A Social Need for Children with Special Need Essay

A Social Need for Children with Special Need - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that the inclusion of challenged children in the education system within the broader framework of special school is defined by accommodating infrastructure, expanding course curricula that take into account their special needs and a highly sensitive approach. The proactive participation of community, parents and various voluntary agencies become important factor in the rehabilitation of such children within the mainstream society. As the discussion declares special schools are important initiatives as it facilitates education to those children whose disabilities often obstruct their benefits from education as they are entitled for. The special schools cater to the numerous needs of children with disability with focus on severe intellectual disability and other models of developmental disabilities like dyslexia, learning disability etc. Kwiotek emphasizes that disability must be looked from the wider perspectives of social model. Thus, social structure, ins titutions, environment and attitude become major elements that impact the special needs of disabled children. The intellectual disabilities like cerebral palsy, dyslexia, autism are not easily identifiable in the early stage. They are therefore, often projected as behavioral problems of the students.  

An Employee and an Independent Contractor Coursework

An Employee and an Independent Contractor - Coursework Example There must be an agreement between the employer and the employee or the independent contractor and an â€Å"intention to create a legal relationship† (Gulshan and Kapoor 4). Other elements such as the legality of the work to be performed, the existence of consideration and contractual capacity, and free will into a contract are also common factors for enforceability of contracts between an employer and either employee or an independent contractor (Gulshan and Kapoor 4). The level of control by the employer, however, distinguishes between an employee and an independent contractor. An employee operates under direct instructions from the employer while an independent contractor operates independently from an employer’s instructions. An employee also receives training on the job by the employer or senior employees of the employer while an independent contractor is employed for owned expertise. Another difference between an employee and an independent contractor is period of the relationship. An employee’s contract is normally long-term and runs over many seasons while an independent contractor’s services run with the life of a contract in agreement. An employee is also remunerated by rate while an independent contractor is paid per contracted job (Miami Dade College 1-3).

Comparing 600-1450 & 1450-1750 Essay Example for Free

Comparing 600-1450 1450-1750 Essay Periods of time have always been changing and evolving. The 600 to 1450 era had some similarities to the following era, the 1450 to the 1750; though as said before, there were the changes also. Many continuities and breaks occurred between both periods. There were the changes in their trading systems, the technology, their global interactions, urbanization, social systems, and their political government development. These events led to various inventions and some that are still used to this day. All the terms involving continuity during both time periods eventually changed and affected the era. Analyzing these ideas will help receive a better understanding of both periods. During the 600s to the 1450s, trading was mostly done by land. There were long-distance trading occurring then, but not as much sea travel and ocean trade routes as in the 1450s to 1750s time period. The post-classical period (600-1450) included the long-distance trade from the European to the African kingdoms. However, there wasn’t any constant trading happening between the eastern and western hemisphere. On the other side, during the time frame after this (1450-1750), trading was constant with the western and eastern hemispheres now connected by sea-based travel. World trade patterns where happening due to the Atlantic Ocean trade eventually crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Trading began with small items and grew to even humans, slaves. Trade routes influenced the cultures and belief systems back then also. Connections between different people brought both positive and negative effects. Technology also improved because of necessary traveling items. The technology during both of these time periods where advancing and improving. During the 1450-1750, these innovations strengthened their political organization and economic growth. Afterwards these two affected and altered the world trade pattern. In these early years, the Scientific Revolution occurred and the methods used by scientists then, are now the basis for science; for example mathematical formulation, empirical evidence, and freedom of inquiry. The Scientific Revolution was a new vision of science relying on the human reason for comprehending the scientific phenomena. This Revolution was brought by the earlier Renaissance and the Reformation. During the 1450-1750, there wasn’t a Scientific Revolution, but there was the forcing of converting to Catholicism from the Spanish and Portuguese towards the Amerindians. In the earlier era, it was optional for people to rely on the Scientific Revolution as their belief, but in the later era, Catholicism was forced into being the belief of all. In navigation technology, the Portuguese made great contributions including the magnetic compass and the astrolabe, helping mariners determine their locations at sea. They also made advancements in the design of ships. Caravel was the name of the newly developed ship by the Portuguese. Its size allowed the exploration of shallow coastal areas and rivers, and was also strong eno0ugh to withstand storms out on the ocean. This navigational technology made history. Socially, there were many important cultural changes. For example in the 600-1450, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment were beliefs that oriented European minds toward science and invention. This allowed them to escape from the social and intellectual boundaries of the Middle Ages. Speaking first of the Renaissance, which was primarily launched in Italy, this was a time of â€Å"rebirth† to the intellectual and artistic creativity of the people. Humanism is the interest of an individual’s capabilities and accomplishments, but in the Italian Renaissance, humanism was reflected through philosophies, portrait painting, and autobiography. The Reformation occurred both in the Protestant group and later on in the Catholic people. The rebellions against the church were the Protestant Reformation, which began in 1517 by Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. The Catholic Church responded forcefully and began the Catholic Reformation. During this time, a Council of Trent rose and Jesuits was founded which traveled all around Europe trying to convince ex-members back. During the time when the Spanish were ruling over the Americas, the forced their way into that land and killed everyone they found. These conquistadors were cruel, slaughtering small children, pregnant women, and even old men. Their political development systems changed slightly and this caused a new turn to the governments’ ruling and its land/sea possession of trade. During the post-classical era, the kingdoms were long lasting overall. In the period after, there was a great expansion of their kingdoms. The Spanish and French kings gained enough power to turn into absolute monarchs, which held complete control over their kingdoms. The French kings also cultivated a belief in the divine right, which was the authority of king with God’s blessing. In other parts of Europe (Britain and the Netherlands) developed constitutionalism as their style of government. Though, the development of capitalism and technological advances was constant on all government types. