Assignment: Examination of Harmful Thinking

Estimated time to complete: 8 Hours

Instructions:

To complete this assignment you will need to have watched the video within the Unit 1 content titled, “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story.” Once you have viewed this video follow the instructions that follow.

For your first assignment in this class, please choose one question from each of the question sets below and respond to it. Each response must be at least 200 words and must demonstrate your own understanding of Adichies ideas. Please make sure that ideas are in your words as much as possible. A good rule of thumb is that any quotations used should be very short, and that for any one line of quoted text, there are at least five lines of your own. The goal of this assignment is to measure your own understanding of Adichies ideas, to see how you interpret these ideas yourself, and to connect these ideas to your own understanding.

Please include all questions in a single word document. You will submit this assignment through the assignment tab.

Question 1:

According to Adichie, why is a single story about a person or place dangerous? What is her reasoning, and what examples does she offer for her thinking?

How does Adichie experience the dangers of a single story in her own life? Specifically, how does she experience herself as being on the receiving end of a single story, and how does she find herself perpetuating single stories as well? (Consider her single story of poverty about Fide, her U.S. roommates single story about Africa patronizing, well-meaning pity filled with preconceived notions about catastrophe on the continent, and Adichies own single story about Mexico with the “abject immigrant.)

Adichie says that power is the ability to tell the definitive story of another person: Why does she think that this is so? What kinds of examples does she use to make this point? (Media, literature, leaders, etc.)

Question 2:

For each statement, please offer an interpretation of it in your own words. Consider what the statement means, what you think of it, and whether you agree with the statement or not. Be sure to explain why you think what you do.

About her experiences, Adichie says: All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. Please explain this idea in your own words, say whether or not you agree with it, and use an example to illustrate your point.

The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar. Please explain this idea in your own words, say whether or not you agree with it, and use an example to illustrate your point.

Adichie notes how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children. Please explain this idea in your own words, say whether or not you agree with it, and use an example to illustrate your point.

Adichie says that a single story is created by show[ing] people as one thing, only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become. Please explain this idea in your own words, say whether or not you agree with it, and use an example to illustrate your point.

Question 3:

Connect Adichies ideas whether you agree with them or not to your own experiences.

Consider a time in your life when you thought or felt like someone had a single story about you: What was this experience like? How did it happen? What did it make you feel like? How did you respond to this single narrative?

Consider a time in your life when you thought or felt like you had a single story about someone else or a group of people: What caused this single story? Were there multiple factors, or just one thing? Do you still have this one narrative about this person or group of people? If not, what changed your perspective?

Stereotypes are often formed through single stories. (See #4 question.) Often (but not always), relatively powerful people or groups of people perpetuate these stereotypes over other people, cultures, countries, etc. You may have heard the statement that history is told by the winners, or some variation thereof. Consider: What role does power play in forming stereotypes? What kinds of stereotypes – of groups of people, or places – do you know of, and how do you think these stereotypes came to be what they are?

Question 4:

What reasons does Adichie give for her ambivalent feelings about categories? Why do you think she nonetheless identifies, however, with her background, gender, and other features?

Think about Adichies struggle in relation to your own life: Can you relate to her struggle, be it in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or other aspects? How do you see other people (celebrities, writers, friends, leaders, etc.) experience this tension?

Support all thoughts and opinions with several relevant and credible resources cited in APA format.

Overview

Write 8-10 pages in which you identify a major patient-safety issue within your own organization and use evidence-based best practices and technology to develop a plan to improve the safety issue.

Quality improvement and patient safety are central to the nursing leadership role.

SHOW LESS

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 2: Safety and Quality Practices – Incorporate concepts of patient safety, clinical management, and quality improvement to improve patient outcomes.
  • Describe a patient safety issue and compare currently used organizational processes for handling this issue with concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.
• Competency 3: Nursing Research and Informatics – Incorporate evidence-based practice interventions (for example, information systems and patient care technologies) as appropriate for managing the acute and chronic care of patients, promoting health across the lifespan.
  • Recommend evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address specific patient-safety issues.
• Competency 4: Policy, Finance, and Regulations – Understand the scope and role of policy, finance, and regulatory environments in relationship to individual and population outcomes.
  • Analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues.
• Competency 5: Communication – Communicate effectively with all members of the health care team, including interdepartmental and interdisciplinary collaboration for quality outcomes.
  • Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate APA format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.
• Competency 6: Organizational and Systems Management – Apply knowledge of organizational behavior, nursing theory, and systems (micro- and macro-) as appropriate for the scope and role of one’s own practice.
  • Describe strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change.

  Context

  Central to the nursing leadership role, quality improvement and patient safety are analyzed from many perspectives. Types of quality improvement and patient safety programs may range from internal, organization-based quality improvement team reports to external benchmarks from The Joint Commission, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), MAGNET, and numerous other organizations.SHOW LESS

  A landmark 2001 publication by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified the imperative to focus on quality care and patient safety. The initiative to create cultures of patient safety and quality care remain at the forefront of the health care leadership landscape. As a future nursing leader, you must understand the components and use of effective tools for successful quality improvement programs within your practice setting.

  In this program, you have also examined the application of research and information technology in the nursing profession. Information systems and patient-care technologies have contributed in many ways to improved patient outcomes; however, safeguards, secure practices, and ethical standards are necessary to promote and support data security, patient confidentiality, and regulatory requirements. You have also investigated the effective use of patient-care technologies, communication systems, and information systems across the health-illness continuum.

