Comparison between August Wilson and Langston Hughes Essay

Comparison between August Wilson and Langston Hughes - Essay Example One of his most anthologized poems, The Negro speaks of Rivers has been acclaimed for his passionate acceptance of his race and his reclaiming of black origins. Before Hughes wrote, many African-American artists avoided portraying lower-class black life because they believed such images fed racist stereotypes and attitudes. Hughes was of the opinion that authentic portraits of actual people would counter negative caricatures of African Americans more effectively and so wrote about, and for the common man. Hughes claimed that ninety percent of his work attempted "to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America." Hughes portrays the nobility of common people and the vitality of his African American culture in Thank You, M'am. Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, whose name ironically recognizes both the slavery codes of the founders of the United States and the dignity of the common person, gives spiritual and physical gifts to the young Roger. Finally, she gives him the greate st gift of all: the right to direct his own life. In the mid-1980's, African American drama began de-emphasizing the revolutionary aspects of the political platform, searching instead for a strong dramatic voice to tell the story of African American assimilation into mainstream American ideals. ... Wilson's plays offer the whites a new perspective into the lives of black Americans. In "Fences they see a garbageman, a person they really don't look at, although they may see a garbageman every day. By looking at Troy's life, white people find out that the content of this black garbageman's life is very similar to their own, that he is affected by the same things-love, honor, beauty, betrayal, duty. Recognizing that these things are as much a part of his life as of theirs can be revolutionary and can affect how they think about and deal with black people in their lives." This is indeed a very radical and a multidimensional portrayal of the African Americans and not merely a walled perception of the blacks. Wilson's dramatic writing, unlike his public pronouncements, is never strident, never overtly political. Even Langston Hughes depicted black families and social setups in Soul Gone Home and Mother and Child without indirectly referring to any political ideology or an apparent soc ial protest. In Southern Gentlemen and Negroes Hughes not only indicted southern injustice but reprimanded African Americans for their inertness. Therefore, it becomes imperative that one reassess Hughes's works in a new light, so as to find a niche in changing times. The tendency to dismiss Hughes as a quintessential Harlem Renaissance poet must be avoided. The main focus of Wilson's work is to look at black culture as it undergoes change and grows in evolving historical contexts. In The Piano Lesson, the piano must be read as a metonym, if not for race itself, then for the racialized plight of African Americans within the context of their history of struggle and survival in the United States. Like race, the piano is at once

Black Boy :: Essays Papers

Black Boy3 Most young people have a dream of what they want to become. Maybe it doesn’t have to be a dream, but some kind of goal that they reach for. In the book, Black Boy, Richard, the main character, also had a dream, even though he lived in the South with strong white discrimination, pressure and a bad relationship with his relatives. As a student right now, I have dreams that I want to achieve in the future, even though I really don’t know how to achieve those dreams. Usually, when people are young, they have dreams of what they want to become. Those dreams may be being a firefighter, baseball player, teacher, pilot and so many other great jobs. When I was a child, I really wanted to become a pilot. The reason that I wanted to become a pilot when I was a child is that my father is a pilot. Richard had a dream to become a writer. However, Richard Wright’s main dream and reasons that made him have his dream are really different from mine. Richard was discriminated against by the whites, and was not treated fairly by his relatives. This terrible environment, which Richard lived through his young age, led him to seek freedom in nature. Even though he dreamed to become a writer, he had no leeway to think about dreams like that or mine. At first, he was just hungry for a better life and environment. Richard’s dream was to go up North for a better life and environment because he was tired of the discrimination and the racial distin ction between whites and blacks. Richard and I are similar in some ways. I really don’t know how to get a job or anything. It is the same as Richard for not knowing the reality of being in the North and becoming a writer. He just imagined himself working all over the place where he could find jobs as one step to reach his dream. I study here in Keio and I believe that it is a step and part of a process to be an adequate person, to gain enough knowledge to have a job in the future. My dream right now is to have a job that would let me work in a foreign country.

