Hardware maintenance for checking the regular running equipments Essay Example for Free

Hardware maintenance for checking the regular running equipments Essay †¢ periodic replacement of hardware resources to keep it according to changing atmosphere (e. g. developmental plan revisions) †¢ system software also requires timely maintenance (fixing bugs, developing newer versions, revisions, etc) †¢ reports must be seriously checked for their correlation with system requirements (creating error logs, testing strategies, performance measures, etc) †¢ Maintenance and updation of system documentation for future reference and updations. Remedial maintenance – It is performed to bring the system to running condition after correcting the hardware or software fault (Mawer, 2000). The remedial service is likely to include: †¢ Create a Help Desk concept which will log and action any reports from the customer in the event of a fault. †¢ On-site or remote login concept of issue resolution. †¢ Engaging a third party service to resolve and manage the resolution. †¢ Updating documentation every time an event has taken place. In this case both the technical and non-technical staff must be made aware of the support strategies so that their response time is optimized for better handling the issues of the customer timely and professionally. 1. Sequence of activities: It includes the activities which must take place in sequence: Activity (Tasks) Duration (Days) Preceded By A Working out the feasibility of the system 1 _ B Collection of information from different groups and creating data flow diagrams 3 A C Internal review of information collected and its validity with the management 2 B D Identifying the relationships between the entities 3 C E Define the degree of interaction between entities 2 D F Creating E-R Model and establishing cardinality ratios with distributed feature taken into account (as the Center has 5 sub locations in the city) 2 D,E. G Identifying Functional dependencies and others and then Normalization of relations 1 F H Converting the normalized relations to tables in database 2 G I Creating primary key and foreign key relationships and implementing business rules using integrity constraints 1 H J Creating interfaces and report generation techniques 3 I K Connecting the database tables with the interfaces and distributing the application to become geographical independent 3 J L Testing the system 2 K M Implementing the system across locations 2 L N Create maintenance plans and documentations 1 L,M. O Final review report after installation 1 L,M,N Advantage to the Bead Bar: The merits of the technology would envelope the very nature of the technology which the enterprise needs to focus. The following are the various advantageous factors: †¢ The Bead Bar would get a global recognition and would be accepted by all. It would create trust and confidence in the eyes of the people. †¢ Having an internet website would make possible that it markets itself to the global pool of the internet and gets accessible quite possibly. Customers can access it online and order for purchase of products and services. †¢ The store would be able to reach a greater domain of customers so that it can be a good source for expanding their business. †¢ The store would require less budget for marketing as the website, in the form of information system would get the direct and indirect marketing done by itself. †¢ It can also reduce the human errors of wrong deliveries and other related factors. Computerized system would make it error-free and would enhance greater satisfaction of service (Hoffer, 2002). †¢ It can also generate revenue by marketing other related companies and their products in their website space. †¢ It can render services to other companies via its website so that other businesses can purchase its products in bulk for their enterprise requirements facilitating B2C model of ecommerce. †¢ Payment systems can be made quite secure so that customers can pay online and are not troubled by the in-hand payments. †¢ The Bar would have enough mechanism to track their product list and its availability so that timely action can be taken to update. †¢ The customers get a greater facility to compare products and judge the best one before taking them. Physically doing so would have taken them a lot of effort and time. Conclusion Bead Bar has taken a right step in the light of technology and it must exploit the very supreme nature of the latest technology. It has taken a great step which would place it above all its competitors and would enhance the very nature of competition. It must also take care of the innovative techniques for getting the customers using the website and the frequent updations that would make efficient handling of the information. The use of information system would make the Jewelry superstore organize and restructure itself so that it is able to depict organizational thought in every activity and would handle every resource productively and optimally. References/Bibliography Barry Mawer (2000). Systems Maintenance. Hoffer A. Jeffrey (2002). Modern systems analysis and design, third edition. Pearson Education Korth (2002). Database Management systems. Navathe Elmasri (2002). Fundamentals of Database systems, fourth edition. Pearson Education.

Economics Essays Financial System Banking

Economics Essays Financial System Banking Capital Adequacy Directive Abstract In the recent years, it seems that the supervisors have increased the attention on the capital adequacy of banking intuitions in order to enhance and maintain the stability of financial system. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate into the merits as well as disadvantages of the Capital Adequacy Directive implementation in the Switzerland economy for the behaviors of Swiss banks and shed some light on whether and how Swiss bank react to constraints placed by the regulator on their capital. The analysis and evidences given will clarify the finding is that while the Swiss banks enjoy the typical merits that have been brought by this innovation, some drawbacks they might endure could not be neglected, which implies the need for good policy guidelines of Government and Central Bank. Chapter 1 Introduction We do realize there are better moments to introduce substantial increases in capital requirements. Nout Wellink (April, 2008), head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision During the last 30 years, a wide range of countries have introduced the formalized capital requirement. This innovation seemed to be spearheaded by the adoption of minimum capital requirement in some particular states (for instance, the US and the UK in 1981). However, with the first introduction of Basel Accord in 1998, the common minimum capital requirements were actually adopted by G-10. To date, the Accord has been implemented by over 100 countries world-wide (Allen, 2004). The implementation process of Capital Adequacy Directive (CAD) on the one hand produced many successes in practice as it helps to limit risk-taking relative to capital and to prevent systemic instabilities arising from large-scale banking failures, thereby enhancing the productivity, efficiency, safety and soundness of domestic banking system, in general, global financial system. On the other hand, it also has generated several important failures and unintended consequences as it might reduce the lending ability of commercial banks which in turn directly influences to their competitiveness relative to other forms of