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of property and business that produce goods to be sold in a free market. The joint-stock companies, back then, organized commercial ventures on a large scale by allowing investors to buy and sell shares. In the â€Å"putting-out system†, entrepreneurs delivered the raw material to the workers in their home, from where they were transformed into finished products. The Portuguese established viceroyalties, which were the king’s representatives in the New World and wielded a great deal of power over their lands. They later became independent and set up their government in an urban area. Talking more about the time of 1450-1750, the Zhen He’s voyages were very important. I founded interesting that after Yongle’s death, the Ming government decided to stop the voyages, but if they hadn’t, might the Chinese have been the ones to discover the Americas first?!!? Overall, periodization has changed and had made an impact on us today. The era between the 600-1450s and the one of 1450-1750s were both very interesting and had marker events that shape our life today. Analyzing, comparing the continuities and the breaks help us get a better understanding on what really made history.

Essay --

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Hemigrapsus sanguineus Hemigrapsus sanguineus (de Haan, 1835), commonly known as the Asian shore crab, is a brachyuran crab, and is a native species along the western North Pacific coast (Brousseau et al., 2001). Its square and broad carapace has three spines on each side and there finely striated ridge exist under the eye and lateral margin. Its usual size is 30 mm wide but maximum size reported can reach up to 43.9 mm carapace width (CW) (McDermott, 1998). Its color varies from purple, red, green, orange-brown, with the presence of bands along its legs and red spots on the cheliped claws (Poore,2004). Males are characterized by the presence of distinctive fleshy, bulb-like structure at the cheliped base of the dactylus the shape of the flap on the underbelly in males is quite phallic, triangular and pointed. The females are recognized thru the roundness, wider and more oval flap of abdomen morphology. Easily opened flap of female crabs only implies that they are capable of mating. (Poore,2004). The local scope of this crab species is the region of Asia-Pacific (McDermott, 1998). It was observed that this species has penetrated parts of the Europe and North America, specifically France, Netherlands, and Croatia and is now classified to be an invasive species (McDermott, 1991). It is considered invasive because it is capable of reaching high densities and can initiate negative impacts on several small juveniles of native species (Lohrer and Whitlatch, 2002a,b). Asian shore crabs are considered as opportunistic omnivores (McDermott, 1998). They consume a varied kind of plant and animal resources in the field and also when they are in captivity. These resources would include algae, salt marsh grass, a... ...rtional relationship, which implies that the wet weight could give a length estimate of the species’ carapace. Several physico-chemical factors affect the growth and development of crustaceans. Environmental stress in coastline waters is usually caused by organic waste disposal which then results in low amount of important crustaceans harvested in fisheries and can also influence the biodiversity of decapod crabs. The physico-chemical parameters are crucial ecological factors, as they directly affect oxygen consumption, metabolism, growth, moulting, hormones and survival of crustaceans (Varadharajan D et al., 2013). The salinity is one of the main factors that alter the distribution of organisms, and this is likely to affect the decapods crab distribution and production as well. The alkaline pH was observed to be related with increased number of crab species.

Communication Essays -- Informative

Communication embodies the ability for one to convey a message through the use of verbals (words) and non-verbals (behaviours) in a process to compare, transmit and interpret messages. Garside and Kleiner (2007) portrays communication as sharing thoughts and feelings with other people. For this process to be effective the message should be transmitted with "maximum accuracy and minimum effort" (Garside and Kleiner 2007) with "mindfulness" (Burgoon, Bieger and Waldron 2002) from both parties. Mindfulness requires the sender and receiver to be alert to "the content, situation and sequence of verbal messages, as well as the paralinguistic cues, gestures, facial expression, body movements and cues produced by the physical environment that occupy verbal messages" (Burgoon, Burger and Waldron 2000). Not everyone is competent in transmitting information, this results in ineffective communication. Ineffective communication can be interpreted as neglecting mindfulness during an interaction, h indering the process of obtaining valuable information and ineffectively transmitting our thoughts and beliefs across. Interpersonal communication is "a distinctive, transactional form of human communication involving mutual influence, usually for the purpose of managing relationships" (Beebe, Beebe and Redmond 2008). By studying interpersonal communicating skills, one can hope to gain an appreciation for the benefits of using effective communication skills on a daily basis. This reflective essay will analyse and deconstruct the effective and ineffective communication skills which were used in an interaction involving myself. In an effort to develop new skills, identify, deepen and improve on existing knowledge, an examination and reflection of ineffe... ...y interaction which hinders our ability to develop new relationships and build from existing ones. I believe the reflection of ineffective communication is essential in the process of developing a more effective style of communication which can be used to convey and interpret interpersonal messages. Through the studying and correct use of verbal and nonverbal messages, future interactions can be dealt with accordingly by applying the interpersonal skills learnt and practiced. Conversely, many situations we encounter on a daily basis might not be the same as one another because everybody is different, thus, it is beneficial to learn many skills to apply to different encounters. Ultimately, the goal of effective interpersonal communication is to acknowledge "Everyone wants to feel that they are important and that their message is valued" (Garside and Kleiner 1991).

