Patient Education in Diabetes Care Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Patient Education in Diabetes Care - Term Paper Example As previously mentioned, type II diabetes is on the rise in industrialized countries and therefore its management poses a significant problem to clinicians. As the disorder can be self-managed in a majority of cases, it can be useful to educate patients about the best way to approach their own health (Esden & Nichols, 2013). However, many patients may lack the knowledge or the expertise to really understand their disease and their health, meaning that many nurses feel that education could really be beneficial to diabetes patients managing their own care. The purpose of this study was to give sessions to eight diabetes patients who were willing to participate in diabetes in the hope that this would make them feel more in control of their outcomes and overall health. The research study gathered eight patients with informed consent for three group sessions about various topics concerning diabetes and health (Esden & Nichols, 2013). These were held monthly. The first and the last session were slightly longer as these had pre- and post-intervention tests to measure the patient’s knowledge about diabetes to see if the intervention was useful to them (Esden & Nichols, 2013). Additionally, several health measurements were taken (height, weight, blood pressure). The three assessment measures used were the Brief Diabetes Knowledge Test, the Diabetes Empowerment Scale, and the Diabetes Care Profile (Esden & Nichols, 2013). This type of method is good because it covers how the patients improved in their knowledge of diabetes over the time period, and the three scales used are clinically approved and recognized in the community. Results were analyzed using SPSS, another recognized tool, adding support to the results. Overall, all the participants showed a significant improvement on all three scales (Esden & Nichols, 2013). This suggests that these sessions could be useful in improving the knowledge of those with diabetes, which previous studies have shown to improve outcomes. This means that this type of session could have a huge impact on nursing practice if instated correctly.     

Critique a Paradox Market v Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Critique a Paradox Market v Resources - Essay Example The focus was essentially on either the external environment of the firm or its internal capabilities of the firm define its overall competitiveness within an industry or a particular market. One perspective suggests that the markets have preferences over the resources as firms following such a perspective tend to tailor their strategies according to changes taking place in their external environment. However, on the other hand, the other perspective which emphasizes resources over the market and tend to focus on the internal capabilities of the firm. The basic argument behind the market based view of the firm level competitiveness is based on the outside in perspective. The outside in perspective basically advocates that the firms are largely driven by their external environment and all their strategies and actions are the result of external influences. What is however, important is to note that firms following such an approach are quick to adapt to the changes in their external environment and take lesser time responding to external shocks Outside In perspective also allow firms to take up the opportunities much faster than other firms and develop necessary flexibility to respond to such opportunities in the most appropriate way. It is also critical to be important to understand that a market based view also allow firms to develop abilities to anticipate the emerging changes in their target markets and allow themselves to develop strategies which potentially help them to either withstand the emerging external threats or take up opportunities. Such firms therefore tend to focus more on their customers as the key variables to decide about the potential changes to take place in the market place. (Brooks) and perform well into an environment which is more dynamic and fluid in nature. Firms following such a perspective also need to develop its ability to continuously reposition itself and if a firm has presence in many markets at the same time; it may be required to re-position it according to the market conditions prevailing in each market. Such firms, however, tend to lose sight of their distinctive competencies and rely upon less on their own individual capabilities i.e. strengths to gain the competitive advantage. As discussed above that the firms develop competencies to anticipate external environment therefore they put in place the processes for collecting market intelligence regarding their potential as well as existing competitors and customers. Such capability further allows them to integrate such information into their strategic decision making process to better position themselves into the market. (Hult and Ketchen Jr) Such inflexibility does not therefore, yield a long term competitive advantage for the firms, and they tend to be complacent by focusing on just one aspect of the competitiveness. What is also critical that the market based view can only benefit the firms if the variables