Nursing care for mentally ill patients

It is not easy for a nurse to provide nursing care for mentally ill patients as it is a complex process that has special requirements. Great understanding for human minds and behaviors is needed by a nurse who has a therapeutic relationship with a mentally ill patient. (NHS, 2014) The current assignment is a personal reflection about an experience I had in the mental illness department at a hospital as training.  It reflects a therapeutic relationship with a patient who is mentally ill receiving the care. The assignment is reflecting the skills and experiences I gained through providing a holistic care for a patient in the mental health setting in the hospital in addition to reflecting the challenges and boundaries I faced through having such a therapeutic relationship with the patient. There will also be a discussion for the used strategies in developing a therapeutic relationship with the mental illness patient.

Patients in mental health setting are not easy to deal with as other settings' patients due to what they suffer of mental and psychological problems and due to their unexpected reactions that may surprise a nurse dealing with them, shock her and perhaps make her frightened of treating such patients. Yet a therapeutic relationship between a nurse and a patient with mental illness is very important. My experience was in the setting of mental health in a hospital, I was at first hesitated and not very brave to deal with the patients there as a result of the background I had about strange actions of patients with mental illness but sooner I had some self confidence and I encouraged myself . I entered the ward with my colleagues who made some noise that seemed to annoy the patient female in the mental health ward as one of them suddenly shouted at my face as I was in the front of other colleagues, this scared me but after a moment, the patient laughed loudly and I also encouraged myself and entered. I then realized that voices of my colleagues disturbed the patients so this one shouted at us and laughed to alarm us not to make noise again. This made me understand that mental health patients must be dealt with great care, understanding and respect. I met another patient who was silent and straying but looked calm and decent. I smiled at her, she didn't smile at first then I smiled again gently and then she smiled to me. I got some information about her Ms. Jane was a 28 years old Saudi female who has schizophrenia for five years and was always alone, with aggressive attitudes. It was difficult for me to build a therapeutic nurse patient relationship with her, perhaps I did not have enough skills or experiences about how to break the ice with a mental illness patient. I tried talking with her by asking her about her name, age and family. She did not reply to me and then she said that "life is not a garden for children because it is not quiet" so I understand that she didn't want me to speak too much. I noticed that she needed to talk so I showed to her that I am listening to her carefully and she began talking freely. Hence I was sure that listening to the mentally ill patient is very important for a nurse to build a therapeutic relationship with a patient with mental illness in order to let the patient feel that the nurse is caring and interested in helping the patient and then to trust the nurse and talk which helps provide the proper nursing care for the patient. Ms. Jane is the only girl for her mother and father, she was never married before and her education level was mediate. The case began to suffer since past five years but her childhood history tells that she had epileptic seizures but she followed a mental therapy then seizures disappeared but she rarely has them now. 

According to (Fortinash, 2008)mental illness is referred to as an illness which leaves effects on the person's abilities whether cognitive, social or emotional ones and hence the patient is in risk of causing harms to oneself and to other people, symptoms associated with it are such as irrational behaviors, hallucinations, delusions, mood disturbance and strange thought form. It can be diagnosed as depression, schizophrenia or others according to the symptoms. The relationship between a nurse and a client which must be a therapeutic one can be defined as an interaction that occurs between the nurse and the patient and it aims to provide a healing atmosphere that helps the patient by learning about his or her basic needs and limit any other further illness or complications and psychiatric mental health is mainly based upon such successful relationship. (Jakopac and Patel, 2011)

I tried to make an interaction with my patient through learning about her needs and encouraging her to express herself. There are stages involved and required for a nurse client therapeutic relationship such as the orientation stage when assessment is very important to be done by the nurse as it involves introducing the nurse to the patient and explaining goal of care. (Ostendorf et al, 2013)I told Ms. Jane about my name and told her that I am the nurse to care for her, I also intended to use nonverbal communication methods with her as smiling and simple hand signs. I tried to assess her behaviors and reactions to recognize her needs as I collected as much information as possible about her. According to (Ballard et al, 2012), working stage follows that of orientation stage in the nurse patient relationship. The nurse has to spend enough time to convince the patient to talk and nonverbal communication is very important to do this, a nurse has to show respect and interest to the patient to raise levels of trust and relieve stress. (Rogers et al, 2012)  I gave X, my patient, a flower and then she smiled and I began some simple discussions with her as she expressed some fear of light and when I closed it, she relaxed and talked a little about herself. I assessed her readiness to communicate with me, her language and her desire and ability to talk. I noticed that the patient stopped talking when I tried to interrupt her or when I talked too much so I realized I shouldn't have done this. According to (Basavanthappa, 2011), the resolution stage comes next to the working stage in a nurse client therapeutic relationship. The last stage which is the termination stage or the resolution stage involves the nurse's review for patient's progress and relief of symptoms, evaluation for goals achievement, setting possible problems the patient may encounter after discharge and thanking the patient with promises of more interventions. (Videbeck, 2011). I thanked Ms. Jane and promised her to come again then I assessed my goals achieving, reviewed the progress of patient as she was very communicative when she trusted me and told many important points about her feelings and needs and I suggested that she might face problems of anxiety, loneliness and depression after discharge if her life circumstances did not change. (Craig and Davies, 2009) 

The interpersonal relationship between a nurse and a patient with mental illness can be faced with challenges that may work as obstacles against the nurse's role in providing care within a client centered therapy. (Nizette et al, 2012)During my work with X, I faced many challenges such as encouraging her to speak as at first, she resisted to talk with me but I exerted great efforts to encourage her. Her language was not very clear when she talked as some words were not understood by me.  I also found some difficulties with dealing with the patient's family, they refused to confess she is mentally ill and her mother said she does not have to talk about her daughter's life. It seemed to me that culture and traditions of the family prevent them from confessing that they have a patient who is mentally ill. Among the challenges I faced was working in a noisy and busy environment as the room was not having enough quietness in addition to the existence of many persons around me. I also faced another challenge which was shortage of time as I didn't stay with my patient enough time due to many reasons as she had to take her medications. Another challenge was my lack of enough listening skills as sometimes I interrupted the patient which made her angry and stopped talking. Another challenge was that the patient's profile lacked some important information about the patient and her physician was very busy to provide me with the information I needed.

