Benefits of Medical Waste Management Methods

Benefits of Medical Waste Management Methods ABSTRACT Medical waste management is a critical problem around Africa continent. The problem is observed in Tanzania in all levels of health facilities. Medical waste is one of the major health safety and environmental problem. This is a result of lack of awareness on among generators and handlers of medical waste. This calls for an urgent attention to understand the extent and magnitude of the problem and to develop strategies to properly manage medical waste generated. Various measures have been taken in Tanzania including construction of 13 pilot small scale incinerators at various parts of the country, yet the problem is still persisting. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of medical waste management methods is not clearly known and practiced in many health facilities. Therefore, this study was carried out to examine the effectiveness of medical waste management. Data were collected through interviews using structured, observation and abstraction of documentation. Solid medical wastes were collected in plastics bags and measure three times a day from each occupied bed. The collected waster was measured using a common household balance with a precision of a two decimal places .A total of 64 respondents were interviewed using questionnaire. The result indicated that average generation rate of medical waste was 0.01kg/person/day in dispensaries, 0.02kg/person/day in urban health centres to 0.5 kg/bed/day in Hospitals. Inadequate staff, insufficient and inefficiency of tools led to poor management of medical waste. Poor segregation and colour coding of storage instruments was observed at low level of healthcare centres, lack of medical waste treatment pit and substandard incinerators which produce obnoxious gases affecting the community. In view of the findings, medical management is not given sufficient priority. However, health workers are knowledgeable on the consequences of medical waste. Its recommended that strategies for management of medical waste be established t o include provision of facilities, infrastructes, staffing and funding to reduce environmental and medical problems associated. Keywords: medical waste, waste management, health facilities, storage instruments BACKGROUND Medical waste management (MWM) is a public health and environmental problem that attract attention in both developed and developing countries (Askarian et. al., 2004). Medical waste are generated in a wide variety of sources, starting from the hospital (a primary target), human and animal clinics, health centers, intermediate facilities, physician offices, research institute (animal and human health), and homes (especially diabetic homes) (USEPA, 1986). Medical wastes include several different waste streams, some of which require more care and disposal (Manyele, 2008).They contains different items making it a special type of mixed waste. Medical wastes include all infectious waste, hazardous (including low-level radioactive) wastes, and any other wastes that are generated from all types of health care institutions, including hospitals, clinics, doctor (including dental and veterinary) offices, and medical laboratories. Longe and Williams (2006) referred to medical waste as the municipal solid waste of peculiar characteristics which need to be sorted properly during handling. Medical waste may also contain soiled or blood soaked bandages, culture dishes and other glassware, discarded surgical gloves and surgical instruments, needles used to give shots or draw blood, cultures, stocks and swabs used to inoculate cultures. These are the most common trash/litter in medical waste and well known to the health-care staff. Waste from operati on theaters contain removed body organs like tonsils, appendices, limbs etc which renders the medical waste scary, and nuisance. Medical waste also contains lancets that are little blades which are used to prick finger to get a drop of blood. During immunization campaigns medical waste contains leftovers of empty boxes, cotton wool and bandages. Thus, if the waste is not segregated properly at the point of generation it will be a mixture of all these garbage plus kitchen waste, office waste and other wastes which do not arise as a result of patients being attended (Lloyds, 2003). Inadequate and inappropriate handling of medical wastes has serious public health consequences and impact on the environment. It has been medically proved that unprotected exposure to healthcare waste such as used syringes, needles and cotton can cause health hazards, and, indeed, is a source of transmission of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and other diseases. Proper management of medical waste is crucial to minimize health risks. Medical waste requires specialized treatment and management from its source to final disposal destination. Simply disposing of it into dustbins, drains, and canals or dumping it to the outskirts of human settlement poses a serious public health and environmental hazards. Thus, there is a need to initiate a concentrated effort to improve the medical waste management to reduce the negative impact of waste on environment, public health and safety at health care facilities (Griffin, 1989). The amount of medical waste generated differs according to the level of health facilities, bed capacity, occupancy rate, and socio-economic status of the society. According to Christen (1996), the average quantities estimated from a survey conducted in several health care facilities in Dar es Salaam hospital generated an average of 0.06kg/patient/day and 0.08kg/patient/day, respectively non hazardous and hazardous waste while for both health centers and dispensaries waste generated 0.01kg/patient/day. Mato and Kassenga (1997) estimated that waste generation rate in Tanzania was 0.84 kg/bed/day. In a survey conducted nationwide in Tanzania indicates that the increase in medical waste generated due to increase in population, poor management of MWM systems and expanded use of disposable (Manyele and Anicetus, 2006), Developing comprehensive waste management practices in health facilities in developing world is a challenging problem. For example, Leonard (2003) and Manyele, (2003) noted that in Africa the problem appears to be more critical as reports indicate poor medical waste management. It is a challenge because of little information on the number of bed, hospitals, health centers, dispensaries and other facilities and the type of waste generated. It should be noted that there is no single management method that can solve all medical waste problems; rather, each medical waste management problem must be assessed independently to develop a viable and sound solution. However, the responsibility for the effective disposal of the wastes generated by the various health facilities lies on the facility generating the waste. Medical waste management requires monitoring and control at all levels of production in order to minimize effects to the community (Van, 1988). Most of the non-infectious medical wastes are land filled, while infectious wastes from hospitals are incinerated. The degree of risks posed by medical wastes is not known. Proper handling, treatment, and disposal of these wastes are believed to result in minimal health and environmental risks. In Tanzania medical waste management (MWM) is poor and awareness on its related consequences is lacking among generators and handlers (Manyele, 2003, Manyele and Anicetus, 2006). However, in recent years Tanzania government has made efforts to manage medical wastes from its generation to final disposal or treatment by training health workers, increasing funds for procurement of tools and improvement of infrastructure (Manyele, 2004). Despite the efforts made by the government to minimize the dangers of medical waste, the problem is persisting in most areas. This study examined MWM practices in health facilities located in Sumbawanga Municipal Council and provides recommendations that can be adopted in other health facilities. The study assessed the type and quantity of waste generated and examined performance of MWM. It also determined effectiveness of MWM practices in collection, storage, transportation and disposal. In addition it examined the role of knowledge of health workers on management of medical waste. