Night Sky Observations Project

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For this assignment, you will choose from the following options:

  • Option 1: Observations With Sky Chart or Wheel
  • Option 2: Observations With Computer Program
  • Option 3: Alternative Assignment

Read the instructions in the University of Phoenix Material: Night Sky Observations and select one option to complete the assignment.

 

Tutors: Please see attatched form with further instructions as they are essential to completing this assignment.

  Title

ABC/123 Version X

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  Night Sky Observations

SCI/151 Version 6

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University of Phoenix Material

Night Sky Observations

Background

Astronomy involves the making and recording of observations of objects and phenomena visible in the night sky. As a course-long project, you are asked to perform night viewing of celestial objects at least once a week for the duration of the workshop and to maintain a log of your observations. Observations may be done individually or with others in the class, but the logs must be prepared by each individual

To complete this assignment, choose one of the following methods:

· Observations With Sky Chart or Wheel

Obtain a star chart or star wheel. There are websites where you can download charts representing the night sky on a particular date. Additionally, star charts are available for purchase at many book stores. A star chart will help you locate various constellations. Information regarding the position and best times for viewing planets is also available on the Internet.

· Observations With Computer Program

Download and use Stellarium from the Internet to complete your observations. It can be download by clicking here .

· Alternative Assignment

Visit a planetarium or observatory in your area.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word report describing your experience:

The name of the facility and its association

The type of equipment

Showings (celestial objects observed)

Other things learned about astronomy

You can also include any planetarium show or videos you watched during your visit.

Observation Instructions

If you have a pair of binoculars or a camera that can be used at night, feel free to use them to enhance or record your experience.

At a minimum, you should try to note the following:

1. The Moon and its phase

a. Try to observe at least three lunar features such as named craters, lunar maria, phase, and mountainous areas (see Section 7.2 of the text).

b. Determine the time of moonrise and, if possible, the distance between Earth and the Moon on the particular date of viewing.

2. The North Star (Polaris): the associated constellations of Ursa Minor and Ursa Major (also known as the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper).

3. See Figure 2.11(a) in text. Note the position of the two constellations at two separate times and draw a chart as shown in Figure 2.11.

4. Identify at least four other constellations.

a. Note if they are in the Zodiac.

b. Note the time, position (direction), and approximate elevation above the horizon.

5. Determine whether the Milky Way is visible and, if so, its orientation (see Ch. 2).

6. Identify and observe at least two planets and describe their movement over your weeks of observation.

7. Note any other observed celestial objects or phenomena, such as meteor showers, comets, and satellites.

8. Record meteorological conditions, such as cloud cover, lightning, and light pollution.

Assignment Instructions

Create a chart or table for your observations each week. You can use the one below or create your own (the contents in left column came from the information above).

Write a 300- to 500-word summary of your findings.

Submit the table and summary to your facilitator.

Observed item Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
The Moon and its phases          
North Star          
Position of two constellations          
Identify at least four other constellations.          
Milky Way          
Planet movement          
Celestial objects or phenomena          
Meteorological conditions          
Summary of findings (300–500 words):

 

Copyright © XXXX by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2015, 2013 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

Nurses As Leaders In Health Care Reform

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Nurses as Leaders in Health Care Reform

As health care delivery in the United States continues to evolve, either through mandates, improved technologies and training, or other drivers, nurses remain at the forefront in facilitating the success of new initiatives. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine formed a committee of experts to address the following question: “What roles can nursing assume to address the increasing demand for safe, high-quality, and effective health care services?” In the final report of the committee, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, the authors stated:

This report offers recommendations that collectively serve as a blueprint to (1) ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their education and training, (2) improve nursing education, (3) provide opportunities for nurses to assume leadership positions and to serve as full partners in health care redesign and improvement efforts, and (4) improve data collection for workforce planning and policy making. (p. 10)

For this Discussion, you will focus on the research recommendations presented by the committee concerning the role of nurses as leaders. The committee members believe that answers to these research questions are needed to advance the profession of nursing and to further expand their role in health care reform and improvement.

