How may the teacher encourage more learner involvement in the lesson Essay

How may the teacher encourage more learner involvement in the lesson - Essay Example We shall review some language acquisition theories and chiefly the factors that affect language learning in the classroom. These factors are internal, like the personality of the learner, his motivation to learn the TL, and his aptitude for language learning. External factors like the curriculum, its relevance to the learner and the learning strategies will also be studied. Finally, we will study classroom interaction between various aspects and try to conclude what can be the ways of increasing learner involvement in the classroom. Classroom is an essential element of the formal system of education. Individuals learn many things outside the classroom. But the classroom is a place where optimal efforts are made to utilize every moment of the teaching session fruitfully. Books, teaching aids, methods and content are specially prepared according to learner needs. The aim is to achieve maximum positive results in minimum time. A language class is different. Language may be taught as a special subject. But language is a tool that enables students to approach other subjects and also to communicate with others. Language is skill based more than theory. Language learning is a life-long, eternal process. So what is the function of a second language classroom? Quite simply, the role of second language classroom is to bring a student to a point where he can begin to use the outside world for further second language acquisition. The language classroom can provide the students with enough comprehensible input to bring their second language competence to the point where they can begin to understand language heard outside, read independently and participate in conversations. Since they will be less than fully competent, it will be necessary to provide them with tools for encouraging and regulating input. In other words, all second language classes are transitional and no second language class can be expected to do t he entire job. Second language classes are best

High school Essay Example for Free

High school Essay The dwindling quality of education in Nigeria is a cause for great concern and also calls for a prompt action by all stakeholders to salvage the trend. The current situation is, to say the least, disheartening. A lot of computer science graduates of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, for instance, fail recruitment tests for their inability to switch on a PC. Some of them are obviously getting to touch such machines for the first time. Mass Communication graduates struggle to make simple and correct sentences. Engineering graduates who ought to have conducted researches in the course of their studies, culminating in inventions, get to touch most of the elementary engineering tools for the first time, after their graduation. This is a near hopeless situation for a country that targets to be one of the world’s leading economies by 2020. The implication of the existing trend is that even though there is a high graduate unemployment rate, most of the university and polytechnic graduates in Nigeria are not employable. The loss of confidence in Nigeria’s education system is evident in the amount of money that Nigerians who can afford it, spend on their education in other countries. According to Exam Ethics International, a non-governmental organisation, Nigeria loses N1. 5 trillion annually to education tourism. N160 billion of this amount is allegedly spent by Nigerian parents on their children and wards’ education in Ghana alone while N80 billion is spent on the same purpose in the United Kingdom. President Goodluck Jonathan should be commended for allocating the highest budget to the education sector in the 2013 budget. However, there are other issues that require urgent attention. The emphasis on paper qualification and theoretical knowledge at the expense of competence or practical knowledge and entrepreneurial skills is a big challenge to the sector. The result is that most products of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are mere certificate carriers and are not qualified to be addressed as university or polytechnic graduates. It is the combination of the ineffective education system and the decreasing white collar job opportunities that have further compounded the nation’s unemployment problem. The diminishing quality of education in Nigeria is indeed, disturbing. Literacy is a human right recognised in the Universal Declaration of Rights and it goes beyond the mere skill of reading and writing. It is a process of transformation that empowers the individual, broadens his critical thinking and provides such individual with the ability to act. The much emphasis on paper qualification has however encouraged fraudulent acquisition of highly graded certificates at the expense of true knowledge acquisition. Some students go to the extent of bribing lecturers or having sex with them to obtain high grades. Government agencies and private organisations further endorse emphasis on paper qualification above competence and skill by discriminating between a polytechnic and a university graduate. This trend has to change. If Nigeria must move at the anticipated economic growth rate, then, the country must learn from great examples like China which derived the strength of its speedy economic development from skills acquisition and technical education. Giving more focus to the development of technical education and skills acquisition will also complement the targeted provision of regular power supply across the country and drastically, reduce unemployment rate. Objectives of the Universal Basic Education Scheme, the 6-3-3-4 Senior Secondary School Education system and some other education policy initiatives have not been achieved. As a matter of fact, Nigeria