I learnt many things through this experience such as learning that a nurse has a very important role in mental care as a caregiver but not to do her tasks only without deep assessment. (Boyd, 2008) I learned how to care for a patient with mental illness, how to communicate with the patient, nursing skills and many techniques of therapeutic communication such as how to build a successful client nurse relationship. According to (Lain et al, 2013), therapeutic communication is a very vital step for a nurse dealing with a mental illness patient as there are signs and body language that should be used with the patients and a good nurse should avoid any thing that can make the patient angry or nervous. I learned many skills and strategies of assessing the patient from many sides regarding her illness history, current physical state, violent attitudes, communication, needs and medication following. I also learnt to make self assessment for my work. According to (Varcarolis, 2010)assessment is a main step a nurse should process with patients with mental illness in order to learn about patients' suicide attitudes, depression, physical health and feelings of the patient in order to focus on the patient's problem leading her to have the illness. I learned to face any challenges that hindered my work and frustrated me as according to (Bonham et al, 2013) nurses can change work challenges to opportunities such as making good use of the limited time by specifying everything to be done with the patient before beginning the work. I didn't have good plan before beginning my work. I also learnt many things about how to deal with the patient's family and not to address them as having a mental patient if they cannot cope with this but to be careful when dealing with them to encourage them to help in the care process. According to(Shives, 2008), the family helps a lot in improving the state of patients who have psychiatric disorders because the family members can support the patient to overcome the illness and respond to treatment.

Conclusion

Nursing care provided for patients with mental illness require many strategies and procedures that nurses have to be acquainted with in order to provide a care that helps improving the patients' quality of life. A nurse's role is a major one that needs many skills to be learnt and it also needs to be assessed and evaluated by the nurse herself. There are many challenges that a nurse may face during providing the care in the mental illness setting but a good nurse needs to learn strategies to overcome such challenges so as not to work against care processes the nurse provides as being a major caregiver.      

  

References

1. Ballard, K., Kennedy, W., & Kennedy, M.S.N., R.N, W. (2012). Efolio: Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. Jones & Bartlett Pub (ma).
2. Basavanthappa, B. (2011). Essentials of Mental Health Nursing. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Pub.
3. Bonham, P., Felton, A., & Stacey, G. (2012). Placement Learning in Mental Health Nursing,A guide for students in practice,1: Placement Learning in Mental Health Nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
4. Boyd, M. (2008). Psychiatric nursing: Contemporary practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
5. Craig, T., & Davies, T. (2009). ABC of mental health (2nd ed.). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell/BMJ Books.
6. Fortinash, K. (2008). Psychiatric mental health nursing (4th ed.). St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby Elsevier.
7. Lain, Ryrie, Ian, Norman. The Art And Science Of Mental Health Nursing: Principles And Practice: A Textbook of Principles and Practice. (2013). McGraw-Hill International.
8. NHS, 2014. Mental health nursing.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/nursing/careers-in-nursing/mental-+health-nursing/

9. Nizette, Elder and Evans, 2012. Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 3E Elsevier Health Solutions APAC (123 SlideShares)

http://www.slideshare.net/AnnekeElsevier/psychiatric-and-mental-health-nursing-3e-by-elder-evans-nizette

10. Ostendorf, W., Potter, P., & Perry, A. (2013). Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques. Elsevier Health Sciences.
11. Patel, S., & Jakopac, K. (2011). Manual of Psychiatric Nursing Skills. Jones & Bartlett.
12. Rogers, V., Fitzpatrick, D., & Jones, D. (2012). Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: An Interpersonal Approach. Springer Publishing Company.
13. Shives, L. (2008). Basic Concepts of Psychiatric-mental Health Nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
14. Varcarolis, E. (2010). Manual of Psychiatric Nursing Care Planning: Assessment Guides, Diagnoses, Psychopharmacology (4th ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences.
15. Videbeck, S. (2011). Psychiatric-mental health nursing (5th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

reflection barriers in nursing

It is important to use reflection in nursing despite barriers that could hinder reflection use in the nursing field. In this assignment, three barriers that may face nurses when using reflection professionally will be presented as well as three suggested solutions for such barriers. There will be a definition for reflection, a discussion for reflection value in nursing will be made in addition to presenting reflection methods.

Nursing profession is a field of practice that includes various care experiences. Reflection in action can be defined as rethinking of a current situation and makes changes to find solutions for this problem while reflection on action is a process of thinking of the used practices after an event is finished and choose the best changes for future use. (Scott, 2007) In nursing, reflection is of great value for professional life. According to (Caballero et al, 2012) reflection is vital for nursing practice due to reasons such as helping nurses recognize and concentrate on the sides of behavioral acts, information, skills and experiences needed for promoting their clinical care practices to provide the best practice. A nurse who knows reflection can learn about her personal weaknesses and strong sides in order to promote future practices  and it provides nurses with self confidence when dealing with others within the care environment and achieve better communication. It provides the opportunity for self assessment that strengthens the lifelong learning techniques. Reflection can raise a sense of competition among nurses via giving them the chance for learning from each other, having a good level of clinical awareness and face challenges. (Elder et al, 2009)

Reflection has many models including specific principles which differ in each model according to details only. Among those models are Gibbs' Reflective Cycle (1988)as he has set his cycle of reflection to be a reference for care practitioners to follow its six steps that starts with event describing and at last a plan for amendments to improve future practice. In 1993, a framework for reflection was presented by Atkins and Murphy with more details than the one Gibbs presented with its main used skills during reflection. (Brooker and Waugh, 2013)