To prepare:

  • Review Chapter 7 in The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report provided in the Learning Resources. Focus on the information in Box 7.3, “Research Priorities for Transforming Nursing Leadership.”
  • Select one of the research priorities listed in Box 7.3 that is of particular interest to you and applicable to your career interests. Consider the benefits and challenges of researching and addressing this priority in nursing.
  • Using the Walden library, identify two to three current articles that address your selected research priority. Consider the current state of research efforts on this priority.
  • Reflect on how the research findings for your area of priority impact nurses as leaders in organizations and health care reform. Why is research on this priority important?

Post by Day 3 a description of the priority you selected and the benefits and challenges of further researching this area. Provide an overview of the articles you found (using appropriate APA citations) relating to this priority, and highlight any key findings. Explain how continued research in this area could strengthen the ability of nurses to lead in both individual organizations and as advocates of health care reform.

Readings

  • Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (Eds.). (2015). Health care delivery in the united states (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
    • Chapter 6, “Public Health: A Transformation for the 21st Century” (pp. 108-117)

      This section of Chapter 6 outlines the roles of various government health agencies, as well as the powers and responsibilities of state versus federal institutions.

    • Chapter 12, “Health Care Costs and Value” (pp. 253-295)
    • Chapter 16, “The Future of Health Care Delivery and Health Policy” (pp. 333-342)

      These chapters relate the recent history of health care reform in the United States, beginning with the federal health reform struggles in the 1990s and leading up to the passage of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

  • National Academy of Sciences. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health.
    Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2011). The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Copyright 2011 by the National Academies Press. Reprinted by permission.

    • Chapter 4, “Transforming Education”
    • Chapter 7, “Recommendations and Research Priorities”
  • Read Chapters 4 and 7, as they will inform the Week 2 Discussion. Chapter 4 addresses the “key message” that nurses should obtain high levels of education and training through a better education system that encourages continuous academic progression, and it reviews various levels of nursing education, from undergraduate and graduate programs to the professional setting. Chapter 7 supplies context surrounding the recommendations of the Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing. The chapter specifies the committee’s scope and focus, the evidence that supports its recommendations, the costs associated with the recommendations, and methods of implementing recommendations.
  • Responsible Reform for the Middle Class. (n.d.) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from http://dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill04.pdf

    This website provides a full summary and updates on the state of the Senate’s health bill.

Media

  • Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012e). Introduction to healthcare delivery, part II: Healthcare reform. Baltimore, MD: Author.

    Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 16 minutes.

Optional Resources

  • Koller, C., Brennan, T., & Bailit, M. (2010). Rhode Island’s novel experiment to rebuild primary care from the insurance side. Health Affairs, 29, 941–947.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

    This article describes the plans of Rhode Island’s Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner to strengthen and expand primary care within the state by increasing medical expenses devoted to primary care.

  • American Hospital Association. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.aha.org/

    This is the website for this national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities.

  • Democratic Policy Committee (n.d.a). Affordable care act: Implementation timeline. Retrieved from http://dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill65.pdf

    This article provides information on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act from the Democratic Policy Committee.

  • Democratic Policy Committee (n.d.b). The patient protection and affordable care act: Summary of health care and revenue provisions. Retrieved from http://dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill62.pdf

    This document outlines how the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act will give 32 million Americans access to affordable health care.

  • Democratic Policy Committee. (2010). The benefits of health reform (state-by-state reports). Retrieved from http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc.cfm?doc_name=sr-111-2-41

    Through this website, visitors can learn how health reform will affect them individually by state.

  • Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Health Reform Source. (2012). Retrieved from http://kff.org/health-reform

Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs

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  • Ethical and Legal Implications of Prescribing Drugs

     

     

     

    What type of drug should you prescribe based on your patient’s diagnosis? How much of the drug should the patient receive? How often should the drug be administered? When should the drug not be prescribed? Are there individual patient factors that could create complications when taking the drug? Should you be prescribing drugs to this patient?