Costing in Banking Service Essay

It does so by describing the partial costs and full cost systems in banking institutions. It then looks at the limitations of these approaches to the current competitive conditions and goes on to consider the applicability of the activity based costing system in the allocation of indirect transformation costs to branches, products and customers. Finally, we will look at the findings of a questionnaire to Spanish savings banks in order to evaluate how widespread these systems are and how they are used in savings banks. We found that direct costs systems predominate in customer and products entries whereas full costs systems are much more widespread in the case of branches. Furthermore, we also found that the use of activity based costs systems is very limited. Keywords: Saving banks Cost structure Management accounting Cost systems Activity based costing. JEL Classification Codes: M41 – Accounting G21 – Banks; Other Depository Institutions. 1. Introduction Historically, management accounting in banking institutions was introduced considerably later in comparison with companies in other sectors. There are a number of reasons for this limited development. This was due, on the one hand, to external causes. For example, it was not until the 80’s that competitive conditions in the banking sector fostered the development of accounting management planning and control systems. On the other hand, there were also internal conditions that had to do with the nature of the banking business and the operations that these companies carry out, which differ significantly to those of other sectors. This hindered the transfer of models that had basically been developed for industrial companies to the financial sector. As regards internal factors, the accounting regulations set down by regulating bodies of the banking system have traditionally been the starting point from which banking institutions have drawn up their accounting information. The purpose of he latter was clearly to address the needs of central banks that used this accounting information in order to supervise and control the solvency of the financial system and to control the relevant variables of monetary policy (Tà ºa and Larriba, 1986, p.37; Cates, 1997, p.51-56; Kimball, 1997, p.24). Furthermore, the environment in which these companies had traditionally operated had been sufficiently stable in order for them not to see the need to improve their management accounting systems (AECA, 1994a, p.12-13). On an internal level, Waden-Berghe (1990, p.569) Rouach and Naulleau (1992, p. 101-102) and Carmona (1994, p.210) point out that the characteristic features of the products and the production process of banks hinder the application of management accounting techniques: the intermediation function they carry out, the permanence on the balance sheet of the main sources of income and expenses, the problematic definition of outputs and input, given that there is no difference between the nature of the raw material obtained via financial markets or deposit taking and the final product (loans), the fixed cost and marginal revenue syndrome, the difficulty in allocating indirect costs to cost objects or the diffuse figure of the customer-supplier. However, the deep transformation of the banking system, and, more specifically, deregulation, disintermediation and innovation processes, have ushered in changes to the competitive behaviour and the information needs of banking institutions. We can therefore assume that the accounting systems of these companies have most probably also evolved and established new conceptual frameworks 1. As a consequence of growing competition in the banking sector and the reduction of financial margins, banking institutions have had to give increasingly greater importance to the planning and control of their non financial costs, which has opened up the debate around the adequacy of the costs systems currently in use in these companies (Scias, 1985, p. 48; Kimball, 1993, p. 5-20; Bos, Bruggink et al., 1994, p.12; Carmona, 1994, p. 213). This essay aims to analyse the characteristics of the costs systems of Spanish savings banks which operate in the universal retail banking segment. In the first place, we will look at the different theoretical models that will enable us to analyse the financial intermediation activity from a microeconomic viewpoint. Secondly, we will go on to describe the characteristics of non financial costs in banking institutions, given that they influence the application of management accounting in these companies. Thirdly, we will put forward a costs classification in savings banks that facilitates the allocation of their non financial costs to different cost objects (centre of responsibility, products, customers and activities). Based on the above, we can then go on to assess the use of different costing systems, looking at both traditional costing systems (partial and full) as well as activity based costing. The study finishes by presenting the results of a questionnaire given to the heads of management control of Spanish savings banks with the aim of finding out which costing systems are currently in use and how they are likely to evolv e in the future. 2. The Production Process in Banking Institutions This section aims to present an overview of the different theoretical approaches that interpret the productive process of banking institutions. According to Bergà ©s and Soria (1993, p. 17-23) the models that explain the productive process of banking institutions can be grouped into three groups: partial decision models, portfolio theory and services production. Let’s look at these in more detail. 