intermediation. This study attempts to measure the cost and benefits of Capital Adequacy Directive and apply it to the population of commercial banks that operated in Switzerland. The result suggests that even though some negative impacts of CAD is obviously seen, the implementation of CAD in Swiss banking system is essentially and truly needed. As the matter of fact, the advantages that Swiss commercial banks have achieved due to the effectiveness of capital adequacy regulation outweigh the disadvantages they might suffer. The paper is divided into 4 sections. Chapter 2 introduces the historical review and general theory of Capital Adequacy Directive. Chapter 3 provides firstly the analysis on the both benefits and costs of CAD, followed by the statistic evidences from Swiss commercial banks’ behaviors. Finally, the summary of the main findings of this study and conclusion will be mentioned in the last section. Chapter 2 Capital Adequacy Directive: Historical Review and General Theory 2.1 Historical review The Capital Adequacy Directive was firstly and officially introduced as the core part of the 1998 Accord, referred to as Basel Accord (International Convergence of Capital Measurements and Capital Standards) issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (henceforward Basel Committee) in July 1998 (Hall, 2004). This accord is not formal treaty nor a binding legal rule, however due to the practical effects conveyed with it, the guidelines of this accord have been implemented not only by signatory countries at the beginning but also by over 100 countries world-wide (Lastra, 2004). Nevertheless, the 1988 Accord has been criticized for its crude assessment of risk and for creating opportunities for regulatory arbitrage (Blum and Hellwig, 1996). Therefore, at the end of June 2004, the â€Å"New Capital Accord† (henceforth call Basel II) was finally issued after the endorsement conducted by G10 banks supervisor in order to replace the original accord (now termed â€Å"Basel I† agreed in 1988) and solve the problems occurred as the result of Basel I implementation in banking system. 2.2 General Theory of Capital Adequacy Directive The genesis of Capital Adequacy Directive as well as the capital regulation could be traced back to the concern that bank might hold less capital than is socially optimal â€Å"relative to its riskiness as negative externalities resulting from bank default are not reflected in market capital requirements† (Rime, 2001). In the 1988 Accord, the Basel Committee provided a ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets. In this Basel formula, Capital is divided into Tier 1 (equity capital plus disclosed reserves minus goodwill) and Tier 2 (revaluation reserves, undisclosed reserve, general loan loss reserves, and subordinated term debt). Specifically, Tier 1 capital must to constitute at least 50% of the total capital base. In addition, the denominator of this Basel formula is the sum of risk-adjusted assets plus off-balance sheet items adjusted to risk. (Lastra, 2004) According to (BIS, 2008) the 1998 Accord in essence prescribed that banks hold capital of at least 8 % of their risk-weighted assets. Although there is no strong argument for the â€Å"target† ratio 8%, it still was considered to be â€Å"sufficient† due to the empirical application from previous policy applied in some states such as the US/UK bilateral agreement of 1986 regarding capital adequacy (Rime, 2005). Eight percent were the median in exiting good practice at that time: the US as well as the UK around 7.5 %, Switzerland 10%, France and Japan 3 % (Lastra, 2004). In fact, data from a wide range of banks from the Fitch IBCA database and national supervisors as well as the Basle Committee denote increasing trend with the average capital ratio rising from 9.3% in 1988 to 11.2% in 1996. â€Å"Most countries experienced increases in their capital ratios although those countries, which were close to, or below, the Basle minimum capital adequacy ratio of 8% in 1988 evidenced a much higher overall increase than those, which had historically high capital ratios†. (Jackson, 1999) Recently, in the new approach, often referred to as Basel II, specifically in the First Pillar ─ Minimum Capital Requirements, the overall level of regulatory capital currently held by banks is not set to rise or to be lower. The capital ratio is calculated using the definition of regulatory capital and risk-weighted assets and the total capital ratio must be no lower than 8%. In addition, the tier 2 capital is limited to 100% of Tier 1 capital (BIS, 2004). However, it is set to be more risk sensitive (Blum and Bichsel, 2004). Chapter 3 Costs and Benefits of Capital Adequacy Requirements: The Analysis for Switzerland 3.1 Understanding the Swiss banking system: To date, the Swiss banking system is typically depicted as one of the leading universal banking system around the world since this type â€Å"universal banking† was firstly allowed at the Banking Law of 1930 (Stiroh and Rime, 2003). In reality, like the most continental European countries, Swiss bank legislation does not distinguish between the commercial and investment banks. In principle, Swiss banks are able to offer a wide range of financial services such as: lending and deposit-taking, underwriting, brokerage, trading and portfolio management (Swiss Bankers Association, 2006). Furthermore, the Swiss banks might vary in the way they use their options to engage in all types of financial activities as the â€Å"truly universal banks co-exist with the institution specializing either in traditional banking or financial market activities†. According to Swiss Bankers Association (2006) the Swiss National Bank (SNB) classifies the banks in Switzerland into ten major categories: big banks, cantonal banks, regional and savings banks, Raiffeisenkassen banks, commercial banks, consumer loan banks, stock exchange banks, other banks, foreign, and private bank. These bank categories differ with regard to their size, business focus, geographic scope of activities and legal form. Within the banking sector, the big banks maintain a dominant position in every respect. As the matter of fact, the Swiss economy is characterised by a comparatively large banking sector by international standards, and by the dominance of two banks, Credit Suisse and UBS. At the end of 2006, the banking sector’s total assets exceeded CHF 4,500 billion or nearly ten times the size of Swiss GDP. This is by far the biggest ratio among the G10 countries, followed by Belgium and the Netherlands where total bank assets are five times the size of GDP. Measured in absolute terms, the US has the largest banking sector. However, total assets of all banks are less than US GDP (Swiss National Bank, 2007) 3.