According to (Boud and Walker, 1993) there are barriers to reflection use in nursing which could be external or internal. Internal barriers include personal barriers and emotional ones, external barriers include environmental barriers. Personal barriers nurses face come from the practitioner insider such as past passive experiences, lack of self preparation for the practice situation or not realizing one's real abilities, weakness or strengths. Emotional barriers include having a low emotional response with the nursing practice, not appreciated by others, exaggeration in sympathy feelings or suffering a low emotional level towards specific nursing practices. External barriers include being in a stressful environment, cultural diversity of the people in the nursing situation such as different languages or accents, lack of communication skills among people in the care environment or lack of good supervision for the practitioner during clinical practices. Such barriers could be overcome by the practitioner's good command of many points, barriers can be overcome by oneself, by a facilitator's aid or by a group help. To face barriers by oneself, a nurse must confess them at first, identify them and study them for deep understanding then to test a personal way to deal with them directly. A practitioner can face barriers to reflection by the accurate monitoring for the group in which he or she is engaged, avoid others' errors, enjoy the motivation in the group and ask for support when needed. A trustful facilitator can be asked for proper help in facing the barriers to reflection in nursing practice.( Newton,1997)

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to focus on the great importance for reflection in nursing as it provides a good background of skills and experiences for nursing practitioners through discussing and studying the nursing situations whether those past ones or the current in which a practitioner is involved in and reflection can help a nurse provide patients with the best clinical care.

References

• Scott, Ian, Ely, Christine. 2007. Essential Study Skills for Nursing. Elsevier Limited.
• Caballero, Catherine, Creed, Fiona , Gochmanski,  Clare, Lovegrove, Jane. 2012. Nursing OSCEs: A Complete Guide to Exam Succes. Oxford University Press.
• Elder, Ruth, Evans, Katie, Nizette, Debra. 2009. Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. Elsevier Australia
• Boud, D and Walker, D (1993) Barriers to reflection on experience. In D Boud et al. (eds) Using experience for learning. Buckingham, SRHE and Open University Press.
• Newton, Rita.  1997. Getting to grips with barriers to reflection. University College Salford
• Brooker, Chris, Waugh, Anne. 2013. Foundations of Nursing Practice: Fundamentals of Holistic Care. Elsevier Health Sciences

language

Introduction

People always use language in different ways according to the different situations languages are used in. Style oneself using languages is a technique used by most people in order to behave as if coming from a special social class or to appear as having a special education or cultural background. In this assignment, using language to style people's characters within interactions in society will be discussed according to personal experiences and according to views of authors and linguists as well as mentioning some examples from real life situations. The assignment is a human research for learning about people's techniques to use languages in communities for social styling purposes. 

Body

Languages in interactions have their specific methods to be presented through according to the people using the language as the way a language is expressed differs from a person to another and each person can use the same language in many different contexts according to the situation, the receiver, the community , the inner purposes and desires or the time a language is used. Language users can use the language as a tool for affecting others in meeting, parties or whatever occasions that include people. They tend to leave specific impressions on others by the help of  a specific style of the language that could serve them. An example for this is when a teacher uses a very formal language in class with specific words in order to leave an impression of seriousness and respect on the students who are considered his or her audience. This teacher can void calling the students with "kids", "guys" or girls. Once we had a teacher who used to call us:" Ladies and gentlemen". This is a technique for leaving specific influence on the recipients to control them. Speakers can attract the listeners attention by using specific performance gathered with a good appearance and language can be a way of taking attention of the audience. An example is when a father advises his young sons and daughters beginning with words as :"my sweetheart', "my dear" or" my beloved son, I have something good for you", here the son will soon be attracted thinking of the good thing his father has. (Arab Open University, The Art of English: literary creativity, Chapter 3)

As it is found by (Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet, 1999) Language and social life are related to each other as people use languages to suit their identities and they may choose some speaking styles that signify such identities. Speaking style is decided by individuals as there are people who use certain dialects of their own native languages in order to pretend a specific identity, there are also people who engage English words and sentences within the context of their speech in order to convince the listeners with specific ideas about themselves. They could do this in a different way each time so as to be having more than one identity according to their choice. Language is not just a way for communication, it is a social representative of people from different places and social classes. An example is a girl who tries to look as coming from an upper social class but a word se says shows that she is not. When someone is engaged within a group of people, his or her language is affected that others can notice different pronunciations in his or her language or even new words and expressions. This also occurs when there is a heterogeneous society that carries different people from different cultures and identities like the society of Kuwait where there are words said by Kuwait which are coming from English but being mixed within the Kuwait accent such as "shaek" which means to check and "lait" which refers to the "light" and others. (Arab Open University, The Art of English: literary creativity, Chapter 3)

Speaking styles of females are not the same as those of males specially when they tell jokes, quarrel, confess or even lie. Even in the most civilized societies, male try to dominate conversations and guide the speech lines towards what proves their male identities in spite of the fact that women are more talkative. Male's speaking styles still stronger and more aggressive at sometimes specially with each other in the presence of women as every man tries to prove he is the stronger in all presenting men. (Tannen, 1991) An example for this occurred when we were young and young male family members directed the speech to be about football and all young female were upset but the boys thought their speech would admire girls and each one tried to show that he knew more about football heroes. Women speech is different as although it could be delicate and soft, it can carry heavy strong meanings hidden within words and women always use messages and hints that are more dangerous than the tough words of men. According to Eckert, category membership and gender have a relationship as girls jokes are softer than those of boys and they are always in non-standard forms and girls are often conservative when they tell jokes. Eckert suggests that there are two main styles speaker use the language through which are the suburban style versus the urban one and each style is characterized with the speakers' certain use of grammar and pronunciation. (Eckert and Rickford, 2001) This also occurs among youth groups as each specific group has its own style of language, for example, the language of nerd students is serious and conservative but the language of cool funny peer groups could be loose and bear some slang words or even insults, such cool groups do not give much interest to grammar rules, correct spelling or correct pronunciation but nerd groups respect the language more.(Bucholtz, 2010) 

