Description and Examples of Variables

A variable is a name for a place in the computers memory where you store some data. Imagine a very large warehouse with lots of storage bays, tables, shelves, special rooms etc. These are all places where you can store something. Lets imagine we have a crate of beer in the warehouse. Where exactly is it located? We wouldnt say that it is stored 31 2 from the west wall and 27 8 from the north wall. In programming terms we also wouldnt say that my total salary paid this year is stored in four bytes starting at location 123,476,542,732 in RAM. Data in a PC The computer will place variables in different locations each time our program is run. However, our program knows exactly where the data is located. We do this by creating a variable to refer to it and then let the compiler handle all the messy details about where it is actually located. It is far more important to us to know what type of data we will be storing in the location. In our warehouse, our crate might be in section 5 of shelf 3 in the drinks area. In the PC, the program will know exactly where its variables are located. Variables Are Temporary They exist just as long as they are needed and are then disposed of. Another analogy is that variables are like numbers in a calculator. As soon as you hit the clear or power off buttons, the display numbers are lost. How Big Is a Variable As big as is needed and no more. The smallest a variable can be is one bit and the largest is millions of bytes. Current processors handle data in chunks of 4 or 8 bytes at a time (32 and 64 bit CPUs), so the bigger the variable, the longer it will take to read or write it. The size of the variable depends on its type. What Is a Variable Type? In modern programming languages, variables are declared to be of a type. Apart from numbers, the CPU does not make any kind of distinction between the data in its memory. It treats it as a collection of bytes. Modern CPUs (apart from those in mobile phones) can usually handle both integer and floating point arithmetic in hardware. The compiler has to generate different machine code instructions for each type, so knowing what the type of variable helps it generate optimal code. What Types of Data Can a Variable Hold? The fundamental types are these four. Integers (both signed and unsigned) 1,2,4 or 8 bytes in size. Usually referred to as ints.Floating Point Numbers up to 8 bytes in size.Bytes. These are organized in 4s or 8s (32 or 64 bits) and read in and out of the CPUs registers.Text strings, up to billions of bytes in size. CPUs have special instructions for searching through large blocks of bytes in memory. This is very handy for text operations. There is also a general variable type, often used in scripting languages. Variant - This can hold any type but is slower to use. Example of Data Types Arrays of types- single dimension like drawers in a cabinet, two-dimensional like post office sorting boxes or three dimensional like a pile of beer crates. There can be any number of dimensions, up to the limits of the compiler.Enums which are a restricted subset of integers.  Read about  what is an enum is.Structs are a composite variable where several variables are lumped together in one big variable.Streams provide a way to manage files. Theyre a form of a string.Objects, are like structs but with much more sophisticated data handling. Where are Variables Stored? In memory but in different ways, depending on how they are used. Globally. All parts of the program can access and change the value. This is how older languages like Basic and Fortran used to handle data and it is not considered a good thing. Modern languages tend to discourage global storage though it is still possible.On the Heap. This is the name for the main area used. In C and C, access to this is via pointer variables.On the Stack. The stack is a block of memory that is used to store parameters passed into functions, and variables that exist local to functions. Conclusion Variables are essential to procedural programming, but it is important not to get too hung up on the underlying implementation unless you are doing systems programming or writing applications that have to run in a small amount of RAM. Our rules regarding variables: Unless you are tight on ram or have large arrays, stick with ints rather than a byte (8 bits) or short int (16 bits). Especially on 32 Bit CPUs, there is an extra delay penalty in accessing less than 32 bits.Use floats instead of doubles unless you need the precision.Avoid variants unless really necessary. They are slower.

Development Of A Transformational Leader - 1351 Words

Developing Transformational Leaders in Nursing In order to develop strong leaders throughout the nursing industry, one must encompass various traits from all types of leadership theories. Of the many different theories, transformational leadership has a heavy impact in creating a strong and successful leader. Strengths Finder 2.0 guides individuals into focusing on developing themselves through their strengths instead of trying to fix their weaknesses. In doing so, individuals are able to develop natural talents in a way that creates a higher achieving workplace. This paper will explore the use of applying transformational leadership focused on developing strengths and how it can be applied to nursing as an industry, in personal practice,†¦show more content†¦Empowerment motivates each individual to increase autonomy and self-determination in a way that results in high-quality performance throughout the organization. Having a commitment to a team further encourages this auto nomy and self-determination amongst employees, giving them a sense of control to use their creativity and skill set effectively while motivating them to achieve at higher levels. Transformational Leadership in Nursing Throughout the nursing industry, both managers and bedside nurses utilize their strengths and skills as transformational leaders to develop a strong sense of camaraderie that bases its success through teamwork and development of personal attributes. As the role of the nursing manager, individuals must inspire their employees to share the same vision as they do on behalf of the organizational goals. Givens (2008) explains how transformational leadership is shown when leaders encourage followers to think outside of the box, thus motivating them to perform at higher levels by becoming more involved in their work and developing a sense of commitment to the organization (p. 11). This not only pertains to the nurse manager but to lower level employees as well. Even though lower level employees, such as a certified nursing assistant, do not own a title that gives them authority, each employee can still practice leadership skills