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Capital Adequacy Directive towards Swiss banks’ behaviour In this paper’s context, instead of taking assessing advantages as well as disadvantages of CAD for all the participants of financial market, I would like to take the point of view to this issue from the one particular party of market – the banks. Merits Almost all financial experts hold the opinion that though capital generally accounts for a small percentage of the financial resources of banking institution; it plays a crucial and important role in their long-term financing and solvency position, which directly influence to their public credibility and reputation. The inverse relationship between the capital adequacy requirement and bank risk taking has been found in the research of Avery and Berger in 1991. In order to meet the 8% target ratio of Basel formula, banks have not been encouraged and limited to take the high risky activities, which always promises the high payoffs, thereby reducing the likelihood of failures. In addition, it is undeniable that the implementation of Capital Adequacy Directive leads to the more powerful ability of banks at the event of financial crisis as the more reasonable the capital ratio is set up, the higher the probability that a bank will not fail to pay back its debts. This fact tends to justify the existence of capital adequacy regulation in order to avoid bankruptcies and negative externalities on the financial system. In other words, it could be said that Capital Adequacy Directive is needed to maintain and enhance the financial stability of banks, generally, for economics. In the case of Swiss banking system, Switzerland welcomes that the Capital Adequacy Directive has been adopted as an important means to preserve the financial soundness of the Bank and its triple A rating. According to Swiss Banker Association (2008) the Swiss banks are well capitalized by international standards and as an additional safety measure, Swiss law demands capital adequacy standards even higher than those required by the Basel Accord. Swiss banks can therefore certainly be counted amongst the safest in the world. The following table will display the marked-rise in risk-weighted in all bank categories in Switzerland at the year-end of 2006 As been shown from the graph, in 2006, the risk-weighted capital ratios rose in all bank types as it increased from the 13.1 % to 13.9 % in terms of the entire banking sector (exceeded the G-10 countries’ average by more than 2.5% point at the same time). This increase was particularly pronounced at the big banks (from 11.5% in 2005 to 12.4% in 2006). Specifically, let take UBS – one of two largest banks in Switzerland as a typical example for the benefits of Capital Adequacy Directive in order to maintain the financial stability. The capital that UBS is required to hold based on Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC) regulations, which differ in some certain respects from the calculation under the Basel Capital Accord (BIS guidelines). As a result of the differences in regulatory rules, UBS’s risk-weighted assets are higher, and its ratios of total capital and Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets, are lower, when calculated under the SFBC regulations than under BIS guidelines. However, UBS has always had total capital and Tier 1 capital well in excess of the minimum requirements of both the BIS and the SFBC. Capital adequacy The success of USB in doing business as well as maintaining financial stability has been measured and confirmed by the largest and most famous credit rating agency such as Fitch Ratings, Standard Poor’s and Moody’s. In February 2006, the rating agency Standard Poor’s affirmed UBS’s AA+ long-term and A-1 + short-term ratings and commented: â€Å"The key strengths of USB business profile are the strong cash flow, high returns, and the sound capital base.† In which, the last one has been brought by the presence of successful implementation of Capital Adequacy Directive. Not surprisingly, to date, the capital base of the Swiss banking sector appears to be sound as all banks reported excess capital at the end of 2006 ( Swiss National Bank, 2007) To sum up, the Capital Adequacy Directive framework is truly needed for Swiss banks in order to avoid bankruptcies and negative externalities on the financial system, enhancing and maintaining the financial stability. Disadvantages Despite what has been shown, nothing could be further from the truth that capital adequacy might affect the banking system’s ability to extend credit. Under the circumstance that the regulatory are set too high, that might leads to the risk-adjusted market return on bank loans will be insufficient so as to cover this artificially high cost of capital, therefore decreasing bank-lending activities. This so-called credit-crunch, which will directly impact not only to the financial stability of banking system but also the aggregate level of economics activities (Allen, 2004). Furthermore, there are various concern have been raised over whether the presence of capital requirement directive undermine the long-run competitiveness of banks. Jackson at the year-end 1999, and Blanco and Barrios in their research at 2003 have shown that these concerns could be separated into two types: (i) Whether banks have been disadvantaged compared with securities markets or securities firms (ii) Whether the overall profitability of banks has been affected and their competitiveness has been harmed According to Jackson (1999), there is a controversial issue that whether banks, due to the capital adequacy regulation have found it difficult to compete against the securities markets as provider of funds. Many countries have witnessed â€Å"a shift from provision of funding to prime corporates by banks to provision of funding by commercial paper markets or securities markets more generally† but it is difficult to assess how much of this shift was driven by the capital requirements of the banks and how much by innovation and greater sophistication of the borrowers. Furthermore, there is no strong theory as well as empirical evidence to conclude from the profound changes in banks’ long-term share of various markets that they have been driven by the influences of capital requirements on banks’ competitiveness. In the case of Swiss banking system, by using the empirical methods and model to evaluate the relationship between the capital adequacy regulation and the share prices of banks as well as using the data come from 4 big banks, 25 cantonal banks and 125 regional banks in existence from 1989 to 1995 which represents 82% of Swiss banking system, Rime (2001) has shown that there is no evidence about capital adequacy requirement implementation reduce the Swiss banks’ share price. Moreover, Wagster revealed the same result at 1996 when he did the research in the situation of Switzerland, Germany, and Netherlands. It is possible that the introduction of minimum regulatory capital requirements may have harmed the competitiveness of the banking industry. If capital standards require a bank to maintain an equity position in excess of what it would hold voluntarily, or in response to market pressure, then these standards constitute an external constraint on a bank’s operations. In theory, any kind of external interference with the activities of a business firm could harm its short-run profitability or growth and possibly undercut its long-run viability (Jackson, 1999). However, it does seem that the exactly answer for this question whether implementation of capital adequacy regulation harms the competitiveness of banks has not been found yet because the long-term competitiveness of banking is driven by a wide range of factors. As been shown in the above part, the implementation of CAD has been conducted successfully in terms of Swiss banking system. That helps banks to enhance the financial stability not only in their own system but also for entire economy. Hence, the Swiss banking system are now depicted as the universal banking system, being classified amongst the safest and highest profit all over the world. Conclusion In this study, we have just investigated into the costs and benefits of Capital Adequacy Directive towards Swiss banks’ behaviors. Our main message is that Capital