Importance of Advance Directives Essay Example for Free

Importance of Advance Directives Essay The Importance of Advance Directives Tara J. DiDonato Axia College of University of Phoenix The Importance of Advance Directives While most people do not speak about end of life issues either because of their background or religion, it is not only for the elderly, we should all make our wishes known. According to the Pew Research Center, (January 2006), â€Å"42% of  Americans have had a friend or relative  suffer from a terminal illness or coma in the last five years and  for a majority of these people , the issue of withholding life sustaining treatment came up†. Although many people feel it is taboo, all adults over the age of 18 should think about what their healthcare wishes would be if they could not speak for themselves. These wishes should be documented in an advance directive, so that loved ones know what they are. Power of Communication According to the Mayo Clinic (2005), â€Å"The issues surrounding serious illness and death are not easy to discuss. Decisions are much easier on our loved ones if we have an advance directive in place before we are faced with a serious illness or accident†. Without communicating our wishes, we might find ourselves in a condition that we are unable to communicate the medical treatment we wish to receive, such as resuscitation or life support. Having a conversation with loved ones is important to clarify medical wishes. We should explain our wishes and explain how our values have shaped our decision. Types of Advance Directives According to the Mayo Clinic (2005), â€Å"Advance Directives are written instructions regarding your medical care preferences†. There are various types of advance directives, such as; a Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney, Healthcare Proxy and Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR). Durable power of attorney and living wills have limitations, they do not include instructions for every situation, which means that we need to trust that the person we have named will make the decisions which are in our best interest and are what we would have wanted. A DNR order is a form that is commonly discussed with a physician. A DNR order alerts physicians and emergency medical personnel that if a patient’s heart stops beating or if the patient stops breathing, there should be no attempts to revive them. Another advance directive is a Healthcare Proxy (HCP). This document allows patients to choose an agent to act on their behalf if they are temporarily or permanently unable to make healthcare decisions on their own. According to Fell, Kukula and Taylor (2005), as with other advance directives, â€Å"it is very important to discuss, in detail, all of your wishes with your surrogate and make sure they clearly understand and are willing to make these decisions on your behalf† (p. 4). Everyone should have a voice, not just the elderly Advance directives are not just for the elderly, anyone over the age of 18 should have one. Unexpected situations can arise at any age and there might be end of life decisions that needs to be made. In the event that a person does not have an advance directive in place, according to Fell, et al. (2005), â€Å"you will receive medical care to the fullest extent appropriate for your condition†. Without an advance directive the patient might receive more treatment than he or she would have wanted. The biggest misconception about an advance directive is that people think that having one means â€Å"do not treat†, this is incorrect. Frequently used medical terms

The Relationships Behind Portrait :: Art, James Joyce

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, Stephen Dedalus, reacts towards his parents the same as many typical modern-day adolescents and adolescents of the early 1900s. Stephen's attitude and feelings towards his parents change throughout the course of this book. His feelings change in a pattern similar to one of typical adolescents. Adolescent attitudes have not changed much throughout the years. Adolescents change physically and emotionally during the early years of their life. The activities the adolescents do may have changed but the intentions behind those acts have not. Stephen has a different relationship with family members other than his parents like his Uncle Charles and his Aunt Dante. Many adolescents have a different relationship with family members other than their parents. In the article, Joyce and His First Self-Portrait by James T. Farrell, Farrell states â€Å"no clear and full picture of Stephen's relationship with his mother is described.†(3) I believe this statement could be true and false. It could be true on the grounds of no definite feelings described in the book from Stephen. There is also no change of feelings throughout the course of Stephen's adolescence that are mentioned. Only three events in the book mentions a relationship between Stephen and his mother. The first instance is when Stephen is teased by Wells and the other older boys about the subject of kissing his mother. Wells asks Stephen, â€Å"do you kiss your mother before you go to bed?† This opens up the topic over whether he should kiss his mother or should he not. The other boys laugh at Stephen's confusion while he ponders this thought. (Joyce,6) During the Christmas dinner, there is no direct reference to a relationship between Stephen and his mother. During this scene, Stephen see different sides of all the adults at the dinner. Stephen's mother tries to create a peaceful Christmas dinner. She is unable to do this because Stephen's father, aunt, and uncle get into a heated political debate. Stephen witnesses his mother get irritated over the constant arguing. She tries to stop the argument but fails to do so. Stephen's feelings are not recognized in the passage. He merely just observes this scene. (Joyce, 21-22) At the end of the book, it does not mention a relationship between the two but an argument they have. Stephen tells Cranly he argued with his mother about going to church on Easter Sunday.

