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Recommended: Spanish flu epidemic 1918
Influenza
Influenza, normally called “the flu”, the influenza virus causes an infection in the respiration tract. Even though the influenza virus can sometimes be compared with the common cold. It also can cause a more severe illness or death. During this past century, pandemics took place in 1918, 1957, and 1968, in all of these cases there where unfortunately many deaths. The “Spanish flu” in 1918, killed approximately half a million people in the United States alone. It killed around 20 million worldwide. The “Asian flu” in 1957, in the United States their 70,000 people died. In 1968 the “Hong-Kong flu” There where 34,000 deaths in the United States.
The emergence of the “Hong-Kong flu” marked the beginning of the of the strand type A (H3N2) era Different strands of the same virus caused all these outbreaks of influenza. When this virus first emerged. It was associated with fewer deaths than caused by the two previous pandemic viruses that I mentioned. There are a few reasons for the hemagglutinin changed from the “Asian flu” strain. The neuraminidase stayed the same. Well the only explanation would be that people affected with the A (H2N2) strain (“Asian flu”), Built up immunity to the “Hong-Kong flu”.
The influenza virus depending on the severity usually includes: fever (around 100 F to 103 F), cough, sore throat, headache, stuffy and running nose, muscle soreness and fatigue....
...influenza pandemic in one way or another; the use of quarantines were extremely prevalent among them. Also, the pandemic is directly responsible for the creation of many health organizations across the globe. The organizations help track and research illnesses across the globe. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for example, strive to prevent epidemics and pandemics. They also provide a governing body with directives to follow in case an outbreak does occur, and if one shall occur the efforts of organizations across the globe will be crucial for its containment. It is amazing that with modern medicine and proper organization that influenza still manages to make its appearance across the globe annually.
Thomas Bender reminds us in his book A Nation Among Nations, to search for all of the information before we make a decision on the history we have written. American or U.S. history cannot be understood completely without putting it into a global context first. Two documents we can draw information from that would support Bender’s thesis are the Virginia Slave Codes enacted in 1705 and The Barbados Slave Code written in 1688. These two documents bring perspective to the strides that were made toward slavery and how they affected America. The slavery that ran throughout the world began as common practice then was later made law.
Nurses are able to reflect upon their past experiences of work and build and improve this ensuring their level of competence and skills is in line with NMC guidelines. Improving the quality of care provided to patients is an ongoing process and requires practitioners to contently reflect and improve their practice. (Howatson-Jones, 2013) One way in which reflection can improve the quality of care is through the use of professional supervision, as stated by (Daly, Speedy and Jackson, 2014) a focus for supervision should be enhancing a nurse’s skills and ability to reflect on practice. It should reflect on the standard of care provided and highlight areas for improvement such as further training. This, in turn, leads to a greater self-awareness of practitioners’ own abilities. The process is not about finding faults, but to improve and learn to ensure the quality of care is high and professional for all patients. Being self-aware is a skill important to reflection and the provision of quality of
A few years before 1918, in the height of the First World War, a calamity occurred that stripped the globe of at least 50 million lives. (Taubenberger, 1918) This calamity was not the death toll of the war; albeit, some individuals may argue the globalization associated with the First World War perpetuated the persistence of this calamity. This calamity was referred to the Spanish Flu of 1918, but calling this devastating pestilence the “Spanish Flu” may be a historical inaccuracy, as research and historians suggest that the likelihood of this disease originating in Spain seams greatly improbable. Despite it’s misnomer, the Spanish Flu, or its virus name H1N1, still swept across the globe passing from human to human by exhaled drops of water that contained a deadly strand of RNA wrapped with a protein casing. Individuals who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with the contents of the protein casing generally developed severe respiratory inflammation, as the Immune system’s own response towards the infected lung cells would destroy much of the lungs, thus causing the lungs to flood with fluids. Due to this flooding, pneumonia was a common cause of death for those infected with Spanish Flu. Due its genetic similarity with Avian Flu, the Spanish Flu is thought to be descended from Avian Flu which is commonly known as “Bird Flu.” (Billings,1997) The Spanish Flu of 1918 has had a larger impact in terms of global significance than any other disease has had because it was the most deadly, easily transmitted across the entire globe, and occurred in an ideal time period for a disease to happen.
