Module Assignment #4 - "Caregiving Systems"
4.1 - Overview
Caregiving Systems
The purpose of Homework Assignment #4 is to: (a) provide you with an appreciation of the importance that "sociocultural forces" play in how we learn about death and dying and, (b) to provide you with "hands on experience" in learning how these forces influence our understanding of death and dying in our lives.
A second purpose of Homework Assignment #4, since this is a two-chapter reading assighnment, is also to: (a) provide you with an appreciation of the dynamic interaction between patients, staff, and institutions in providing care for the sick and dying.
4.2 - Using The Internet To Conduct Psychological Research
Researching Thanatology
Theme - In this "Internet Research Project," you are to seek out one of the following: (a) a scientific journal article, (b) a national media article or, (c) a website that discusses, provides a fact sheet, or reports other such findings.
Task - Using one or more of the aforementioned resources, discuss some sociocultural aspect of death and dying. Sociocultural forces include: family, school, peers, mass media, religion, etc. Be prepared to discuss your learning in the "Blue Book" section at the end of this assignment.
You are urged to use the Internet exclusively, though you may use Doyle Library or other such "land-based" resources.
"At birth we cry, at death we see why," says an old Bulgarian proverb and "Birth is the messenger of death." goes an ancient Syrian proverb. The link below takes you to a YouTube video by Debra Marshall (Assistant Professor of Sociology at Eastern Florida State College) entitled: Sociological Theory: Death and Dying. A short introduction to how each of the major sociological theories describe issues related to aging, death and dying. This is a BRIEF overview of some ideas and was created for an undergraduate course on the sociology of death and dying. This video is a wonderful adjunct to The Last Dance's Chapter 3 on sociocultural forces of death.
Sociological Theory: Death and Dying
Links to an external site.
Doyle Library Electronic Databases
4.3 - Psychology Based Websites
Using Internet Tools To Learn About Death and Dying
Task - For the following psychologically oriented Website, report back what you learned from exploring any one of the many sub-categories listed. A tightly written paragraph--or better yet a typed, double-spaced page--sharing what you learned and what your reactions were, would be most appreciated.
Professor's Favorite Section: "Grief and Bereavement"
Death and Dying Resources Links to an external site.
4.4 - Reading Assignment - Chapter 5
Health Care: Patients, Staff, and Institutions"
Your primary textbooks include The Last Dance (10th ed.) by Lynne Ann DeSpelder and Albert Lee Strickland (New York: McGraw, 2014) and Grieving Days, Healing Days, by J. Davis Mannino (San Francisco, California: TeddyBear Publishing, 2013).
Primary Readings
As you read Chapter 5, "Health Care: Patients, Staff, and Institutions" you should keep in mind the following key questions and core concepts.
Content Overview
1. The kind and quality of modern health care depend on the relationships among the patient, the medical/nursing staff, and the institution.
2. Individual and social choices about financing health care exert an influence on the options available for care of the seriously ill and dying.
3. In the context of health care, a covenantal relationship implies a mutual interest between health care providers and patients; it encourages clear communication and promotes sharing of decision making.
4. Health care institutions are increasingly oriented toward providing “total” or “whole-person” care (physical, emotional, and spiritual) and social support.
5. Hospice and palliative care evolved from concerns about care of the terminally ill as well as from concerns about costs of health care at the end-stage of life.
6. Palliative care involves active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment.
7. Elder care includes a variety of housing and institutional care options as well as social service programs.
8. Hospice care is specialized palliative care of patients with terminal illness.
9. Emergency personnel and other caregivers are exposed to stress related to the helping role.
10. Hospice care is specialized palliative care of patients with terminal illness.
11. Death notification involves strategies for delivering bad news that can ease the traumatic impact of a death on survivors.
12. Being with someone who is dying involves a confrontation with one’s own mortality.
Objectives
1. To list the three main components of a health care system and explain how their interrelationship influences patient care.
2. To describe the relationship between health care financing and the options available for treatment.
3. To identify factors that influence the doctor-patient relationship and that affect the goal of achieving clear communication.