Policy Brief

Question: Discuss about the Policy Brief. Answer: Introduction: Visitors are not allowed traditionally in PACU because of high patient acuity and turnover, residual effect of anesthetic agent on postoperative patients. Despite the evidence, that supports family visitations in the PACU as one of the family-centered care approaches; parental presence remains a controversial issue for nurses working in the post anesthesia setting (Nadeau et al., 2016).Family visitation or parental presence in the Post Anesthetic Care Unit may have two different influences to the patient recovery that may be positive or negative. Regarding this fact visitation in PACU began to appear in literature in 1984 as some article claim that visitation might upset patient and challenge nurses to perform their duty. Opposing the fact, nurses responded to published article-advocating parents visitation because of close proximity to ORs, complication and first paced recovery process. In spite of these facts, parental PACU visitation is allowed in many countries and in many hospit als to initiate family centered care approach where patients are highly vulnerable and dependent on others activity (Houle, Belew Miller, 2015). Many researches has shown that post operative patients in post anesthetic stage feel comfortable by the presence of their loved ones which is increasing the significance of the parental PACU visitation. Background and Significance Timely identification and supervision of several issues that arise in postoperative period saves live, time and money. Post Anesthetic Care Unit is one of the most important segments for patient recovery after surgery. This unit is dedicated to deal with the health and mental condition of the patient after surgery so that they recover as early as possible (DeMarco Tufts, 2014). While attending their duty most of the Post Anesthetic Care Unit faces several issues that hamper the process as well as the patient recovery. In such situation disturbance for the patient and for the support staff may lead postoperative complications. To monitor such situation need of certain policies are very important to restrict the unauthorized entry and disturbance. At the same time visitation of the family members particularly for parents will improve the mental condition of the patient if family members are able to create a positive environment for the patient recovery (Carter et al., 2012). Several r esearches suggest that health recovery is highly associated with the mental state of the patient because it will enhance the self-confidence that will help the recovery process. The incidence of anxiety among the children is high. Almost 40% to 60% children exhibit psychological or physiological complications due to high anxiety in pre operative period due to the fear of unknown persons and unknown activities around them (Lalani, Ali Kanji, 2013). To reduce the incidence of such events many health care organization has feel the need of parental visitation and taken the initiative to implement specific policies to solve the problem. The ultimate goal of the health care staff and organization is to initiate proper treatment of their patients therefore it has become necessary to allow family visitors in post anesthetic situation (Jennings, 2002). According to Stevenson (2014), conducting a survey with PACU staff, it was evident that 57.1% nurse in this segment feels that it is their duty to provide emotional support to the family members of the patient. When nurses doing such activity then they also feel comfortable by releasing the tension of family members. Almost 47% nurse in the survey supported the parental visitation in spite of the disturbance during their duty. It is true that nurses feel discomfort during the family visit in PACU, but after the visitation patients become relax and the job of a PACU nurse becomes easier. Charlton (2015) has supported the parental visitation in postoperative situation, which is beneficial for the patient recovery. While doing such research other facts are also evident that are not supporting the postoperative visitation. The first concern is the hygiene issue and it affects the recovery of the patients. Most of the visitors enter into the Post Anesthetic Care Unit without disinfecting their body that may increase the infection of the patient. Apart from that, many parents are not so mentally strong and they become senseless looking at the condition of their child. This type of situation is very difficult to handle for the PACU staff. Patient also become mentally week that hinder the recovery process (Lee, Li Yates, 2015). Allowing parental visitation in PACU make it granted for parents and they request for sudden visit to the patient which irritate the hospital staff. The history of visitation policies can be traced back in 1880. The almshouses were constructed for the ill patients and less number of visitors appeared, because of the social stigma involved. In 1998, there were restricted visitation policies in the hospitals. This was derived from the development of the Intensive Care Unit in 1960. There were restrictions in the visitation policies. The restrictions were based on parameters like duration, frequency, number of allowed visitors and age of the visitors. Positioning Statement Initiating parental visitation in PACU is an essential element to promote family-centered care approach in the surgical complex setting. It required