2.1. Partial Decision Models Partial models focus either on the assets and investment decisions (loans versus the treasury) or on the composition of the liability structure (capital versus deposits), considering the other part of the balance sheet as an external or exogenous variable. In these models, the banking institution’s balance sheet is 1 We can identify various evolution stages in bank accounting and management; for example, Chisholm and Duncan (1985, p.27-33) have divided its historical evolution into three stages, Faletti (1986, p.88-95) refers to four stages, Rezaee (1991, p.26-28) and Roosevelt and Johnson (1986, p.30-31) have established five stages, and Ernst & Young (1995, p.25-31) outline up to 11 phases. Having said this, the different number of stages by different authors reflect differences in nuances but not in fundamental aspects because the evolution of information drawn up by management accounting in banking institutions may be seen as a continuous process rooted in financial accounting that is evolving towards objectives that are more and more related with tactical and strategic decision making. viewed as the key element, because each of its components is modelled individually (Santomero, 2000, p.4). When loans are regarded as outputs of the banking institution, it is assumed that, given a certain level of exogenously determined deposits, which are not subject to optimization, the company’s management decision is focused on determining what proportion of deposited funds will be allocated to the provision of loans and what proportion will be kept in the treasury. This is due to the fact that the banking institution needs to maintain a certain level of liquid reserves in order to address possible withdrawals of deposits. Obviously, maintenance of this treasury will generate an opportunity cost, so banking institutions will have to minimise this opportunity cost by maintaining the treasury at a minimum level. However, if the treasury that is kept is insufficient, the company exposes itself to a high liquidity risk (Baltensperger, 1980, p.3; and Swank, 1996, p.176). When deposits are regarded as outputs, the problem focuses on determining the optimum balance between deposits and equity (Swank, 1996, p.177). According to this approach, a situation of insolvency could be brought on not only by the mass withdrawal of customer deposits, but also if the value of assets drops below that of liabilities. This scenario is less and less likely the fewer the deposits. It can therefore be minimised by increasing the volume of equity (Baltensperger, 1980, p.1011; Swank, 1996, p.177). However, given that the opportunity cost of equity is greater than the financial cost generated by deposits, in order to maximise profitability the bank need to minimise the bank’s own funds, which increases the possibility of an insolvency scenario and of meeting the ensuing costs associated with it (Baltensperger, 1980, p.13). 2.2. Portfolio Theory Based Models The previous models seek to address the structure of assets or liability management whilst considering the other part of the balance sheet as exogenous. A comprehensive theory of the productive process of banking institutions needs to simultaneously account for the structure of assets and liabilities. The efficient portfolios selection model for banking institutions put forward by Markowitz (1959) and developed by Pyle (1971, p.737-747) concomitantly looks at decisions concerning assets as well as liabilities and gives us a more comprehensive view of the interrelations between assets and liabiliti es. Having said this, it must be acknowledged that although portfolio theory overcomes the limitations of partial models by determining optimum treasury, loans and deposits levels together, it still has its drawbacks. The most relevant to this study has to do with the fact that both partial models and portfolio selection theory regard non-financial costs as irrelevant when it comes to estimating the output level and composition of banking institutions (Swank, 1996, p. 194). 2.3. Models Based on the Production of Services and Real Resources The provision of financial services entails transformation costs which are not contemplated in the abovementioned models. The services production model advocates that the production processes of banking institutions cannot be properly analysed by simply looking at the management of its optimal assets and liabilities structure, but that we also need to take into account the fact that both financial intermediation and the provision of other banking services generate transformation costs, which entail the use of real resources both human and technological (Baltensperger, 1980, p. 27-29). The models developed by Pesek, (1970, p. 357-385); Saving (1977, p. 289-303) and Sealey and Lindley (1977, p.1251-1266) are approaches based on production and cost functions, and enable us to study the banking institution’s behaviour from the point of view of profit maximisation. According to the above models, the activity of banking institutions consists of providing a range of different financial services (both intermediation and other kinds of services), the production of which can be expressed in accordance with a production function. The inputs of this production function are a combination of different types of factors consisting of real resources whereas the outputs are different possible combinations of assets, liabilities and services. Hence the production function, along with the balancing of the accounts between assets, liquidity and liabilities, interest rates that are externally set by the market and legally established coefficients, make up the restrictions under which banking institutions must operate and try to maximise their profits. These profits will ultimately depend on the difference between revenue generated from the sale of their services on the one hand and the total costs of their inputs both financial and non financial on the other (Sealey and Lindley, 1977, p. 1255; Santomero, 2000, p.3). The following sections will discuss the problematic of the costing structure of real resources in banking institutions and look at how these are classified for management accounting purposes. This will be followed by an overview of the different costing systems identified in the literature, partial costs, full costs and activity based costing. And finally, we will present the findings of an empirical research study concerning the costing systems used by Spanish savings banks. 