4. To summarize the types of health care for terminally ill and dying patients and to differentiate between their functions, purposes, and methods.
5. To assess the role of home care in the overall health care system.
6. To identify the challenges involved in elder care.
7. To describe key points in the evolution of trauma and emergency care.
8. To identify the features that make death notification difficult and suggest helpful strategies for delivering bad news.
9. To explain the factors influencing the onset of stress among caregivers and to identify ways of alleviating such stress.
10. To identify psychosocial factors influencing one’s relationship with a loved one who is dying.
Terms and Concepts
acute care
Aesculapian authority
assisted living facility
bridge programs
burnout
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
caregiver stress
chronic illness
compassion fatigue
congregate housing
continuing care community
critical incident stress management (CISM)
depersonalization
diagnosis-related groups (DRGs)
elder care
gerontology
golden hour
home care
hospice care
hospital
iconics
institutional neurosis
interventional cascade
life review
life-threatening illness
managed care
Medicare Hospice Benefit
notification of death
nursing home
palliative care
paternalism
peaceful death
personal care home
primary caregiver
proxemics
rationing
relationship-centered care
respite care
secondary mordibity
six-month rule
skilled nursing facility
social support
technological imperative
terminal illness
total care
trauma/emergency care
triage
whole patient care
Questions For Guided Study and Evaluation
1. Distinguish among the purposes and philosophies of care provided by hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices.
2. List three factors or circumstances that are driving up the cost of health care.
3. Describe the characteristics of an optimal patient–caregiver relationship.
4. Identify the consequences of withholding the truth. Include the points of view of both patient and physician.
5. Define the concept of total care.
6. Evaluate modes of communication that facilitate being with someone who is dying.
7. Identify the main features of palliative care and describe how it might be distinguished from hospice care.
8. Summarize the features and goals of hospice care.
9. Identify and discuss three challenges for contemporary hospices.
10. Identify some requirements for the provision of home care.
11. Describe at least three alternatives for elder care.
12. Identify several challenges in emergency and trauma care.
13. State at least three reasons why professional caregivers may experience stress in caring for the dying. Discuss how caregivers can decrease this stress.
14. Describe strategies that can facilitate being with someone who is dying.
Task - In the section above entitled: "Questions For Guided Study And Evaluation," briefly discuss any two questions you wish. Be sure to have enough length and quality to properly respond to each question.
Related Link
Thomas F. Healey observed, "Don't strew me with roses after I'm dead. When death claims the light of my brow, no flowers of life will cheer me: instead you may give me my roses now!" Indeed good wisdom: Live today, enjoy today, acknowledge those you love today.
The following link takes you to the Hospice of Southern Illinois, Inc, website. You can learn much from this site about hospice care.
Task - Provide a well thought out response --- in the appropriate task box --- explaining what you discovered and learned from having visited this website.
Hospice Care Link Links to an external site.
Practice Quiz - Chapter Five
In this section you will find a practice quiz for each assigned textbook chapter in The Last Dance. The quiz link is presented below.
Psych 56 - Chapter #5 Quiz - "Health Care Systems"
4.4-a - Online Exam #1
Chapters 1, 12, & 3
"Online Exam #1," like the other exams, is a restricted "time stamp" exam. By this it is meant that each exam is unlocked at a certain time and must be completed and submitted within a certain timeframe--"time stamped." The exam is then locked again. Once you take an online exam and press the "submit" button, your exam will automatically be graded and the results sent back to you at the email address you provided after all exams have been reviewed, graded, and added to the course gradebook by your professor.
Though the five exams are open book, you will not be successful in completing these online exams successfully if you have not read and studied the assigned chapters--this is just a simple fact!
The links below takes you to both "Practice Exam #1" and "Actual Online Exam #1" --- know the difference! If on exam day you are submitting the actual exam be sure you click on the correct link --- "Actual Online Exam #4.
