September 21st: Introductions
My name is Madalyne Beavers, I am a junior and am double majoring in Nursing and Women and Gender Studies. I work as a nursing assistant at Maple View Memory Care in Fargo. I love to work with people with dementia and plan to work in pediatrics when I graduate. I also love to read and write! I am a very strong writer and have taken many advanced English and writing classes in high school. I am looking forward to improving my writing and growing my vocabulary. I am worried that I might not be able to stay on track as well in an online class.
August 24th: APA Quiz Results
I received a 10/12. I am not surprised by this score as I have always been more familiar with MLA format rather than APA. I need to work more on the citations as I am so used to MLA format. I forget the rules for APA and would like a refresher on how to correctly cite with APA.
August 31st: Health Literacy Discussion
Health literacy is an integral part of the public health system. Something that can seem small, can affect almost every aspect of someone’s health. Health literacy is the ability to understand the information given by a healthcare professional that help patients make more informed decisions about their treatment.
In my opinion, this means that every person that interacts with a patient needs to use clear, concise, and plain terms to communicate in a way the patient and health care provider fully understands. This can extend to hand gestures, facial expressions, language, and word choice. Professionals in this field need to be aware of all of these aspects. It is beneficial for both the patient and health professional to understand each other for the patient to receive the best care possible. Health professionals can assess patients health literacy by being attentive to how comfortable the patient is in the environment, facial expressions, and by asking if the patient is confused or has questions. Assessing others health literacy will help to create an accurate and easy care plan.
Learning about health literacy is an important topic for health professionals due to the vastly different patients they will encounter. Having the skills to effectively communicate with patients of different culture benefits the patients and the health professional. Developing these skills and being mindful of the aspects of communication will help patients become more informed on their own health and how to manage their diagenesis at home
September 7th: Critical Thinking Discussion
Critical thinking is an important part of anyone’s life. It is the informed judgment and analysis to form a decision or judgment. Critical thinking help people make decisions and be informed while making a decision. This is especially important in the health professions. Working in this profession requires fast-paced, and logical thinking to decide what is best for a patient. There are four different pillars of critical thinking that helps one to come to a concise conclusion. The pillars include the ability to ask questions, the ability to discriminate, the ability to effectively argue, and the ability to speculate.
The first aptitude for critical thinking is the ability to ask questions. This is very important to get more information and to establish a base of knowledge. In the healthcare field, this helps propel someone’s understanding. Students and patients should be asking a lot of questions to get to understand the issue fully before making a decision. Having the opportunity for students to ask questions to superiors also makes them more knowledgeable and can help them perform their duties better.
The second pillar of critical thinking is the ability to discriminate. This pillar is important for finding pertinent information. The ability to decide what is needed and what cannot be used to come to a conclusion makes the decision a little easier.
The third pillar of critical thinking is the ability to make arguments. In the healthcare field, having disbarments can be a good thing. This can foster new ideas to sprout. If a health care provider is arguing about the best option for care of a patient, that patient will have the opportunity to have options for their care.
The last pillar is the ability to interpret information and speculate. This pillar helps to process information to make a decision. Through all the other steps you can collect and identify all the information to use the fourth pillar to interpret the information to then make a decision. Critical thinking is so important to make an informed decision and can make any health care setting less stressful. Having the tools to easily come to a conclusion makes things faster for the patients and give them a good experience in the medical care setting.
September 14th: Rhetorical Strategies Discussion
While writing, authors need to take into account the five factors of writing and rhetoric concepts. These five factors include the purpose, genre, audience, tone, context, pathos, ethos, and logos. In the articles, “Why the World Needs Zoos”, and “Zoos: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone”, these examples can be examined easily. While both articles have a similar purpose to inform their readers and to pursue them, they take opposite stances on the issue of Zoos. The audience is also similar as it is aimed at young adults and people who are interested in animals. In the article by The Guardian, the tone that is portrayed is desperate by making it seem as if zoos are the only option to keep animals safe. The PETA articles tone is disgust. PETA shows this in the wording they use to describe the conditions the animals are subjected to. The PETA excerpt is also considered an article while The Guardian text is a blog. This makes the PETA article a more reliable source due to it being published by a reliable source rather than a blog that has less credibility. Lastly, the PETA excerpt is written in a context of trying to make change for good. This is contradictory to the other article as it tries to paint zoos in a good light and ignore the problems they arise.
