Dichotic Listening Task Analysis

Dichotic Listening Task Analysis Miss Emma Elizabeth Dorothy Meredith What does the dichotic listening task tell us about how we attend to information? Discuss this with reference to early and late selection models of attention. Attention is a selection process and is invaluable to our everyday lives. We use our attention for many things such as crossing the road, watching over our children, or even while multi-tasking (which is an invaluable skill in today’s world). Psychologist William James (890), talked about two modes of attention; Active attention which is indicative of an individual’s goals and expectations and controlled in a top-down way; and passive attention which is controlled in a bottom-up way and is effected by external stimuli (Eysenck, Keane, 2010). The way attention works brings about a host of questions which has generated much research in to this field; questions such as how much information can we take in at once? What happens to the information to which we are not attending? Do distractions from unwanted information cause attention to fail? Other questions are how do we process the information coming through our senses? And when in the process do we filter out that which i s not relevant? (Naish, 2010). This essay will be concerned with where the filter lies in the process and will compare and contrast early and late models of selection, drawing on research in this area which has used dichotic listening tasks to help explain how we attend to information. The dichotic listening task is a method commonly used by researchers in psychology to explore selective attention. Participants are asked to wear headphones, in which they are then presented with multiple sounds representing that of the real world. These different sounds are played in each ear and are easily manipulated (Naish, 2010). Broadbent (1952, 1954) used the dichotic listening task to support the bottleneck theory of attention. This theory proposed that information is selected on the basis of ‘low level’ physical characteristics such as location of sound, pitch and gender of speaker, and only this information is processed which would suggests that this bottleneck in the attentional system is such that only a limited amount of sensory information passes through it. Broadbent argued that this bottleneck occurs early on in the filtering process. To demonstrate this theory, Broadbent used the dichotic listening task in which he used two conditions where the participa nts are asked to listen and repeat different numbers. Pairs of different numbers are played to each ear. They then have to report these numbers back either by confirming the numbers heard in each ear (condition 1) or reporting the numbers in the order they were heard (condition 2). Broadbent’s findings were that generally participants found condition 1 easier than condition 2 and that participants generally couldn’t remember the ignored message in one ear when close attention was paid to the message in the other. However he found that with short messages, participants could access the neglected information a short time after, as it would be stored in the echoic memory. Physical features such as pitch and location were also found to be used by participants to track messages. From this, Broadbent concluded that switching attention back and forth between ears took up more cognitive resource and that the physical features were also used to filter information. He also propo sed that all information is received in parallel and then sorted based on the perceptual characteristics. It is only then that the signal wanted is passed on for processing, anything else is blocked which protects again overloading of the semantic processor (Naish, 2010). Broadbent’s early filter theory has been criticised he argument being that if we haven’t extracted meaning out of the sensory information then how do we know to discard it as not relevant. Theories which contrast Broadbent’s early filter theory shall be looked at next. Attenuation theorists suggest that only the shadowed message in dichotic listening tasks are fully processed, however everything else is not blocked, it is just attenuated. Treisman (1960) discovered that some participants, when shadowing a message, would say a word that had been presented in the unshadowed message. She found that this was usually because the word was plausible in the context of meaning in the shadowed message (Eysenck, Keane, 2010). This led Treisman (1964) to propose the attenuation theory which is that all information is perceptually processed in parallel then sent through for processing semantically. The attended message would be left untouched and then, in contrast to Broadbent, all of the other information would be attenuated and analysed, rather than blocked which explains why the attenuated message will sometimes be attended to (such as in the cocktail party effect where you can be attended to a conversation in one part of the room, hear your name in another part of the room and then switch your attention to that conversation) and also illustrates a flaw within Broadbent’s early Filter theory. Treisman used the dichotic listening task and shadowing to illustrate attenuation. Participants were asked to shadow a story being played in one ear ignoring what was being played in the other ear. She found that participants began to shadow the other ear if the story switched ears, contradicting Broadbent’s theory as they shouldn’t be aware of the story continuing in the other ear. Treisman proposed that this was due to priming where the temporary sensitisation of a word due to the presence of another causes the listener to assume what the next word will be. She also claimed that the location of the bottleneck was likely to be more flexible than Broadbent had suggested (Naish, 2010). Certain words, such