The Bipolar Brain and the Creative Mind Essay example -- Biology Essay

The Bipolar Brain and the Creative Mind "Our hospital was famous and had housed many great poets and singers. Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers, or was it that poets and singers specialized in madness? ... What is it about meter and cadence and rhythm that makes their makers mad?" (1) The link between madness and creativity is one that has been hotly debated in both medical and literary circles for a long time. The two most common types of mental illness theorized to be an influence on creative people such as writers, artists, and poets were schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (2). However, various studies comparing the characteristics of schizophrenics, bipolars, and writers have concluded that schizophrenics do not share a common thought process with writers (2). In comparison, a study conducted at the University of Iowa declared that while both bipolar patients and writers tended to "sort in large groups... arbitrarily change starting points, or use vague distantly related concepts as categorizing principles" (p 107), the two differed in their abilities to control their thoughts (2). Where the exactly this line of control is located – or indeed if there is a line at all – is the debate in question. Bipolar disorder, also called manic depression, is a complex and often cruel illness that takes sufferers on a rollercoaster ride of emotional highs and deep depressions. During the mania period, either euphoria or irritability manifest themselves, and sometimes a combination of the two, called "mixed mania"(3). A person in a manic phase can also exhibit symptoms known to physicians as the DIGFAST symptoms: distractibility is heightened; insomnia is present due to increased energy; grandiosity occurs in delus... ..., 1993. 3)Medscape article, facts on bipolar disorder http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/151096 4)An article on the Pendulum website, about the possible links between bipolar disorder and creative personalities http://www.pendulum.org/articles/creativity_troubled.htm 5)A website to support those with bipolar illness, with a list of famous manic-depressives http://users.frii.com/parrot/dead.html 6)The Serendip webpage, an article entitled "Creativity and Psychopathology" http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/serendipia/Serendipia-Preti.html 7)A website to support those with bipolar disorder, with an essay by a teenage girl about her bipolar illness http://www.pendulum.org/writings/label_maker.htm 8)An article posted from the Science News, about the relationship between creativity and bipolar illness http://users.lycaeum.org/~martins/M2/creativ2.html

Learning Need Essay

â€Å"A learning needs assessment is a systematic approach to studying the state of knowledge, ability, interest, or attitude of a defined audience or group involving a particular subject† (University of Idaho, 2009, p. 3). There are two goals for a learning needs assessment. The first goal is learn what the target audience already knows, and the second goal is understand what can be done to make teaching the target audience successful (University of Idaho, 2009). On the pulmonary step down unit at Christiana Care Hospital Newark campus a learning needs assessment was conducted on if nurses knew how to perform proper mouth care on ventilator patients. Type of Institution Christiana Care Health System is one of the country’s largest hospitals. This health system is ranked 17th in the nation for hospital admissions (Christiana Care Health System, 2012). Christiana Care Health System has two campuses located in Delaware. The smallest campus that is also the headquarters is located in Wilmington, Delaware, and the largest campus is located in Newark, Delaware. This health system is a teaching, not-for-profit level one trauma center with more than 1,100 patent beds. Christiana Care employs more than 10,000 people, making the hospital the largest private employer in Delaware. Nursing Services Provided In 2010, Christiana Care Health System joined the nation’s elite. The â€Å"health system achieved Magnet recognition for excellence in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center† (Christiana Care Health System, 2012, para 2). The nursing care provided at Christiana Care is among the top 6% in the nation. Nursing care is provided in various settings throughout Christiana Care Health System. Nurses at Christiana Care hold more than 10 different roles in nursing. These roles range from the bedside nurse, to staff development specialist, to chief nursing officer. On the pulmonary step-down unit at Christiana hospital there are more than 70 nurses employed. The nurses provide care to patients with chronic pulmonary illness. The diagnosis range from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to patients with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and are ventilator dependent. The nurses are responsible for educating the patients as well as the families on the illnes s and on how to care for themselves or their loved ones after discharge from the hospital. Volume of Activity Being among the largest hospitals in the country, Christiana Care Hospital sees a large amount of patients. In 2011, Christiana Care Hospital had 166, 945 emergency room visits with 52, 884 patients being admitted. There were 531, 483 out-patient visits conducted and 279, 740 home health care visits. 6,641 babies were delivered, and 1,200 were in the neonatal intensive care unit. 40,220 surgical procedures were performed, 806 open heart surgeries, and 319, 744 radiology procedures (Christiana Care Health System, 2012). This work as accomplished by 10, 477 employees, 1,447 medical-dental staff, 255 medical-dental residents and fellows and 1,206 volunteers. Levels of Nursing Care Staff Employed There are many levels of nursing employed at Christiana Hospital. Licensed practical nurses whom perform delegated tasks assigned by the registered nurse. Registered nurses whom perform patient care, which include education and collaboration with others of the interdisciplinary health care team. Advances practice nurses who are masters’ prepared nurses who can hold different titles with different job descriptions. These titles include nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives, and certified registered nurse anesthetists. These nurses function as expert clinicians, and provide clinical support (Christiana Care Health System, 2012). Staff development specialists assist the nurse manager is maintaining staff competence. Staff education specialists are master’s prepared nurses who help the department of nursing to assess, plan, develop, implement, and evaluate nursing development. Patient care coordinators assist the nurse manager in operatio ns of the unit. Nurse managers are responsible for the daily operation of the unit. They also resolve issues that arise with patients and families, and physicians, and staff. Vice Presidents manage the resources necessary to provide nursing care. Nursing Coordinators provide coverage after business hours, weekends, and holidays. Associate chief nursing officer is accountable for supporting the initiatives and goals of the department of nursing and assumes the role of the chief nursing officer in her absence. Last the chief nursing officer directs the delivery of nursing care, treatment, and services (Christiana Care Health System, 2012). Educational Needs Assessment A questionnaire with three questions was used to conduct this assessment. The questions are 1) how often do you perform mouth care on your vent patients? 2) How often are vent patients teeth to be brushed? 3) How long after you use the chlorhexidine during mouth care must patients remain npo (nothing by mouth)? This questionnaire was randomly handed out to 10 nurses in the pulmonary step down unit, ranging in age, years of nursing experience, and years of experience in the step down unit. All nurses had their bachelor’s degree in nursing, and all nurses worked the day shift when the mouth care is primarily done. One hundred percent of the nurses answered the first and second questions correctly, which were 1) every two hours and 2) every 12 hours. Only 20% of the nurses answered the third question correctly. The correct answer is two hours. Highest Educational Need. From the results of the assessment, the highest priority educational need is to teach the staff the importance o f keeping the vent patients npo two hours after the chlorhexidine is administered. Ventilator associated pneumonia is a leading cause in death of vent dependent patients. Chlorhexidine reduces the incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia only if used properly (Wikipedia, 2012). If food or drinks are used directly after a patient uses chlorhexidine the effects of the mouth wash is washed away. Christiana Care has clinical practice guidelines available for all staff to use on the intranet. There is a guideline on the intranet about mouth care for vent patients, and it discusses the need to have a patient remain npo after chlorhexidine administration. A few ways to reinforce the importance of this are in-services for the staff and visible posters to be hung in the staff break room. Management can include a short in-service on the correct use of cholorhexidine during the monthly staff meetings. Since the unit already has a vent committee that group of nurses can work on a poster board to hang in the staff break room reinforcing what was taught during the staff meetings. Seeing and hearing information repeatedly helps with remembering. Even though this information is readily available on the intranet, staff was not using this resource enough to retain the correct information. By using repetition and seeing the information every day it will help drill the information into the staff. After a few months of the information being repeated during in-services and the poster board hanging up in the break  room, an evaluation can be conducted to see if these methods have worked. Conclusion During the learning needs assessment on a pulmonary step down unit at Christiana Care Hospital it was discovered that nurses were not aware of the correct length of time a patient is to remain npo after chlorhexidine administration. The use of this mouthwash is one important way to prevent a patient from getting ventilator associated pneumonia, which is a leading cause of death for vent dependent patients. Teaching strategies of monthly in-services and a poster board are ways to remind the staff of the importance of using the medication correctly. To evaluate if these strategies worked another questionnaire will be handed out a few months later.

