Reflective Journal Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflective Journal - Coursework Example I considered the legal and ethical aspects that surround physician aid-in-dying before responding to the patient. Though I understood the patient’s tribulations, I was also wary of the complexities in the patient’s request. In a respectful and caring way, I explored the request to understand its origin and established potential interventions to alleviate the motivators of the request. The patient was clearly depressed and hence I opted to counsel her proposed palliative care and hospice as potential and effective alternatives. After 2 days of counseling, continued family support, and assistance from a palliative care specialist, the patient dropped the physician aid-in-dying request. The clinical experience was positive in that it reminded me of the significance of counseling in handling the elderly and terminally ill patients. The physical, mental, social, and spiritual suffering experienced by such patients leads to depression that may compel patients to request for the ethically and legally controversial physician aid-in-dying (Plaisted, 2013). Counselors, supportive families, and palliative care specialists can help in nursing elderly and terminally ill patients. However, the clinical experience was negative since it manifested how patients disregard medications, make irrational decisions, and give up on nursing care for terminal illness. This jeopardizes the capacity to manage terminal illness. Indeed, physician aid-in-dying request demeans many effective alternatives that can ease terminal suffering and guarantee long life (Plaisted, 2013). I would have made the situation better by recommending frequent counseling sessions for the patient since it was clear he would spend a long time in our hospital. Moreover, I would have consulted professional colleagues regarding physician aid-in-dying. Indeed, other professional colleagues would have helped in addressing most of the patient’s issues. For instance, palliative

Environmentally Sensitive Habitant Calls for Innovative Thinking Assignment

Environmentally Sensitive Habitant Calls for Innovative Thinking - Assignment Example In the past years, erosion has compromised the stability of the river meanders that resulted in â€Å"numerous slip failures in the river banks and of the flood defense embarkments.† The unstable river banks now possess hazards to the residents of the area as well as to those boats and crafts navigating through the river. Undertaking the riverbank stabilization project for Darford Creek is Team Van Oord4 under project Manager EC Harris. Team Van Oord shall work closely with ARUP5, the designer of the project. The task of the company is to â€Å"maintain the integrity of the flood defense embankments along two sections of the west bank†6 and at the same time provide for environmental measures and enhancements to product the sensitive habitat of the Creek area. As a form of habitat enhancement, Team Van Oord creates an engineered salt marsh habitat. The total budget for the project amounts to  £ 3.6 million. The construction project is good for 60 weeks. The construction is under the supervision of the Environment Agency. To stabilize the flood embankments, the contractors need to install a combination of steel sheet piling and timber brushwood faggots. According to the design of the project, the brushwood faggots shall be placed in front of the piling and supported by brushwood stakes. The general idea of this design is that the current of the river will bring about silt which could be captured and trapped in between the brushwood. The trapped silt will eventually accumulate to a certain degree and bury the brushwood faggots. Once the brushwood faggots are completely buried under the silt and sediments, it will become part of the flood embankment system and at the same time create a new salt marsh habitat. The project is deemed as a long term solution to the river bank erosion problem as well as aid in the restoration and protection of the endangered habitat.