has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. According to the United Nations’ Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 775 million people are still considered non-literates and 85 per cent live in 41 countries including Nigeria. About 40 million adults in Nigeria are illiterates and overall illiteracy rate is near 57 per cent. Only about 500,000 people are reportedly enrolled in adult literacy classes nationwide and this translates to one out of every 80 illiterates. The United States Agency for International Development reports that there are 30 million primary school age children in Nigeria but estimated 10 million are not enrolled in school. Government should therefore, demonstrate the needed seriousness in addressing the prevalent low literacy level and give more attention to the quality of education while working to widen access to primary education. Federal, state and local governments across Nigeria should wake up to their responsibilities in providing qualitative primary, secondary and tertiary education to citizens of Nigeria. Parents also have a role to play in managing the negative impact of modern technology on their children’s academic performances. For instance, research shows that the habit of abbreviation and deliberate use of wrong spellings for sending text messages contributed to the high failures in English language, recorded at the Senior Secondary School Examination and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in recent years. Twitter and Facebook fun chat sessions are also addictive and minimise study concentration levels for many students. Both government and private owners of educational institutions should ensure that the required infrastructure for learning is adequately provided. The welfare of all categories of school teachers must equally be given adequate attention. This is one way of discouraging lecturers from yielding to the temptation to receive bribes or sleep with students in order to award them high scores, thereby leaving them in a state of intellectual emptiness. There are other challenges facing Nigeria’s education sector such as inadequate funding, labour unrest and brain drain. Therefore, all efforts must be made by the federal and state governments to avoid unnecessary labour unrest that keeps students of both federal and state tertiary institutions at home for long periods of time. In most cases, this poses a big distraction to the students who after leaving the academic community for too long a time to mingle with non-academically inclined peers, begin to lose interest in academics and academic activities. Besides, it makes education far more expensive for students, especially those on self sponsorship. The federal character clause in the 1999 Constitution should also be reviewed because it is one of the factors working against the quality of the nation’s education system. For instance, the federal character principle makes it difficult for most of the tertiary institutions to recruit fresh quality PhD holders as lecturers. Qualified applicants are rejected for some factor like state of origin. Professors and other categories of lecturers are also constantly retiring without replacements. These anomalies are really worrisome and all stakeholders must do something urgently. Personally, and without mincing words, there is no problem with either the old system or the new system but the problem lies in the administration and management of the Nigerian educational system. A look at recent trend with the rate of passage in national examinations, the education system has collapsed. Unfortunately, policymakers are not paying attention to that; rather, the policymakers are just making policies that will not help the system. Whether, it 6-5-4, 6-3-3-4, 9-3-4 or any other system the educational system in Nigeria have been caught in the web of inefficiency which is characteristic of the present day Nigeria. The justification being advanced by government and its agencies on the reason for the change is laughable. Education is the process by which an individual is encouraged and enabled to fully develop his or her potential; it may also serve the purpose of equipping, bringing up, training and rearing the individual to be a productive member of the society. People oriented governments achieve these objectives through a conscious and purposeful driven policies aimed at developing the potentials of her citizenry by equipping schools, employment of qualified manpower, upgrading of educational infrastructures in line with world standards etc. However, in Nigeria, we are still debating the appropriateness of the system to adopt in this 21st century. It leaves one to ponder where this country is heading towards. From the analysis you have given so far, what do you think are the problems? A cursory look at the Nigerian educational system shows that the system is faced with a number of problems. The Nigerian educational system has a history of failure because of politics. The appointment of education ministers and key positions in the educational sector are not done on merits rather on party affiliations, tribe and friendship. The effect of such appointments is what we are witnessing in Nigeria now. We take things for granted in this country and everything to us is business. Capable personnel that should be at the helm of affairs in the education sector are sacrificed for party loyalty and selfishness. This is one intractable problem in the education system. Indiscipline manifests in such areas as examination malpractices and secret cultism, unprotected sex, unwanted pregnancies, bribery and corruption. Crises in the universities have led to brain-drain syndrome. Potential teachers shy away from academics in search of greener pastures in other sectors of the Nigerian economy or outside the country. If this trend is not checked through improved working conditions for academicians and appeals to their patriotic