Adequacy Directive is truly desirable as it provides an extremely efficient financial mechanism for maintaining the financial stability as well as prestige for Swiss banking system. However, despite the typical merits that have been conveyed by Capital Adequacy Directive, some drawbacks it might create such as unexpected credit crunch phenomenon, is obviously seen. This does require the act of Government and Swiss National bank with more caution as the more efficiency CAD present the more benefits that Government and Swiss banks can achieve. Bibliography Allen (2004), The Basel Capital Accords and International Mortgage Markets: A Survey of the Literature. Avery and Berger (1991), Risk-Based Capital and Deposit Insurance Reform, Journal of Banking and Finance BIS (2008) [www.bis.org] [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 15, 2008] Blum (2003), The Impact of Capital Requirements on Banks’ Incentives to Monitor and to Hold Excess Capital, Journal of banking and finance Blum and Hellwig (1996), The macroeconomic implications of capital adequacy requirements for banks, Journal of banking and finance Blum and Bichsel (2004), The relationship between risk and capital in Swiss commercial banks:a panel study, Journal of banking and finance Blanco and Barrios (2003), The effectiveness of bank capital adequacy regulation: A theoretical and empirical approach, Journal of banking and finance G34 International Banking and Finance materials by Prof D.H.Gowland G33 International Banking: Regulation and Supervision materials by Prof D.H.Gowland Hall (2004), Basel II: A panacea or a missed opportunity? , Journal of banking and finance Jackson (1999), Capital requirements and bank behaviors: The impact of Basel Accord, Journal of banking and finance Lastra (2004), Risk-based capital requirements and their impact upon the banking industry: Basel II and CAD III, Journal of banking and finance Quotation database, [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 2008] Rime (2001), Capital requirements and bank behaviors: Empirical evidence for Switzerland, Journal of banking and finance. Rime (2005), Will Basel II Lead to a Specialization of Unsophisticated Banks on High-Risk Borrowers? , Journal of banking and finance Sheldon (2001), Costs and Benefits of Capital Adequacy Requirements: an Empirical Analysis for Switzerland, Journal of banking and finance Stiroh and Rime (2003), The performance of universal banks: Evidence from Switzerland, Journal of banking and finance Swiss National Bank, (2008), [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 2008] Swiss Federal Banking Commission (2005), Basel II Implementation in Switzerland Summary of the explanatory report of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission Swiss Bankers Association (2008), Swiss Bankers Association press release, [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 2008] Wagster (1996), Impact of the 1988 Basle Accord on International Banks, Journal of Finance,

Reflective Essay on Structured Interviews

Reflective Essay on Structured Interviews the way you structured the questioningit gave me ideas in my head in how I wanted the interview to go (from interview transcript) Incident: The key point during the interview, I thought, was when J. spoke about how he wanted the interview to go and what questions and information he wanted to find out. For me, J. had reached the point I wanted him to get to, where he realised it is possible to control and change an interview using a structured approach. I suggested to him as further learning to develop in the future, using examples of questions about self harm and suggesting using formal interview tools in informal ways. I did not ask J. what he meant by ideas in my head. I hesitated to ask him what he meant and to encourage him to reflect on this. Reflective observation: Looking over the transcript and analysing it, I think I missed the boat with J. here. I perhaps let an opportunity pass to explore his learning with him in greater depth. We could have discussed how to develop skills in interviewing and what he wanted to learn next. This would have moved the focus away alcohol and withdrawal symptoms towards his skill development. It could also have been a good opportunity to practice critical incident analysis. I think there were two reasons why I was wary of delving deeper at this point with J. and trying to help him reflect on his learning: First, I had not worked with him for two weeks which was unfortunately due to training and holiday schedules. This meant I had no chance to work with him and observe and assess him directly. I had set him guidelines in how to interview and knew he could get support from other staff nurses. However, I had only what he was giving me during the interview to assess and give him feedback. Secondly, I had started the interview with a clear idea that we were going to cover his CAP booklet in some areas. I really felt some pressure inside myself to cover the whole assessment aspect and not risk going off at a tangent. I regarded the purpose of the assessment as giving J. feedback on how he had met his competencies. I knew that most students saw completing their CAP booklets as a priority. Perhaps if I had helped J. explore his learning it may have been more useful for his future. I felt he was interested in the subject and seemed motivated to learn. He reported making several attempts to talk to different patients on the ward about their drinking. He did link what he had learned to his next placement and how he could use it. It is a little ironic that I was not flexible and adaptable in my approach to interviewing. But we were both learning: J. as a student nurse and myself as a student mentor! Related theory: Rowantree (2003) describes six different purposes for assessment: including selection, standards, motivation for students, feedback to students, feedback to teachers, and preparation for life. Selection here can be conceived as both access to a course or profession and passing or completing a course of education. There are number of purposes here which are not necessarily compatible or perhaps easily reconcilable. Selection and maintaining standards can be seen as competitive and even as almost elitist. Feedback is described as the life-blood of learning (Rowantree, 2003: p416), where assessment is meant to teach the student something. Preparation for life can be seen as inspirational which maybe at odds with maintaining standards, in the sense of maintaining a status quo. Jarvis and Gibson (2001) talk about the two common types of assessment current in nursing education: formative and summative assessment. They describe formative assessment as diagnostic to try and find out what the student has learned and still has to learn. Summative assessment is about making a judgement of whether a nurse has learned enough to become competent (Bradshaw, 1989). Duffy and Hardicre (2007) in their first article on failing nursing students describe a three stage process of an initial meeting which is formative; a mid placement meeting which is formative with constructive feedback and a final summative meeting where both the student and mentor should know what to expect. In part 2 on managing failing students they state that feedback should be regular and ongoing (Duffy and Hardicre, 2007). This prescriptive approach to assessment is about meeting standards and ensuring public and patient safety. Even though they are discussing the failing student their approach if used must apply to all