Psych 56 - Practice Exam #1 (Chapters 1, 2, & 3)
Psych 56 - Actual Online Exam #1 (Chapters 1, 12, & 13)
4.5 - "Grieving Days, Healing Days" - The Workbook
Learning Through "Hands-On" Doing
Overview
Grieving Days, Healing Days, is an interactive workbook written by Dr. J. Davis Mannino, 2013 (Formerly, Boston: Simon & Schuster, 1996). It is required for this course, because specific pages in the workbook are assigned as part of each homework assignment that you chose to complete.
Assignments to complete in Grieving Days, Healing Days will be listed in this section for each of the 16 homework assignments. Generally speaking, assignments are due by the assigned date. This workbook is loaded with readings, exercises, and activities that will enhance your learning of many important topics in the study of death and dying --- a field that is better known as "thanatology."
It is also important to remember that certain workbook pages will be required reading for assignments that you choose to complete. Therefore, always review and read workbook readings for each of the homework assignments you choose to complete as part of the course requirement. Choose assignments that fulfill your overall course requirement from GDHD.
Workbook Reading Assignment
1. Review Grieving Days, Healing Days, and become familiar with it.
2. At minimum, read and complete ANY THREE of the following assignments in Grieving Days, Healing Days. This only applies to those HW assignments you are completing as part of the course requirement. They may also be credited towards your overall course workbook requirement as well. Please note that all online homework assignments must, at minimum, still be read and reviewed.
Conversations with the Dying, p. 70
Caregiving to Death, p. 72
Student Stress Scale, p. 73
Caregiver Burnout, p. 75
A Self-Diagnosis Instrument for Burnout, p. 76
Caregiving Yourself, p. 77
Poetry as a Caregiving Tool, p. 80
What Are your Thoughts About Your Own Dying?, p. 88
Dying Person's Bill of Rights, p. 115
Poetic Will, p. 117
Ideal Hospice Program, p. 134
4.6 - Course Discussion Board
Module #4 - Thought Provoking Question (TPQ) or Article
Overview - The purpose of a course discussion board is to allow students and professor an opportunity to interact about topics of common interest. A discussion board is also a fine tool to share commonly asked questions, answers, and concerns.
You are urged to use the message board, when you have questions that you think others may wish to know; when you have technical questions or answers that others may wish to know, and to share other useful tidbits with each other. I want each of you to become familiar with the message board system.
Once you have composed your thoughts and written them down in a word application program [i.e., Microsoft word] --- with grammar and spell check---you follow through with posting (copy and pasting) them. Remember, to be sure you also post your comments in the appropriate place in the task boxes that links later in this assignment. You only do this if you are also submitting this ENTIRE assignment as one of your required four online assignments for this course.
Task - In each class module, there will be one thought-provoking course related question or article for which discussion is expected from students. While not always directly related to assigned readings, they have important course-wide implications. You are expected to respond to each TPQ by the end of each class module's deadline Be sure to place the question/article module number (#) in the "subject line" so your classmates will know which module topic you are addressing.
Since there is only one "thought-provoking question or article " (TPQ) due per module during the regular semester, a minimum response of 250 to 500 words is required for each message board TPQ posting. Also, students need to post a TPQ for EACH of the 15 online assignments.
This Assignment's Thought Provoking Question (TPQ) or Article
The following link is a graded assignment for the TPQ. (1) Click on the link below, (2) read the TPQ or article, and then (3) respond in the student posting area provided at the end of the article.
Thought Provoking Reading #4 - "The Risk of Living: Some Thoughts on Life!"
4.7 - Death: A Personal Understanding
Overview
Welcome to a new video feature for my online course.
It is a very fascinating series by the world-renowned Annenberg Media Series. This video instructional series on death and dying is intended for college classrooms and adult learners. It is a 10 part series of half-hour video programs that focus on death and its many facets.
Gain a greater understanding of death and dying through case studies and moving personal stories of people facing their own death or the death of a loved one. This series explores a wide range of North American cultural perspectives on death within the context of current issues, including AIDS, death by violence, suicide, assisted suicide, hospice care, end-of-life decision making, and how children react to death. Leading authority Robert J. Kastenbaum guides you sensitively through these topics. This series is appropriate for courses in allied health, psychology, sociology, religion, and death studies.