People switch the language styles to affirm specific identities which could be switched along with the language switching. An example for this is what a friend who invited us for her birthday party did as she greeted us at the door, welcomed us and introduced us to her husband and sisters, then when her husband and sisters went away, she used simpler language with us, she said:" hey, go and enjoy yourselves with the food", as Arabs, it is preferable to provide guests with the food but here our friend's identity became less formal and she began to use a local language which shows her friend identity but before going away, she insisted on shaking hands with us and saying goodbye to confirm her hostess identity and to show how generous and loving she is. There are some views suggest that language is related to ethnicity as each person is born with a specific dialect that even if changed, it has some significant features on the person that shows his or her origin such as Rampton who also mentions that language style involves language crossing which is integrated with the individual's performance as someone could read a quote of another person, imitate him or her through the quote and use a specific voice tone to convey a specific impression of the person. An example on this is a friend of me who is used to imitate teachers and of course to add personal impressions on the quotes of the teachers while imitating them. Language styles could be used to bear two meanings specially when sexual matters re addressed and in an Arabic society, such matters are mentioned through hints and hidden meanings, an example for this is a conversation I once heard in a store for home appliances as a young girl was buying a stove and the seller who was flirting was telling her that the stove is too hot but she would like it and that she would never leave it before she enjoys its delicious food. The conversation may seem normal but the facial expressions of the two persons showed shyness by the girl whose face was going red all the time. (Arab Open University, The Art of English: literary creativity, Chapter 3)

Conclusion

Language style is a technique used by people everywhere and in every society classes as this is a technique for using language to introduce people's identities, ideas, wishes and desires. Many linguists discussed this topic due to its importance in understanding people's performance through language styles as presented in this essay. Language accents and dialects represent the social background of individuals and groups and the origins of people sometimes. It is good to research how linguists saw this matter academically and how they analyzed it which was presented in this assignment.

B203B

Managing business is a process that needs skills and qualities which are of high ranks as a company like Marks & Spenser which is an international company as its branches are everywhere in the world requires good management systems to be able to race others in the market. This essay is dealing with management issues through presenting a brief of what managers should be as the commercial manager and the financial managers with giving a glance on their duties and skills, the requirements of the commercial manager are presented through an example on McDonald's case study.

Explain three of main duties of the financial manager in a retail setting.

Various duties lies upon any financial manager in retailing setting field, at first, he has to watch up the organization performance regarding retailing missions as this provides support for the organization financially. Here a financial manager's role is broaden to support costs which are direct and indirect according to the way they are identified within the sales volume. As in the company of Marks & Spenser, this occurs for indirect costs as phone calls costs, electricity consumption, security and stationary expenses where direct costs refer to costs spent on staff, bags and food. The management purposes here include making a reduction for the operational costs via controlling strategies that the financial manager performs as in Marks & Spenser.

Second duty of a financial manager is the financial planning applying which is connected with retailing as by this mission a financial manager is asked to apply plans for many things within the organization concerning retailing as for example to apply plans for addressing issues of security through profit statements and new systems implementations plans and others. Thinking about ways for bringing more profits to the store is also among a financial manager duties. Accurate data which is always updated can insure the achievement of strong planning techniques and the efficient store management.  (University of Washington, 2014)

Third duty of a financial manager is problem solving which addresses the manager's capabilities of comprehending variables relationships that have some complexity and the problems that may once appear. The problems may vary to be as feasibility issues when the manager is needed to provide advice regarding Sundays costs and how to get benefits from Sundays or times when stores open and close according to pre set plans in order t achieve profits.

Explain the difference between a financial plan and a budget. Evaluate how a budget can contribute to a business achieving its aims.

It is not true that there are no difference between a budget and a financial plan but they differ in many points as a budget is itself a financial plan pre set for future settings on the short run which should not exceed one year but less than this period, on the other side, a financial plan covering more time periods' goals that could extend for five years or more than this. Tactics are within budget's main goals but strategies of the company are within goals of the financial plan. (Yale University, 2014)

Goal and aims of any business can be achieved if budget's role was well enhanced and this can be reached by studying, analyzing and preparing the budget which is a way of studying and controlling performance as any budget has its own items that could be compared with real done results for measuring how different they are by using an analysis for variances. Budgets help the business in addition to helping managers themselves to recognize the problems of the business, create new methods for solving them, controlling the system using new methods and thinking creatively towards future achievements. Forecast profit is another mission that a budget is responsible for as well as loss predicting and these predictions are based upon a view in the previous years results of sales, profits and loss so as to make a new future overview of what could really be achieved and for costs and profits. Controllable costs such as costs of employees, workers, security, light, gas and uniforms are also included within budget accounts for loss and profit. Among what could be achieved and gained through planning a good budget with forecasting missions is that such budget can make a chance for comparing different activities results as happening in Marks & Spenser company with its wide variation of stores and branches as evaluating results improves performance and enables decision maker to recognize the best practices. (A Marks & Spenser case study, 2014)

 Imagine you have just taken a new job as the commercial manager at a retailer such as Marks & Spencer. Discuss in some detail five key qualities or skills that you should have in order to succeed in this position. Analyze why these qualities or skills are important for your job.