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted in Sumbawanga Municipal Council in South West Tanzania which is located between latitude 07ÂÂ °45ÂÂ ´ and 08ÂÂ °31ÂÂ ´ S and longitude 30ÂÂ °29ÂÂ ´ and 31ÂÂ °49ÂÂ ´E. The Municipality lies along Ufipa plateau with the average altitude of 1700m above mean sea level. Sumbawanga Municipality enjoys a dry sub humid climate for a greater part of the year. The maximum temperature is 27ÂÂ °C and the minimum is 16ÂÂ °C, during month of July. The rainfall ranges from 900-1000mm per annum (MD, 2008). Health facilities are owned by different institutions which include government, voluntary agencies and private. According to MMOH (2008) Sumbawanga Municipal Health services were provided through two hospitals (one owned by government and the other by voluntary agency), two urban health centre (one owned by government and other by voluntary agency) and 28 dispensaries (18 owned by Government, two by voluntary agency and eigh t owned by private entities). Ballot sampling technique was used to select 10 out of 32 health facilities (one hospital, one health centre and eight dispensaries) located in different parts of the Municipal for this study. Respondent were selected by using probability sampling based on Yamane formula (1967) given as: Where no = sample size z = confidence interval =2 correspond to 95% level of confidence p = population proportion N = Population size and, e = precision or error limit Given a total population of 517 health workers, the study used 50% proportion (p = 0.5) and error limit of 11%, the minimum acceptable sample size was 64 health workers. A systematic random sampling procedure was used to select respondents from a sampling frame based on the distribution of sample size. The sample size of respondents was 32, 10, and 22 out of 263, 78 and 176 from hospitals, health centres and dispensaries, respectively. Primary data were collected from the field survey by using structured questionnaire of 37 questions. On the knowledge on medical waste management two question were set up to test the knowledge of health worker and the answer were given score of which if response is between 5 10, 2 -4 and 1 is ranked highly, moderate and low knowledgeable, respectively. Other method used in data collected is participatory observations . Abstraction and summarization of documents were used for collection of secondary data on medical waste management especially on the capacity of staff on handling waste. Interviews were used to collect data on the efficiency of medical waste management, tools for collection, storage, transportation; and treatment, to determine effectiveness of medical waste management practices; and to examine knowledge of health workers towards sorting, collection, storage and treatment of medical waste. Observation method was used to assess tools available, their efficiency and effec tiveness for medical waste management and attitude and practice towards sorting, collection, storage, and treatment of medical waste. Information gathered was analysed using SPSS programme. The solid Medical Waste were collected from occupied beds three time in a day (0830, 1330, 1830), at each ward, right prior to their collection and disposal by attendant. A common household balance with a precision of two decimal places was used to weigh wastes. The medical waste produced from each bed was weighed as disposed of in plastic bags. The measurements were carried in a period of 30 days and varied depending on the number of the beds occupied, hence average were used in the analysis. Descriptive analysis was carried out for the data collected using SPSS vers.11.6 where frequencies were used to present the results. ANOVA was carried out to test significance of parameters on knowledge versus altitude and altitude of health workers on waste management practices. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Characteristics of Respondents Characteristics of the respondents were analyzed based on age, education and working experience. Data in table 1 shows that majority of the staff (42.2%) were aged between 31 40 years. These results imply that most of respondents were at the middle age. The results show that 42.2 % of respondents had primary school education, 35.9% had secondary school education. The holders of diploma and advanced diploma or above were 15.6% and 6.3%, respectively. The high proportion of respondents with primary school education could have an effect towards management of medical waste. It was further revealed that around 40% of the staff had an experience of over 10 years. Working experience could bring good performance in management of medical waste while low experience could results into poor performance. Type and volume of medical waste generated The type of medical waste generated differs according to the level of health facility, characteristics of people and level of income. In Sumbawanga Municipality the type of medical waste generated for hospital included; needles and prickers, syringes, plastic materials, bottle and ampoules, paper material, cotton wool, gauze, post delivery waste (placenta and the associate), specimen from laboratory, amputated organs/parts from theatre and garbage from admission ward. Those from urban health centre and dispensary included all wastes mentioned earlier excluding plastics, post delivery waste, amputated organs and garbage. The results in Table 2 show that the amount of waste generated from Regional hospital was recorded from admission ward, the result revealed that the amount of medical waste generated was 0.5kg/bed/day for non sharps and garbage, 0.015kg/ bed/ day of sharp containers and 1.8 kg/ bed/day of garbage. Medical waste from the health centre was 0.02kg/person/day excluding sharp and garbage, and 0.02kg/person /day of sharp container. For dispensaries the results revealed that the amount of waste generated was 0.01kg/person/day of healthcare waste excluding sharps and 0.01kg/person /day of sharp containers. These results differ with an average of that is generated in Botswana where in hospitals recorded amount generated were 0.75kg/bed/day excluding sharps, 0.05kg/bed/day of sharp containers and 3kg/bed /day of garbage from admission ward (NCSA, 1996). Type of facilities available for storage of solid medical waste During the study different sections of health facilities were assessed through observation complemented by interview of heath workers. The results in Table 3 reveal that medical waste storage facilities were determined by the characteristic of the waste produced. Health workers reported that common type of storage facilities were safety boxes, plastic material, and metal. These resulted into spillage of medical waste to the environment