Facilitating Learning in Professional Practice Essay

Facilitating Learning in Professional Practice - Essay Example The word construction can be used in terming the learning of nursing students in course of their education. 1 The conceptions of students change during education and they are studied by vosniadou (1994), Tynjala (1999). Their study gave knowledge about how the student nurses define the health promotion concept's relationship with health education. The student's descriptions about promotion of health emphasised the approaches, which concentrate on life style and changes in behaviour. Some students did not understand the relationship between health promotion and health education and the relationship between them in professional practice. The student must be aware of the interpretations of health promotion and the methods to apply them in practice. The change in conceptions and constructions of student nurses can be viewed as change in conceptions in the learning process. In this course the students understand what is the right meaning of health promotion. When the understanding is advanced the students act like experts. They observe a large area of results due to promotion of health and they will be able to apply them in new and critical situations. When the constructivist idea about knowledge is present, then the learning can be consistent. The learners build their knowledge by re constructing their concepts about health promotion and they interpret new information by using existing knowledge. In the process of moving from education while understanding health promotion to assess competence, it is necessary to be aware of the developments in the student in the course of education.1 In number of countries the teaching regarding health promotion in nursing education is on the basis of two WHO declarations; the Ottawa charter (1986), Health for all 2000. According to those charters, health promotion is defined as a process of making people capable of having control over their health and even to improve it. It should combine the structural change along with individual education. In nursing it is viewed as an integral part of daily practice. It should incorporate disease centred approach as proposed by Robinson and Hill (1995) as they are cited in 'Investigating student nurses' constructions of health promotion in nursing education, health education research'. But this is not enough. For modern needs of the society the nursing students must be equipped with promotion of health, which incorporates societal, political, economic and media aspects. The new approach should refer to interaction about promotion of health, which needs to clarify about the values, beliefs and determinants of health along with behaviour. The aim should be well being of individuals and empowerment of their communities. The promotion of health is situation specific and occurs in even complex situations. Then the knowledge building needs flexibility along with critical thinking, which reflects health promotion. The most complex form of change in student's conception is about revision at the level of theory, which is capable of causing misconceptions. This results in inconsistency and inertia. The studies of Tynjala (1999) establish that the change in concepts occurs on four levels; individual's semantic level, at the level of relationships between concepts, ontological level, and at the level of theory. According to Boud and Walker (1998) the context is the most important influence on reflection of learning. Different

Auxilium Pharmaceutical Corporation Research Paper

Auxilium Pharmaceutical Corporation - Research Paper Example In relation to the study the company which has been selected is Auxilium Pharmaceutical, a firm that has been in business since 1999. The firm’s common stocks are traded publicly in NASDAQ under the symbol AUXL. The mission statement of the company is: â€Å"To improve the lives of patients throughout the world by rapidly and efficiently identifying, developing and commercializing innovative specialty biopharmaceutical products†. The firm’s products target the following healthcare markets: hand and plastic surgeons, endocrinologist, rheumatologists, urologists, and primary care physicians. The two top selling brands the company has are Testim and Xiaflex. The values of the company include integrity, quality, innovation, teamwork, and result oriented. In fiscal year 2010 Auxilium Pharmaceutical generated $211 million in revenues. The organization has 565 employees. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest and most powerful industries in the world with 201 0 global sales of $875 billion. The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. One of the challenges that U.S. healthcare companies face when trying to develop a new drug is that it takes a lot of time and money to bring a new drug to market. During the last five years the costs of bringing a new drug to market have gone up from $800 million to $1.3 billion. One of the primary reasons companies receive lengthy patent protection is to allow companies sufficient time to recover its investment and make a reasonable profit. All the costs across the entire healthcare system in the United States are on the rise. The medical spending per capita in the United States is twice as high as other developed countries such as the members of the European Union. In 2009 the United States spend $7,410 in healthcare spending per capita, while Europe in the same period spend only spend $3,615. Quality is not the main issue that’s driving the costs up since the Europeans receive equal if not better healthcare than American citizens. The cost of education may be a factor that is affecting the salary scales for doctors in the United States. Most medical students borrow over $250,000 in student loans to finance their education. Once they start practicing doctors are seeking higher salaries than ever before. Drugs are becoming more expensive due to higher development costs and medical plans are charging astronomical yearly fees in comparison with the past. In 2009 the average cost of family healthcare plan was $13,375. Medical insurance plan inflation increased 5% in comparison with 2008. Due to the rising cost of medical insurance the amount of Americans that are uninsured has increased to over 50 million. This hurts the sales of pharmaceutical companies because uninsured citizens typically cannot afford to pay for their prescription drugs in cash payments. Auxilium Pharmaceutical has multiple strengths that are helping the company stay competitive. T he firm has build up a nice brand value during its 13 years operating in the industry. During 2010 the company had very solid sales results of $211.4 million which represent an increase of 29% in comparison with the previous year.