Working in a company like McDonald's provides many good chances for managers to show how excellent they are as I am doing my best as a commercial manager there supported with my management knowledge, experiences and skills as sales experience is one of my qualities as well as having a good performance among employees and having supervising skills when needed. A commercial manager in McDonald's must be aware of communication importance as this will help him with other employees in all branches and with loving customers who always expect the best communicative approaches from a manager. Persuasiveness skills are also an asset of the job as customers are in need to be taught and persuaded about offers, new products and prices in a professional manner which makes sales at the best highest levels. A commercial manager abilities must include those of leadership with sales assistant whom he must held meetings with to learn their needs, complains and for suggesting new strategies for increasing sales. Strategic thinking and excellent planning are two features needed for a commercial  manager in McDonald's who aspire raising the business quality, sales and in turn profits. Loss should be reduced by decreasing costs and wastes with the help of all human resources.In McDonald's, the restaurant is based on a strategy for customers relaxation as there are places for families and parties for children to make the customers feel at home as this atmosphere and technique attract customers to have more time everyday. Food meals are various there and customers have an updated variety of menus to choose from everyday. There are tests and questionnaires presented for customers to measure how far they are satisfied with tastes, new meals and placing. Analytics are skills that each commercial manager have to be good at to learn about what was expected from the work and employees compared with already done facts and measure loss percentages in a way that aims at reducing loss to the least extent. Operational costs can be also at its least percentages to save more costs. Human resources are an asset which must be invested in as in McDonald's a commercial manager discusses the employees requests and complaints, then makes a study and analysis for them finding the suitable solutions. This ensures good employees performance which raises sales in turn.(McDonald's case study, 2014)

In conclusion, it is a good point in a financial manager to be acknowledged with all the duties asked by him as in Marks & Spenser company that has worldwide spread with its various branches. A budget is important for business progress. A commercial manager tasks must be enhanced with skills and job acknowledgements specially if the business was broad and strong as McDonald's.

References

• University of Washington, 2014. Financial Roles and Responsibilities. http://f2.washington.edu/fm/fmat/responsibilities
• A Marks & Spenser case study, 2014, business case studies, at: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/marks-and-spencer/financial-management-in-a-retail-setting/financial-planning.html#axzz3GtAHY1Sh, passed: 2014-10-22
• Yale University, 2014. Planning and Budgeting. http://finance.yale.edu/planning-budgeting
• McDonald's case study, 2014. Managing stock to meet customer needs. http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/mcdonalds-restaurants/#axzz3HicceAUU

B301A

Firm's strategy is an essential element it must set carefully so it can express its inspirations and goals and express what is needed from the company to do in order to reach these goals. Strategic decisions are the formulation factors of the strategy, they can define the firm's competitive advantage and highlight how much important are these strategies for the company, no matter its type would be. In this paper, our focus will e oriented towards investigating the four strategic perspectives, define how much they can e suitable to the market environment in the 21 century and finally discuss the aspects of similarity and difference among two of these theories. (Marketing strategies and market research, 2014)

Q1: Characteristics of strategic theories

In analyzing different strategic perspectives, we will find that each of them has its own distinguishing characteristics. The four strategic theories include the classical theory, evolutionary theory, systemic theory and lastly the processual theory. We can distinguish them from each other based on the different features and qualities they posses which are considered as the reference for decision makers in the process of establishing their business strategies. (Strategic management, 2013)

Beginning with the classic theory or perspective, we may notice that this perspective or theory is more appropriate to large and mature businesses. Strategists focus on how to deal with futuristic issues of the company in light of logic; this can be performed through a thorough analysis of all the aspects that require decision making. They tend to rely on both logic and rationality when they formulate the strategy of the company. During the latter half of the last century, with the lack of threatening market challenges, large scale companies found it suitable to take firm and stable decisions that were for the sake of their business success. They benefited from the strong economic environment in USA at this period to follow the classical approach and take successful decisions. They benefited from the demand stability for certain products, like cars, in taking the decision to formulate strong strategies that have for objective to raise profit and reduce costs. (Management control systems, 1984)

Some companies like Chevrolet turned its attention to ameliorate internal strategies as a manner to raise profit levels by gaining competitive advantage among other competitors. The competitive advantage for automotive industries focus on providing a high quality product with a good price compared to other competing products in the market. Companies tend to lower prices by performing dramatic cost reduction; they reduce potential operational expenses so overall costs can be diminished to its minimum. Wataniya Telecom, for instance, is a telecommunication company in Kuwait, it seeks to enhance its competitive advantage by providing strong database for its clients, the company found this way suitable to reach customers satisfactions and exceed their expectations. (Data analysis and decision support, 2005)

 The second perspective is the processual perspective which relies mainly on crafted strategies as a way to deal with market fluctuations. It was first issued in the seventies of the last century at the time of fuel crisis and oil scarcity that was the reason behind raising oil price. Unlike the classic perspective, it does not focus on logic or rationality. According to this perspective, decision makers face market challenges by forming policies and setting plans that can be used to react to different market crisis and handle market fluctuations. Dealing new changes requires from decision makers to modify the current strategies and policies applied by the company. This approach is always adopted by new startups because at the beginning of their work they may need to have a thorough understanding of the nature of the marketing environment. (Strategic management, 2013)

After one decade of the issuance of the processual theory, a new perspective called the evolutionary perspective appeared to be applied y most companies at this period of time. Decision makers who adopted this theory focused on achieving survival through performance enhancement. Good examples of the adoption of this perspective can be found among electronic companies, like Samsung, Sony, Erickson, and other companies specialized in manufacturing mobile phone appliances. To reach the goal of survival, these companies tend to distribute its activity in different areas by opening more branches all over the world while differentiating the current products or services. External investments, thereby, can be the suitable decision that top management can take to achieve the goal of survival. This way can enhance the firm position among other competitors in the market. This approach relies on the Darwinian thinking style in taking decisions, because the decision makers tend to hunt any possible investing chances in the market as a way to achieve survival goal. This way, the company can maintain its position in the market while enhancing its trademark and image in the customers mind. Some companies tend to offer different services and products in the market, like Harrods, which provide different types of products and services like beauty and makeup, appliances, food and wine, children products and cloths. (Decision making in manufacturing environment using graph theory and fuzzy multiple attribute decision making methods, 2013)