Red Lobster case analysis Essay

Should Lopdrup make Experientials the target segment and modify Red Lobster’s positioning accordingly. If so, how should he change its marketing mix (4P)? Red Lobster originally was founded in 1968 and gained tremendous popularity back then by offering fresh seafood for everybody. They made it easily accessible and approachable. However, over several extremely successful decades of rapid growth and many new restaurants, Red Lobster in 2004 was becoming out of date and out of touch with today’s customer. The company with more than 40-year experience in seafood restaurants, with its new leading CEO Kim Lopdrup now has invested in extensive market research. The results of the market research reveal a surprisingly exciting opportunity for the company to shift its target customer segment. The chain at the moment is taking its first steps of an elaborate 10-year rejuvenation plan under the lead of its CEO Kim Lopdrup. Back in 2004 when he took over as a CEO of Red Lobster, the company was closing down restaurants and going through a major decline in sales. Furthermore, customer satisfaction had dropped significantly as well by then. Though, in 2010, even in a period of recession, the sales results are slowly starting to improve. As a result, the whole chain itself is improving as well. A recent market research study has revealed rather unexpected results that 25% of Red Lobster’s customers are â€Å"experientials,† people looking for pleasure, good service and high-quality food. Which is very different from Red Lobster’s traditional core customer who just wanted big portion sizes of decent seafood and does not worry about nutrition or upscale atmosphere. Lopdrup is currently thinking of possible re-positioning to attract more â€Å"experientials†, thereby also changing the company’s target segment. But would this be a good step? Back in 1968, the brand gained popularity by making fresh seafood that was not very accessible back then. However, times have changed now. Customers now have an abundance of choices when it comes to fresh seafood, which makes it very hard for Red Lobster to differentiate from other brands only offering ‘approachable, fresh seafood’. Moreover, lately it has been associated with frozen and fried, unhealthy food, not fresh seafood. The recession has had a bad impact on the restaurant and there has been a major drop in customer count. Instead of focusing on winning the price war within the highly competitive casual dining category, Kim Lopdrup instead has decided to focus on rejuvenation, following a differentiation strategy. The plan is to aim for higher quality, drive a higher frequency of visits and make the brand be seen as good quality seafood, where people could get a pleasant dining experience for affordable prices. In my opinion, Red Lobster must indeed focus on experientials, start fresh and show customers it is really doing things differently now. A new look, a new menu, improved service and better communication to let people see Red Lobster in a fresh, new way. They should embrace the 21st century by using more social networking (facebook, twitter, youtube), mobile apps, yet stick to its basic principles of providing fresh seafood from good fisherman, hire skillful grill masters and friendly staff, which are all core values for ‘experientials’. Moreover, these are values and expectations not only for ‘experientials’ but for the mass market in general. This way, they could achieve the highest reach and drive traffic to their restaurants. They must get talked about and become more visible by investing in a complex marketing campaign that would go in waves. A good quality television campaign would be highly appropriate. Regarding it’s 4PS, they should adjust its current market mix by really thinking about the target group’s wants and needs. Experientials are well educated and will not tolerate bad service. They go out to restaurants to connect with friends, family, and colleagues. So the company should definitely think of ways to improve its service. Renovation of the restaurant space, hiring of friendly employees that Red Lobster would continually educate about the latest trends and menu offerings. It is very important for the brand to have a welcoming, human face. And honest, communicative employees that will give a personal experience for each customer will take the brand image further away from its current corporate image. Regarding the products, it is also very important to communicate the source of their fish, its good quality chefs, daily offerings of ‘daily fresh catch’ to let people know that Red Lobster has ‘stepped up’ their game and only offering the highest-quality fresh crab from the best farmers. Perhaps they should do an acquisition with a wine company in order to offer experientals more wines to choose from, since they like to enjoy new food and menu items. They are motivated by culinary expertise and wine and food goes hand in hand with each other. Regarding the price, they could increase the price a little bit, since experientials are not overly ‘price sensitive’. They are well educated with a high income, though they als o like to eat out often. So a mid-range price would be the most appropriate. By focusing on experientials, Red Lobster could significantly increase profitability and get more loyal customer that return for more. The positioning should stay ‘approachable, fresh seafood’, since they have so many locations everywhere. The menu should be more frequently updated. Prices could be higher for ‘specials’, and they should communicate keywords like ‘quality, freshness, seafood lovers’, have cooking demonstrations. Invest in TV promotional ads to achieve mass awareness, hirepassionate people, focus on continuous improvement.