Our Family Wedding Essay

â€Å"Our Family Wedding† tells the story of two families from different races in order to prepare the wedding for their daughter and son that makes them come together in this planning process. There were series of friction and collision plots between those two families. The main reason is because the cultural difference between two sides of family. The family of bride (Lucia) is a traditional Mexican family. And, the family of groom (Marcus) is African-American family. Their habits, life styles, life values and the ways of thinking are totally opposite of each other. There were a lot of cultural differences in the movies. Firstly, Lucia’s father thought that the man should propose marriage to the woman’s parents (Lucia’s father mentioned it to Marcus on their way to buy eggs). Marcus thought that modern society would not be necessary to do it. And then Lucia’s father felt out it’s extremely important to propose that was a kind of respect for the woman’s family. That was a cultural conflicts of the modern American culture and traditional Mexican culture. Maybe that was fully integrated into the different ways of thinking between the earlier generation with traditional thinking and American young people . Secondly, those two engaged young people mentioned that they would like to have a simple wedding when two families discussed how to plan their wedding. However, two families all had their own mind for the wedding which caused a controversy between the two sides. The bride’s family wanted to have a traditional Mexican wedding and the groom’s family wanted to have an African descent wedding. In addition, the cost of the wedding was another big issue during their planning process because of the different customs and traditions. Finally, the young couple made a concession for their wedding (our marriage, their wedding). Their parents agreed to share the cost of the wedding. Thirdly, the question of whether a Catholic-style wedding in the church or the father Paes wedding. Marcus would like to adopt a non-traditional style wedding but was refused by Lucia’s mother and grandmother that is religious beliefs conflict. However, Marcus does not religious believers. As their wedding planner, I would like to discuss the wedding detail with two family separately. I will try to talk about the detail of wedding with each family at one time. And them combine their ideas together to reduce their argue. I am also will tell these two families the traditional culture is important but make a wedding that the engaged couple like will be more important. Cross-culture wedding is kind of special for two families. â€Å"Our Marriage, their Wedding† these words is telling me that those young people’s marriage, but their parents’ wedding. In the movie, the two engaged couple’s families were from different races, and they all wanted to have their own traditional wedding to their daughter and son. The parents from bride and groom all have so many ideas for their children’s wedding. Parents didn’t listen what kind of wedding the young couple wanted to have. These two families were trying to make a wedding that families like not this couple. Because two families have different culture and they wanted to use their traditional way of the wedding. In my opinion, the best way to avoid this situation is two family listen to young people’s idea. If the engaged couple like simple, let them make it. And then two family can celebrate their wedding separately. One for bride’s family, and one for groom’s family.