as own name, may also be recognised easily in the unattended message. It was demonstrated by Underwood (1977) that the primi ng effect became stronger if there were several linked ideas used to prime rather than a single word. Underwood also concluded that sentences are processed as whole units but only when attended as the priming effect was also much stronger when the story starts in the attended ear and then switches to the unattended ear rather than vice versa (Driver, 2001). It has already been mentioned that Broadbent had found that information could be stored in the echoic memory and it is also true of the iconic memory when it come visual modality. He argued that if we could switch attention rapidly into the appropriate sensory buffer then it would be possible to process unattended information. Broadbent was, however, cynical about this as he believed that it took 500ms to shift attention, but it actually takes 50ms (Tsal, 1983 cited Eysenck, Keane, 2010). This means that shifting attention to that information in the echoic memory can be as efficient as shifting attention to the actual object. Tre isman argues that the reason for this sporadic semantic processing of the unattended information is due to a leaky filter. In contrast, Broadbent argues that it depends on what is called ‘slippage’ by Lachter et.al (2004). That is attention shifted to supposedly unattended information, therefore it is not unattended (Eysenck, Keane, 2010). There are three other studies that showed unconscious awareness of the unattended material. Corteen and Wood (1972) conducted an experiment where participants were conditioned with a mild shock to city names until they showed a Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). They still showed GSR to these words and cities they hadn’t been conditioned in, when they occurred in the non-shadowed message, although consciously they were not aware of them (Naish, 2010). Corteen and Dunn (1974) also conditioned their participants to certain words so that they would exhibit GSR upon hearing them. To demonstrate non-awareness, participants were instructed to make a conscious response when a conditioned word was played. They failed to do this most of the time when the conditioned word was played in the unattended ear and exhibited GSR. This suggests that some processing for meaning must take place and contradicts Broadbent’s early filter theory (Driver, 2001). Von Wright, Anderson and Stenman (197 5) suggested that meaning can be processed without awareness. They established that a GSR was caused by related words, even synonyms, for the conditioned word by conducting a dichotic listening task where the participants were presented with two lists of words auditorially and asked to shadow one list and ignore the other. The findings were that this indeed happened and a GSR effect occurred when the words were in the non-shadowed list or were very similar sounding words (Eysenck, Keane, 2010). As already mentioned, attenuation theory helps to explain the cocktail party effect and also Corteen and Dunn’s finding. It confirms that unattended information might be available for identification not meaning. There is also less perceptual information to be identified with special words such as own name. Attenuation theory also explains why participants will follow a message from one ear to the other as both messages are being processed however priming makes related words in attenuated messages easier to identify at switching point (Driver, 2001). It may also be possible to explain auditory attention (how we deduce distinct â€Å"sound objects† to attend to, such as one person’s voice among many) by extending visual attention theories that explain how we deduce and attend to objects in our spotlight of attention. This suggests the same neural mechanisms may lie beneath both types of perception (Shinn-Cunningham, 2008). It is proposed by late selection theorists that all information is processed. It’s only the pertinent material that is made available Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) suggested that all messages are processed both perceptually and semantically, with the most important or relevant stimulus deciding the response. This puts the bottleneck much closer to the end of the processing system than both Broadbent’s and Treisman’s theories (Eysenck, Keane, 2010). Another theory suggested by Norman (1968) was that all information must be processed to the point where meaning is designated from memory (Naish, 2010). However, late selection theories were later falsified by developments in neuroscience. Neurophysiological studies took place which provided evidence against the theories of Deutsch and Deutsch. Coch, Sanders and Neville (2005), using the dichotic listening task, asked their participants to attend to one of two auditory messages. The task for the participants was to spot p robe targets which were presented on both the attended and non-attended messages. Event-Related Potentials (ERP) were recorded from each participant. It was found that ERPs appeared 100ms after the probe was presented and was greater when the probe was presented on the attended message. This suggests that there was more assessing of attended probes rather than unattended probes. However, if processing happened in the way Deutsch and Deutsch theorise, then there wouldn’t be any difference in the ERPs recorded (Eysenck, Keane, 2010). Each of the theories uses the dichotic listening task to provide evidence to support their theory. We know that attention is a limited resource and that we can’t focus on everything within our environment. The three major theories do give us an insight in to this. Broadbent’s early selection theory argues that the filter comes before the information is given meaning, but if this was the case then we wouldn’t be able to identify our own name when