as they were easily blown by wind or directly accessed by insects and other vermins. The same results were reported in India by Patil and Shekdar (2001) that, authorities were failing to install appropriate systems for a variety of reasons such as non availability of appropriate technologies, inadequate resources and absence of professional training on waste management. The study established that 81.7% of the storage facilities were not in good state. This resulted into difficulties in the management of medical waste (Figure 1 and Table 3). Respondent from hospital observed the adequacy of facilities in terms of capacity to handle waste generated and conforming to required standards having handles, covers lid and presence of waste pits, while the status was contrary in heath centers and dispensaries. Performance of medical waste management tools The performance of the existing health care waste management facilities for storage and treatment were assessed through their capacity in terms of sizes, handling mechanism, cover (protect waste from spillage) and pit where waste are to be deposited. Considering the sizes of equipments the results vis. waste generated, the results in Table 3 indicates that medical waste storage facilities, in relation to storage size were considered adequate by 75.9%, 71.4% and 66.7% for hospital, dispensaries and health centre, respectively. Handling mechanism is also a factor which influences good performance of medical waste management equipment. Through observation of the storage facilities with handles were 65.5%, 22.2% and 28.6% in hospital, heath center and dispensaries, respectively. Lack of handle to medical waste storage facilities brought difficulties in transporting healthcare waste that could lead to contamination of handlers during lifting. Further, assessment of performance was made on availability of lid for medical waste storage tools where it was observed that (86.2%) of hospital tools had lid and (13.8 %) was running without lid. (11.1%) had lid for health centre and (88.9%) was operating without lid and 14.3% was noted to have lid for dispensaries while 85.7% had no lid. Lack of lid on medical waste storage tools is dangerous to health because it is easy to be accessed by insects which transmit diseases and also medical waste is unsightly because it contains waste which may cause repugnant. Poor performance of equipments could be due to inadequate funds for procurement of standard tools and availability of standard tools. Inefficiency of waste equipment created difficulties in management of medical waste that had higher probability of exposing infection to healthcare workers, patients and the environment. WHO (2005) suggested that for cost effectiveness and efficiency medical waste equipment it is advisable to pur chase item which qualify the National standards for management of medical waste or approved by World Health Organization such as safety boxes and other waste containers and protective equipment. Respondent from those health facilities which hadnt waste treatment pit the result shows that 84.2% dispose waste in pit latrine and 15.8% in a dug pit. Disposal of medical waste in pit latrine was a great mistake because are not meant for that purposes. Sometimes, medical waste such as post delivery waste emitted foul smell which led to further environmental pollution. WHO, (1999) also noticed that despite of its infectious medical waste was not being properly disposed off by the concerned agencies as it was often disposed on open dumps along with other waste. Effectiveness of practices in storage and treatment of medical waste Effectiveness of the waste management practices of the surveyed health facilities were assessed based on the number of trained workers available, time spent to collect, store and treatment/disposal of the waste and the cleanliness and attractiveness of the health facilities. The results indicated that for hospital trained staff versus patients was at the ratio of 1:34 while National guideline requires the ratio of 1:10. WHO ( 2008) revealed that inadequate human resources for healthcare tend to weaken healthcare delivery systems with suboptimal infrastructure, poor management capacity and under-equipped health facilities have brought about a situation where the likelihood of adverse events become high. The number of staffs who were engaged in management of medical waste was two staff for each section in hospitals, health centre and dispensaries. Medical waste management is a dangerous and tiresome job. The small number of staff are engaged in management of healthcare waste failed to manage properly. This situation in Sumbawanga Municipality is contrary to WHO (2002) recommendations, that health care waste management is first of all management issues that require the commitment of the entire staff within health care facilities. The study results show that respondent perception and understanding on time spent for management of medical waste vary from hospital to dispensaries. 81.8% of respondents from hospital indicates that time spent to manage MW is between six to eight hours in a day, as compared to health centers where 80% of respondent indicates that time spent is between three to five hours. Dispensaries all respondents indicate that time taken for management of MW is one to two hours (Table 4). Time spent was sufficient for hospital while insufficient for health centre and dispensaries. Time spent for hospital was high compared to other levels because had a special group of employee (casual laborers) purposely for medical waste and environmental management activities who are required to work a minimum of 8 hrs in a day according to job requirements. On contrary for health centre and dispensaries were permanent employee whose work was for both service deliver, then on medical waste management activitie s and environmental care. Clean and attractive health facilities determine the effectiveness and efficiency of medical waste management activities to all levels of health services. During the research, the result revealed that 59.4% responded that hospitals were very clean, 40.6% responded moderate, and 100% responded moderate for health centre while 59.1% responded moderate for dispensary and 40.9% responded poor sanitation (Table 5). This situation is contrary to National health care waste management policy guideline which requires proper management of medical waste for prevention of diseases, environmental protection and beautification (MOHSW, 2006). To triangulate perception of respondents who are health workers, cross tabulation was indicating that hours spent for management of medical waste and cleanliness (appearance) of health facilities has relationship. The correlation between working hours and the state of cleanliness is highly significant (p Knowledge of health workers towards management of medical waste As regard to knowledge on consequences of medical waste 95.5% of respondents from hospital had high knowledge on the consequences of medical waste, 4.5% had moderate knowledge, 90% of health centre study group were highly knowledgeable, 10% had moderate knowledge and 78.1% were highly knowledgeable for dispensary, 15.6% moderate knowledge and 6.3% had poor knowledge (Table 6). Importance of knowledgeable health workers is on waste in highly required in segregation and coding storage materials used for medical waste management. The level of education was highly associated with knowledge of health workers on medical waste as hazardous material that the correlation was statistically