Another perspective is the systemic perspective which is based on embedded strategies, considering the company goals as an integral complement of the company strategy. Educational and social organizations are the most obvious companies that adopt this theory, like AUC University for instance, because the focus of this approach is the society. The usefulness of this perspective is focused on how much helpful can the strategy e for the society. Small and large companies use this perspective to maintain its marketing position, with the goal of exceeding customers expectations. For instance, Apple Company tends to satisfy a certain segment of population who look for high quality products and strong brand name. The Iphone series of mobile devices helped the company to maintain customer loyalty by the incomparable level of product quality it offers to them. However, price can be another competitive advantage that companies need to pay attention to as not all customers look for high quality product; some may prefer to purchase a medium quality product with lower price. (Strategic management, 2013)

Q2: Four theories of strategy are relevant to 21st century

Now we need to answer an important question, are the four theories appropriate for adoption by the contemporary companies in the 21st century? Some researchers implies that these theories are not the best choice these days, however, they are not quite right, because all business organizations now adopt these four perspective in the process of formation of their strategies. However, these companies implicitly adopted the four perspectives without declaring the adoption to the public or interested parties. The decisions and policies made by the company are the factors that can reflect which perspective is adopted. They may adopt one or more perspective at the same time according to work settings and market nature. (Strategic management, 2013)

Let's take an example of a company that depends on the classical theory for instance, like Kellogg Corporation, which has for purpose to raise profits and downsize costs. This is a British company that works in the field of nutrition manufacturing, which decided to focus its market analysis and research on finding new ways to achieve profit maximization principle by spreading the product distribution to different customers’ segmentations so many people can learn about the products it sells. Thorough market analysis was the tool used by Kellogg to define how to render positive impact on customers. Decision makers in this company used the results of these researches to learn everything about customers taste and preferences. As a strong UK company, distribution areas included other European countries in addition to UK. The top management in this company used a popular way in rising their profits my enhancing their relationships with suppliers, so they can reach more raw materials, like wheat and milk for instance, easily and with abundant amounts and low price at the same time. They adopted the classic theory to maximize its profit by keeping the loyalty of not only their customers but also their suppliers. Another important factor that can e helpful in raising profits is the geographical area used to build the plant, which must be close enough to material supplies facilities. In our example of Kellogg, the plant must be close to wheat farm so transportation costs can be reduced. Nevertheless, distribution areas also must be near enough to the plant so products can be easily delivered to customers while downsizing the delivery costs. (Kellogg case study, 2014)

Let us have an example from Kuwait, like National Industries Group Holding for instance, the top management in this company focus their capabilities on achieving survival by adopting the evolutionary perspective as a way to maintain the company position in Kuwait market. Decision makers of this company extend their investments in different business fields such as oil industries, cement production, and building materials manufacturing. The company sets its strategy according to the evolutionary perspective to be able to hunt all possible investing chances in its surrounding market environment for the purpose of company survival. (Arabian Business, 2014)

Moreover, we can find a plenty of examples of similar companies adopting the evolutionary theory in mobile appliances manufacturing companies. Sony, for instance, follows product updating strategy by launching new products frequently. This can help the company maintain its trademark and achieve the objective of survival. Sony faces strong competitors who constitute a sort of threat for it in the market; other companies like Apple, Samsung and other similar companies. To deal with these threats, the company needed to innovate its current products and make new mobile phones with extra feature while keeping the price a it lower than other strong competing products. The company top management tends to face greater competition by initiating new products that can maintain their current customers’ loyalty while attracting new potential customers to try the new products. New TV sets and new mobile appliances with new features, the strategy focuses on achieving company survival within an extremely competing market. (Mootee.typepad.com, 2014)

The next perspective is the processual strategic perspective which can be seen everywhere around the globe. This perspective relies on knocking every possible door in order to have a better position in the market. This can lead the company to learn from its faulty experiences so eventually it can formulate the perfect strategy that is based on its past experiences. In 2009, during the economic crisis, the Middle East economy may not seem clear enough to forecast success for investors. This led to the withdrawal of several investors from the market because of potential losses they tend to avoid. However, some other small firms took the decision to continue in their investments, they saw that they can modify their current policies and strategies instead on complete withdrawal from the market. They found that they can reduce costs to its minimum level so they can achieve profit maximization principle which is related to the processual perspective. These small companies formulated plans and internal strategies based on their mistakes experience while dealing with the market. On the other hand, many strong companies working in the field of car manufacturing, like Ford, adopted processual perspective as a way to face the financial crisis of 2009; their focus was to maximize profit by minimize costs. There could be several ways to reduce costs such as decreasing the number of workers to reduce labor cost, in terms of training and salaries. Another way is to reduce the number of branches or fold those branches that render lower profit margins. All these strategies have the objective of enhancing the company position in the market and apply to the processual perspective. (Strategic management, 2013)

Another perspective is the systemic perspective or approach that many companies tend to adopt in their business strategies. Companies that tend to follow this approach are those company interested in society welfare, like educational and social organization. These organizations can be either for-profit or not-for-profit organizations. British University, for instance, is one example of these companies that act as a business entity to set its strategy for purposes like generating profits and/or enhancing educational environment for the sake of society welfare. Social needs satisfaction is the main focus or target of decision makers and top management in these organizations. These objectives need to be reflected in the company strategy, which is formulated using the systemic perspective or approach. Other entities in the field of finance, like banks, tend to follow this systemic approach is setting their strategies; in addition to the profit generation objective, they aim to enhance social requirements of the community and try to satisfy them. In Kuwait, the National Bank of Kuwait is a good example of these organizations that use the systemic approach to develop their strategies. The use society needs as a basis to define how to shape their strategies and how to apply it, both in the short run and long run. This approach guarantees a more successful future for the company as it creates a strong relationship between the company’s interests. A better reputation and acceptance from the society will be the intangible reward from society members who will see the bank in a different way than just considering it as a financial entity. (Management control systems, 1984)