Custom Coffee Essay

I believe Custom Coffee & Chocolate mission is to establish a small cafà © where they and their customers could indulge their love of good coffee and fine chocolates. Bonnie and Stacy, recent college roommates, wanted a location that got a lot of foot traffic from shoppers and businesses. Their desire was to target a place near the university because they knew and understood those customers well. The purpose of the cafe’ is to serve unique coffee blends and specialty chocolates, and the business plan included purchasing only fair trade coffee and chocolates made by a few local suppliers. SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths – Having a good location where public transportation is not a issue. The owners will be selling products that are considered to be good quality, near top of the line. Customers have the options of eating in or taking out their purchases. Weakness – The shop is pretty small, and can only hold a certain amount of customers, and they will need more funding to expand. Opportunity – The opportunities are unlimited, expanding the menu to include baked chocolates, desserts, tea and other beverages. If the businesses continue to grow, Bonnie & Stacy may be able to start a small franchise. Threats – I don’t detect any threats, unless a similar business moves in the same location. Bonnie & Stacy are doing all the right things to make their cafe’ affordable, and customer friendly. It is a nice place for friends and family to meet and chat while having a cup of coffee or reading the newspaper. Comfort is always important to me, so I like the idea of them having comfortable seating. Putting up a website and blog page might be helpful to customers and potential customers, for information and feedback. I don’t believe that delivery would be a good thing right now, maybe in another six months. Great job Bonnie & Stacy, you knew what you wanted and went for it. I wish you much success.

Resources Professor Ramos Blog

Resources

Hush and Just Do It

Hush and Just Do It You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. ~Henry Ford Recently, I had a young family member tell me that his grades were down because he hadnt adapted this special way of studying, and that next semester, hed have better grades because of this new-found method of learning. In a nice but firm way, I told him that I didnt want to hear what he was going to do. I only wanted to see what hed done once he accomplished it.   Social media abounds with promises and plans on how someone is going to create, be better, make great strides. In my experience, we lose the energy surrounding those goals Derek Sivers, in a 2010 TED Talk, suggests we keep our goals to ourselves. https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself Tests done since 1933 show that people who talk about their intentions are less likely to make them happen. Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed. Theres somewhat of a myth, a common suggestion, that if you tell people what you are going to do  that it makes you more accountable. Ive never seen that proven. Sure, we have our writers groups and critique groups, but do they make you follow through? Not really. You are the only person who can make yourself follow through. And its nobody elses fault that you dont. A journalist with Forbes, Jamie Farrell, curiously wondered what would happen if she quit talking about herself and what she planned to do. For one day, I decided to stop talking and start doing.   And here’s what I found: First, I found that I was lonely.   I was so accustomed to my ego being stroked And Im not giving you permission to blame social media, either. What Id love for you to do is talk less about the doing  and just do more. On this, our last newsletter in 2017, in a year I did so much less than I have in over a decade, I am making 2018 about DOING. Not talking about doing, but following through. And I look forward to hearing from you when you have all those new announcements to make about what you DID. Happy New Year!

The Managerial Accounting Process in General Electric Inc Term Paper

The Managerial Accounting Process in General Electric Inc - Term Paper Example Planning of operations primarily involves the budgeting process. It is associated with the cost of producing a unit of product. Thereafter, the actual performance of the firm is compared along with the budgeted amounts and controlling occurs in those sectors where the difference seems to be significant (CSN, 2011). Simultaneously, along with the development of managerial accounting principles, the traditional accounting system also witnessed a rapid development. However, there are good numbers of firms which are still following the traditional accounting system. But with the increasing global competition and evolution of technologies, production oriented operations are becoming more and more complex. Firms need to do an effective evaluation of the cost that they incur for producing goods so that proper pricing of those goods can be done, which will generate sufficient revenues for the company. Precise cost information is very crucial for every aspect of the business, be it pricing po licies, product designs or performance reviews. These requirements saw the inception of activity based accounting over two decades ago and now is widely used in the US, Europe and Pacific. Similar to managerial accounting, activity-based costing not only includes the evaluation of a company from a financial perspective but also from the wholesome perspective as it includes both financial and non-financial data in its reporting (Gupta & Galloway, 2003). The following section will involve a thorough analysis of the managerial accounting process followed in General electric Inc thereby explaining the significance of Activity-based costing towards the financial performance of the company. Moreover, comments will be made as to whether the use of activity-based costing system will add to the benefits of the company or not. Thereafter, emphasis will be laid on the use of standard costing by General Electric (GE). Standard costing is basically used by companies for comparing standard cost s et by the company with the actual cost that is incurred. Hence it draws attention to the performance of the company with respect to the goal that is set by the company. The fifth part of the project enlightens the benefits of the relevant cost for the future projects of the company. It helps the management of the company to take any crucial decision regarding the acceptance of the project or take make or buy decision. Â