3. The Cost Structure of Banking Institutions Before we proceed to assess the different existing cost systems and their application to banking, we would like to highlight some of the characteristic features of the banking business which influence the cost structure of its costing systems. These characteristic features can be summed up as follows (Sloane, 1991, p.76-79; Sapp, Rebischke et al., 1991, p.56-57): †¢ Variable work load: the volume of operations fluctuates enormously from one moment to the next, which obviates the problem of capacity management, given that at certain times there are â€Å"peaks† whilst at other times there are â€Å"valleys† which means that these resources are underused. †¢ High fixed costs: resources are usually allocated to covering â€Å"peaks† of activity. However, the cost of these resources does not vary with the volume of transactions, because they have a large fixed component. †¢ Predictability of the activity: although the demand for services tends to be hi ghly variable, it is relatively easy to predict, because it follows a cyclic behaviour pattern, which offers the possibility of turning part of fixed costs into variable ones by means of outsourcing. †¢ Mass services production activities: a comparison can be drawn between the high volume of repetitive operations in banking institutions and traditional industrial mass commodity manufacturing, which facilitates the use of methodologies that originated in industry and the setting up of a standard costing system. †¢ Joint production and an undefined product: the banking product is physically indefinable which makes it more complex to identify. For example, when a banking institution issues a loan to a customer, the latter must open up a current account to meet the loan payments. If on top of this the customer orders a cheque book on his current account and takes out a life insurance policy, we have four interrelated products. †¢ Low cost traceability: given that we are dealing with joint production activities with elevated fixed and indirect costs there are many resources that are shared by activities, customers, products and centres of responsibility. As far as we see it, the most significant factors that influence the applicability of different cost systems in banking institutions are on the one hand, the significant weight of indirect costs in relation to cost objects, which makes it difficult to trace them in relation to cost objects. Similarly, given that a large part of the operations carried out by banking institutions are of a repetitive nature and susceptible to standardisation, this makes it feasible to consider calculating the costs of these operations and allocating them to cost objects, and to introduce the use of standard costs as a planning and control instrument. 4. Costs Classification in Banking Institutions The classification of the non financial costs of banking institutions may prove useful in studying the applicability of different cost systems to banking institutions. Although we can make different classifications of these costs, the most relevant for our purposes is the difference between transformation and overhead costs (AECA, 1994a, p.61-62): â€Å"transformation costs are costs that are generated in profit centres and in operational cost or general services centres. In general, the costs of these centres are directly or indirectly related to the consumption of products and services on the part of customers†. At the same time, transformation costs can be divided into direct and indirect costs, depending on their relation to cost objects (AECA, 1994a, p.61): †¢ Direct costs, are those costs that can be unequivocally and directly allocated to cost objects, in other words their allocation is controlled economically in an individualised fashion. †¢ Indirect costs, are costs that cannot be directly allocated to cost objects because there is no exact allocation of funds that enables us to estimate the consumption of these costs by cost bearers, It should be noted that a significant number of transformation costs of banking institutions are dual in nature when viewed from the previous classification criterion, to the extent that certain transformation costs can be direct with respect to the branches network but indirect in relation to products and customers (De la Cuesta, 1996, p.85-87). In banking institutions, transformation costs basically correspond to personnel costs, depreciations and other general costs, which although they are difficult to allocate to customers and products, are generally easier to allocate to responsibility centres (Cole, 1995, p.152). The second costs category corresponds to overhead costs, which are generated in the bank’s organisational centres. These costs are generated by the various functions related to management, administration, organisation and control. In general, these are indirect in relation to all the cost objects. These costs are treated as costs assigned to support all the company’s functions, and as such they are independent of production volume, the existing product lines and of the markets they serve (AECA, 1994b, p.58).