spirit, the result could be disastrous for the country. The managers of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria are in consensus that these institutions are grossly under-funded. Evidence exists on the degree of dilapidation that characterises primary and secondary school buildings in parts of the country; the non-payment of teachers salaries and allowances as a result of which strikes are the order of the day; the lack of necessary teaching and  learning materials at all levels of the educational system; poor working conditions of all teachers in the country, among other factors have led to the death of the Nigerian educational system. The education sector is poorly funded. Teachers are not paid their salaries on time. The teachers who are supposed to implement the curriculum and give it their best shot are all distracted looking for money to survive. There is no effective system in the country for training good teachers at the nursery/primary and secondary school levels, teachers who are attuned to the demands of human resource capacity in the age of globalisation. A weak primary education system automatically produces weak students for the secondary schools, which are no better either, and so the chain of mediocrity continues up to the higher education level and the cycle completes itself with the same garbage fed back into society with serious implications for national competitiveness and productivity. We are all witnesses to the unnecessary changes in government policies concerning the educational sector. The frequent changes in the system do not allow for consistency thus the basis for measurement and benchmarking for corrective measures cannot be achieved. The management of the educational sector in Nigeria is so inconsistent with every new minister of education trying to introduce something new, without any rigorous study of the situation. The implication is a sector that lacks direction. It is partly this confusion in government policies that has compelled many middle class families to patronise American, British and Turkish-style educational institutions which are all available in Nigeria. Another major problem facing the Nigerian educational system is lack of interface between the various coordinating government agencies. The authorities responsible for the supervision of primary, secondary and tertiary education work in isolation. It could be argued that the ministry of education is the coordinating ministry. However, we have seen a situation where Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC officials are not coordinating with SUBEP. West African Certificate Examination, WACE is an autonomous body; Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, JAMB also has its own mandate. What do you think is the solution to the problems? As stated earlier, the problem is not in the system of education, the problem lies in the administration and management of the Nigerian education system. There must be political will on the part of government to formulate and implement policies that enhances the growth of the Nigerian educational system. We must not pay lip service to the problem, but a conscious and radical approach must as a matter of urgency, be adopted to address the failure currently observed in this sector. As a matter of fact, the government should declare a state of emergency on the educational system. This is necessary if the schools should produce the next generation of leaders. Coordinating ministries, agencies and parastatals must as a matter of urgency interface with one another. Products of primary schools naturally progress to secondary schools and this set of students ultimately enters the university. Therefore, there must be a way of ensuring that the coordinating agencies co-exist harmoniously and their objectives should be geared towards achieving a better standard of education in Nigeria. On the part of government, a blueprint on the way forward for the Nigerian education system should be formulated after a national conference on education, where all stakeholders are allowed to make an input. This blue-print when fully developed, should have a time frame. The time frame should be realistic and achievable and it should be a criminal offence for any person to deviate from the blueprint. Such a process will ensure consistency in administration of government policies which is a major problem facing the Nigerian education system. Consistency allows for benchmarking, monitoring and control. Proper funding of the education system is also a panacea to the problems observed in the Nigerian education system. A situation where the government budget on education is less than five percent of the total budget is appalling. Proper funding here involves allocating funds to areas that will improve the system, areas such as provision of computers to schools, rehabilitation of dilapidated school buildings, provision of conducive working environment for staff and enhanced welfare package for teachers etc should be pursued if the sector is to grow. The participation of the private sector in the Nigeria education system should also be encouraged and enhanced. There are private schools– primary, secondary and university that have facilities that are far better than most state schools. The owners of these schools are opening a window for the proper development of the Nigerian student. Lastly, for the Nigerian education system to grow, corruption must be expunged from the fabrics of Nigerians. Nigerians are so undisciplined such that they diverted major part of the resources meant for the education system to their personal accounts. We must fight corruption and indiscipline by ensuring that people are made to account for whatever is entrusted to them. Some people are of the view that the academic curriculum should be reviewed so that our tertiary education will be more skill-based. What is your take on this? There is no gainsaying