     

    These are some of the questions you might consider when selecting a treatment plan for a patient. As an advanced practice nurse prescribing drugs, you are held accountable for people’s lives on a daily basis. Patients and their families will often place trust in you because of your position. With this trust comes power and responsibility, as well as an ethical and legal obligation to “do no harm.” It is important that you are aware of current professional, legal, and ethical standards for advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority.

     

    In this Discussion, you explore ethical and legal implications of scenarios and consider how to appropriately respond.

     

     

     

    Scenario 1:

     

     

     

     

     

    As a nurse practitioner, you prescribe medications for your patients. You make an error when prescribing medication to a 5-year-old patient. Rather than dosing him appropriately, you prescribe a dose suitable for an adult.

     

     

     

    Scenario 2:

     

     

     

     

     

    A friend calls and asks you to prescribe a medication for her. You have this autonomy, but you don’t have your friend’s medical history. You write the prescription anyway.

     

     

     

    Scenario 3:

     

     

     

     

     

    You see another nurse practitioner writing a prescription for her husband who is not a patient of the nurse practitioner. The prescription is for a narcotic. You can’t decide whether or not to report the incident.

     

     

     

    Scenario 4:

     

     

     

     

     

    During your lunch break at the hospital, you read a journal article on pharmacoeconomics. You think of a couple of patients who have recently mentioned their financial difficulties. You wonder if some of the expensive drugs you have prescribed are sufficiently managing the patients’ health conditions and improving their quality of life.

     

     

     

    To prepare:

     

     

     

    •Review Chapter 1 of the Arcangelo and Peterson text, as well as articles from the American Nurses Association, Anderson and Townsend, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Philipsend and Soeken.

     

    •Select one of the four scenarios listed above.

     

    •Consider the ethical and legal implications of the scenario for all stakeholders involved such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family.

     

    •Think about two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your ethically and legally responsible decision-making in this scenario.

     

     

     

    Post  1 to 2 page  paper on an explanation of the ethical and legal implications of the scenario you selected on all stakeholders involved such as the prescriber, pharmacist, patient, and the patient’s family. Describe two strategies that you, as an advanced practice nurse, would use to guide your decision making in this scenario.

     

     

     

    References

     

    Readings

     

    •Arcangelo, V. P., & Peterson, A. M. (Eds.). (2013). Pharmacotherapeutics for advanced practice: A practical approach (3rd ed.). Ambler, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

     

    ◦Chapter 1, “Issues for the Practitioner in Drug Therapy” (pp. 2–14)

     

     

     

    •American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Nursing World. Retrieved from

     

    http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNurses/Code-of-Ethics-For-Nurses.html

     

     

     

    •Anderson, P., & Townsend, T. (2010). Medication errors: Don’t let them happen to you. American Nurse Today, 5(3), 23–28. Retrieved from

     

    http://www.americannursetoday.com/assets/0/434/436/440/6276/6334/6350/6356/8b8dac76-6061-4521-8b43-d0928ef8de07.pdf

     

     

     

    •Drug Enforcement Administration. (n.d.). Mid-level practitioners authorization by state. Retrieved from August 23, 2012, http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugreg/practioners/index.html

     

     

     

    •Philipsen, N. C., & Soeken, D. (2011). Preparing to blow the whistle: A survival guide for nurses. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 7(9), 740–746.

     

    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

     

Financing Of Health Care

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With coinciding concerns about health care costs and the imperative to improve quality of care, health care providers and others face difficult decisions in the effort to achieve an appropriate balance. Such decisions often are addressed in the policy arena. How do policymakers evaluate which health care services should be financed through government programs? How do ethics-related questions and other considerations play into this evaluation process? Is it possible to contain costs and provide accessible, high-quality care to all, or is the tension between cost and care inherent in the U.S. health care delivery system? These questions are central to health care financing decisions in the United States.