students in order to be consistent, fair and balanced. The mentor has to balance the idea of educating and learning with a duty of ensuring that the student is safe to practice. On the one hand the mentor should provide feedback that facilitates the student identifying what they have learned and what they still have to learn. On the other the mentor is accountable for the safety of patients in their care. Beattie (1991) argues that this can make assessment more effective by ensuring consistency to meet the accountability need. This is not easy and involves gathering a lot of information about learning to make a judgement based on this evidence. However, if our aim is to create a profession of reflective practitioners then assessment must perhaps include an open ended formative element as well. Driscoll (Baird and Winter, 2005) makes the point that there is no end-point in learning about practice. Perhaps mentors have to allow their students the freedom to explore their learning. During assessment students should have opportunities to reflect and to broaden their understanding. Students perhaps should be given choice and participation in the learning process. This is in line with teaching nursing students as adults who are internally motivated, self directing and who bring past experience to their learning. (Knowles, 1990) The challenge is to foster this desire and motivation to learn when it occurs. Biggs (1987) discussed the differences between deep and superficial learning. Assessment that encourages anxiety and recall of knowledge can lead to superficial learning. Where deep learning is promoted by motivation to learn and should be more effective in creating professional nurses. One way to foster deep learning could be to use questioning skills. It is possible to ask questions that will broaden learning and develop critical thinking. There are different types of questions: closed; open; questions looking for simple answers; questions that promote discussion. The mentor should form a question at an appropriate cognitive level for the nursing student. The mentor can ask a series of questions aimed at getting a response from the student and encouraging an increasing complexity if appropriate. (Nicholl and Tracey, 2007) In exploring some of the literature on assessment, it seems apparent there are two intertwined elements present: the formative strand is about what has been learned and what still needs to be learned; the summative strand is about making a judgement about meeting a proficiency standard to become professional and safe in practice. The challenge for the mentor is to meet both strands adequately in their assessment of student nurses. Future Action: There are some things I would try and do differently. I would try and structure assessment over the whole placement as suggested in Duffys model (Duffy and Hardicre, 2007). However, I would try and find a place both the formative and summative elements within the assessment process, while trying to clearly have separate interviews for each. I would like to observe my student directly in learning situations, as well as gather information from colleagues and of course from the student. I would now see feedback as having to be based on a sound judgement based on facts in order to be helpful for the nursing student. Even where the student is more senior and capable I would still like to have some element of direct observation to justify my assessment. Another part I would consider is planning my feedback and possibly giving it in writing beforehand. This could remove anxiety on the students part about passing and perhaps allow time to explore formative aspects of the assessment. I think growing as a mentor would involve becoming skilled at encouraging learning during assessment while giving feedback and passing a student or not. If I had another instance like with J. here, I would like to try and ask a few questions to delve a little deeper into what he was saying.

batleby the scrivener Essay -- essays research papers

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is a complex story, so I am going to zero in on one particularly interesting and intelligent aspect of it. Due to the power of the message even this one particular aspect will be complex, of course. The first thing to note is that the story has a first-person narrator. The narrator, an anonymous lawyer, is in fact a major character in his own right. Ostensibly the story is about Bartleby and his actions as a scrivener. However, what the story is really about, in a sense, is the effect Bartleby seems to have on the narrator. We learn a great deal about the narrator, but more importantly, we see him undergo several rather significant changes. These changes bring to light Melville’s comment on the oppression and lack of compassion in the emerging capitalist economy The narrator's initial self-characterization is important to the story. He is a "safe" man, one who takes few risks and tries above all to conform to societies norms (Melville 1109). The most pragmatic concerns of financial security and ease of life are his priorities. He has made himself perfectly at home in the modern economy: he works as a lawyer dealing with rich men's legal documents. He is therefore a complement or a double to Bartleby in many ways. Doubling is a recurring theme in "Bartleby the Scrivener." Bartleby is a phantom double of our narrator, and the parallels between them will be explored later. Nippers and Turkey are doubles of each other. Nippers is useless in the morning and productive in the afternoon, while Turkey is drunk in the afternoon and productive in the morning. Nippers' ambition mirrors Turkey's resignation to his place and his sad, uneventful career, the difference coming about because of their respective ages. Nippers cherishes ambitions of being more than a mere scrivener, while the elderly Turkey must plead with the narrator to consider his age when evaluating his productivity. Their vices are also parallel, in terms of being appropriate vices for each man's respective age. Alcoholism is a vice that develops with time. Ambition arguably is most volatile in a man's youth. These characters provide valuable comic relief in what is otherwise a somber and upsetting tale. Melville’s p urpose in making Bartleby’s personality act complimentary to the narrator’s is to demonstrate the chang... ...ience with Bartleby. It is doubtful that the lawyer at the beginning of the story, as he pictured himself, could have imagined such personal tragedies. Here we see the denouement. The culmination of the change that Bartleby has affected in the lawyer. â€Å"Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!† (1134) This final sentence shows a depth of emotion that would have been impossible for the narrator at the beginning of the story. This obvious change gives readers the evidence that Melville was trying to display in support of his view of the negative aspects of the business world. This world and the humanity in it had affected both characters. Bartleby of course was the employee whose constant bombardment with the uncompassionate and pitiless world of Capitalism caused him to lose desire to think for himself and as a response to do nothing. The narrator was the employer whose use of the repetitive and routine tasks of his profession caused him to lose compassion and responsibility. The change in the narrator that one can see take place over the course of the story brings these traits and the institutions that founded them into glaring clarity.

