Recent orders
Female Healthcare Workers
Female Healthcare Workers
I am a female aged forty five years and have worked as a health worker for more than ten years. I have ever suffered an infectious disease in my workplace in more than one occasion .I contracted the infection when a patient suffering from the infection sneezed when I was treating her. Droplets containing the infectious disease were transferred from the patient to me. The infection really affected my work as I became less effective. It went to a point that I could not be able to go to work to reduce the chances of infecting others. Infectious diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria or fungi. The particular infectious disease that I contracted was bacterial, and took antibiotics against the bacteria.
Healthcare workers are at a risk of contracting infectious disease mostly those that are caused by blood borne pathogens as a result of occupational exposure to body fluids and blood. They also have an increased risk of contracting TB and other infectious diseases that are emerging such as avian influenza and acute respiratory syndrome. To prevent myself from contracting the infectious diseases I take precautions like ensuring I wash my hands before, and after any contact with body fluids or blood from infected patients. I always ensure I wear personal protective equipment and clothing in instances that I am exposed to blood, aerosols or other body fluids which might carry infectious materials .I ensure that I avoid risky behavior whenever I am handling sharp instruments such as needles, scissors, blades and scalpels. I always ensure that I dispose off the sharp instruments in appropriate containers.
I face challenges such as lack of proper protective clothing available in the health centre. For instance there are only a few masks that are made available for the health workers to use. Gloves are used everyday by all health care workers, and in many instances it takes almost an hour before fresh gloves are brought in. To deal with these challenges I ensure that I always carry with me my own mask and box of gloves. Through this I can always be sure that I will be protected all the time when carrying out my duties even if these things lack or are in short supply in the centre.
The administration plays a very big role in trying to protect the health workers from infections such as ensuring that we are vaccinated against the common infectious diseases. Through the immunization programs the immunity of health workers is maintained .This prevents the health workers from contracting common infectious diseases. The administration provides the health workers with protective equipment and has policy that the protective equipments are disposed or disinfected before health workers leave the work area. Within the centre the administration ensures that all the equipment is sterilized after being used.
The current policies in place ensure that there are minimal chances of contracting the infectious diseases and they hence protect me from the risk of infection. The administration should ensure that they are strict and adhere to the policies in place to protect health workers from infectious diseases.
Eating Disorders, Depression and Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Eating Disorders, Depression and Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Presented by
Institution
Introduction
Overview
Human beings experience many health problems that interfere with their day-to-day activities. Human behavior is unpredictable and complex and only experts can be able to analyze and understand it through various tests and observations. Examples of these health problems experience by people are eating disorders, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). All the three problems are related to each other and an individual may suffer from any one of these, or even all of them at the same time. On the other hand, most people find it hard distinguishing between what is good and what is bad because the judgment depends on the individual’s perception. A person suffering from any of the three disorders above behaves in a different manner from a normal human being. Teenagers are at greater risks of suffering from eating disorders, and even people in their young adulthood (Lenzenwege et al, 2007).
Arguments
Many researchers have investigated the relationship between eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The main area of focus that researchers base their studies on is the symptoms of these disorders. Even with the high number of researches on this topic, there has never been a clear picture of what caused eating and OCD among people, especially young children. Others have gone even further to gather information from elderly people on how they used to perceive such problems if they attacked one of their family members. On the other hand, the topic on eating disorders is diverse because it involves a lot of input from health specialists who have knowledge on how to identify and diagnose affected individuals. Some studies even mistaken normal people to suffer from OCD because they claim that any person showing signs of mind disturbance, stubbornness, or uncooperative with peers is definitely suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Findings in the area
In every psychodynamic concept of obsessive thinking, the parent-child relationship comes into action. A child experiences a void-like state when he or she grows in absence of key parental relational processes that include; emotional proximity and childhood monitoring. On the other hand, a child develops anxiety that plays the role of a ‘dead’ inner world arising from a parental abandonment and loss of good things in life. Eating disorder, depression and OCD make an individual more active and increase the need for controlling his or her own environment. A person affected by any Personal Disorder is always under control of his or her actions and even orderly, but it also makes a person inflexible and unable to surrender control (Marano, 2010). The findings from Fridman’s research play an essential role in understanding the disorder through looking at the dangerous symptoms and how they affect the victim physically and emotionally.