In addition to the five factors, writers also need to consider their rhetoric. This includes the use of pathos, ethos, and logos. The article by PETA uses lots of examples of logos rhetoric in their argument. This is shown by the many statistics they use to convey their message. Pathos can be seen when the article talks about what the animals must endure in zoos. They use words like cages, miserable, and danger. These words create feelings that make readers understand the passion the writer has for the cause and makes readers invested in the problem. Ethos can be seen when the article uses information from veterinarians and reliable sources to establish the problem as real.
On the other hand, the blog post also has these styles of rhetoric. The post utilizes ethos very little. Not once does the author explain his basis of knowledge of the subject or cite any credible sources throughout the piece. The only place it is used is when the author references different articles but still lacks the name or citation. Pathos is used to sway the readers to support zoos by establishing them as a useful resource for animals that are near extinction. Lastly, logos is used when the author mentions any sort of statistic. The main one I had observed is the statistic pertaining to remaining wildlife populations.
In both the articles, they use rhetoric and writing deceives well to sway their audience. Emotion is used heavily throughout both and is one of the main ways they try to portray their stance on the problem. Using emotion is one of the strongest ways to elicit a response from the audience. I can also integrate this information into my communication skills to better effectively communicate. Having to analyze the articles has shown me the best ways to use these devices to write and how to make them more effective in my writing and communication skills.
September 21st: Source Evaluation Discussion
When searching for different sources, it is important to take into account the credibility of the source. Credible sources are sources that can be trusted by the audience. Credibility is determined by the knowledge the resource knows about the topic and the platform on which it is delivered. While evaluating a source, always look for the date the information was published to make sure it is relevant and accurate information. Readers can also look for who the article was written by and what source has published the information to ensure the credibility. Most credible websites end with edu, org, or gov and are published by someone who has knowledge in that field of study.
Another thing to consider is the difference between mainstream media sources and authoritative sources. The media is not considered a credible source on most things educational. Media can be biased and that can affect the way the information is presented to the public. With bias, can also come inaccurate information. The most credible information comes from authoritative sources because they are deemed what is true, unlike mainstream media. This information will benefit my writing in the future as it will help me determine what information is accurate and reliable.
September 28th: Unit 2 Bonus Post
There are many things that need to be communicated in the nursing field. Patients have a right to know about their own care and the risks regarding different diseases. One disease I feel that everyone should be more educated on is dementia. This disease is an awful one to witness and an even more terrible one to endure. Many families and patients do not know much about the disease and the progression despite its prevalence in many households. I work in a memory care unit and I witness families everyday neglect their family members because they do not understand the disease.
There are many things I would want to educate patients and families on, but there are three main one that needs to be communicated. The first is to be patient. Many families I have witnessed are so annoyed with their loved one due to something they can’t control. The next being that families need to visit their loved ones. Many residents sit in nursing homes and wait for their family that will never come. This can make their disease worse and can cause depression. Lastly, I would want people to know that the disease influences the patient’s behavior. Patients can present as combative or oblivious to their family. This is the disease and not the person.
November 2nd: Unit 3 Bonus Post
In the field of nursing, there are many issues that nurses must face. One of these obstacles includes finding a vein good enough to start an IV or blood draw. Inserting a needle is a common practice for nurses, it is done multiple times per day and is used for many things. This is a skill that is essential to this field of medicine. To help advance this practice and make the lives of nurses easier, researchers have developed a digital vein finder. The device projects a screen onto the patient's arm and reads where the veins are located. From this screen, nurses are provided a 3D projection of what lies beneath the patient’s skin helping them in easily finding the best vein. The founders of this device, AccuVein, wanted to create something that would be used near daily and was practical, “establishing intravenous (IV) access is an essential clinical skill that presents challenges for many medical professionals. With over 330 million peripheral IVs placed each year in the U.S, IV therapy is one of the most prevalent treatments. Starting an IV is a difficult skill requiring considerable practice. On average, it takes between two to three attempts to establish a patent peripheral IV” (AccuVein, 2018). The digital vein finder is a medical advancement that has helped numerous nurses and medical professionals find the correct vein without causing more pain to the patient.