Oliver Twist - Summary :: essays research papers

During the summer of 1999, I have chosen to read the book, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Reading this book will better prepare me for my upcoming course of global studies because it deals with many of the regions and time periods we will be studying in class. Although this book was a classic that I thought I had known so much about, reading it and paying attention to the setting and surroundings of the young boy’s life, I noticed many historical events and customs from his time period. The following is a report including the answers to the questions provided for my summer reading program. The story begins with a woman giving birth to a baby without the proper instruments necessary and dies. The boy is brought up in a dirty home with little to eat and under poor conditions. No one knows of the boy’s identity. His government caretakers give him the name Oliver. Oliver grows up in a world with no sympathy for poor orphans. He goes to London to escape his mean guardians and to try to make a better life for himself. On his journey he is mixed up with thieves and is caught stealing even though it was the people he was with. He gets sick and is taken care of by the people who he originally stole from and they grow to love him. The thieves find out about him staying with the people and kidnap him. More stealing takes place and Oliver is trained to be a better thief. One time, during a robbery, Oliver is shot and left for dead by the thieves. The people at the house Oliver was to rob took him in and gave him a home. Oliver’s identity is found. It turns out that O liver was supposed to receive an inheritance from his father and one of the people who got him caught knew this. After confessing, Oliver received his inheritance and lived a happy life from then on. After reading this book and studying the surroundings of the main characters as well as the other characters, I am lead to believe that this book takes place in two different sections of England in the late seventeen hundreds to the early eighteen hundreds. Most of the story takes place in warehouses and in broken down buildings or other hideouts. Other scenes take place in the home of wealthy people in London.

Oot of School Youth

Research in English 2 (Out of School Youth) Prepared by:Osorio, Marie Ann Dominic/ Galvez, Anthony Ross BSCS- 1A To be submitted to Mr. Albert E. Arenas General Topic: Out of School Youth What:Reasons/ Causes of being out of school youth. Who:children (ages 6- 17) and teenagers (ages 18- 24) Where: Philippines Narrowed Topic: Reasons/ Causes of being out of school youth of children and teenagers in the Philippines Key Questions: 1. What is out of school youth? 2. What are the reasons/ factors of being out of school youth? 3. What are the things that could help those out of school youth? 1 of every 8 Filipino youths not in school–surveyBy  RizaT. Olchondra Philippine Daily Inquirer 2:12 am | Sunday, November 6th, 2011 One out of eight Filipinos aged between six and 24 is an out-of-school youth (OSY), according to the 2010 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) of the National Statistics Office (NSO). This translates to about 16 percent of the estimated 39 million Filipinos i n that age bracket, or 6. 24 million people, the NSO said in a report released last week. It said that among the main reasons cited by both males and females for not attending school were â€Å"lack of personal interest,† â€Å"high cost of education,† and â€Å"looking for work. † OSY definedAccording to the office, the term OSY refers to family members six to 17 years old who are not attending a formal school as well as family members 18 to 24 years old who are currently out of school, not gainfully employed and had not finished college or a post-secondary course. â€Å"Among OSYs who are six to 12 years old, lack of personal interest and too young to go to school are two leading reasons, for both males and females,† NSO administrator Carmelita N. Ericta said in the report. Lack of personal interest was also the commonly cited reason for OSYs 13 to 17 years of age, followed by the high cost of education, according to Ericta.For OSYs aged 18 to 24 years, looking for work was cited as the main reason among males, and marriage among females, she added. The state-owned think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said that Filipino families and the Philippine government put a high premium on education, but school participation still remained wanting precisely because of the reasons cited in the NSO study. The PIDS said that addressing the   â€Å"lack of interest† was particularly important because it could be a catch-all phrase for anything, from adjustments due to late school entry to lack of financial or parental support.Besides improving the quality of education and the accessibility of schools, PIDS suggested that the government improve information campaigns on what age children should start going to school and promote continuing education for mothers so that they would support school attendance among their children. Major factor Lack of parental support for education was found to be a major factor in c hildren’s â€Å"lack of interest† in going to school.In addressing the economic blocks to school participation, PIDS said, the government’s conditional cash transfer program might help families that decide to put their children to work rather than complete their education. The Annual Poverty Indicators poll is a nationwide survey conducted during the years when the Family Income and Expenditures Survey is not carried out. For a full survey, the number of samples is around 50,000 households. In the 2010 APIS round, only half of the sample size was used. Of the 21,023 eligible sample households for the 2010 APIS round, 20,103 were interviewed. This translated to a response rate of 95. percent at the national level. Bibliography Olchondra, Riza T. â€Å"1 of every 8 Filipino youths not in school– survey†. Philippine Daily Inquirer. November 6, 2011. Reasons/ Causes of being out DQ of school youth of children and teenagers in the Philippines â€Å"One out of eight Filipinos aged between six and 24 is an out-of-school youth (OSY), according to the 2010 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) of the National Statistics Office (NSO). This translates to about 16 percent of the estimated 39 million Filipinos in that age bracket, or 6. 