The following characteristics make such individuals unable to express their feelings towards other people, lack close relationships, and unable to enjoy successes they achieve in life. Psychologists argue that the key feature of obsessive thinking occurs due to compulsive and repeated occupation of mind with many images, words, and ideas that always disturb a person. The following discussion found out that different people have varying beliefs on the existence of eating disorders, depression, and OCD and yet, research has not exhausted materials required to fully cover the topic. The most significant finding in the area of eating disorder is the
Literature review
Critical assessment of the literature
Fridman (2006) researched on some major symptoms of eating disorder. In his research, Fridman found out that symptoms of obsessive personality disorder are associated with emotional, mental, and behavioral control of victims and others. In cases where the victim shows excessive conscientiousness, the problem is associated with general poor problems. People showing such symptoms experience difficulties in making simple decisions making them highly inefficient. In addition, such people always urge for control of situations and are easily upset by small changes on schedules or planned events. In addition, Fridman investigated on the negativities faced by OCD victims through victimization by family members, friends and the community. Most communities associate personality disorders with evil and belief that any victim is a bad omen to the family (Freid, 2006).
Another important literature that assists in understanding eating disorders, depression, and OCD is its prevalence. A study by Fursland & Watson (2014) revealed that women have 15% prevalence of acquiring eating disorders, while the people at the adolescence age have 10.5% prevalence. Higher cases of eating disorders are reported in populations such as outpatient mental patients with prevalence of 16.5% in women and 2.0% in men. Fursland & Watson also found out that most of the eating disorder victims go unnoticed because they never seek treatment from healthcare centers. Moreover, others fail to seek medical attention because their families hide them and fear being associated with mentally challenged individuals. Out of the many studies conducted on the prevalence of personality disorders in the United States population, only 9.1% of the population has recorded the disorder characteristics. The study carried out in 2007 showed that 1 out of 11 people in US suffered personality disorders of various types. A survey carried out by Crawford et al in 2005 showed that 4.7% of US population suffered obsessive personality disorder while another survey by Lenzenweger et al (2007) recorded 2.4 % disorder prevalence.
Applicability to understanding of eating disorders
Experts have developed many theories on the causes of eating disorders in the society today. These theories have found many applications in the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorder, but they also have some drawbacks. The ability to maintain and initiate a secure relationship with another person is a function of social emotional development. Rachman’s theory of cognitive obsession claims that professionals and religious leaders should be on the first line in guiding people of how to face issues of personality disorders in the society. These people can influence large groups and increase the vulnerability of obsessive among their followers. The cause of any OCD should be determined by first looking at the environment of the victim. Some people grew in hostile conditions where quarrel was the order of the day. Such people are likely to develop personality disorder. However, Rachman gave exceptional of people who follow the law, like the military, because they only follow orders.
Another theory of significance deals with self-concept. This should be the first characteristic to be enhanced by recognizing, and realizing the unique qualities each child possess. Researchers must pay attention to the children’s nature to avoid the development of obsessive characters. Moreover, self-confidence gives eating disorder victims internal worth making it easy for the child to face challenges and eliminate a sense of fear that triggers obsessive personality disorder. Lack of self-confidence makes the child focus on failure instead of success making a child want to grow to be always a perfect person. Self-esteem is another vital characteristic.
These theories have limitations because they fail to give the society the correct path to take. Firstly, they introduce a state of confusion when they involve community leaders, and yet do not call upon the affected people to seek medical attention. In addition, the theories do not boost people’s self-esteem because instead of complimenting victims they only scare those claiming eating disorders are associated with evil.
Possible directions for future research
In the future, researchers should focus on studying how eating disorders could be minimized during early stages of life. Most studies concentrate on the cause of eating disorders, their prevention, prevalence, and treatment. Future studies should establish the way forward by searching ways that victims can cope with the situation. In addition, they should introduce policies requiring health practitioners to undergo special trainings on how to detect personality disorders, and find the best solutions to cope with the problem early enough.
Conclusion
The information discussed in the above analysis plays a significant role in the health industry, and the society at large. Eating disorders, depression, and OCD are abnormalities among people, and the only way to get rid of them is through researching about them deeply. The discussion has provided the statistics of eating disorder prevalence in United States. This is a worrying fact. When such a large number of people are affected in a developed world, how about the developing country like Kenya where approximately 40% of people leave below the poverty line? The proposed directions for future research should be implemented in order to help minimize eating disorders and instead develop a healthy nation.
References
Freid C. (2007).Beliefs Associated with Eating Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:
The Development of the Obsessive Beliefs About Body Size and Eating Survey (OBBES).Nashville TN
Fursland, A. & Watson, H. (2014). “Eating Disorders: A Hidden Phenomenon in Outpatient
Mental Health?” International Journal of Eating Disorders 47:4 422–425
Lenzenweger, M. F., Lane, M. C., Loranger, A. W., & Kessler, R. C. (2007). DSM-IV
Personality Disorders In The National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Biological Psychiatry, 62(6), 558.