Bringing Trauma Home: Spouses of Paramedics

The profession of emergency care inevitably brings along with it a lot of stress, both mental and physical. Paramedics and other emergency care professionals are faced with a multitude of varying situations ranging from harsh weather to violent patients and emotionally draining experiences such as witnessing extensively injured patients or deaths. Moreover, these individuals are also faced with different hassles such as working in exhaustive shifts, overtime issues and variable schedules (Blakely & Timmons, 2008; Regehr, Goldberg, & Hughes, 2002).All these factors not only influence the paramedics themselves but also have a significant impact on their families. Studies have shown the existence of the phenomenon of secondary trauma (Figley, 1995 cited in Regehr, Goldberg, & Hughes, 2002), or vicarious traumatization (McCann & Pearlman, 1990; Saakvitne & Pearlman, 1996 cited in Regehr, Goldberg, & Hughes, 2002) amongst mental health workers who have been exposed to individuals who are faced with traumatizing experiences.It has been proven that being exposed to the traumatic experiences of others predisposes individuals to develop symptoms of anxiety, sleep disturbances and affective arousal (Regehr, Goldberg, & Hughes, 2002). Studies have revealed that emergency workers including ambulance personnel have a high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Jonsson, Segesten, & Mattsson, 2003). Other studies reveal that by witnessing the trauma and suffering of victims, paramedics develop secondary trauma and if they share their experiences with their family members, they too might experience vicarious traumatization (Blakely & Timmons, 2008).Different individuals have been shown to deal with the stress in different ways. Some individuals might share their experiences with their family members and seek emotional support from them. In doing so, they inadvertently expose their family members to the same distress and anguish that they are experiencing. Thus fam ilies when extending their support towards the paramedics, who need to cope with the work-related stress, may themselves fall prey to developing mental distress via the process of secondary trauma (Blakely & Timmons, 2008).On the other hand, some individuals may cope with the work-related stress that they experience via emotional numbing, whereby they display a loss of affect and emotional detachment (Regehr, Bringing the trauma home: Spouses of Paramedics, 2005). They may thereby have impaired family functioning and limited interactions with their family members (Regehr, Bringing the trauma home: Spouses of Paramedics, 2005). Both these coping strategies have thus been proven to indirectly have a negative influence on the family members of paramedics.In addition, work stress has also been shown to impair the family functioning of paramedics (Blakely & Timmons, 2008). Another problem that the family members, in particular the spouses of paramedics have to face is dealing with the to ugh routine that these individuals have. Other concerns of the family members include the health risks and the physical violence that the emergency care personnel are prone to (Blakely & Timmons, 2008).Thus, the work-related mental stress experienced by personnel involved in emergency care does not only have impact on their own life and health but also on their family members, in particular their spouses. It therefore becomes imperative to study the influence and consequences of the mental distress which the paramedics face on their family lives and relationship, determine factors which influence the development of these problems, and hence improvise strategies to minimize the potential harm and risks associated with these problems.Qualitative versus Quantitative research design for addressing this issue When undertaking research to address any issue, two different kinds of research methods exist, viz. qualitative and quantitative methods. The choice of the research method depends o n the study question. When an exploration of the various aspects of a particular issue is required, qualitative research should be undertaken (Marshall, 1996). Qualitative research allows an in-depth study of the phenomenon of interest and involves observing the phenomenon in its natural environment without any interventions (Runciman, 2002).The results yielded as a result of qualitative studies are transferable and such research answers ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions (Marshall, 1996). It provides a conceptual analysis of the issue and serves various different purposes including hypothesis generation, which can be further tested via using quantitative methods, to assess the pre-existing systems and functions and to convey to the policy makers the views and experiences of the individuals in question, amongst others (Fitzpatrick & Boulton, 1994).Qualitative research is thus â€Å"complex, contextual and influenced by the interaction of physical, psychological and social factors (Runciman, 2002). † In the other hand, quantitative research uses a deductive or reductionalist approach and is aimed at testing preset hypothesis (Marshall, 1996). The main implications of this kind of research is in assessing the effectiveness of various interventions or comparing two different study groups. Quantitative methodology yields generalizable results and produces answers to ‘what’ questions (Marshall, 1996).Keeping in mind the above mentioned basic differences between qualitative and quantitative research and their applicability in various situations, the best suited form of methodology which can be used in identifying the impact of the work-related stress of the paramedics on their family lives is qualitative methodology. This is because the issue at hand requires an in-depth exploration of the various aspects and consequences of the work-related stress on the individuals, their family life and their spouses and qualitative approach i s the most suitable for answering such questions.Problem identification and definition The introduction section of a research article is aimed at identifying the research problem, to determine the magnitude of the problem in the society and to provide the rationale behind carrying out the study (Parahoo, 2006). In this article, the author clearly defines the problem which led to the conduction of this study viz. the negative impact of the work-related mental stress that paramedics face on their spouses (Regehr, 2005) and adequately explain the theoretical framework behind this problem.According to the author, paramedics experience a considerable amount of mental and physical stress while at work and this influences their overall mood and affect. There are two main types of coping strategies that paramedics can adopt in order to overcome the mental distress they experience and these involve either remaining detached and emotionally aloof from the situations faced, i. e. emotional num bing, or explicitly sharing their experiences with others (Regehr, 2005).Neither of these strategies have been found to be useful since the former leads to a poor quality of relationships as the numbing prevails in everyday life and leads to an inability to emotionally engage and interact with others, and the latter has been found to induce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the family members whereby they start experiencing stress similar to that faced by the paramedics (Regehr, 2005).The author thus surmises that the work related stress of paramedics does not only bring significant distress to the individuals