spoken in the unattended ear. Deutsch and Deutsch went on to argue that the filter happens after the information has been given meaning , so you register and assign everything a meaning then the filter decides what to pass on to conscious awareness. However, as attention is limited, this seems like a waste of resource to assign meaning to information that you will never need. So, Treismans attenuation theory fits nicely in between Broadbent’s early filter and Deutsch and Deutsch late selection filter and argues tha t the information into the unattended ear weakens but is not eliminated, that some of it will get through to the perceptual processes and be given meaning. The input from the unattended ear will still be given meaning but not as high priority as that in the attended ear. If, at this point, the unattended information is important (like hearing your names across a crowded room) then attention can be switched and you attenuate the previously attended to ear. The jury is still out on which of these theories is the ultimate when it comes to helping in our understanding of selective attention, however, each if the theories has been pivotal in how we view selective attention and this is important because attention is crucial to any other cognitive function that we perform. Word count: 2046 References Driver, J. (2001). ‘A selective review of selective attention research from the past century’,British Journal of Psychology,vol. 92, pp. 53–78. Edgar, G. (2007). ‘Perception and attention’. In D. Miell, A. Phoenix, K. Thomas (Eds), Mapping Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 3-50). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Eysenck, M. Keane, M. (2010). ‘Visual perception and attention’. In Cognitive psychology: a students handbook. (6th ed. Pp 153 – 201) Hove, Eng. New York: Psychology Press. Naish. P., (2010). ‘Attention’. In Kaye, H. (Eds).Cognitive psychology (pp 29 – 62). Milton Keynes: The Open University Shinn-Cunningham, B.G. (2008). ‘Object-based auditory and visual attention’,Trends in Cognitive Sciences,vol. 12, pp. 182–6.

Paper as a Metaphor in A Streetcar Named Desire -- Tennessee Williams,

"[M]ortgages, foreclosures, directions, letters, poems, telegrams, newspapers, appraisals, songs, even moons (Kolin 1)." What do these all have to do with each other? Paper and A Streetcar Named Desire. Philip C. Kolin points out this metaphor in his article " 'It's only a paper moon': The Paper Ontology' in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.'" Kolin has found that Williams has used paper as a metaphor to describe Blanche's and Stanley's faults and desires. Kolin finds this to be a common thread in Williams' work but mainly focuses on Streetcar. Williams himself finds paper to be an interesting creation: "In Williams' own words, paper, when properly inscribed, can be sacred, yet when it is subjected to corrupt or untruthful imprints it is profane" (2). It's true paper seems to play a very important role in this play. One of the first things Stanley does is throw a "red-stained swatch of butcher paper" (3), at Stella. After reading or viewing this play, a bloodstained paper and Stanley definitely seem to intertwine with each other. Kolin argues Stanley uses paper ...

The Sociological Perspective

Know the assumptions of structural-functional, conflict, and symbolic interaction theories. Review the contributions of Augusta Comet, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, 6. Mile Drummers, Max Weber, Harriet Martinets, Jane Addams, and W. E. B. Dubos. Review the development of sociology in the United States. 8. Review the process of the three types of research discussed in the textbook. 9. Outline the steps in the scientific method of research. 10. Differentiate between the following concepts: variable, independent and dependent variables, and control variables. 11. 12. 13.Explain the importance of operational De Discuss what a sample is in survey research. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of controlled experiments, survey research, and participant observation. Do you every wonder why people in the Midwest drive pick-ups and the people in China want a bicycle? Do you ever think about why people were glued to their televisions when the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed by terro rists? Do you ever watch people at a ballgame or at a shopping mall? Have you ever wondered why these people behave as they do? Do you ask yourself why you make some of the decisions that you do?If you see influences from family, friends, co-workers, and the kind of economy hat we live in, then you are practicing sociology. Sociology is concerned with the groups, large and small, that we are a part of and how they influence our behavior. Sociology is one part of the social sciences. The social sciences are a related group of disciplines that study some aspect of human behavior. The differences are in the focuses. As examples, psychology focuses on such areas as the personality, the brain, and how we learn. History and political science study past events, government structures, and current affairs to understand our behavior.Economics includes areas such as supply and emend, government policies, and occupational trends. Anthropology focuses on cultures and how they determine certain b ehaviors. Sociology can be explained by the updated version of an old story titled: The Elephant Story. It goes as follows: It is said that in the recent past five wise men and women, all blindfolded, were led to an elephant. Each was asked to explain what they â€Å"saw†. The first, a psychologist, feeling the top of the head, said, â€Å"This is the only thing that counts. All feeling and thinking takes place inside here.To understand this beast, we need study only this. The second, an anthropologist, tenderly touching the trunk and the