Guidelines for Weekly Journals

At the end of the semester, you will be expected to turn in six journals. You must complete the journals by reading and analyzing comic books you have read outside of class. You should be able to find some at your local library, if you are not in the Canton area. If you are in the area, I have many on reserve at the SUNY Canton Library. Yes, you may also use digital comics. If you have a phone or tablet, you can download Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse applications. Free comics are available (though I’d rather have you read an entire story arc rather than a single issue of a comic). Manga will work as well.

Here’s a nifty site where you can read free digital comics. Yeah!

http://www.comicastle.org/

Here’s how you go about it:

Begin with a brief summary. BRIEF. Then, continue with lens analysis: using one of the lenses (or approaches) you are exposed to, analyze the text. For example, perhaps you read Batman: The Dark Knight and decide to use the psychological lens to analyze the work. You select a psychological theory (Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, for example) and you would determine which stage each of the characters seems to be at. (Interestingly enough, even though characters are three dimensional, they are often caught up in one of the conflicts Erikson discusses in his stages of psychosocial development. Batman, for example, might be caught up in stage 1: trust vs. mistrust. He’s not an infant, but he still seems to be caught up in that conflict, as well as several others.

NOTE: I am open to other options if you have a suggestion or an alternative idea for a journal entry. Please drop me a line!

REQUIREMENTS:

* – 1-page, double spaced per entry.

* – 1″ margins on all sides.

SUBMIT YOUR JOURNALS IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT

Case Study Scenario

The hospital readmission rate is often considered an indicator of an undesirable patient outcome. You quality improvement team is located at a metropolitan hospital that serves a large population. The quality improvement team is conducting a study pertaining to readmissions, smoking and number of drugs administered to admitted patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). The team is interested in reducing the number of readmissions among patients discharged with a principal diagnosis of CHF.
The team believes that the high admission rate is due to the difficulty that these patients have in controlling the number of drugs that they typically take. The team believes that by improving patient/family education regarding drug administration, the readmission rate could be reduced. Thus, they have developed the screen “CHF patients taking three or more drugs” to identify these patients before discharge. To evaluate the effectiveness of the measure, the team conducts a study on all CHF patients discharged the previous year. The results are shown below:

• Your team needs to decide how to measure the effectiveness of this measure. You think the best way would be to compute the values of the sensitivity, specificity and predictive value. Show your work and provide an interpretation of these measures.
• On the basis of your results, is this an effective measure? Why or why not?
• Once you assess the effectiveness of this measure, and your team feels confident that this is an appropriate measure to use, the Health Administrator of the Unit asks your team to examine the odds of patients being readmitted for those who were administered at least 3 drugs. Calculate the odds ratio and explain this finding to your administrator.

  Next, your team is examining the number of cigarettes smoked per day in this sample and sex-specific death rate per 1000 per year among CHF patients admitted to the hospital. The following table shows the results that you obtained.

• Your team would like to calculate the attributable risk or attributable proportion of CHF death rates due to smoking 1-14 and 15-24 cigarettes per day separately for males and females. Do you notice any differences within and between these groups in death rates due to CHF based on the different number of cigarettes smoked per day?
• What can the team conclude about the death rate due to CHF for males and females separately when zero cigarettes per day are smoked? How do they compare?
• Obtain a regression equation for the data shown above that predicts readmissions based on the number of drugs administered. How is the number of drugs administered associated with readmissions for these patients?

Your quality improvement Team is revisiting the following patient readmissions and would like to predict the number of readmissions based on the number of drugs administered.

The reading “Radicals Chasing Utopia” is an exploration of the individuals, groups and movements who are rejecting the way we live now, and attempting to find alternatives. In it, Jamie Bartlett, takes us inside the strange and unique worlds of the innovators, disruptors, idealists and extremists who think society is broken, and believe they know how to fix it. Bartlett sets out to describe and understand this new spirit of radicalism with various different aspects.

Directions: In this argumentative essay you will pick a chapter (I have chosen chapter 4: Prevent) read and develop an argument around the topic discussed. Take an angle/ a position on the chapters themes (some chapters have more than one, so you can pick), and develop a thesis around your claim. You will need to do an outline and write a 4 page essay double spaced arguing, analyzing, and discussing topic/chapter you have chosen. You can use only the book as a source to quote from in helping support your ideas. I have chosen chapter 4 from the book Radicals Chasing Utopia for you, and have attached it in a file.

Try to stay away from using big vocabulary words. Don’t forget to include an outline.

Diabetes

1) Describe the 3 types of diabetes Insipidus.
2) What lab values would you expect to see with each type?
3) Describe the causes/potential causes of each type and how the treatment varies between the 3 types and why
4) What would indicate a “red flag “symptom in any of them and require urgent treatment

Case Study:

A 30 yr. old female comes to see you for complaints of fatigue. She is 8 months post-partum and delivered a healthy baby. She thought her fatigue was initially due to post-partum, but states that the fatigue is worsening. She is also bothered by some weight gain over the past few months.

1) What else would you want to ask in her review of systems?
2) What specifics would you look for on physical exam?
3) How would you explain to her the most likely cause of her symptoms and why this is happening?

Case Study:

A 55 year old obese male (BMI 33.1) comes to see you with complaints of weight gain and fatigue. His history is significant for hypertension and hyperlipidemia. These are controlled with medications. You check a random fasting blood sugar in the office and it is 150 fasting. His point of care HgBA1C is 6.6

1) Explain how his obesity contributes to the beta cell dysfunction seen with Type 2 DM
2) Explain how GLP 1 receptor agonists improve glucose control in the diabetic patient.
3) What are the pros can cons of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibitors versus GLP 1 receptor

debate on the topic: “should the government tax or potentially ban ‘labor-saving’ inventions that could eliminate thousands of jobs like driverless cars, electronic kiosks, etc.?”

Write a 700-800 word Op-Ed taking a side on this issue. Please make sure it is double spaced, includes your name on the top-left corner, is properly cited using APA format (ideally you should have 3-5 references; they can include news articles, research papers, books, etc.), and draws from sound economic arguments. Completing this is the bare minimum requirement for receiving credit.

The works you submit are quoted works (ie references) so that I can clearly see where you got the original material. To stop plagiarism, your point of view must be your own.