Directions
When you arrive at the website, click the video icon you wish to view that says "VoD" [Video on Demand] and then when the "pop-up box" opens, click on the start arrow. Keep in mind that with "streaming videos," some of the film [buffering] must load so it can take up to a minute to load and sometimes it helps if you click on the start arrow again in the "pop-up box." Once you get the hang of it, you will find they all work the same, though with some quirky moments at times. You can also click on an icon in the video box allowing you to enlarge the video as to fill your entire screen. Just click on the "esc" button on our keyboard to leave the "large view" format.
Closed Captioning Note: For my students with disability challenges, there is a "closed captioning" option with this series. As you watch this video, after start up, click in the upper right hand side of the screen and you will see a icon that shows whether the captioning is on or off. To turn it on, click on it and you will see the on off switch change. I find I like watching the videos with captioning on as I have some hearing problems and I can catch everything everyone is saying especially if they are not talking clearly.
"Death: A Personal Understanding" - The Series Link
Video # 3 - Facing Mortality
How can we prepare for death? By preparing, do we enhance or diminish our lives? A retired performer, an epidemiologist now suffering from AIDS, a young businesswoman, a Holocaust survivor, and a war journalist discuss how facing their own deaths and the deaths of others has affected — and in some cases, transformed — their lives.
Task
When done reviewing the assigned video, prepare a thorough reaction statement at the "Blue Book" section link described further down at the end of this assignment.
"Death: A Personal Understanding" - The Series Link
Links to an external site.
4.8 - Assignment #4 "Blue Book" Responses
Composing Your Responses To Assignment #4 in Module #4
Overview - For each course module there is a major homework assignment that must be completed. Each of these module homework assignments has several tasks. Some entail reading, some include exploring and reviewing websites, reviewing videos, and still others involve written tasks --- work that must be submitted for review and/or grading.
Responses to "tasks" must be sent on time or you will either fail the assignment or be severely penalized. Late homework assignments are perceived as both a student who is "absent from class" and "late with work." Please always maintain a backup copy of all your written work. Glitches occur in online technology-based education, but ultimately it is your responsibility to maintain adequate backup of all work submitted. You are also encouraged to compose your work within a word-processing application and then "copy and paste" into "task boxes." This is so you may avail yourself of spell and grammar check options provided in most modern word processing software.
Please be aware that all submissions are automatically received by the course "gradebook," where they will be evaluated by your professor for acceptance, rejection, or acceptance with penalty. So make sure your work is received promptly. Much the same way that attendance is determined by you presence in the traditional classroom at the regularly scheduled class time, so too is attendance determined by your prompt submission of assignments while enrolled in an online course. Furthermore, arriving to class without homework or with incomplete homework is also perceived in the same manner with an online course. Accordingly, you are encouraged to submit you weekly work prior to deadlines, to avoid computer glitches, "downtime," and other "technological spills and inconveniences."
Directions - Each numbered task box listed below corresponds with tasks described in each module's homework assignment. Usually, tasks outlined on this webpage require written reactions and/or responses.
Be sure to follow directions carefully and precisely when completing each task. "A word to the wise!" Minimal work receives a minimal grade. For example, if a task asks that you provide a written paragraph or two, and you provide just that, then you have provided only minimal work. Simply said, minimal work is "C" work. Well thought out writing that exceeds both excellence and minimal length (word count) and quality requirements is, generally speaking, graded higher and indicative of a "good and solidly motivated student." However length in of itself does not assure quality either, so learn to strike a balance. Good luck!
Particulars - Remember this module is due by a certain date or will be penalized. Overly late assignments may NOT be accepted at all, and at minimum, marked down. The discretion of the professor rules in all such matters. Was your assignment "Online and Ontime?" Before beginning this first homework assignment be sure you understand the word count and quality requirements (1500 to 3000 words depending on grade desired). See Grading Policy in Course Basics at the Course Syllabus for further information regarding requirements and grading of module submissions.
Module Assignment #4 "Blue Book" [Graded Responses Go Here]