that the tertiary education curriculum in Nigeria should be beefed up, making it more skill-based than what we have presently. I am in support of improved skill-based curriculum. A skill- based curriculum would assist to empower the graduate to become good entrepreneurs and self reliant after school. There are no jobs in Nigeria, even when they exist; it is only the fortunate ones that get it leaving others’ jobless. Therefore, in order to remain relevant the Nigerian graduate must be totally equipped with all the necessary skill to survive. Entrepreneurs tend to start ventures that build on specific skills they have already developed and knowledge they have already acquired in a certain occupation, industry or school. However, in Nigeria, tertiary school’s curriculum is not skill-based hence Nigerian students are not developed from schools to become entrepreneurs. Do you subscribe to the opinion that majority of Nigerian graduates are unemployable? The Nigerian graduate is a product of the society, and when the system is massed up; do we then expect any good thing to come out from them? Obviously, what a man sows so shall he reap. An unemployable person is someone that is not acceptable for employment. With all sincerity, majority of present day Nigerian graduates fit the above definition of an unemployable person. The decay in the Nigerian educational system could be blamed for this assertion. As earlier stated, the present day university curriculum is not programmed for skill-based graduates. Imagine a computer science or engineering graduate who cannot code in a simple programming language seeking the post of a software developer. How can such a person be employed by a serious software company? The solution is an inclusion in curriculum skill-based courses like most private universities are doing. This will help to address the problem. The attitude of most Nigerian graduates is appalling. They put up irresponsible attitudes in even their job search. No wonder, most firms require professional certificates for employment. It is believed that such professional bodies must have imbibed in the candidate some professional ethical standards. The desire to make it quick in life and at all cost by Nigerians makes most graduates to apply for positions they are not qualified for. If a job specification says they need a B. Sc degree holder in accounting with at least three years experience, and someone is applying for the same position with B. Sc degree in economics. The recruiter has a reason for what he or she is looking for; you will only succeed in annoying the recruiters, and he or she will throw you out. Another major reason for massive youth unemployment in Nigeria is that they are often times short on personal development. Most of us today are what we are not because the school gave us everything needed but we took out time to personally develop ourselves. The present day Nigerian graduate does not even think of personal enhancement and it is actually showing. Lack of information is also a major problem. Many graduates do not have access to vital information that could get them employed. Some people hear of vacancies after the deadline or don’t even get to hear at all. This is the major reason why the Nigerian graduate is unemployable. A situation where teachers collect bribe to pass student, students buying WACE results, parents paying JAMB officials, sorting of courses and lecturers demanding for sex from female students to pass exams. How then can you employ such graduates?

Without Consicence: The Disturbing World Of The Psychopaths Among Us :: Without Consicence

Without Consicence: Â  The Disturbing World Of The Psychopaths Among Us Robert D Hare is respected by his colleagues worldwide as an expert on psychopathy. He gained much of his insights as a Psychologist employed with CSC (Correctional Service of Canada) starting in the early 60's. At the present time he is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He and his students have interviewed hundreds of psychopathic offenders. This book is rich with transcripts of those interviews, giving gripping insights into what makes them "tick." This IS NOT a shallow pop psychology, "self help" book. It's no gory thriller with lurid prose either. It's a GENUINE self help book. It will verify suspicions you may have acquired from life experiences, that some few people who cross your path truly "have no real feelings or conscience" and are "relentless users," employing endless ways to manipulate others. They are driven to always be "in control". I know the kind. I've positively identified about five or ten of them in my 41 years and seen many others who "lean that way." Just as this book states and/or implies -- even if they live their whole lives never actually committing any horrible crime, you never "trust" them. You somehow "know" what they COULD do. Your gut instincts warn you they are opportunistic, "social predators" whose outward "normalcy" is only a "slick facade." You detest and/or mourn the gullibility and trusting attitude of too many who are consistently "used" by them. Most of them during their entire lives never BREAK the law, but they are second to none at knowing how to BEND and TWIST it to suit their purposes. You find out eventually by observing them long enough or by being victimized yourself, how crafty they are at maneuvering others to "fit into their plans." You come to the horrible conclusion that if they were allowed free rein, they would prove that they only feel "truly alive" if they can tell everyone who touches their lives what to do, when to do it, what to think and when to think it? I believe they're profoundly fearful cowards, literally "too scared" to ever discover love or respect. Their social relations only have one goal and one choice if they can't meet it -- "In some way, shape or form, I MUST dominate you, if I can't, we have NOTHING to do with each other".

Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections in Developing

Introduction: Developing countries are normally defined as those lacking the level of nationwide industrialization, infrastructure and technological advances normally found in Western Europe and North America. The vast majority of countries in Africa, Asia, Central & South America, Oceania and the Middle East fall in this developing category and often face addition challenges in terms of lower levels of literacy and standards of living. Nevertheless, within this broad group, there are various sub-categories, each having different characteristics as well as economic strengths.Indeed some are relatively wealthy oil exporting nations or newly industrializing world economies; a considerable number are middle income countries. At the end of the development scale lie around fifty very poor nations with predominantly agricultural economies, which tend to be heavily dependent on external aid. From a medical perspective, many developing countries are often characterised by significant health and hygiene issues. Indeed it has been estimated that more than 1 billion inhabitants in these countries do not have access to safe water and even less to basic sanitation (1).Around 1. 5 million children in the developing world die per year; diarrhoea is responsible for more than 80% of these deaths (2). One of the reasons for this state of affairs is the low expenditure and budgetary allocation within the poorer countries of the world towards health. Indeed the proportion of annual expenditure for health related initiatives in many developing countries is often less than 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), sometimes less than 0. 1% (3). Healthcare associated infections in developing countriesUnlike more affluent countries, infectious diseases continue to pose a heavy burden of morbidity as well as mortality in developing nations (4). Amongst the more important disease entities are a wide range of respiratory diseases including tuberculosis, various gastrointestinal infections, AID S and HIV plus a spate of parasitic infestations of which malaria is the most significant. However this situation is not limited to ambulatory settings and is equally relevant within healthcare institutions.Deficient infrastructures, rudimentary equipment and a poor quality of care contribute towards incidences of nosocomial infections which have been estimated to be between 2-6 times higher than those in developed nations (5). In many instances, such figures are often guesstimates because surveillance systems are often either non existent or else unreliable. However, the limited studies on prevalence of healthcare associated infections in some developing countries in the world suggest that up to 40% of these are probably preventable (5).This situation appears to particularly severe within intensive care settings where up to 60 to 90 infections per 1000 care-days have been reported; excess mortality rates in more severe infections such as blood stream and lower respiratory infection s approaches 25% in adults and more than 50% in neonates (6). The challenges of infection in healthcare facilities within developing nations is also of a wider spectrum than that normally found in equivalent hospitals in the western world.Numerous publications have highlighted the frequency by which normally community infections, such as cholera, measles and enteric pathogens, spread nosocomially within such institutions (7, 8). In many instances outbreaks are traceable to an index case who would have been inappropriately managed in a background of overcrowding and limited hospital hygiene. Similar cases of transmission have also been reported in the case of respiratory infections including measles (9).Tuberculosis transmission in healthcare facilities is a major occurrence in many African countries as well as parts of Asia and Latin America (10). In many instances this disease is strongly related to the rise of HIV within these same geographical regions and is not uncommonly compli cated by increasing prevalence of multi drug resistant mycobacteria. Blood borne infections are not restricted to HIV alone. Hepatitis B remains a major nosocomial pathogen in many hospitals within the developing world (11).More dramatic and life threatening have been outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fevers in institutions within several countries in the African continent (12). Hospitals are also liable to healthcare associated infection caused by more conventional pathogens which, just like in their western counterparts, can carry the additional burden of antimicrobial resistance (4). Unfortunately data on the prevalence of resistance in nosocomial pathogens is poorly documented in the developing world. However recent publications suggest that this may be even more common than in developed countries.Recent publications from the Mediterranean region have highlighted proportions of meticillin resistance Staphylococcus aureus to exceed 50% in several countries in the Middle East with r esistance to third generation cephalosporins in E. coli exceeding 70% in some participating hospitals (13). There may be diverse and often complex backgrounds to this epidemiological situation. Factors facilitating transmission and management of nosocomial infections The infrastructure of healthcare facilities in some of the poorer nations often lacks basic requirements for the prevention of transmission of