tusks, said, â€Å"This is really primitive. I feel very comfortable here. Concentrate on these. † The third, a political scientist, feeling the gigantic ears, said, â€Å"This is the power center. What goes in here controls the entire beast. Concentrate your studies here. † The fourth, an economist, feeling the mouth, said, this is what counts. What goes in here is distributed throughout the body. Concentrate your studies on this. Then came the sociologist (OF course! , who, feeling the entire body, said, You can't understand the beast by concentrating only one part. Each is but part of the whole. The head, the trunk and tusks, the ears, the mouth – all are important. And so are the parts of the beast that you haven't even mentioned. We must remove our blindfolds so we can see the larger picture. We have to see the larger picture. We have to see how everything works together to form the entire animal. Pausing for emphasis, the sociologist added, â€Å"And we also need to understand how this creature interacts with similar creatures, HOW does their life in groups influence their behaviors? I wish I could conclude this fable by saying that the psychologist, the anthropologist, the political scientist, and the economist, dazzled upon hearing the wisdom of the sociologist, amidst gasps of wonderment threw away their blindfolds, and joining together, began to examine the larger picture. But, alas, an d alack! Upon hearing this sage advice, each stubbornly bound their blindfolds even tighter to concentrate all the more on the single part. And if you listened very, very carefully you could even hear them saying, â€Å"Don't touch the tusks. † ‘take your hand off the ears. â€Å"Stay away room the mouth – that's my area. † Sociology, however, includes all of these areas of study and is probably the broadest of all of the social sciences. The main difference is that sociology focuses on the effects of groups on our actions and decisions. Sociology views behavior as resulting from all of the various influences that these disciplines specifically study. Certainly living in an industrial/technological society affects our motivations and our occupational choices. World War II affected how we view women in the labor force today. Telecommunications have influenced our current work patterns.These are a few examples that demonstrate the effects of our society on b ehavior. Sociology is defined as the systematic study of human social interaction. This means how we interact with persons in any group setting. Most of us follow patterns in our behaviors (think about your morning routines, are they usually the same? ) and this allows sociologists to learn something about our behavior. Sociologists try to describe and to explain behavior. They are people watchers – looking for patterns of behavior which allows sociologists to predict trends in behavior to help determine better social policies.However, sociologists realize that people change which requires that our predictions be tenuous. Never the less, sociologists want to develop a body Of reliable knowledge that can be applied to make our lives more understandable. Sociologists explain behavior through the concepts of structure and roles. Structure is much like a framework or script that guides our behavior. Roles, on the other hand, fit into a structure and deal with how we should perfor m. In a basketball game, rules serve to give the game structure. Everyone who plays knows or should know the rules of the game. This allows everyone to now how to behave and what to expect.

Domestic Terrorism in America Essay - 2166 Words

We therefore advocate a revolution against the industrial system. -Ted Kaczynski The sun rises to a deep spring-blue sky on Sunday the Fifth of May 2017; 51,000 people are converging on downtown Spokane for the 39th running of the Bloomsday road race. Thirty miles to the south, near the town of Fairfield, a small cluster of people watch from a distance as two men in protective coveralls and respirators pour fifty gallons of a clear fluid into the payload compartment of a Bell 300C helicopter. The crop duster, which was purchased for cash in Walla Walla, is a descendent of the Korean War era helicopters depicted on the television series MASH. After the liquid is loaded, and the outside of the helicopter is sanitized, the pilot runs†¦show more content†¦Her diagnosis: ricin poisoning. Once confirmed by lab testing, the report is transmitted to all regional health care centers, but nothing will help the afflicted. Ricin poisoning has no antidote, and no course of treatment has ever been found to be successful. By Monday at noon 10,000 people are dead. Three days later, the toll stands at 25,000. The attack is the single largest terrorist act in history. While the preceding scenario is definitely scary, what makes it truly terrifying is the ease with which such an act can be committed. Ricin, a derivative of the castor bean, is easily produced by anyone with a minimal background in laboratory methodology, such as might be learned in high school chemistry (Fester). And if ricin doesnt work, there are innumerable other deadly concoctions available for use by any group or individual looking to make a statement. Once the stuff of movies or perhaps newscasts covering a conflict in some third world backwater country, large scale terrorist operations are now a deadly reality in America. Few will ever forget the images of the Afred P. Murrah Federal Building: its remaining floors held up in a precarious cantilever; bloody, dust-covered survivors struggling to escape through the smoke and flames. These images will be repeated over and over again as our nation moves into theShow MoreRelatedDomestic Terrorism Is America s Greatest Threat : Mass Shootings And Hate Crimes1389 Words   |  6 PagesDomestic Terrorism is America s Greatest Threat: Mass Shootings and Hate Crimes I. Introduction The United States has been in a national state of emergency fighting a war on terrorism since September 11, 2001. The intelligence communities have pursued and tracked down terrorist suspects who pose a direct threat to this country, yet one of the greatest threat to this country is the astronomical number of mass shootings and hate crimes that have occurred in this country post 9/11. 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Movie Analysis The Movie Rental Company Essay - 948 Words