24 million people, the NSO said in a report released last week.It said that among the main reasons cited by both males and females for not attending school were â€Å"lack of personal interest,† â€Å"high cost of education,† and â€Å"looking for work. † OSY defined According to the office, the term OSY refers to family members six to 17 years old who are not attending a formal school as well as family members 18 to 24 years old who are currently out of school, not gainfully employed and had not finished college or a post-secondary course. â€Å"Among OSYs who are six to 12 years old, lack of personal interest and too young to go to school are two leading reasons, for both males a nd females,† NSO administrator Carmelita N.Ericta said in the report. Lack of personal interest was also the commonly cited reason for OSYs 13 to 17 years of age, followed by the high cost of education, according to Ericta. For OSYs aged 18 to 24 years, looking for work was cited as the main reason among males, and marriage among females, she added. The state-owned think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said that Filipino families and the Philippine government put a high premium on education, but school participation still remained wanting precisely because of the reasons cited in the NSO study.The PIDS said that addressing the   â€Å"lack of interest† was particularly important because it could be a catch-all phrase for anything, from adjustments due to late school entry to lack of financial or parental support. Besides improving the quality of education and the accessibility of schools, PIDS suggested that the government improve information campaigns on what age children should start going to school and promote continuing education for mothers so that they would support school attendance among their children. Major factorLack of parental support for education was found to be a major factor in children’s â€Å"lack of interest† in going to school. In addressing the economic blocks to school participation, PIDS said, the government’s conditional cash transfer program might help families that decide to put their children to work rather than complete their education. The Annual Poverty Indicators poll is a nationwide survey conducted during the years when the Family Income and Expenditures Survey is not carried out. For a full survey, the number of samples is around 50,000 households.In the 2010 APIS round, only half of the sample size was used. Of the 21,023 eligible sample households for the 2010 APIS round, 20,103 were interviewed. This translated to a response rate of 95. 6 percent at the national level. † Olchondra Reasons/ Causes of being out S of school youth of children and teenagers in the Philippines According to the 2010 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) of the National Statistic Office (NSO), one of eight Filipinos aged between six and twenty-four (6 & 24) is an out of school youth (OSY).It means that in 39 million Filipinos on that said age bracket, 6. 24 million (16%) of it were OSY. According to NSO, the term OSY refers to family members 6- 17 years old who are not attending a formal school as well as family members 18- 24 years old who are currently out of school, not gainfully employed and had not finished college or a post-secondary course. The major factor or reasons of being out of school youth is â€Å"lack of interest†. And the â€Å"lack of interest† of the children is due to â€Å"lack of parental support†.In addition, â€Å"lack of personal interest† and â€Å"too young to go to school† is the main reason of ages 6- 12 years old, same with ages 13- 17 years old. While looking for a job was cited as the main reason among males, and getting married is the main reason among females of ages 18- 24. Olchondra Reasons/ Causes of being out P of school youth of children and teenagers in the Philippines Out of School Youth (OSY) refers to children who are not attending formal school, and teenagers who had not finished college or a post-secondary course. According to NSO, 6. 4 million (16%) of the estimated 39 million Filipinos of ages 6- 24 years old were out of school youth (OSY). The major factor or reasons of being out of school youth is â€Å"lack of interest†. And the â€Å"lack of interest† of the children is due to â€Å"lack of parental support†. In addition, â€Å"lack of personal interest† and â€Å"too young to go to school† is the main reason of ages 6- 12 years old, same with ages 13- 17 years old. While looking for a job was cited as the main reas on among males, and getting married is the main reason among females of ages 18- 24. Olchondra

Life of Hitler Essay

The book, written by Alan Bullock deals with the whole life of Hitler, from his unknown early stages through his progress to supreme absolute power and then his final weakening and suicide in the bunker as Russian shells fell around him. The author divides the story into three main sections. The first covers with Hitler’s early life, his rise to party leader in the years following the First World War, and his gaining of the Chancellorship in 1933. The second part deals how he consolidated his position and extended his power once he was in office. The third and final part is regarding his actions in the Second World War. Hitler settled in the army, speaking his mind in opposition to the Jews and Communists greatly to the consent of his seniors. In 1919 Hitler was invited to a meeting of the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei or DAP, the German Workers Party which really embraced of only a few dozen constituents. During this meeting, a spokesperson called for the unification of Austria and Germany. Right away, Hitler shouted, refusing the very thought of a union with the non-Germanic areas of Austria but echoed the words of his educator: that all Germans everywhere should merge to form a single nation. He received an invitation to join the party the next day. Hitler was not excited about this offer; he had sought to organize his own party and not join one as â€Å"incompetent† as the DAP. However he was still fascinated to the faction and after a couple of days of careful discussion he accepted. Number 555, a number which sounded remarkable unless you knew that the party’s numbering system started with 500, this was the number of Adolf Hitler as a DAP member. This undersized group of malcontents- rapidly to be known as the Nazis-had established its head, the nonconformist and former tramp that would lead them to supreme power and their country to ultimate destruction. Even though there is a surprising disparity between the darkness of Hitler’s origins and the unquestionable power he later on acquired, it is noteworthy how accurately his later thoughts and behavior were predicted in his early years. Certainly, as he himself mentioned, his examinations barely distorted at all from those he set forth in Mein Kampf. More than once he expressed quite openly what he projected to do as soon as he acquired power; the error his generations made was not to take him sincerely. The German politicians thought that they could make use of Hitler to broaden their own ends, but it was the other way around, it was Hitler who used them. It is complicated to stay away from a feeling of grudging respect for the skill with which he deceived and controlled them. Although Hitler was absolutely deceitful, trusting no one and willing to mislead, betray, eliminate, and do anything else that was desirable to achieve his ends, it is notable how cautious he was to circumvent open irregularity. When it appeared at one point likely that the Nazi party would be started of its aims, a number of his associates sought to stage a coup, but Hitler declined to do so. And in reality he did eventually become Chancellor legitimately, although, as soon as in power, he rapidly maneuvered himself into a position where he could do whatever he wanted without