infectious diseases.Inadequate or unsafe water supply together with lack of resources or equipment for affective environmental cleaning is often compounded by significant overcrowding due to inadequate beds to cope with demand (14). There is often lack of strategic direction as well as effective planning for healthcare delivery at both national as well as local levels. A functional sterilisation department is by no means a standard occurrence in every hospital, even in the larger urban institutions.Other areas of concern include poor awareness or knowledge about communicable dise ase transmission amongst healthcare workers and lack of commitment within senior management (15). This is particularly relevant in developing countries where nurses, doctors and patients are often unaware of the importance of infection control and its relevance to safe healthcare (16). Medical practitioners may have a tendency to be heavily committed towards individual patients and disinclined to think of them in groups, a concept which is the antithesis of basic infection prevention and control (17).They are often unaware of risks of nosocomial infections, attributing such possible developments to be natural or inevitable (18). On the other hand, nurses have more intimate contact with patients and are trained to take care of patients in groups. Although this increases the potential to serve as sources of cross-transmission, nurses are likely to more positive towards infection control policies. However this is hindered by the comparatively lower status offered to nurses in the devel oping world and also complicated by a gender bias in environments where emancipation of women has been slow.Attitudes of senior medical staff may further compound the problem through personality clashes, resistance to change or improvement as well as reluctance to work in tandem with other health professionals. Non existent litigation further accentuates lack of accountability at various levels. Furthermore, many patients have limited expectations, already regarding themselves fortunate to have any sort of institutional care and as a result accept a significant degree of morbidity as part of their hospital stay. It must be emphasised that even in the poorer countries, this set of circumstances is by no means universal in all hospitals.It is not uncommon that, even where most of the hospitals in a country lack all these basic requirements, individual institutions (often either private or NGO managed) would be in a position to offer healthcare as well as infection control standards of the highest quality. However it would only be a small minority of patients, often coming from a more affluent background, that would be able to benefit from them. The risks of infection in hospitals within the developing world are not only restricted to the patients who receive care within them.Occupational health is an equally low priority in many of these facilities and, as a result, it is not uncommon for healthcare workers to also be exposed and become infected by pathogens causing healthcare associated infections, including viral hepatitis, HIV and tuberculosis. In such limited resource environments and in situations where medical practice is biased towards intervention rather than prevention, it is not surprising that basic infection control programmes are often lacking, particularly in smaller hospitals in rural areas (18).Even within larger urban facilities, infection control teams, composed of both an infection control nurse as well as doctor, who have been trained and hav e managerial backup are very much in the minority. They are often restricted to academic institutions, heavily funded government or private tertiary care units. Even where present, these teams tend to encounter numerous logistical obstacles including lack administrative, clerical and IT support. Infection control output therefore tends to be significantly variable; policies and procedures are either absent or lack consultation, evidence base or suitable addressing f local needs. Healthcare professionals also face significant challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease (4). Diagnostic facilities are often lacking. Laboratories may be absent or limited as a result of inadequate resources of both a material as well as human resource nature. Trained laboratory scientists are very much in the minority whereas the implementation of quality control programs to ensure validity in the laboratory’s output is not viewed as a crucial.This situation is worsened by poss ible lack of confidence in the laboratory from clinicians who would prefer to undertake treatment blindly, based only on clinical judgement or recommendations from other countries rather than local epidemiology. One reason for this is the lack of feedback of local resistance data (20). This risks inappropriate treatment which would not properly cover local resistance prevalence patterns. Another major factor hindering the treatment of infectious disease is the presence of poor quality antimicrobials, even counterfeit, with little or no active ingredient within the formulation (21).Addressing the challenge It is therefore clear that in order to improve the effectiveness of infection control in many developing countries, a multifactorial set of initiatives needs to be undertaken that are both feasible as well as achievable in this background of economical and social deficits (15). It is essential that infection control teams increase their