significant (p Medical Waste Segregation The need for proper segregation and the extent, to which segregation is required, is primarily dictated by the technology and this is one of important step in reducing the volume of hazardous waste. Most treatment technologies have some limitations in terms of processing capability. This limitation depends much on design restrictions, compatibility with certain components, legal prohibitions, and possible negative environmental impact, social and ethical reasons. Table 7 shows that percentage of quantity of medical waste recorded segregated at hospital, heath centers and dispensaries were 93.8, 70 and 27, respectively. While waste that was found mixed was 6.2%, 27.3% and 72.7% at hospital, heath centers and dispensaries. Segregation of hazardous/infections waste is the key to achieving sound medical waste management. Poor segregation of medical waste poses serious health risks to the personnel handling them, and this could lead to possibility of surface and ground water contamination. Mujahid et.al., (2005) and Mohamed et. al., (2006) observed a serious health problem in Dhaka because medical waste was disposed in Municipal without segregating them. Also, Manyele et al (2003) contented that lack of plan for management of medical waste, lack of recording the amount of medical waste generated, reduction of quantity and toxicity of waste at the source and segregation were the challenges facing Tanzania in management of medical waste. The high pe rformance of hospital compared to health centre and dispensaries was influenced by availability of tools, number of staff engaged, hours spent in management of medical waste and knowledge of health workers. Color coding Color coding system aim at ensuring an immediate separation and identification of the hazardous associated with the type of healthcare waste which also determines the treatment method to be employed. The results revealed that 90.6% of hospital medical waste equipment were colour coded or provided with label and 9.4% was not colour coded, 30% of health centre tools were colour coded and 70% were not colour coded while 100% of dispensary medical waste storage tools were not color coded or labeled (Table 8). Lack of coloration of medical waste tools to dispensary level was contrary to healthcare waste management policy guideline which requires coloration of medical waste storage facilities (MOHSW, 2006). Longe and Williams (2006) observed that in Nigeria, private owned hospitals has the most efficient colour coding system, where colored buckets were used: red for sharp and broken glass, green for syringes and needles and blue for all blood stained cottons, gauze and bandages. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions Medical waste generated in healthcare facilities differs from type and ownership of facilities but there is no composition distinction between private and public hospitals. The performance of medical waste management tools were inefficient due to the reason that most of them were below National and World Health Organization standards. The effectiveness of medical waste management practices was highly affected by inadequate staff and time spent in management of medical waste which resulted into poor cleanliness of some health facilities. Knowledge of health workers on management of medical waste was high but was not highly applied due to inadequate and low standard of healthcare waste management tools. Generally Medical waste management activities in Sumbawanga Municipal Council were not given sufficient priority or concern because of unimproved system of medical waste management. Inadequate staff, insufficient and poor performance of supplies for storage of medical waste, poor infras tructure such as incinerator and treatment pit for treatment of medical waste, lack of segregation and coloration of tools is a major reason to draw this conclusion. However most of healthcare workers had knowledge on medical waste management with small gap which need to be improved. Recommendations Based on the findings and discussions, the following recommendations are made to the Regional Medical Officer, Municipal Medical Officer, Diocesan Health Coordinator and other Stakeholders to improve healthcare waste management whereby in order to achieve the goal, the Hospital Management Team , Council Health management team and other stakeholders should fulfill the following: Medical waste management infrastructure which includes incinerators and treatment pit should be made available to all health facilities. They should be well constructed to ensure efficiency and minimizes the immediate and long term public health risk and hazards associated with medical waste and which has the lowest impact on the environment. Build capacity by employing more qualified staff who will be responsible for service delivery, healthcare waste management and environmental management of health facilities.. For proper disposal of waste knowledge on the color codes for storage facilities should be provided to all stakeholders in health facilities based on the agreed National and WHO Guidelines.

African American Sentiments :: essays research papers

For those people who did not study the Civil War or doesn?ft know anything about the Civil War, there were many African Americans fighting too. Before the Civil War, the African Americans that were not freed by their landowners were treated poorly. Some left their family in the south and escaped to the north in hope to get more freedom and also to help bring an end to slavery. After the battle at Antietam, many African Americans were allowed to enroll in the war. Many of them wanted to fight for one single purpose and that was to bring an end to slavery. In the movie ?gGlory,?h the director focused on the African American in the north that fought in the 54th regiment led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. During the time of the Civil War, the African Americans that fought in the 54th regiment were often treated unfairly but there were always nice people that backed them up. In this essay, I?fm going to discuss the different sentiments towards the African American solders that dedicated th eir life to preserve the union and abandon slavery. During the Civil War, there were people who were extremely prejudiced against the 54th regiment because the soldiers were all different colored skin and the people where used to the idea that different color skinned people worked as slaves. In ?gGlory,?h Colonel Montgomery, Sargent Mocati (the Sargent that trained and prepared them for war) and the colonel that was in charge of distributing necessities, served as the people who discriminated the African American soldiers. When in training, Sargent remained strict towards the training of the African American soldiers even after his short talk with Robert about being too harsh on the soldiers and stuff. I think he was racist against the soldiers because if the solders were white, he probably wouldn?ft treat them the same way. When he was teaching the soldiers how to march, some of them couldn?ft tell the difference between left and right. He acted as if all African Americans were uneducated and they were hopeless to teach. Shoes were a n essential part of training. Many of the African American soldiers didn?ft even have decent shoes when they enrolled for the war. Naturally, after all the training, their shoes worn down. If the 54th regiment were composed of white soldiers, the department that pass out shoes would already prepare extra shoes for them.