in question, but also to their family members, in particular their spouses, and this is a considerable problem that warrants research in order to elucidate the factors contributing towards this problem (Regehr, 2005). Thus, in this article, the phenomenon of interest is clearly identified and the theoretical underpinnings of the problem have been adequately address ed.However, when defining the problem, the author does not explain why the qualitative study design would be best suited for this particular problem. Moreover, this section also lacks a discussion of the significance of this research and its outcome to everyday clinical practice, i. e. How would identifying and addressing this particular problem prove to be beneficial for paramedics and their spouses in the short and long-term? Literature Review The literature review provided in an article provides an in-depth view of the research done on the topic.It should be based on an extensive review of literature and discuss all aspects of the topic in question (Parahoo, 2006). In this article, a thorough and comprehensive literature regarding the different aspects of the effect of paramedics’ work-related mental distress on their family and spouses has been provided. Moreover, the literature is logically organized and leads the readers sequentially from problem identification to its i mpact and consequences.Using the literature, the author initially discusses the magnitude and nature of the emotional stress that paramedics face and then moves on to describe the role of the family in helping paramedics to deal with this stress (Regehr, 2005). The author then quotes and discusses the different studies which been carried out to elucidate the coping strategies used by paramedics to vercome the mental distress that they encounter and the effect of these strategies on the family members (Regehr, 2005), thus providing a framework and the rationale for conducting the study in question.However, the literature review of this article has certain shortcomings. Firstly, the literature review fails to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the studies carried out previously and the gaps in the research literature that exist. This is important so as to ascertain what new findings this study would contribute to the existing literature on the subject. Moreover, some of the lite rature qouted in this article dates back to almost two decades ago, e. g. Verboski and Ryan, 1988 and Nezu and Carnevale, 1987, and is thus outdated.This shortcoming could have been avoided by using more recent and up to date literature, which would have contributed further towards the strength of the article. Thus in conclusion, the literature review is adequately performed and suffiently describes the previous research conducted on the topic but has certain limitations and shortcomings. Methodology The methodology section is one of the most important sections of any article as this part guides the readers on how the study is actually being conducted. It has several important components. The different components of methodology of this article are critically reviewed below.Research Design The research design used is for this study is qualitative research. This method is appropriately chosen since this study aims to identify the different consequences that the paramedics’ life style and the pressures associated with their job has on their family life and their spouses and these consequences are influenced by several factors and can be studied from different aspects (Regehr, 2005). Qualitative research serves the purpose of studying a problem from several different perspectives and is conducted in a natural setting.It does not require any intervention or control group and is a mere observation of the phenomenon of interest, giving a holistic picture of the problem being addressed (Runciman, 2002). This study is meant to be an exploration of the experiences, concerns and issues of the spouses of paramedics and thus the qualitative method is best suited method for it. Sampling The sample for this study consisted of spouses of fourteen paramedics who were employed at two different emergency medical organizations. The author describes the rationale of using a sample size of fourteen participants, viz. ensuring the occurrence of saturation (Regehr, 2005).Satura tion is an important concept applicable to qualitative research. In general, it is an established fact that as the sample size increases the chances of conducting a random sample error decrease and thus, larger sample sizes are preferred in order to reduce the variability in the results (Marshall, 1996). However, at a certain point, no new information or themes are revealed from the data set and this is termed as saturation (Marshall, 1996). For qualitative studies, the sample size required is usually small but recruiting an adequate number of participants in order to achieve saturation should be ensured.In this article, the sampling method used is not stated explicitly but the technique used reveals that purposive sampling was used, i. e. spouses of paramedics were approached and asked to participate in this study (Regehr, 2005). This kind of sampling is best suited for qualitative studies, in particular those who focus on a particular group of individuals rather than on the genera l population. However, this article does not mention any particular inclusion or exclusion criteria for the study participants.Inclusion and exclusion criteria are important in minimizing the variability amongst participants and in the reduction of any confounding factors which might lead to variation in the results and thus compromise the validity and reliability of the study findings. Data Collection Strategies The data collection tools used were audio taped interviews which followed a semi-structured interview guide and notes on the impressions of the interviewers which were taken during peer debriefing sessions (Regehr, 2005). Using interviews for data collection has the advantage of focusing on human experiences and emotions regarding the problem.Moreover, the use of semi-structured interviews in this case served a dual purpose viz. ensuring standardization of the responses, which facilitates organization and interpretation of the results, and providing opportunity for the expl oration of arenas other than those limited to and specified in the interview guide. A limitation of the description of the data collection strategies for this study is that the particular questions and themes addressed during the interview are not mentioned explicitly and the article only mentions the broad categories to which the questions belonged, e.g. family situation, the effects of shift work, etc (Regehr, 2005). This has the potential for leaving the readers in doubt as to which issues are being addressed and which ones are being focused upon in particular. Moreover, the time required for each interview is not mentioned, neither is the setting in which the interview was conducted. The article also fails to mention how many interviewers were involved in the data collection process and the steps taken, if any, to reduce the variations in data collection amongst different interviewers and to minimize interviewer bias.Data Analysis Strategies The data thereby collected via the in terviews was initially analyzed for common themes using computer based software named NUD*IST Vivo. As described by the author, open coding was utilized in the first stage for the broad categorization of data and subsequently, selective coding was done (Regehr, 2005). The author also mentions