The purpose of this Reflective assignment is to demonstrate how the application of the Registered Nurses standards for practise (2016) can be used in reflective practise. The Registered Nurses standards of Practise (2016) states that RN’s should develop their practise through reflecting on experiences, knowledge, actions, their feelings and beliefs and recognise how these factors shape professional practise(RNSP, 1.2).Reflection allows individuals to look back on their day-to-day situations and how they made us react and feel; what we would change if we had the chance, to create a different outcome; and what we would do next time to enhance the way we conduct ourselves in a professional manner.
Burns, S. Bulman, C. Palmer, A. (1997) Reflective Practice in Nursing - The growth of the professional practitioner. London: Blackwell Science.
Reflection has its importance in clinical practice; we always seek to be successful and that can be achieved by learning every day of our life through experiences we encounter. In that way we can reconsider and rethink our previous knowledge and add new learning to our knowledge base so as to inform our practice. Learning new skills does not stop upon qualifying; this should become second nature to thinking professionals as they continue their professional development throughout their careers (Jasper, 2006). According to Rolfe et al. (2001), reflection does not merely add to our knowledge, it also challenges the concepts and theories by which we try to make sense of that knowledge. Acquiring knowledge through reflection is modern way of learning from practice that can be traced back at least to the 1930s and the work of John Dewey, an American philosopher and educator who was the instigator of what might be called ''discovery learning'' or learning from experience. He claimed that we learn by doing and that appreciating what results from what we do leads to a process of developing knowledge, the nature and importance of which then we must seek to interpret (Rolfe et al., 2001).
“Seasonal Influenza-Associated Hospitalization in the United States.” USA.gov, 24 June 2011. Web. 31 Jan. 2012
Middleton, J. (2004). A Practical To Promote Reflective Practice Within Nursing .Retrieved March 31, 2004 from www.nursingtimes.net.
The ability to become reflective in practice has become a necessary skill for health professionals. This is to ensure that health professionals are continuing with their daily learning and improving their practice. Reflective practice plays a big part in healthcare today and is becoming increasingly noticed.
Definitions of reflection vary depending on the discipline of the author. Having reviewed the literature, Bulman (2008, p.2), a nurse, defines it as “reviewing an experience from practice so that it may be described, analysed, evaluated and used to inform and change future practice”. It is a personal process requiring honesty, openness, self-awareness, courage and a willingness to act on criticism. It acknowledges that feelings and emotions influence actions. Critical reflection involves in depth examination and questioning of personal, social, historical, cultural and political assumptions and perspectives that are embedded in actions. It is an active process enabling one to make sense of events, situations and actions that occur in the workplace (Oelofsen, 2012). It transforms a situation in which there is confusion and doubt to one that is clear and coherent (Dewey, 2010).
The term reflection means the examination of personal thoughts and actions. For nurses this means focusing on how they interact with their colleagues and with the environment to obtain a clearer picture of their own behaviour. This means it is a process in which a nurse can better understand themselves in order to be able to build on existing strengths and take appropriate future action (Somerville, 2004). Reflection is a way to bring your own intuition along with empirical knowledge together. Reflective practice in nursing is guided by models of reflection. Reflective practice model serves as a framework within which nursing or other management professions can work. Reflective practice model is also a structural framework or learning model that serves the purposes of a profession and is particularly applicable to health related professions. Reflective practice enables practitioners to learn to value themselves as significant people with values and feelings that are important factors in giving care. Whilst reflective practice allows the nurse to recognise the value of their experiences, they may also need support to work through a difficult situation. This is where reflection aids nurses in dealing with these challenging experiences (Johns, 1995). Reflection on experience offers nurses the opportunity to reflect on caring in practice in ways that its nature can be understood, where the skills necessary for effective caring can be developed and most significantly, where the values of caring for people can be highlighted, both to the individual nurse and the world in general (Johns 1996)
Reflective practice is a process of thinking and critically analysing one’s experience to improve professional practice. Reflection on nursing situations not only promote the nurse’s professional development but also improve the quality of nursing care to patients (Gustafsson & Fagerberg 2004). According to Dolphin (2013), reflection process consists of systematic appraisal of events and examination of its each component to learn from the experience to influence the future practice. Though there are many models available to structure the reflection, I have chosen Gibbs model (1988) as it follows specific steps in a systematic way in reflection process. And also, this model emphasises the role of emotions and acknowledges the importance of emotions in the reflection process. This is a simple framework and this assignment will follow the headings as per this model. The incident I will be reflecting
Taylor B (2004). Reflective practice: A guide for nurses and midwifes. Maidenhead: Open University Press
Reflection is not something new; it has been used for years. According to the article “Exploring reflective thinking in nursing practice” publish...