any kind of constitutional limitation. The total lack of hesitation that characterized Hitler’s advance to power continued to be apparent once he became Chancellor. His conduct on the world stage was basically a larger version of his earlier pretense, deception, and eagerness to use violence when it appeared likely to give. He had an insightful idea of the failing of others, playing on Joseph Chamberlain’s wish to avoid confrontation with the same skill he had used to deceive his opponents on his way to power. And, at least primarily, he sustained to examine the forms of legality in international relationships; his takeover of Austria was, in appearance, by invitation rather than by invasion. One of the most significant data about Hitler is the capacity he evidently obsessed to govern people. His appearance was unremarkable and his mind ordinary and vulgar, still he was capable to enforce his will on almost everyone around him, that is, the main exception seems to have been the Russian foreign minister Molotov. Bullock makes a comment on this power but was not able to explain it except by stating that Hitler’s gaze had a strange hypnotic character. This, nonetheless, would only have been successful at close quarters; his dominance of large public meetings must have been by reason of something else. Hitler himself explained what this depended on: not logical argument but feeling, emotion. â€Å"It is not objectivity, which is a feckless attitude, but a determined will, back up by power where necessary. † The author is good on the supporting cast list. Hermann Goering, the readers would probably think of as a fat figure of fun, and definitely this is what he became in his later years, but in earlier times he was powerful and played an essential part in the rise of the Nazis. Mussolini, however, appears as relatively unimpressive. The Italians appears to be always hesitant and frequently unenthusiastic allies, considered enormously as second-class by the Germans, nevertheless Hitler seems to have had an indisputable fondness for Mussolini himself. There are good descriptions of Himmler, Goebbels, and the arrogant and unbearable Ribbentrop. Reasonably there is not much humor in this manuscript, but it does consist of an entertaining account of an insulting disagreement between Goering and Ribbentrop. Another touch of humor comes from Hitler’s symbolic demand to quote, â€Å"When in my entire life did I ever tell a lie? † The conflict with Britain was involuntary and Hitler by no means completely understood why the British declared war on him. He had not projected a general war in 1939. Once in progress, nevertheless, the early successes rapidly led to him to the view that he was perfect, and in future, he frequently rejected the suggestions and recommendations of his generals, taking the supervision of the war into his own hands and giving out the most comprehensive commands. When things began to be unsuccessful he turns down to allow retreat in any circumstances and therefore wasted his resources, not to mention the lives of his troops, in hopeless last-minute stands. One of the many qualities of this fascinating account is its justification of Hitler’s apparently confusing pronouncement to attack Russia, a pronouncement that was ultimately the major reason of his defeat. The author makes clear, it was always Hitler’s objective to battle the Russians; his purpose from the start was to spread out towards the East, not the West. And the Russian movement possibly would have ended differently had Hitler been agreeable to listen to the advice of his generals to concentrate on taking Moscow rather than pursuing subsidiary aims. Bullock is categorical about the guilt of Hitler in the Final Solution. Even though it was Himmler who carried out the rule of extermination, â€Å"the man in whose mind so grotesque a plan had been conceived was Hitler. Without Hitler’s authority, Himmler, a man solely of subordinate virtues, would never have dared to act on his own. † Hitler and Himmler had secret meetings at which nobody else was permitted to be there, except seldom Bormann, and no record of these subsists. In the last part of his life Hitler’s understanding of reality had become shaky, his physical and mental corrosion being probably go faster by the quack remedies directed to him by his personal doctor. Even so, his political insight had not abandoned him. He predicted that, after the war, there would be only two Great Powers, USA and the Russia, who would engage in a trial of strength, either military or in the fields of economics and ideology. These two would rule the world between them until the nationalisms Asian, African, and perhaps South American should arise. The author uses many first-hand sources, like Hitler’s Mein Kampf and other Nazi leaders’ record, dialogues, articles and depositions in trials such as Nuremberg, for instance, Goebbels’, Otto Dietrich’s, Roehm’s, Gisevius’s, Rosenberg’s, etc. , and other significant actors’ of the period, such as Mussolini, Ciano, Schuschnigg, Ludendorff, Churchill, and Weizacker. His bibliography seems quite comprehensive and as complete as could likely be for the period, and is separated into time periods and subjects. One of the first items observed here is certainly the almost overwhelming amount of information pertaining to the psychological makeup of the dictator and the many reiterations of certain mindsets such as Hitler’s being a sufferer of his own propaganda. This information also tries to give details everything from Hitler’s detestation of the Jews to his consistent mindset, and his motivation to lie and run roughshod over anything in his direction. Some examples can be found all through the book, but the author also makes an effort a more or less complete physical and mental outline of the Fuehrer in chapter 7, â€Å"The Dictator†. The representation of Hitler given here may also seem a fragment simple and tied down to only a few aforesaid characteristics. Several statements in the book seem unnecessary or self-obvious: Hitler is referred to as having an â€Å"almost inexhaustible fund of resentment†: actually, a completely inexhaustible fund of resentment would be closer to the point, as he is still full of that particular emotion in his political testament, especially towards the Jews. Moreover, phrases like â€Å"the fat, bald party treasurer† have no precise value in this biography, and could have easily been left out. All in all, the book may be considered as a biography and historical recital, except during the final â€Å"War-Lord† section, where it seems to get caught up in military details. It might also be considered a difficult read because of the killings described and the general feeling of dissatisfaction that the subject suggests in the reader. Readers can only question, from the self-evident descriptions, terms and speeches evoked by the author, how come the German people, in addition to the other concerned countries’ people and leaders of that era, didn’t see the coming adversities as obviously as the author puts down them out for us to see. Reference: Bullock, Alan. Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: Bantam, 1961.