Healthcare Technology: A Summary Report Essay

In 1992, the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Congress of Nursing Practice supported the recommendation of the Council on Computer Applications in Nursing to officially recognize nursing informatics (NI) as a nursing specialty. The ANA currently defines NI as a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2008). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current use of healthcare information technology (HIT) in the acute care setting by interviewing a nurse working in HIT and analyze its impact on the professional nursing practice. The Interview Jayne Thompson, RN, BC, MSN is employed at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, Illinois as a Clinical Application Support Specialist. Memorial Medical Center, is a 504 bed, Magnet designated, level one trauma center located in Central Illinois and the flagship hospital of the Memorial Health System, which is comprised of four hospitals and affiliated with Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. A one-hour interview with Jayne was scheduled and held on March 13th 2013 at 7:00 AM in her office. Interviewee Jayne has worked at Memorial Medical Center for twenty-five years and began her career as a staff nurse on the cardiac surgery unit where she developed a passion for nursing research. This led to a position as a research nurse for the Prairie Education and Research Cooperative (PERC) in Springfield, IL where she coordinated clinical trials on cardiac stents. As a research nurse, Jayne’s need for gathering and sharing data spurred an interest in healthcare informatics and in 2008 she enrolled in Walden University’s Masters degree program in Healthcare Informatics. Upon graduation in 2010 Jayne moved into her current position as Clinical Application Support Specialist. In 2012 she completed her certification in Nursing Informatics. Jayne’s responsibilities include ensuring the effective performance of the computer information system, Cerner, which is used within the Memorial Health System. She sees her role as a liaison between nursing and information technology (IT) to guarantee that nursing is represented in decisions that impact clinical systems in the acute care setting. Jayne gathers end users’ (users for which the product is designed) concerns, suggestions and, criticisms regarding the workflow process and brings them to the attention of the IT department. Together they build, trial and implement computer system changes, which are then taken back to the end user. Education and Training The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) describes an informatics nurse specialist (INS) as a master’s prepared nurse. In order to qualify to take the ANCC exam, a nurse must be, at minimum, bachelor’s prepared (nursing or other related field of study), complete a minimum number of hours of work experience and graduate study. Currently two designations for certification in NI are available through the ANCC. Nurses certifying with a baccalaureate degree or higher degree in nursing use the designator RN, BC while nurses certifying with a degree in a related field, i. . computer sciences use the designator RN, C. (Hunt, Sproat, & Kitzmiller, 2004). The nurse, new to an informatics role needs to become familiar with current definitions, literature and know the scope and standards of the profession as established by the ANA (ANA, 2008). Following the completion of her MSN, Jayne needed her role as Clinical Application Support Specialist further defined based on the sc ope of responsibilities and relationships expected for the proposed implementations of the Cerner system. Challenges Jayne sees advancing evidence based nursing (EBN) as one of the biggest challenges facing nursing. The INS must focus on converting available data information into practical, accessible information that can enlighten practice. This is accomplished through alerts and computerized decision support (CDS), which make evidence-based guidelines available at the point of care (Simpson, 2007) Finding the best tools and methods for managing vast amounts of information requires the INS to develop methods for storing data, in both the short and long term and garnering information and knowledge eeded to support clinical practice, research and education. A second challenge facing the INS is the cost of delivering health care. Health care costs are a burden to society as a whole and likely to increase along with the number of uninsured individuals (McCormick et al. , 2007). Of concern is a shortage of registered nurses projected to spread across the country between 2009 and 2030 (American Associat ion of College of Nursing [AACN], 2012). The INS serves as a liaison with nursing and IT in developing technology and providing educational programs necessary to support care delivery. The goal is to optimize the existing and projected nursing workforce and ensure continuing quality of care amid the anticipated nursing shortages. Role of Information Systems â€Å"Informational systems (IS) deal with the development, use and management of an organization’s information technology (IT) infrastructure† (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012, p. 29). As an INS, Jayne acknowledges that nurses spend the majority of their time providing direct care to patients and hope that an EHR will increase this patient-interaction time and consequently the quality of care delivered. Conversely, providing care requires the documentation of clinical information as an inherent aspect of routine care and is essential from both professional and legal standpoints. Nurses, according to Jayne consider an IS to be efficient if the system reduces their documentation time, even if the time savings do not translate into better patient care. Developing and introducing a new aspect of an IS for clinical practice can be frustrating, according to Jayne who often sees healthcare professionals preferring to work in silos (operating in isolation from others), rather than collaborating with other professionals in related fields of practice. Information comprises a wide range of aspects including patient-specific data, research information and procedure information. IS offer tremendous opportunities to enhance clinical practice and appropriateness of care and to increase efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare organizations (Oroviogoicoechea, Elliott, & Watson, 2008). It is important to develop and refine functional ISs that meet the needs of today’s healthcare industry while evolving to handle future demands of the healthcare community. Role of Privacy Patients cite privacy, together with security, as their issues of greatest concern about electronic records. The ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements mandates that nurses protect a patients right to privacy and confidentiality (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2010). The use of an electronic health record (EHR) makes it difficult for an unauthorized person to gain access. According to Jayne, the IT department serves as the gatekeeper for data security. Within the Memorial Health System a provider needs a login name and a password to access the Cerner EHS. Additionally, Cerner maintains an audit trail, required by the privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), that documents who has accessed individual records, as well as what part of the record was viewed. Firewalls and antivirus software protect the organization from hackers and viruses, encryption of data exiting the health system is essential since under (HIPPA) if data is stolen but encrypted the organization is exempt from fines. Physical access to computers and software is a foundation of computer security. Placement of computer monitors, privacy screens and a 30-second time-out feature prevent inadvertent viewing of protected health information (PHI). Greatest Learning EHRs have a huge impact on nursing documentation. Although nurses are the largest group of end-users they have had minimal input in the design of EHRs. The INS works synergistically with nursing and IT to design and implement documentation software, which is integrated into the clinical workflow and functions optimally in clinical practice. If this collaboration does not occur, â€Å"the frustrations of nurses may lead to an ‘EHR–practice gap’ similar to the long-existing ‘theory–practice gap’, or nurses may alter their clinical practice to fit in with rigid systems, thereby losing the heart and soul of nursing as a profession† (Stevenson, Nilsson, Petersson, & Johansson, 2010, p. 70). To ensure that the essence and complexity of nursing are not lost, the INS must be aware of the clinical needs of the nurse and the benefits of the IS which best supports patient care.