Marano, D et al. (2010).Binge Eating Disorder and Depression: A Systematic Review. The
World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 11 (2): 199-207
Rachman, S. J. (1998). A cognitive theory of obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36,
385-401
Eating Disorders study
Eating Disorders
A study into the threats that challenge the health of women in the United States reveals that cancer ranks second as the killer of women, after heart disease and a more targeted study found that eating disorder was a prevalent killer especially among female teenagers. A 2009 report produced by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the leading causes of death in females of all ages are Heart Disease at 24%, cancer at 22.2% and eating disorder at 40% in teenagers, in that order(Bryant & Lusk, 2002). This is a very high percentage of the population losing their lives because of a simple disease in most people’s eyes. Eating disorder presents itself in several forms of attack as another research reveals. The types of eating disorder that are prevalent in teenage girls more often affect the digestive system, for example, anorexia and bulimia. These diseases alone effectively decimates the lives of a quarter of the teenage population, robbing the country of a very important people, incurring huge losses in the family and the economy(Ambrose &Deisler, 2011).
Statistics show that in the US alone about 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from eating disorders(Ambrose &Deisler, 2011). The video further validates the dominant age bracket as 15-19 years old since the girl in the video says that her infatuation with weight loss and eating disorder started at the tender age of 15 when she only weighed 50lbs. This is a huge incidence and a huge percentage of the population is marginalized due to eating disorders. From the video, it is important to note that the girl’s family was greatly affected by her condition. Her eating disorder had financial implications on her family who had to cater for her healthcare both in-patient and out-patient during her recovery period. This further helps validate the statistics by Bruch which implicate the fact that that there has been a steady increases in the incidence of anorexia among young teenagers aged 15 to 29 every decade. (Bruch, 1973).
The video “My Anorexic life” provides a clear indication of the extent of injury this eating disorder can do to not only a person, but those who are close to them as well. Bryant and Lusk, (Bryant & Lusk, 2002) conducted a research on seven clinics, targeting anorexia and bulimia procedures, with the aim of identifying the effectiveness of the personnel involved, their methods and ability to reach the target group. They investigated various in-patient and out-patient programs that helped individual suffering and recovering from eating disorders. The personnel who were involved were the physicians, nurses and a contracted research nurse. There were five general objectives, which the personnel from each of the seven clinics expected to achieve. These were to streamline and maintain a patient documentation system, to improve patient awareness by providing printed educative literature, to develop a system of identifying patients that needed checks for malnutrition, to develop a system where patients would share health and weight gain results with other medical installations, and to initiate or improve community outreach. The project however was not very successful due to several reasons.
Most of the clinics specializing in eating disorders such as anorexia mad bulimia operated autonomously despite their link to a larger supervising hospital. The only thing that they shared was documentation, and time-wasting bureaucracy bogged down the process. At the same time, the staff between the clinic and the larger hospital did not have cordial relationships, and this strained the flow of information and resources to the clinic(Bryant & Lusk, 2002). That meant that at times, the staff at the clinic found their resources overstretched. Sometimes there was too much work in a clinic compared to the few personnel.
The researchers noticed this challenge too in the private clinics. Most members of staff assigned to anorexic cases had too many responsibilities. The staff was also not enthusiastic about finding more effective, alternative methods or approaches. In fact, the staff resisted the new projects. They preferred the status quo. This state of affairs also affected the relationship between the personnel in the clinics adversely. During the research, the research nurses noted a major disconnect between the physicians and the nurses. The net effect of this was that the staff became lethargic, loosing enthusiasm in their work and developing a bad attitude towards work (Bryant & Lusk, 2002). The clinic system could not effectively carry out proper rehabilitation of anorexic and bulimic women.
From an ethno cultural standpoint, statistics show that the prevalence of anorexia and other related eating disorders is similar among Hispanics, Non-Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans in the USA(Ambrose &Deisler, 2011). It however has a distinct exception in that Anorexia nervosa is mostly prevalent among Non-Hispanic Whites. The video is likely of a Non-Hispanic White and such a sample case only goes to show that anorexia is mostly prevalent among individuals of this ethnic background (Ambrose &Deisler, 2011). A theory has been fronted, that continued anorexic and bulimic eating disorder may lead to clinical obesity associated symptoms.
In conclusion, stimulating organizational change in health care institutions targeting eating disorders, being active players in health policy reforms for eating disorders, supporting health rights organizations, sharing information about anorexia though writing and working towards social-cultural empowerment are some of the activities that victims of eating disorders can actively participate in. This will raise their ethno cultural and economic status, maximize on their potential and present them as equal beings in society which looks down on individuals with eating disorders. A lesson that can be learnt from the video is that the journey to recovery is not easy and so the government and other stakeholders should step in and give a helping hand in helping combat the issue of eating disorders before in turns out to be a catastrophe.
References
Ambrose, M., &Deisler, V. (2011). Investigating eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating): Real facts for real lives. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers.
Bruch, H. (1973). Eating disorders: Obesity, anorexia nervosa and the person within. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Bryant-Waugh, R., &Lask, B. (2002). Anorexia nervosa and related eating disorders in childhood and adolescence. Hove, East Sussex: Brunner-Routledge.