Q3: Comparing two strategic theories

Now, let us make a comparison between two perspectives of these four perspectives we discussed above, so we can define the aspects of similarity and differences among them. We will compare the classic approach and the evolutionary approach using examples of companies mentioned above. The classical approach is distinguished by being more formal so determining goals and objectives sounds like a direct process. The classic approach is also characterized by rationality as a thinking style in forming strategies. On the other hand, the evolutionary approach sounds related more to logic; it tends to handle market fluctuations more efficiently. Rationality is not an obvious feature of this approach, contrary to the classic approach, because decision makers have a specific objective to achieve is to let the company survive and hunt every possible chance they can find in the market. Decision maker who adopt the classic approach, however, have a direct objective to maximize profits and reduce costs. They can achieve this target by getting a competitive advantage that can distinguish their products or services, this can be achieved by exploiting a state of the art technology that can enhance product quality and support the supply chain which in turn can raise revenues and sales of a specific product. They also can downsize the operational expenses, like salaries expenses, so profit maximization goal can be achieved. (Management control systems, 1984)

Decision makers in both approaches need to exploit all available opportunities in the market, while try to face and handle all potential threats. New technologies, fewer competitors and decreased trade regulations are examples of market opportunities that decision makers need to hunt as soon as they can. On the other hand, governmental regulations, large scale economies and raised number of new entrances are good examples of threats that decision makers need to put in their consideration when they formulate the company strategy, no matter the approach they follow, no matter the products or services they provide. In both scenarios, the top management must consider to maintain the company position in the market as an objective to be considered when it set and formulate the company strategy. (Data analysis and decision support, 2005)

Concluding the above discussion, we can say that the top management in any organization need to enhance and support the image and position of the company among other competitors in the market, this can be done by setting a strong strategy that reflect the company’s mission and vision and enhance the achievement of its targets using one of the four perspectives we discussed in this paper. (Management control systems, 1984)

 

References

1. Arabian Business, (2014). National Industries Group Holding. [online] Available at: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/companies/national-industries-group-holding-66412.html [Accessed 28 Oct. 2014].
2. Businesscasestudies.co.uk, (2014). Marketing strategies and market research - Balancing the marketing mix through creative and innovative strategies - Kellogg's | Kellogg's case studies, videos, social media and information | Business Case Studies. [online] Available at: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/kelloggs/balancing-the-marketing-mix-through-creative-and-innovative-strategies/marketing-strategies-and-market-research.html#axzz3GyjN0Tel [Accessed 28 Oct. 2014].
3. Mootee.typepad.com, (2014). What Is Happening To Sony? Can Sony Be Saved? - innovation playground Idris Mootee. [online] Available at: http://mootee.typepad.com/innovation_playground/2014/01/2013-was-a-good-year-and-a-very-busy-one-for-me-having-been-on-the-road-for-over-120-days-delivered-some-great-projects-and.html [Accessed 28 Oct. 2014].
4. Baier, D., Decker, R., Schmidt-Thieme, L. and Gaul, W. (2005). Data analysis and decision support. Berlin: Springer.
5. Hill, C. and Jones, G. (2013). Strategic management. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.
6. Maciariello, J. (1984). Management control systems. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
7. Rao, R. (2013). Decision making in manufacturing environment using graph theory and fuzzy multiple attribute decision making methods. London: Springer.

Reputation of Earnest Hemingway

Reputation is an elastic word which could bear many meanings and definitions so it could be defined as a set of ideas, views and critical opinions of people concerning someone or something and it could be of real roots or not. In this TMA, Reputation will be discussed through the life of Ernest Hemingway and how he was a famous writer, his early life, his literature status, his life and death and how he got his fame. There are many factors to affect the reputation of people specially famous people. Fame leaves its effects on reputation which will be discussed according to Hemingway s life.

Body

Ernest Miller Hemingway born in July 21, 1899 and died in July 2, 1961 was an American author, writer and journalist. He affected the literature of the twentieth century a lot. He was a character that raised a lot of questions about his life, his death and his literary works. He had a reputation of a great writer and his works affected modern English literature a lot. He got the Noble Prize in literature in 1954. He wrote many works of the basics of American Literature classics. He had wartime experiences that affected his life and his works. On a safari to Africa, he was injured and had a lot of time suffering pains and at last he committed suicide in 1961. (Michael, 1999)   

To verify Hemmingway reputation soundness, there are some problems that made it mysterious and difficult to do it. Although he was a great writer but critics have many comments on his works as he used to concentrate on men characters without women which aroused many questions about his relationship with women, it is also strange that he was married four times and divorced. His family life was a strange one. Another thing is that the war left its influence on him and was appearing in most his literary works. The way he died with and his committing suicide was another question which is difficult to be answered. Hemingway wrote about men killing other men and killing animals. It was said about him that he had been thinking of death most of his time. He seemed to consider death as the extreme fact of human existence. His writing style was very modern with a touch of philosophy regarding life and death, relations of people and his figuring for the women was weak as he presented the woman character from a male perspective the matter that raises enquiries about his relations with women in his life. (Marie, 1992)

 There are many opinions regarding the reputation of Hemingway as a writer and these opinions can be classified according to their importance. Some opinions were more important than others as critics used his works to show appraisal or refuse to his style, for example: he was extremely praised when he wrote `A Farewell to Arms' in 1929. Then he wrote some works that critics were severe in their criticism to them such as Death in the Afternoon, To Have and Have Not', "Winner Take Nothing" and "The Green Hills of Africa,' then in 1940s he wrote `For Whom the Bell Tolls' which made him return his reputation lost. His greatest triumph was when he presented his masterpiece: "The Old Man and the Sea." His career made him one of the best novelists of his time.  People's opinions about his death and suicide were much more sharing in establishing his reputation. His last life decade left a mark which could not be neglected when mentioning his reputation. When he was at his fifties, he began to drink suffering a hard life, his health was in a very low position with liver problems, depression and diabetes. Accidents affected his life a lot. In 1953 he won the Pulitzer prize yet opinions were not effective regarding this prize but regarding the Nobel Prize he received after one year in 1954. Opinions were spreading about his depression at his last years that led him to commit suicide and die at last. .( Kenneth. (1987))     €€