Bad Medicine :: Essays Papers

Bad Medicine Before the age of television shows, movies, and the Internet people entertained one another with vibrant and exaggerated tales. Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, is a good example of this form of entertainment. The novel details the journey of a band of pilgrims, who engaged in a storytelling competition, as they travel toward the shrine of Thomas à   Becket. These Middle Age storytellers varied as much as the stories, and consisted of a knight, physician, monk, and many more. In â€Å"the Prologue† the Physician is revealed as a con artist who cares more about himself than his patients. The Physician was a medical doctor, who was responsible for taking care of the ill and disease stricken. â€Å"No one alive could talk as well as he did / On points of medicine and surgery†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Chaucer 30). He was part of the rising middle class society and his garments that were â€Å"lined with taffeta† (Chaucer 31) made this assumption apparent. During the Middle Ages taffeta was a material like silk, which was very expensive, so only the wealthy could afford it. To many he seemed to be a productive member of society, but appearances can be deceiving. People of the medical profession were looked upon with a certain respect; so many patients did not question what was prescribed. The Physician misused his title to take advantage of his patients’ faith. He was revealed as a liar and a cheat. He was a partner with the druggist, to help each other build their wealth. The reader can draw the appearance of his deceit in the following quote, â€Å"He gave the man his medicine then and there. / All his apothecaries in a tribe / Were ready with the drugs he would prescribe / And each made money from the other’s guile; / They had been friendly for a goodish while† (Chaucer 30). Chaucer describes these habits of the physician in order to allow the reader to paint a mental picture of his morals and character. Chaucer also brings the readers attention to the fact that the Physician â€Å"did not read the Bible very much† (31). Chaucer implies that the Physician is a sinner, who did not see an error in his dishonesty. Many analysts believe that Chaucer was trying to portray certain qualities through the vivid descriptions of the characters’, such as in the following quote describing the physician; â€Å"In blood-red garments, slashed with bluish grey / And lined with taffeta †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Chaucer 31).

The Inclusion of Sex Education in the School Curriculum

During high school years our minds have the greatest development. And whatever we have learned in high school we uses that knowledge to help us move on through college. At the high school age teenagers experiments different changes in their minds, bodies. A sometimes question comes up that at what age children should know about the sex. To the answer to that question is I believe at the age of 13-14 children and High School kids. High school should be teaching teenagers about different aspects of life, especially sex. A majority student does not get any sex education at home. Usually parents just ignore or avoid this kind of discussion or topic. So, that is why high school should teach students about sex. Since parents ignore giving knowledge about sex to their children, many of them turn to having unprotected sex because they are not educated about the matter. Their eyes are blind about the sex. Teenagers go to parties, they get drunk and they get involved physically with opposite sex. No one ever taught them to have protected sex. So females ends up getting pregnant. So, they would choose to have an abortion. Which is a very big debatable issue. Moreover, even if they not ends up getting pregnant some of the partners might have an aid and then they would get that aids. This could prevent by giving children some or more knowledge about sex. Since patents do not teach their children then sex education should be a vital part of a high school education. Personally, I believe that by giving students knowledge about sex in high school will help prevent teenage pregnancies and even the spread of disease such as aids. The out come would be save lives. In short, as parents we should support the High School and encourage them to teach our children about sex life. If parents were willing to educate their children at home then there would be no need for sex education. However, most of parents ignore sex topic and they would not prefer to discuss this topic in the family. Since the sex education does not exist at most of the homes, then there should be a need for sex education besides home, which is school.