that throughout the research process, the input of emergency service organization members was acquired in order to ensure transferability and conformability (Regehr, 2005).The data analysis section of this article is very brief and not enough information is presented for readers to replicate the methodology. The author does not mention the use of any particular data analysis strategies such as iterative analysis and data triangulation. Thus, the data analysis described by author, although possesses credibility, lacks in auditability. Results and Important Findings For qualitative studies, the results need to be extensively discussed and should include actual quotes and statements of the study p articipants to give a clear view of the outcome of the study to the readers (Parahoo).The results section of this article is very comprehensive and gives a clear overview of the study findings. By organization of the results obtained under different subheadings such as concerns about the dangers of the job, effect of stress and trauma on the paramedic and the family, etc, the results have been made clear and easily interpretable by the readers (Regehr, 2005). Moreover, the use of actual quotes of the study participants gives a clearer view of and provides a better understanding of the participant’s experiences and feelings.The results reveal that the author’s conceptualization and the theoretical framework presented initially were true to the data and the findings obtained. This study, in addition to describing the traumatic experiences and stressful situations faced by the paramedics and their effects on their lives and functioning which have also been previously eluc idated by various studies, also provides an insight to the hassles which paramedics and their families encounter (Regehr, 2005).As described in the results, these include shift work, overwork, scheduling issues and equipment and personnel issues (Regehr, 2005). The recognition of these hassles is also important in addition to identifying the consequences of traumatic and stressful experiences on family life as these hassles also contribute significantly towards the disruption of normal family routines and may give rise to conflicts and discontent amongst spouses.In addition, in my opinion, the use of easy language in presenting the results adopted by the author facilitates the understanding of the readers and stimulates their interest in the article. Thus, the results section of this article effectively and comprehensively summarizes the main findings of the study conducted and presents them in an interesting, coherent and simple manner. Discussion, recommendations and conclusions T he discussion section is, in effect, an integration of all the subsections of the article which leads to the generation of a concluding statement (Parahoo, 2006).This section is aimed at linking the themes discussed in the introduction and background section of the study, the literature review and the important results generated (Parahoo, 2006). In this article, the discussion overviews all the important results and pertinent findings and compares them with the research which has been previously conducted. Almost all of the findings of this study conform to the findings generated by previously conducted studies. One limitation of the discussion is that the author does not report any conflicting results reported by previously conducted studies, if they exist.Providing different points of view that exist regarding a particular matter helps in improving the reader’s perspective of the subject and aids them in forming their views and opinions regarding a particular matter. Anothe r important component of the discussion is the identification of issues which require further research. In this article, the author correctly identifies the shortcomings of the study, where they exist and identify potential areas for future research. For example, this study identifies two main coping strategies which paramedics use in the face of traumatic experiences, viz.expressing their distress and anguish via debriefing with family members or keeping their issues o themselves and â€Å"putting up a wall (Regehr, 2005). † This study, although identifies these issues, cannot investigate further in to which of these strategies is more effective in coping with the stress that paramedics experience. The author hence recommends that further studies should be conducted in this regard in order to further explore this arena. Similarly, since the results of this study are generalizable to a particular subset of population only i. e.the spouses of paramedics, another recommendation proposed by the author is to conduct studies similar to this one involving participants belonging to other professions in which emotional management for dealing with traumatic experiences is required such as amongst firefighters, police and military personnel (Regehr, 2005). This study also identifies that formal and informal support systems did exist in the emergency medical service organization and were being underutilized. Moreover, no similar support systems existed for family members of the paramedics (Regehr, 2005).The author, although identifies this issue, does not suggest any measures which can be taken to overcome the problem that this issue poses. Moreover, the implications of this research and the findings of this study in everyday clinical practice and for paramedics and their spouses have not been addressed by the author. All the above discussed sections of a research articles lead towards the conclusion section of the article. The conclusions are meant to answer the questions raised and the objectives that were defined prior to conducting the study.They are also meant to summarize the important results generated from the study. The conclusions presented in this article serve all these purposes and briefly summarize and reflect the study findings. Ethical Issues As opposed to quantitative studies, observational and qualitative studies do not involve any intervention on the part of the researchers. Despite this, acquisition of ethical approval before conducting qualitative studies is as imperative as it is while undertaking quantitative studies.In this study, the author does not mention taking ethical approval for conducting this study by the hospital ethical review boards of either of the two emergency medical organizations from which paramedics were identified for their spouses to be recruited in the study. Moreover, the article does not mention taking informed consent from the participants of the study. Informed consent is one of the most impo rtant basic principles of research and should always be obtained prior to recruiting participants for any study.Another important ethical aspect which is not addressed in this study is that this study identifies several issues such as the problems faced by paramedics and their families as a result of job-related mental trauma, the underutilization of available support systems by the paramedics and the absence of the availability of any similar support systems for the spouses and families (Regehr, 2005). However, after identifying these issues, the author does not propose any interventions which might be useful in order to overcome these issues or the probable solutions for the problems identified.References Blakely, M. R. , & Timmons, S. M. (2008). Life Style and Health Research. Nova Publishers. Figley, C. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Towards a new understanding of the costs of caring. In B. 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