presence within hospitals in these regions. T hese key personnel must be provided with the necessary training as well as administrative support and facilities in order to deliver the required services.Such teams would be able to identify the major challenges and assess relevant risks through tailored surveillance programmes. Surveillance constitutes a challenge in such environments since it is often time consuming and resource dependent (22). In addition it requires a reasonable level of laboratory support. Nevertheless it is possible using simplified definitions of healthcare associated infections, as suggested by the World Health Organisation, to achieve a surveillance programme even with very limited resources (23).Such initiatives need to concentrate on the more serious infections and document their impact in the respective facility. Trained infection control personnel would also be appropriate drivers to eliminate wasteful practices which siphon resources away from truly effective practices. Dogmas include routine use of d isinfectants for environmental cleaning, use of unnecessary personal protective equipment such as overshoes, excessive waste management procedures which treat all waste generated in the hospital as infectious.Infection Control teams will be able to spearhead cost-effective interventions based on training of healthcare workers to comply with relevant infection control measures related to standard precautions, isolation together with occupational health and safety. It is possible to achieve significant reduction in the prevalence of healthcare associated infections through low cost measures; interventions aimed at preventing cross transmission of infection are particularly effective. There is no doubt that one of the most cost effective interventions in limited resource environments is improved compliance with hand hygiene.The World Health Organisation has indeed designated improvement of health hygiene within healthcare facilities worldwide as a priority and chose this topic for its first Global Patient Safety Challenge under the banner ‘Clean Care is Safer Care’ (6). A comprehensive set of tools have been tested worldwide in pilot hospitals, the majority of which were in developing countries. The emphasis of this initiative focuses on the availability and utilisation of alcohol hand rub for patient contact situations where hands are physically clean.This is made possible through local manufacture of inexpensive, good quality products according to a validated formula. A multimodal strategy requires these alcohol hand rub containers to be available at point of care and for the staff of the hospital to receive adequate training and education in their use. Hand hygiene practices are monitored and feedback on performance regularly provided to the users. Reminders in the workplace sensitise awareness and belief amongst healthcare workers in general.Infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities within the developing world continues to offer n umerous challenges as a result of reduced resources related to socio-economics, infrastructure and human resources. However it is possible to achieve substantial progress even within such challenging circumstances through a programme led by trained and empowered infection control professionals. Such initiatives need to concentrate on low cost, high impact interventions and emphasis on training, backed by interaction and networking with colleagues and societies within the country itself and beyond.References: 1. Moe CL, Rheingans RD. Global challenges in water, sanitation and health. J Water Health. 2006; 4 Suppl 1:41-57. 2. Boschi-Pinto C, Velebit L, Shibuya K. Estimating child mortality due to diarrhoea in developing countries. Bull World Health Organ. 2008;86:710-7. 3. World Health Organization. Implementation of the global strategy for health for all by the year 2000. Eighth report on the world health situation. Volume 6 Eastern Mediterranean Region. Second Evaluation. World Heal th Organization. Regional Office Eastern Mediterranean Region, Alexandria, Egypt; 1996. 4. Shears P.Poverty and infection in the developing world: healthcare-related infections and infection control in the tropics. J Hosp Infect. 2007; 67:217-24. 5. Wenzel RP. Towards a global perspective of nosocomial infections. Eur J Clin Microbiol. 1987;6:341-3. 6. Pittet D, Allegranzi B, Storr J et al. Infection control as a major World Health Organization priority for developing countries. J Hosp Infect. 2008;68:285-92. 7. Mhalu FS, Mtango FD, Msengi AE. Hospital outbreaks of cholera transmitted through close person to person contact, Lancet 1984; ii: 82–84. 8. Vaagland H, Blomberg B, Kruger C, Naman M, Jureen R, Langeland N.Nosocomial outbreak of neonatal Salmonella enteritidis in a rural hospital in northern Tanzania. BMC Infect Dis 2004; 4: 35. 9. Marshall TM, Hlatswayo D, Schoub B. Nosocomial outbreaks – a potential threat to the elimination of measles? J Infect Dis 2003; 187 :S97–S101. 10. Mehtar S. Lowbury Lecture 2007: infection prevention and control strategies for tuberculosis in developing countries – lessons learnt from Africa. J Hosp Infect. 2008; 69:321-7. 11. Lynch P, Pittet D, Borg MA, Mehtar S. Infection control in countries with limited resources. J Hosp Infect. 2007; 65 Suppl 2:148-50 12.Fisher-Hoch SP. Lessons from nosocomial haemhorragic fever outbreaks. Br Med Bull 2005: 73: 123-137 13. Borg MA, Scicluna E, de Kraker M et al. Antibiotic resistance in the southeastern Mediterranean–preliminary results from the ARMed project. Euro Surveill. 