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The World Of Private Security Essay - 1831 Words

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Burnout Issues Among Nursing Staff Working in Kims Hospital

Question: Discuss about theBurnout Issues Among Nursing Staff Working in Kims Hospital. Answer: Introduction Stress is considered as a relationship between a person and his or her environment which is considered as exceeding ones resources resulting into endangering of the well-being of the person. Stress can cause health issues in humans. Work can be one of the reasons of stress in humans. Nurses working hospitals face stress as their jobs are filled with stress such as long working hours, human suffering, physical labour, and problems of interpersonal relationships. Among the nurses, the stress was recognized as a problem for the first time in 1960 when four sources causing anxiety in nurses were identified by Menzies that included patient care, change, responsibility, and decision making. By 1980s, additional causes were determined with the increased use of technology in hospitals which changed the work environment(IDDRISU, 2013). The term burnout in people was coined by Freudenberger in 1974 which as described as reactions of workers to the chronic stress situations in their occupations. Burnout situation is conceptualized as a condition in which a person is disturbed by exhaustion, reduction in accomplishment and depersonalization. Stress at work is often caused in a person because of the combined responsibilities of handling work and family which affects the person both at work and in family situations. Females make the majority of nursing staff and as they have higher responsibilities towards family, they face such kind of stresses predominantly. These stresses can lead to neuroendocrine responses that cause physiologic reactions that could further cause illnesses in nurses. This causes dissatisfaction in nurses which results into employee attrition. KIMS hospital is also facing a staff shortage among nurses because of burnout situations and it needs to work on improvement of the working environment such t hat nurses retention can be improved(Jennings., 2006). Issues KIMS hospital is facing dissatisfaction with job among nurses because of burnout situations and it needs to reduce the stresses of nurses to overcome the challenges caused by these burnouts in nurses. Factors that may be causing these issues include: Work Environment: The hospital has long working hours that puts stress on the nurses. There are only few nursing students who are selected to work in the hospital after they have completed their studies which results into lack of nurses. With only a few nurses managing work at the KIMS hospital, the work load of individual nurses is significant. In such a n environment, several nurses are unable to cope up with the work pressures and leave the hospitals while others face the situation of burnout. Demographics: Several nurses working in the hospital are either married or have marriage with kids. In the face of long working hours and work demands, these nurses are unable to balance their work with the personal family life. Other nurses who do not have these responsibilities are young graduates who are not sufficiently trained and thus, find it difficult to manage the responsibilities of the job efficiently. Recruitment and retention: Hospital reputation affects the recruitment and as the attrition rate of the hospital is high, the reputation as an employee would not be too favorable which would make it even more difficult for the hospital to attract as well as retain the nursing staff(Holdren Coustasse, 2015). Exposure to ill patients: Nurses have to deal with the patients who are ill and thus, they have to face continuous exposure to the illnesses. As they are involved in patient care, they tend to get emotionally attached to these patients which can cause emotional pressure especially in the cases of loss of lives. This can cause an emotional pressure that they do not get time to release as the new cases keep coming. This can cause burnout in nurses(Ericksen, 2015). Possible Solutions Figure 1: Job demands-Resources model The job-demands and resource model identify certain demands of a job that can affect the level of pressures that result from workload, working conflicts, job uncertainty and time management issues. These demands can be social, physical or psychological. These job stresses are reduced if working people are provided with sufficient resources. These resources can include supportive management, good leadership, good relationships, positive environment, sufficient training, employee orientation, and recognition. If the job demands are higher than the job resources, it would lead to burn out of the worker. A balance has to be created between the resources and demands in a job to reduce the pressure on workers. Thus, in order to reduce the burnout in nurses, resources may be increased beyond the work demands(Bakker Demerouti, 2011). This can be done using following methods: Hiring more staff: If more nurses are hired, the workload would be divided between them. With more staff, the nurses would get more support and less of over time working hours. Thus, the burnout in nurses would be less(Narban, Narban, Singh, 2016). Administrative Support: If the support from the administrative staff is strong then it would keep the patients satisfied. It would also keep good relations between the nursing staff and doctors. This would create a supportive environment for the nurses and thus, would reduce the burnout in nurses(Vahey, Aiken, Sloane, Clarke, Vargas, 2010). Maslach theory of burnout suggests that burnouts are caused when there is a mismatch between the job demands and the capacity of the person who would be doing the work. The job demands have to be synchronized with the person doing the job which is possible when the person doing the job is made capable to handle the job with ease and efficiency(Maslach, Schaufeli, Leiter, 2001). This can be done in following ways: Providing Staff training: If the nurses are provided with the training on how to handle the work pressures then they would be more equipped to manage the work and yet not get burn out. This would need support from the senior staff and the human resource managers who would make arrangements for the training of nurses on aspects of work load management and stress management in addition to the regular training given for the understanding of the work(Alsaqri, 2014). Hire experienced nurses: If the hospital would hire nurses who already have experience of working in other hospitals instead of freshers, the workers would have the previous knowledge and experience of working in stressful situations and thus, they would be better equipped to handle the pressures of the job and do not get the burnouts due to work load pressures(Flemming, 2016). As per the Maslach theory, there are six factors that can cause mismatch between the work demands and the worker. If these factors are taken care of, then a balance can be created between the resources and the demands. These factors include lack of control over work situation, values, fairness, workload, community, and reward. With these considerations, following solutions can be used: Rewards and Recognition to nurses: As the nurses are not actively involved in taking decisions and thus, they tend to feel less important in the hospital. Over a long time of working in such a condition where they lack control over their work, burnouts can be caused as they would feel like trapped. In such a situation, providing rewards and recognition to nurses for their contribution would give them motivation and boost their morale(Lee, Scheunemann, Hall, Payne, 2012). Community Establishment: If communities of nurses or the hospital staff is established such that all the members are actively involved, strong relationships would be built in the staff which would keep the workers including nurses motivated as they would get support from team and there would be fewer conflicts between them(Maria, 2012). Probables Considering the case of KIMS hospital, the two most probable methods that would reduce the burnout rates in nurses could be: Administrative Support: Administrative support would not need any additional resources to be hired but restructuring of the systems especially the administrative such that additional support can be sought from the administrative staff. Staff training: Nursing staff can be trained on how to handle the work stress by the senior and experienced staff so that nurses can be better equipped for handling Selection Administrative support would need realignment of processes and probably some investment in providing support solutions through the implementation of technology for administrative support. Administrative support can be improved by hiring new staff to provide support to the nurses and use of real time data management and analytics technology which can help nurses with the real time patient data recording as well as reduce the need of making manual entries every time. An alternative solution is provision of training on stress management to the nurses. This approach can be useful to some extent as it would help nurses deal with the stress better but it would not reduce their actual stress. Moreover, the solution would only be temporary and limited in the impact. However, provision of administrative support would provide a larger and long term benefit(OECD, 2012). Feasibility Study Administrative support would reduce the burnout among staff as it would help nurses carry out their work with lesser difficulties, with speed and with efficiency. A feasibility study can be conducted on this solution by exploring a few questions like: How would increase in the administrative reduce the burn out among nursing staff in the KIMS hospital? Will it release the stress of the nurses? (Objective of the solution is to reduce the stress in nurses as it would reduce the probability of burnout in nurses and hence, this question would be useful) Will administrative support create a positive working environment in the hospital? (A positive environment would be less stressful for the nurses and thus, if the answer to this question is yes then the method would be useful for reducing stress in nurses.) Will nurses have access to more resources with the use of administrative support? (If more resources are made available to nurses then it create a better balance between demands from nurses and resources available to nurses) Will it make it easy for the nurses to manage their work in the hospital with administrative support? (If the work of nurses becomes easy then it would be less stressful for the nurses in working) (Carter, 2016). Will it incur significant cost to the hospital? (For the management to approve the improvement in the administrative support, it is essential that the costs incurred in the implementation of the new technology for administrative support is justified for the hospital business) Will the cost of acquisition and implementation of the administrative support system would be high? (If the cost of acquisition and implementation