• Assessment Instructions

  Preparation

  As you prepare for this assessment, complete the following:

  1. Before you begin, examine your organization’s history of safety in a specific area and how your organization addresses patient safety issues. If possible, consult with a key stakeholder in the organization (such as an administrator) to better understand specific patient-safety concerns and how the organization is working to resolve the concerns. This person should also be able to discuss some of the organizational barriers impacting the patient safety issue.
  2. Next, look at the basic concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to organizational quality improvement and patient safety. Review the literature for best practices and how technology might be used to improve the issue.
  3. Finally, be sure to consider the legal and ethical implications associated with the safety issue, as well as possible organizational barriers to change.

  Directions

  As you construct this assessment, address each point as completely as possible:

  • Describe a patient-safety issue within your organization, comparing the way your organization addresses the issue with the concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.
  • Analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing the issue.
  • Recommend evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address the patient-safety issue.
  • Describe strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change, based on your knowledge of the organization.

  Additional Requirements

  • Format: Include a title page and reference page. Use APA style and formatting.
  • Length: Ensure your completed assessment is 8–10 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page.
  • References: Cite at least five current scholarly or professional resources.
  • Font: Use double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font.

  Safety, Quality, and Informatics Scoring Guide

  CRITERIA	NON-PERFORMANCE	BASIC	PROFICIENT	DISTINGUISHED
  Describe a patient safety issue and compare currently used organizational processes for handling this issue with concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.	Does not describe a patient safety issue and compare currently used organizational processes for handling this issue with concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.	Identifies but does not describe a patient-safety issue and currently used organizational processes for handling patient safety issues with concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.	Describes a patient safety issue and compare currently used organizational processes for handling this issue with concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.	Describes a patient-safety issue and explores likely causes of the issue while evaluating currently used organizational processes for handling patient safety issues in terms of the evidence-based concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.
  Analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues.	Does not analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues.	Describes the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues.	Analyzes the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues.	Analyzes the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues and describes the impact on the organization from a financial and regulatory perspective.
  Recommend evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address specific patient-safety issues.	Does not recommend evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address specific patient-safety issues	Identifies interventions, including technology, to address specific patient-safety issues but does not provide evidence to support the interventions.	Recommends evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address specific patient-safety issues	Evaluates evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address specific patient-safety issues to determine the most appropriate intervention for the organization and the safety issue.
  Describe strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change.	Does not describe strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change.	Lists strategies to overcome organizational barriers to change, but the strategies are not specific to the organization.	Describes strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change.	Analyzes the most effective strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change.
  Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate APA format, with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.	Writing does not support a central idea in appropriate APA format. Does not use correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.	Writing supports an idea. APA format is inconsistent, with major errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics.	Writing coherently supports a central idea in appropriate APA format and with few errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics.	Writing is coherent, using evidence to support a central idea in a consistently appropriate APA format, with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.

Deliverable Length- 6-8 pages (not including title and reference page)

Administrators must continuously seek opportunities to increase the profitability of their practice or facility. Throughout this course, you will develop a plan to integrate a current and emerging trend in health care in your organization. You will be preparing components of your Executive Summary to integrate a current or emerging solution into your organization. The Executive Summary will include the following:

• Week 1: Topic Research/Selection and Literature Review
• Week 2: Organizational Assessment
• Week 3: Project Plan
• Week 4: Implementation Plan
• Week 5: Evaluation Plan

Week 1: Topic Research/Selection and Literature Review

Part 1: Topic Research and Selection

Begin this process by researching what health care organizations are doing or attempting to do to increase profitability. Remember, profitability can be improved from many different angles. A nonexclusive list of potential ways would be adding additional services, decreasing costs, increasing the amount of services that are provided, or implementing a quality improvement program that qualifies for incentive monies. Check trade journals or professional discussion boards, or reach out to existing health care managers.

Part 2: Literature Review

Perform a literature review of the solution that you have decided to apply to your organization. The review will encompass several articles, and at least 1 of the articles must be peer-reviewed. Look at current material (within the last 2 years). Remember, a literature review includes a summary of the information that you found that is relevant to your topic as well as an APA reference for each resource that you reviewed.

Identifying what topic to perform research on should be accomplished quickly because you will need sufficient time to perform your literature review. Review a minimum of 10 documents. The review should be between 6-8 pages, not including the bibliography. Use APA format.

Lesson 5 – Communication

STEP ONE:

ASSIGNED READING: Read Chapters 9, 10 and 11 of The New Art of Managing People: Person-to-Person Skills, Guidelines, and Techniques Every Manager Needs to Guide, Direct, and Motivate the Team (Alessandra, 2008).

STEP TWO:

Interpersonal communication includes much more than just exchanging words. All behavior conveys some message and is a form of communication perceived by others. Because two people interacting with each other have a continuous effect on each other’s perceptions and expectations of what the other is going to do, interpersonal communication can be defined broadly as any verbal or nonverbal behavior that is perceived by another person (Alessandra, 2008).

Alessandra, Tony. The New Art of Managing People: Person-to-Person Skills, Guidelines, and Techniques Every Manager Needs to Guide, Direct, and Motivate the Team (p. 149). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

1) Compose a paper that addresses the following:

A) Based on the information contained in Chapters 9, 10 and 11, evaluate your effectiveness as a communicator. In doing so, please address the interpersonal communication process, message clarity, credibility, listening, and body language.

Please provide detailed support for your positions.

The paper should consist of a minimum of two pages, double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12 point font. The paper should include an introduction, body, and conclusion. The paper should respond to all questions presented; exhibit critical thinking skills and incorporate course content. Please be sure to provide substantive responses to receive maximum credit for this assignment. In addition, be cognizant of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. All sources should be cited in proper APA format (in-text citations and a reference list). This assignment is due on Sunday at 11:59 pm EST. All assignments submitted after the deadline will be subject to a penalty in accordance with University Policy as described in the Course Announcement entitled “PAST DUE ASSIGNMENTS AND PENALTIES”.