2006;11:164-7. 14. Borg MA, Cookson BD, Gur D et al. Infection control and antibiotic stewardship practices reported by south-eastern Mediterranean hospitals collaborating in the ARMed project. J Hosp Infect. 2008 PMID:18783850. 15. Damani N. Simple measures save lives: an approach to infection control in countries with limited resources.J Hosp Infect. 2007;65 Suppl 2:151-4. 16. Sob ayo EI. Nursing aspects of infection control in developing countries. J Hosp Inf 1991; 18: 388-391. 17. Meers PD. Infection control in developing countries. J Hosp Inf 1988; 11: 406 – 410. 18. Ponce-de-Leon S. The needs of developing countries and the resources required. J Hosp Inf 1991; 18: 378-381. 19. Raza MW, Kazi BM, Mustafa M, Gould FK. Developing countries have their own characteristic problems with infection control. J Hosp Infect. 2004; 57:294-9. 20. Borg MA, Cookson BD, Scicluna E; ARMed Project Steering Group and Collaborators.Survey of infection control infrastructure in selected southern and eastern Mediterranean hospitals. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2007;13:344-6. 21. Lynch P, Rosenthal VD, Borg MA, Eremin SR. Infection Control: A Global View in Jarvis WR: Bennett & Brachman’s Hospital Infections; 2007. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia. 22. Damani N. Surveillance in Countries with Limited Resources. Int. J. Infect Contr 2008; 4:1 23. World Healt h Organisation. Prevention of hospital acquired infections: A Practical Guide. 2nd ed. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. WHO/CDR/EPH/2002. 12.

Myth of Model Family

Myth of the Model Family The image of the model family is breathtaking, a housewife-mother, a breadwinner father, a couple of kids and a pet or two. This is the dream of most Americans but at the same time is a cliche. â€Å"The â€Å"traditional† family†¦ has existed for little more than two hundred years† (18). This idea has been so widely accepted due to the attention that it has received in the media. Like Gary Soto in â€Å"Looking for Work† the perfect family misleads people into thinking what is truth and what is fiction.Of course the truth is that there is no such thing as the â€Å"perfect† family. One family cannot represent all the variation of families all around the world. The universal nuclear family is the same with the stay-at-home mother, the breadwinner father, a couple of children and maybe a pet or two. Preferably, people would like to see what a family should be or act like, but not everyone is the same. Each and every culture is different, with each of them having there own definition or idea of what the model family is like.In Soto’s â€Å"Looking for Work† the story is about a child's expectance of a family life filled with love and comforts, which is contrast with his real working class family life. In the story Soto, back at the age of nine, dreams to live is a life where his family is straightforward in there routine. Soto lived in a working class family that had only a breadwinner mother and three children. There was no mention of a father. Over the years there has been the question of who has the authority in an American family. It used to be the male of the family who had the most authority.Over the years, that has slowly changed. As in Soto’s story he lives with his mom and no mention of a dad. Today there are families that have two fathers or two mothers or only one of each and not the other. The idea of the â€Å"perfect† model family is so widely accepted, due to the attention that it receives in the media. So the idea of two fathers, or two mothers, is a rare thing to see on a television show. But who in the media decides what a family is? The media has a lot of influence over what we think a family is.For example, Soto’s idea of his family being perfect came from him watching Father Knows Best. It gave him the idea that there is a certain way a family should act that he â€Å"so much wanted to imitate it† (26). Every one has his or hers own definition of what a family is. Soto’s idea of a family, was given by the media, not his own idea. In Soto’s family there was a difference between the American family and other families. Soto’s family ate â€Å"beans and tortillas in the stifling heat of [the] kitchen† (27). A perfect family would have turkey for dinner and apple pie for desert. Related essay: â€Å"Realism and Expressionism in Death of a Salesman†Like Soto we often see other people’s families differently than we see our own. In other words people can be â€Å"blinded† to the truth of a family. People have said that a person deprived of sight â€Å"see† what the naked eye can’t. Yet they may not have the physical sight but have another kind of vision. The vision of seeing what they want to see. Many Americans only see what they want to see and not what is really there. This in turn goes back to the media who gives us this picture of what is and what should be rather than what really is.In conclusion the perfect family is nothing other than a dream that Americans have. The dream if not having to worry about the image that they give off or the way they act. Ultimately there are many myths about the perfect family, but it is up to the person to choose whether to follow some ones vision of a family, or to follow their own views of a family. One way or another a family is a family, no matter the family members because each family is special or â€Å"perfect† in their own way.