The Truth And Nothing But The Truth? The Legal Liability Of Employers For Employee References Essay

Negligent Referral Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Common law refers to a legal system native and developed in England and in which court decisions set precedence in decreeing case laws subject to usages and customs rather than the codified written laws. In common law, the duty of care refers to a legal obligation in which an individual is demanded to confirm to a standard and degree of reasonable care while undertaking any activity that could inflict foreseeable harm to others (Martin & Jonathon, 2009). This concept was developed by Lord Atkins and it set pace for determination of Tort Laws and especially negligence. For instance, employers are bound by law to observe standards of procedures in referring their former employees to other employers such that the other employer does not suffer (MacLeod, 2011). This paper explores the liability of the employer in making references about his or her employees in common laws, duty of care.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Business corporations today are afraid of providing their former employees’ information to prospective employers for fear of possible lawsuits. Often, the human resource department strongly fears these suits that they result to strong policies against employment references. However, the question of this action as to being the â€Å"best practice† substantially differs between one episode and another (MacIntyre, 2013). Essentially, the liability of employers may arise in any of the following four areas. Firstly, the employer may be liable for defamation at common la. Secondly, the employer may be bound for invading on the privacy of their employees at common law. Thirdly, the Civil Rights Acts, and the retaliation under the Fair Employment Act may deem the employer liable (Adams, 2013). Finally, the common law may fault the employer liable for negligent referral or in breach of the duty to warn potential and subsequent employe rs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The employer’s liability in negligent referrals of their employees arises from the doctrine of vicarious liability. Under this doctrine, a person is assigned liability due to inflicted harm or injury by a negligent person subject to their relationship to the negligent person. Vicarious liability is also known as imputed negligence (Finch & Fafinski, 2011). This doctrine is based on the theory of respondeat superior where â€Å"let the master answer† situation answers. For this liability to arise, the employee’s negligence must have occurred within the boundaries of his or her employment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Legislation to the employer’s liability on employee referrals was sustained in reaction to the defamation privileges claims emanating from employment references. According to Section 895.487(2), it is presumed that an employer’s response to a reference request is made in good faith. Therefore, it is immune to civil liability that may arise from provision of the reference to a prospective employer (Middlemiss, 2011). The good faith presumption, however, may be invalidated or expired if the reference response provided clearly convinces malice and falsehood by the employer. In addition, the presumption expires when the reference response is made in contravention of the blacklisting statute.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Employer reference liability was first decreed in the Gibson v. Overnite Transportation Co. In this case, the plaintiff, Gibson became harassed by union supporters in crossing a picket line aimed at completing his work assignment (Partington, 2011). Consequently, he resigned from Overnite Transportation falsely on grounds that he was going to help in his ailing grandfather’s company. However, the plaintiff was hired by another trucking corporation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Overnite Transportation responded to reference and the plaintiff was fired. He sued Overnite Transportation for defamation. The grand jury ruled that the previous supervisor acted maliciously and was hence liable for defamation. The jury awarded the plaintiff a compensatory damage of $33,000 for lost wages and punitive damages to the tune of $250,000. The appeal chambers upheld the award.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Court Of Appeals sent some light on the proof needed to convincingly establish defamation in employment references responses under the auspices of section 895.487(2) (Partington, 2011). According to the court, the plaintiff is burdened with proving that the employer’s response to a reference inquiry was made out of hatred, bad intent, ill will, envy, revenge, spite or other bad motive in regard to the defamed person (Finch & Fafinski, 2011). Therefore, it was not necessary to prove that the employer acted indeed, with actual malice.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Additionally, the employer maybe held liable for negligent referral or duty to warn prospective employers. This doctrine holds that an employer may be held liable or answerable for providing misrepresentation (Middlemiss, 2011). That is untrue reference information or omission of knowledge of the criminal propensities and dangerousness of its former employee. Most recent cases adopted general non legal obligation to warn potential employers about dangerous former employees as was held in the priest abuse scandal (Riches, Allen & Keenan, 2011). However, there are no clear and uniform rules derailing the liability of the employer to third parties with regard to referring former employees who are known to be dangerous to other employers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the priest abuse scandal, multiple victims of the priest’s abuse scandal sued the diocese, a former employer of the priest for allegedly â€Å"knowing the priests potentiality to abuse children sexually and failing to referring him to the police or preventing further atrocities†. The court commented that doing so aggravated vast obligation overly exceeding the state and other jurisdictions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In recent years, courts gave decreed in favor of the universities in liability lawsuits. As was held in the Bradshaw vs. Rowling, â€Å"students now demand and receive expanded privacy rights in their life at college†. The college administrators no longer have control over the wide berthed arena and hence colleges and universities are not bound to the negligent liability clauses (Finch & Fafinski, 2011). In recent cases, the courts have held no liability subsists for the University for failing to observe the duty to warn. In the 2007Virginia Tech Ruling, the courts held that there was no special relationship subsisting between the university and the students to impose corresponding responsibility (Parry & Parry, 2009). In addition, the court clarified that even if there was a special relationship, the provided evidence failed to give rise to a duty of warning third parties of the criminal acts. However, mental and health specialists attached to a university are obliged to warn potential victims of dangerous and violent students as well as the police of the impeding danger. References Adams, A. (2013). Law for business students (7th ed.). Harlow: Pearson/Longman. (2010). Duty To Warn Third Parties. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 2(3), 235-236. (2010). Employers’ Liability At The Docks.. The Lancet, 142(3664), 1268-1269. Finch, E., & Fafinski, S. (2011). Legal skills (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. MacIntyre, E. (2013). Business law (6th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman. MacLeod, I. (2011). Legal method (8th ed ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Martin, E. A., & Jonathon, L. (2009). A dictionary of law (7th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Middlemiss, S. (2011). The Truth And Nothing But The Truth? The Legal Liability Of Employers For Employee References. Industrial Law Journal, 33(1), 59-67. Parry, G., & Parry, A. M. (1999). Randi W. V. Muroc Joint Unified School District 1997: Implications For Employer Liability In Employment References. Education and the Law, 11(4), 287-294. Partington, M. (2011). Introduction to the English legal system. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 6th) Riches, S., Allen, V., & Keenan, D. J. (2011). Keenan and Riches’ business law (11th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman. Source document