For this Discussion, you will focus on the policy decision-making process that determines what types of care are covered by public and private insurers and the ethical aspects of such financial decisions.

To prepare:

  • Read the following case study, “Hard Economic and Finance Choices in US Healthcare” (Milstead):
    • Case Study 1: Hard Economic and Finance Choices in US Healthcare

      Applied economics is all about managing scarce resources. Economics is an amoral field of study: it is neither moral nor immoral. Morality and values are determined by individuals at the personal level and by group consensus or majority opinion at the national level. State and federal governments determine the ‘will of the people’ about how to use scarce resources for the good of a nation.

      The U.S. health care system is an exemplar of scarcity: primary care physicians, substance abuse treatment centers, trauma centers, registered nurses, and the money to pay for goods and services. Finance is all about how to pay for goods and services. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is appointed by the Executive branch of the federal government to make decisions about what the Medicare program will and will not pay for. In this role, MedPAC makes decisions about medications, procedures and treatments. Examples of MedPAC decisions include coverage for left ventricular assistive devices as a destination therapy, coverage for bariatric surgery, and in 2010, coverage of the drug Provenge™. By law, MedPAC is not allowed to use price or cost of any treatment in its decision-making processes.

  • Review the information in the Washington Post article “Review of Prostate Cancer Drugs Provenge Renews Medical Cost-Benefit Debate” in the Learning Resources.
  • Consider how policy decisions currently are made about what will and will not be paid for and what changes, if any, could improve the process.
  • Reflect on how the Washington Post example illustrates the tension between cost and care.

Post by Day 3 your analysis and assessment of the ethical and economic challenges related to policy decisions such as those presented in the Washington Post article. How does this type of situation contribute to the tension between cost and care? Substantiate your response with at least two outside resources.

Readings

  • Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (Eds.). (2015). Health care delivery in the united states (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
    • Chapter 11, “Health Care Financing” (pp. 231-251)

      This chapter attempts to unravel several of the complexities in America’s health care system, and it also provides an analysis of the health care/insurer/patient relationship and how hospitals are actually funded.

    • Chapter 12, “Health Care Costs and Value” (pp. 253-270)

      Rising costs of health care and potential approaches to constraining growth in health care expenditures are examined in this chapter.

    • Chapter 10, “Health Workforce” (pp. 213-225)

      This chapter looks at the nature of the supply and demand for health care professionals in the United States.

  • Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
    • Chapter 10, “Overview: The Economics and Finance of Health Care” (pp. 191–206)

      This chapter breaks down the basic elements of economics as they relate to health care, explaining how consumer choice combined with limitations on what hospitals can supply affects the type of care given.

  • Reinhardt, U. E. (2010, Jan 20). State of the nation (a special report): Voices—A good start. The Wall Street Journal, p. R5.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

    This article describes how the U.S. health care reform bill seeks to obtain better value for the U.S. health care dollar by generating more research into cost-effective care.

  • Stein, R. (2010, November 8). Review of prostate cancer drugs Provenge renews medical cost-benefit debate. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/07/AR2010110705205.html

    This article describes a federal review conducted to determine whether Medicare expenditures should be allocated to an expensive prostate cancer vaccine. The author details both sides of the debate on the issue.

Media

  • Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012c). Healthcare economics and financing. Baltimore, MD: Author.

    Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 16 minutes.

Optional Resources

The following resources may support the Assignment; however, they are not required readings.

  • Müller, D., Zimmering, M., Chan, C., McFarlane, P., Pierratos, A., & Querfeld, U. (2008). Intensified hemodialysis regimens: Neglected treatment options for children and adolescents. Pediatric Nephrology, 23(10), 1729–1736.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
  • Neil, N., Walker, D. R., Sesso, R., Blackburn, J., Tschosik, E. A., Sciaraffia, V., & … Bhattacharyya, S. K. (2009). Gaining efficiencies: Resources and demand for dialysis around the globe. Value in Health, 12(1), 73–79.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.