black encapsulates your identity. † In reading and researching the African American cultural group, this quote seemed to identify exactly the way the race continues to still be treated today after many injustices in the past. It is astonishing to me that African Americans can still stand to be treated differently in today’s society. In reading â€Å"Blacks in America†, Andrew Hacker states that â€Å"being black in America has consequences in areas of: wealth, identity, raising children, occupational opportunities, place of residence, and treatment in the criminal justice system. † To be honest, and I feel bad saying that I already knew this was happening to African Americans. I have heard stories of blacks not getting jobs; regardless of how qualified they are for the position, because of the color of their skin. I have heard stories, and even witness black children getting picked on in school because of the simple fact that they are black. I watched a video in school where a black family moved into a white neighborhood, and before long all the white families had moved out because they didn’t want a black family in their neighborhood. This was confirmed by Hacker in my research in the quote, â€Å"Almost all residential areas are entirely black or white. † I have also seen videos of African American men getting beaten by white arresting officers, and have heard stories of many black men being stereotyped by policemen. This must be why Hacker states â€Å"When white people hear the cry, â€Å"the police are coming! † it almost always means, â€Å"Help is on the way. † However blacks cannot make the same assumption. † These are all reports and events that I think the average American has seen before, but yet most people, including myself, continue to just shrug of and ignore. I guess it’s something that I might have subconsciously accepted, or maybe refused to think more deeply about. In reading and researching, I reaffirmed knowledge that I refused to take a greater note of. I wouldn’t say I learned anything new, because I knew what I wanted to focus on. A quote from Andrew Hacker’s article summarizes the above best, â€Å"In the eyes of white Americans, being black encapsulates your identity. † It may be easy to tell how I am going to focus this anthology. I am going to focus it on the injustices that African Americans continue to face in the United States today. That being, I know exactly what I need to get out of my interviewees, but it is probably a sensitive subject for some of the people I need to interview. I am not black, and I don’t know what it feels like to face this discrimination in everyday life. I can understand the tenderness that African Americans must feel then, when revealing and talking about their experiences with discrimination. I would think then, that it must be especially sensitive to talk about with a person from the race that they receive this everyday discrimination. It will be interesting to hear all the different types of prejudice that my interviewees have received throughout their lives. I would imagine that it ranges from just a look, or the way white Americans act around them, to voiced and physical altercations between themselves and white Americans. Hacker at times seems to be speaking directly to African Americans as he describes these altercations, â€Å"So many of the contacts you have with them (white Americans) are stiff and uneasy, hardly worth the effort. † But to me, that is exactly what the problem is. Why would it not be worth the effort? The first step to take for the uneasiness between the two races to cease to exist is for us (all people) to stop seeing color because once we act differently around the other is where all the problems seem to start. The second step is to make these contacts worth the effort. If we choose to continue to stay in our own comfortable circle of race, when is the problem ever going to end? The answer is never. My opinion as a white 18 year old is that most of the blame lies on the white race. Imagine being eyed every time you go into a store, having your car searched for no reason, or greeted warily at restaurants all because the color of your skin is different. We ignore this daily discrimination because no cares enough anymore to take notice that it happens every hour, every day somewhere in the United States. Will it ever stop? Not until we each take the steps to make it. A recent census commercial I’ve seen said â€Å"We (United States) can’t move forward until you mail it back. † I believe that our country can’t move forward and truly be great until we make sure these daily discriminations are eliminated from our society. In this project, I will interview African Americans on their personal experiences with discrimination, how they handle it, and if they think anything can be done about this problem. Sources: Andrew. 1999. â€Å"Blacks in America. † Pp. 160-168 in The Meaning of Sociology, 6th ed. , edited by Joel Charon. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. A Time to Kill. Dir. Joel Schumacher. 1996. â€Å"African American History. † University of Washington Libraries. Web. 02 Apr. 2010. .