Critically Discuss the Contribution of the Work of Frederick W. Taylor

Grey offers a number of opinions on management thought in his book â€Å"A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organisations† (2009). He outlines his opinions through a number of themes within the book such as looking at bureaucracy and scientific management together, his views on human relations theory (HRT) and its links with people management, the theme of organization culture and post-bureaucracy and how it is effecting change management.The final theme I will discuss in my essay is fast capitalism and how it is ending management. While looking at the themes I will also be evaluating Grey’s arguments within them and try to relate them where applicable to Wren and Bedeian’s book â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009). Grey views on bureaucracy are that he sees it as a highly efficient way of management in this book bureaucracy is not seen as red tape but a management type as put forward by Weber whereby rule s and regulation are used to become as efficient as possible. Relevant materials: Scientific Management Theory in NursingGrey tells us how Weber saw an emergence of an ideal called â€Å"rational legal authority† (Grey, 2009). Grey tells us how rationality links with bureaucracy using a number of examples such as formal or instrumental rationality the idea of this is to adopt a means to meet and end using the most efficient way possible. Grey uses an excellent example to illustrate this being the Nazi Holocaust it is as Grey (2009) says the extreme application of bureaucratic logic. It operated under a set of rules which were applied impersonally.This allowed it to be unbelievably efficient. Grey’s ideas on bureaucracy are linked to the ideas explored in Wren and Bedeian’s â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009) both books emphasise how Weber did not mean red tape when he said bureaucracy, they also share similar views of the disadvantages of bureaucracy such as how workers will work to the rules and theref ore know exactly what they must do to stay in the job or to achieve something Grey’s view on scientific management as put forward by Taylor is that his ideas still define management today.The real leap for scientific management as explained by Grey (2009) was the use of it by Henry Ford the man who made Ford cars. He employed scientific management within his factory to increase efficiency and it did so hugely. Grey also recognises the problems caused by Taylor’s ideas. Such as the many strikes by workers as it left the workers with less power and the managers with all the power, one of the main problems with it as explained by Grey (2009) is it eroded working onditions, reduced autonomy and threatened unemployment. I feel that Grey’s view here focuses too much on the problems caused by scientific management he does give a few advantages of it but he doesn’t emphasise enough how scientific management really revolutionised the way in which factories and com panies operated such as how using Taylor’s ideas on scientific management thought companies such as General Motors and Du Pont have become two of the biggest corporations in the world thanks to it.Wren and Bedeian share similar views to Grey on scientific management however I feel they show more admiration for it when they say how scientific management paved the way forward for subsequent management development (Wren and Bedeian 2009). Grey (2009) expresses his view many people see scientific management as the bad guy and human relations theory (HRT) as the good guy. I agree with this and Grey uses the Hawthorne experiment example which I feel expresses this view correctly and helped me understand the inefficiency’s caused by HRT.He tells us of an experiment in a bank wiring room where workers were producing electrical components and rather than produce at maximum output which would earn them a bonus they choose to produce at a lower level. This was due to informal nor ms set around the workplace such as peer pressure and an unofficial gang leader. This shows us that the informal side of an organisation to some is more important than the formal side. This shows how HRT can be seen as inefficient as and not always better than scientific management.This can be linked to Wren and Bedeian’s (2009) conclusions drawn from the Hawthorne Studies, they conclude that these experiments showed us that workers were not driven only by money but also by social factors which can lead to increased and decreased productivity. People management and HRT are very similar in my opinion as HRT is the way in which we manage people. It is important for people to see a manager as someone who helps people and not just a person who exploits someone to get the best work out of them.Grey (2009) gives an example of how HRT has changed the way we view managers by using a son and father conversation. The child asks his dad what he does and he replies how he exploits people and dehumanises them by making them work as hard as possible. Under HRT thought he replies how he helps people and makes unhappy people see that he cares about them. This example by Grey is exceptional in my opinion and to me it personifies what HRT and people management is; it is type of thought whereby the manager’s aim is to care for and motivate his workers.The view of the manager is undeniably hugely important to motivating workers as if they are seen as caring and helpful it acts as an incentive to workers to work harder this view is also shared in Wren and Bedeian (2009) where they say the significance of effective supervision in maintaining employee’s productivity and job satisfaction is huge. Grey’s (2009) view on organisation culture is that its aim is to intervene and regulate being so that there is no distance between individual’s purpose and those of the organisation for which they work.I agree with what Grey is saying here organisation cult ure to me is simply making an organisation a place where the worker feels completely comfortable and for the worker to feel proud to work for the company. An example of this I can relate to is the bank RBS having done work experience with them I now understand how they create organisation culture. On all their leaflets, cards and employee videos they try to show their core values and company slogans to create a good organisation culture. Grey argues that managers who try to change organisation culture are completely unrealistic.I agree with what Grey says here as the example he uses shows us how it is not possible. He cites an experiment carried out by Ogbonna and Wilkinson (1988) where a supermarket told all its employees to make customer service their prime focus by smiling all the time and to make them feel valued. The study results showed they obeyed superficially because they knew they were being watched but they didn’t mean their shows of friendliness. This may seem lik e they are carrying out the organisation culture but actually they have failed as they don’t actually believe in it.In relation to Wren and Bedeian’s view on organisation culture differs to that of Grey they see it as more innocent and with less scepticism than Grey does. They (Wren and Bedeian 2009) believe technology, economics and political facets provide the framework for organisation culture. Wren and Bedeian don’t go into the areas that Grey goes into when discussing organisation culture such as how management tries to change organisation as I have discussed already. Grey (2009) argues that post-bureaucracy can and should be mocked.He gives examples of studies which have been carried out to show that it is a flimsy thought. He cites a study by Paul Thompson who used aggregate statistical evidence and individual cases to prove that job structures and work experience are mostly unchanged by the post-bureaucratic revolution. This study was similar to that of Delbridge (1998) who studied