There is a relation between time and culture and the way people construct someone's reputation specially those famous people. As to Ernest Hemingway, the time period he was in as a writer affected his writings and in turn affected his reputation. He was a figure that appeared in the second world war as a man who cared for the world and his country burdens, this was reflected in his works with an atmosphere of depression that shared in constructing a reputation about him as a depressed writer, the culture he encountered was an American culture that represented all realistic world which was running fast towards modern life which also added depression, fears and anxiety to him and this appeared in his literary works. He decided to travel to Europe in 1944 to write about the war, his visit to London resulted in writings about how the war affected England and he had an accident there in his head. The war left bad and gloomy influences on him as this was accompanied with his divorce to his third wife and his marriage to Mary, his last one. He himself reported these effects of the war when he wrote about his bad luck regarding the war:"  "Funny how it should take one war to start a woman in your damn heart and another to finish her. Bad luck."(Marie, 1992)

Source materials should be used cautiously when constructing a reputation of someone. There are many materials about Hemingway that figure him as an alcoholic, some critics explained his writings about man's world without women as a kind of homosexuality, this shared in building a reputation of Hemingway in the current age which makes everyone hears about him read his fiction and have many benefits yet in fact we must be cautious when reading and criticizing these works as his attitude towards men, for example, could be interpreted as an attitude of enhancing the man idea in a time of war and despair not homosexuality. Another important thing is that he did not leave a suicide note and all the materials he left did not express his intention to commit suicide nor encouraging people to do this. Journal source materials presented his death as suicide yet no one is sure as his wife asserted that he was cleaning his gun and was accidentally shot, the question is why did he clean his gun in the early morning at seven o'clock? Months later his death, Mary confessed his death was a suicide. His life was mysterious and all the source materials about him need studying more than any famous writer of his time. .( Carlos, 1981)   

Hemingway was a man of the war as he constructed a myth about himself as a traveler and an adventurous man who looked for peace and wished all good luck for his country and for the world. His travels confirmed this idea as well as his writings. He died to leave us a crudest caricature that has deep impressions on the history of literature. His masculinity attitude that he confirmed by his writings, his travels and his photos of himself left a mythical image on his readers. He was described to be put in a portray of mythology as a man who does not do with women which was an idea that his four time marriages confirmed to some extent. It was thought that he killed himself as a result of his despair in masculinity at times of war. His many traveling such as to Paris, Spain and Africa helped more in building a mythical image of him both in literature and I real life. His literary works about heroic men helped also in figuring him heroically just like the protagonists of his writings, an example is his masterpiece:" The Old Man and the Sea" and his death at last which completed the mythical image as to commit suicide with no specific reasons made people put his figure in a mythical rank that he deserved but for his great works.( Kenneth. (1987))    

Conclusion   

Reputation is a very interesting topic to write about as famous people specifically has their reputation constructed according to their works, people and critics opinions and their real daily life actions which we discussed in this essay regarding the life of Ernest Hemingway who was a great writer and a famous figure of modern American literature. He was a man of strong attitudes concerning war, life, death and relationships between them all and of human beings. His thoughts about death and his sufferings of bad luck that lead him to get marry to four women and to have as many accidents as a man could have in addition to his health condition all shared in constructing the man's reputation which was enhanced by his receiving to many prizes of which the best and greatest one was the Nobel Prize for literature. He has a reputation that urges anyone to look for his works and study them to learn more about the man and the messages he wanted to convey. Hemingway gave literature rich materials whether through his works or whether through his reputation of his personal and professional life. 

References

·       Lynn, Kenneth. (1987). Hemingway. Cambridge: Harvard UP. 

·       Reynolds, Michael. (1999). Hemingway: The Final Years. New York: Norton. 

·       Axton, Marie. "Hemingway's Literary Reputation in England." The Hemingway Review, Special European Issue (1992)  

·       Baker, Carlos. (1981). "Introduction" in Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917–1961. New York: Scribner's.

  

chronically ill children

Chronic illness is a great health problem that faces many people at any age as even children can suffer such a serious health problem. Chronic illness can be defined as an illness that lasts over than three months and it affects the person's health and abilities to do the daily life activities. A chronic disease can reduce the individual's ability to engage in the society as a result of the social stigma patients and their families suffer as the people may bother them with their questions about the patient's health condition. A chronic illness can affect children as well as grown up people but when there is a child with a chronic illness, the family suffers more as they feel disappointed about their ambitions and wishing for that child in having a healthy future. Examples for chronic illnesses are diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, cancer and heart diseases. A child who has chronic illness is in need for more care than an adult with a chronic illness because he isn't aware enough with his or her condition and can't live a normal life and practice the daily activities other children do. Chronic illness can lead to different problems to the family that has a chronically ill child as there is a negative impact of it on all family members who suffer feelings of despair and hopelessness and they may suffer different problems related with costs of their child's treatment.    

A chronically ill child suffers long periods of staying at the hospital and this may lead the child to be retarded educationally due to the frequent absence from school and the lesson missed after long periods of hospitalization. Some researchers think that being a chronically ill child can be a chance for the child to be independent and understand life early but the chronic illness is still a severe experience on any child and family.

There is an important role for nurses to help chronically ill children as nurses can communicate with them to help them understand their condition and the medical procedures associating it and they can help children during the painful experiences associating treatment and make them easy for the children by talking with them, smiling and being friendly and passionate with them. Nurses can also help the family of the chronically ill child by explaining the difficult medical terms relevant to the disease and the case to them and educating them about how to deal with the child at home and during hospitalization in addition in their role in reducing the stress and anxiety they feel and improve their psychological stat.

Chronically ill children need intensive care from their families, schools, hospitals and nurses who should simplify the difficult medical procedures the children are object to and help the children cope with the diseases.