of the new technology is too high then the management may not approve the project) Will the company gain more profits than the costs incurred in the system development? (If the company gets more profits than the costs incurred in the acquisition and implementation of the software then it would justify the cost and the project would get the approval of the management) Will the company be able to breakeven within first year of the implementation? (If the company is able to recover the costs of development within the first year of the implementation then the project would be feasible and thus, would have higher chances of approval and would also ensure profitability of the hospital business) (Daniel Oyetunde, 2013). Will it improve the relationship between the staff working for KIMS hospital? (Better relationships would make the work environment healthy and staff members would be helping each other which would make the work easy and enjoyable work nursing workers) Will it provide more opportunities to the staff to communicate? (With more opportunities to communicate, chances of building strong relationships would also increase) Will assistance from the administrative staff to nurses would be helpful? (If the administrative staff would be useful and helpful to the nurses then it would make nurses more positive about relationships) Will it reduce the conflicts between the administrative staff and nursing staff? (reduced conflicts would ensure that good relationships are maintained in the staff) Will it improve the productivity of nursing staff in the hospital? (Improved productivity in nurses would reduce the chances of burnouts in them) Will the service delivery time for the nurses reduce with supportive technologies? (If the service delivery times are reduced then nurses would be able to serve more patients in less time) Will services of nurses improve with the use of administrative technologies? (Better services provided to the patients by nurse reflect better productivity) Will nurses be able to better track the patients information? (Better information tracking would help nurses work better and faster) (Hannah, Lomely, Ruddick, Bellamy, 2004) Will make the work easier for the nursing staff? (When the work is easier for nurses, the stress would be less in nurses which would reduce the probability of burnout situations in them) Will the information provided through supportive technology would make work of nurses easier? If work is easy then nurses would be less stressed) Will technology help nurses remember the medications and nursing requirements of patients? (With technology assisting nurses by reminding them of nursing requirements, nurses do not need to remember everything but rely on technology for that which would reduce the mental pressure on them) Will technology automate some of the nursing tasks? (With technology automating some of the nursing tasks, the work would become easier for the nursing staff) SWOT Analysis Strengths of the administrative improvement as the solution include: It would reduce the nurses burnouts It would bring the long term benefits for the hospital It would reduce the overload of nurses which would enhance satisfaction in them With improved working environment resulting from administrative improvements, the reputation of the hospital would also improve which would be helpful in recruitment(Rechel, Wright, Edwards, Dowdeswell, McKee, 2009) Weaknesses of the administrative improvement as the solution include: It is an expensive method as it would need new technologies to be implemented It would be time consuming as seeking support from administrative departments would demand cultural changes in the hospital Opportunities of the administrative improvement as the solution include: More of the activities that are not value adding or monotonous can be automated with the use f technologies which would make the work of the nurses easier With better technologies, the patients can be served better With automation, the nurses would get some extra time and thus, proper scheduling can be done for optimum resource utilization. Threats of the administrative improvement as the solution include: If the staff resists using new technologies, it would not deliver benefits but would cause loses to the administration Technologies used can fail which would result into dissatisfaction in patients(Singh Chauhan, 2016). Conclusions This report explored the case of KIMS hospital that was facing an increasing burnout situations in their nurses causing attritions to rise. The report identified the causes behind these burnouts and explored some solutions that could possibility reduce these burnout situations. Possible cause of these problems was found to be stressful work environment, overload of the work, and more exposure to illness and family pressures. The report studied two key theories including job-demands and resource model and Maslach theory to identify solutions and these included increase in hiring, administrative support, employee training, experienced hiring, community establishment, rewards and recognition for nurses. Among these solutions, two were selected including administrative support and employee training It was found that the administrative support would have more long term benefits and thus, was the selected improvement plan. It was further explored to understand if it was feasible for the ho spital to carry out. For this, the report explored the idea from different perspectives including cost, demand, stress relief, workload reduction and relationship management. A SWOT analysis was carried out which revealed that the use of administrative technologies can have cost implications and well as risk failure. However, it has certain long term benefits like reduced burnout and increased satisfaction in nurses. 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