How Education Has Changed My Life - 851 Words

Education has been a part of my life ever since I was born. My mother is a teacher, and I have always been in her classroom, and seeing her teaching kids is something I feel I knew I wanted to do ever since I was little. As I grew older, I had a rough time in school. I was identified with a learning disability in the fourth grade which helped me become successful and also made school difficult too. The impact education has had on my life is why I want to become a teacher. My mother has been a teacher for over 25 years, and is still going. When I was little, around the ages of three-four, I would go into her classroom to ‘visit’ her class. Even as time progressed I would go and watch her in the classroom, and eventually went to the same school she taught at. My mother would bring books home that she did not need anymore and other classroom supplies for me to play school. I would play school with my imaginary students, pretending I was the teacher and they were my ‘perfect classroom of students’. My ‘classroom’ eventually grew into friends who would be my students, or my teachers. Talking with individuals who had my mother as a teacher opened my eyes to understanding what an impact a teacher has on their student. Growing up, school was a blur to me until about grade three. About first grade, until I was in fifth, I would go into a small reading group with other students my age. I did not think much of it, but I did not like missing out on classroom instruction. ExpressingShow MoreRelatedHow Education Has Changed My Life Essay1183 Words   |  5 Pages These past four years have really been a life changing experience. From a childish freshmen not only at school but at home too, to a still sometimes childish senior, one who knows when and how to control himself. 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