Float Pool Nurses - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1045 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? The existence of float pools and resource teams in the medical sectors serves to supplement the inadequate nursing staff in the hospitals and cut costs for hospitals. Float pools are beneficial to the hospitals, patients, but leaves nurses dissatisfied. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Float Pool Nurses" essay for you Create order While the research was conducted it utilized the use of other written articles and materials to find out the benefits and disadvantages of float pools Float pools serve as a source for nurses when hospitals need them. Hospitals can easily hire more nurses if need be or reduce them if they do not need them. Float pools are beneficial to hospitals as they help them save money on recruitment, beneficial to patients who have people to look after them. However, nurses felt dissatisfied with the use of float pools because the jobs are unstable. They therefore leave the float pools anytime for more stable jobs. Overall, float pools are a benefit to all stakeholders in the medical sector. The patients, hospitals, and the nurses benefit in different ways. While the nurses are in the float pools, they can be able to get work before they get permanent jobs. The use of float pools should therefore be encouraged through the country. In the future, however there is the need to conduct more research on the financial benefits of study pools to hospitals. The research implied that float pools are beneficial for the practice of nurses. Nurses should therefore take up jobs through float pools. Moreover, nurses should not be forced to float so that they can be less stressed. The research sought to find out how to help nurses cope with unfamiliar units while working. How do nurses cope with the stress associated with unfamiliar units? The research was used by collecting data with the use of questionnaires from float nurses. When the research was conducted, nurses identified four areas of concern for them as float nurses. Communication, routine, storage of personal equipment and admissions, transfer and discharge. When the nurses moved to unfamiliar units they are worried about the places available to store their personal equipment in addition to the routines they should follow in a given station. Further communication with other medical personnel such as doctors and pharmacist is a problem and the unit specific information they should know. In conclusion, nurses need to learn unit specific rules as well as hospital wide rules. Each unit has its own routine where other nurses can help a new nurse while hospital wide rules, which are applicable in all hospitals, care applicable. Future research should sought to help nurses cope with any kind of stress that they might encounter while working in a new unit. The practice implies that there is stress that nurses undergo when they join a new unit. Therefore un it nurses should be helped to cope with a new situation so that they can give their best at work The study sought to find out the staffing patterns between float pool nurses and scheduled unit staff nurses. Are float pool nurses given more difficult tasks than scheduled unit staff nurses are? A survey was carried out though observing and interviewing 217 nurses in various units. The study showed that there was great difference in the staffing patterns between float nurses and scheduled unit staff nurses. The float nurses were given more difficult tasks such as caring for patients in critical conditions or mentally confused patients. On the other hand, scheduled staff nurses were tasked with caring for nurses who were more stable both mentally and physically. As result, float pool nurses prove to be more stressed at work than the scheduled staff nurses. Float pool nurses are not contracted permanently and therefore they might be tasked by hospital heads to care for the difficult patients. However, they should not be marginalized because they are not permanent. If they are stressed at work, it will affect their performance. They should be distributed in hospitals equally to other nurses in the field. The nurses should be treated well because they help hospitals cut on administration costs as well as recruiting costs. The study is necessary for future studies concerni9ng float nurses. However, the number of nurses to be used in the research should be increased and the units to be researched should be well defined for clearer comparison. The study implied that float pool nurses receive more difficult patient’s situation than staffed nurses. Therefore, it is clear that float pool nurses have a hard time while practicing. The research finds out whether some nurses are given more difficult assignments than others are. Is it a fact or fiction that there is inequity of patients’ assignments? The research was carried out with the use of observation where nurses with over one year of experience were observed on the number of shifts they had and the tasks they were given. After the research was conducted, it was realized that some groups of nurses were given more work than others. Therefore, research proved the theory that there was inequality in assigning patients assignments. Nurses with more experience were given more tasks and more shifts than those with less experience do. The hospital heads were not aware of the fact some nurses had more tasks despite being the ones that give assignments. This shows that the heads are not keen on how they give assignments to nurses. Even after the observation was completed, it was discovered that the unfair distribution of work continued. The more experience that a nurse has at work the more work they are given. However, the inequality on work distribution leads to stress at work as those overloaded are pressured to work more hours involuntarily. The research will affect future research as in the future there is the need to go into deeper research on whether the people who are given more tasks are in good terms with the management. Moreover, those with lesser workloads should be observed to note whether they are deemed incompetent in their work in any way. The study implied that there might be unfair distribution of nursing duties not only in one hospital, but also in many institutions. It is therefore important for hospital heads to be more conscious while allocating duties to nurses to avoid stressing some nurses.