two factories one which had all the paraphernalia of a post-bureaucratic workplace and one which did not. He concluded that both still shared very similar forms of working.I agree with what Grey is saying here as if you walk into a workplace today such as a factory the methods of management are still evident of the bureaucracy model and yes there is some evidence of post-bureaucracy but not enough to claim it’s a new era of post-bureaucracy. On the theme of change management Grey (2009) argues that is almost always fails. He supports his claim using the example of total quality management (TQM) which is implemented for the first time in a certain industry. One organisation may adopt it and then others will see it and decide to adopt it to.Now no one has a competitive advantage and there is a conveyer effect where by the companies now want a new method and therefore change. This claim by Grey in my opinion is correct change management doesn’ t work as for it to work something has to be applicable from one industry to another but change management fails at this. Grey (2009) however does admit that post-bureaucracy and change management cannot be ignored and that it is a huge part of society today as they have a huge hold over the managerial role in today’s world. Grey (2009) tells us how the post-bureaucracy and change management attract huge attention in the media today.He gives us the example of policies past by the British Government in which all are based on post-bureaucracy. Grey (2009) says how it is now assumed that for an economy to do well it must be purged of bureaucracy and open to change. I agree with what he has said here all we here about in today’s news is the need to change everything and for rules and regulations to be got rid of. However all we have to look at is the current economic climate to show us what happened when there was less bureaucracy and lots of change. People took advantage of it and we are now stuck in a recession for a number of years because of it.To show what fast capitalism is Grey (2009) uses the United Kingdom as an example and many of the companies within it such as Jaguar, P&O and Body Shop what all these companies have in common is they once used to be British owned now however they are owned by international companies or consortia. This shows us how Britain has taken on the idea of fast capitalism this however can lead to problems whereby the international companies who buy these smaller firms most of the time only see the financial value of them and not what the company may offer to a community with generations of families who have worked in the same business.This can lead to employees not feeling the need to work as hard as now they are working for an international company and therefore in my opinion inefficiency will begin to take place. The argument that fast capitalism is failing and problematic is put forward by Grey (2009) using the e xample of the bank Northern Rock who began by simply taking in deposits from savers and lending to borrowers for house purchases. In 1997 they choose a new more risky route whereby they raised money by through short term borrowing on financial markets.They also began to give loans to those who had poor credit history and they didn’t take in their account to pay them back. This was all well and good until 2007 when poor credit risks and the inability to get short term funds caused the bank to nearly collapse with customers going to the banks to take out all their money. The bank was then nationalised in 2008. This story shows me how fast capitalism failed as those who ran Northern Rock tried to adopt a new style of management and thought within the business to keep up with fast moving capitalism and in the long run their ideas failed leaving the customers and shareholders to suffer greatly.Grey (2009) puts forward the argument that management is ending. He explores this idea u sing a number of examples. The example which explores it best is the one about the study he carried out with a number of colleagues on a set of managers. They interviewed them and none of them described themselves as managers. When ask why they didn’t they all said it was an overused word which didn’t denote any real seniority in today’s workforce and secondly they felt the word had a meaning of someone who was inflexible and bureaucratic. This was not to say the end of management just it has become a somewhat meaningless word.The final thought Grey (2009) has on this is that managers might be coming to an end but management itself is not and it is constantly evolving and I whole heartedly agree with this point that it is simply changing constantly. Overall I feel that the themes in Grey’s book â€Å"A Very Short Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organisations† (2009) which range from looking at bureaucracy and scientific management together to his views on human relations theory (HRT) and its links with people management and the theme of organization culture and post-bureaucracy and how it is effecting change management.To the final one which I have explored; fast capitalism and end management have provided me with an insight into Grey’s thoughts on management and the arguments he has put forward about it. I also feeling my reading of this book has allowed me to relate it where applicable to Wren and Bedeian’s â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought† (2009) and allowed me to compare some of the older views on management within this book to the more modern ones explored by Grey. However I do believe that Grey’s book is far more concise than Wren and Bedeian’s which I feel is too long winded and less interesting than Grey’s.Bibliography: Grey, C. (2009). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations. London, Sage. De lbridge, R. (1998) â€Å"Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing† Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ogbonna, E. and Wilkinson, B. (1988) â€Å"Corporate Strategy and Corporate Culture: The View from the Checkout† Personnel Review, Vol. 19 Iss: 4, pp. 9 – 15 Wren, Daniel A . Bedeian Arthur G. December 2008,  ©2009. â€Å"The Evolution of Management Thought. 6th Edition†. USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Psychology of Evil, Psychological theories to explain the human Essay

Psychology of Evil, Psychological theories to explain the human capacity for evil, Social Psychology and the Holocaust - Essay Example Maintaining the fabric of society to a large part depends on obedience of the citizens. Laws laid down by authority encourage obedience, required for harmonious communal living. But as experiments have shown, obedience is a deeply powerful ingrained behavior stemming from childhood that appears to override moral conduct, ethical training and sympathy. Experimental results indicate that individuals can very easily submit their entire moral standings to an authority. They may do just about anything to please the authority even when their internal moral gauge tells them that their actions are wrong. Conducted at Yale University between 1961 – 1962, Milgram’s experiments involved three participants – two individuals and the experimenter. The two individuals enter a psychological lab to study memory and learning. Each has a designation; one is the â€Å"teacher†, the other a â€Å"learner† (Milgram 1974). The experimenter explains that the study aims to observe the effects of punishment on learning. The learner, who in actuality is an actor working for the experimenter, is led to a room and seated in a minor version of the electric chair. An electrode is attached to his wrist. The experimenter explains that he will be read a list of word pairs and then tested for his ability to recall a word pair upon hearing the first word. If he fails to remember the associated word or answers wrongly he will receive increasingly intensities of electric shocks. The teacher is led to another room housing an instrument console with thirty lever switches labeled with a voltage designation ranging from 14 to 450 volts along with word designations such as slight shock, moderate shock, strong shock, very strong shock, intense shock, extreme intensity shock, sever shock for groups of four switches. When a switch is depressed, the corresponding