leadership support, resources, forming a multidisciplinary team that involves all preoperative nurses in day surgery, operating room, post anesthesia care unit, anesthesiologists, family-centered care coordinators and liaison services (Kamerling and Cunning, 2008). Identifying the role of all team members to collaborate at a high level and setting up a quality improvement program to measure the progress of implementation. Along with that patient and family satisfaction during discharge is also essential to achieve a satisfactory outcome. Nevertheless, establishing an educational program to prepare patients and families for surgical experience appears to be the foundation for successful implementation. Evidence suggests that providing patients and relatives online support information and conducting a virtual or personal tour of peri-anesthesia and perioperative resulted in better preparation for surgery. Moreover, offering parents with a concise teaching material focuses on the most important points what to expect in PACU while checking in for surgery. Also, assigning a member from liaison service to coordinate between family and operating room personnel as well as to reinforce education, provide support and guide a family through surgical experience. Special considerations to patient acuity on arrival to PACU and evaluation of postoperative and post anesthesia measures ensuring all safety and comfort measures in place before reuniting parents with their child (Kamerling and Cunnining, 2008). The PACU visitation policy should not allow any children in the PACU with their parents. PACU setup may harm both the recovery process of the patient as well as the mental stability of the visiting child. The health condition of children is very vulnerable and they might be infected with other infections. Moreover the patient child will also feel embarrass looking at the visiting child (da Silva Ramos et al., 2013). The parent visitation is important for both the employees as well as patients. It provides reassurance, comfort and feel good factor for the patients. It also reduces the anxiety of the child. The parents are known to have a calming effect on the child and reduce the requirement of physical restraint. The parent visitation is also needed for the assessment of pain and eliminates the need of analgesia. The nurses have certain safety concerns regarding parent visitation. They fear about lack of space, lack of resources and lack of privacy caused due to the entry of parents. The entry of parents in the post anesthetic unit would mean potential concerns for a child. It can wake up the child prematurely from the effect of anesthesia and there can be increase in the emergency response. There can be negative reactions from the parents like fainting, shouting, which may hamper the work of the nurses. This may affect the ability of the nurses to take care of the patients. There should be quality initiatives adopted for overcoming the potential barriers. There should be quality improvement process to assess the progress of the tasks. There should be involvement of the stakeholders and there should be a multidisciplinary approach involved. There should be family education programs to prepare the patients as well as parents for surgery. The employee education is also important. There should be proper reinforcement regarding the expectations from PACU during the onset of the surgery. Conclusion Although many PACU staff do not support family or parental visitation still there is need of this for the patient benefit. Several surveys have established the fact that when patient sees their family member in postoperative situation then they become mentally strong and become relax. After the visitation when patient feels better, then the job of a nurse also becomes easier. Therefore, a large portion of nursing staff is supporting the visitation of PACU patient. Many health care organizations are therefore implementing several policies that are associated with the parental PACU visitation to enhance the patient recovery. The policies of the parental visitation should be allowed to promote the family centered care process, which will help the recovery process. To promote the family centric care approach it is important to educate the family member as well as the patient so that they can behave properly to maintain the proper decorum of the care unit. The behavior of the family membe r is also associated with the recovery process that depends on the mental stability that injects positivity within the patients. However majority of the support is for allowing the parental visitation for its greater benefit of the patients. References Carter, A. J., Deselms, J., Ruyle, S., Morrissey-Lucas, M., Kollar, S., Cannon, S., Schick, L. (2012). Postanesthesia care unit visitation decreases family member anxiety.Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing,27(1), 3-9. Charlton, S. G. M. (2015).Family presence and visitation in critical care: a rapid evidence assessment(Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). da Silva Ramos, F. J., Fumis, R. R. L., Azevedo, L. C. P., Schettino, G. (2013). Perceptions of an open visitation policy by intensive care unit workers.Annals of intensive care,3(1), 1. DeMarco, R. Tufts. K. (2014). The mechanics of writing a policy brief. Nursing Outlook 62 (3), 219224. Houle, K. E., Belew, J., Miller, B. (2015). Implementation of a Phase I Caregiver Visitation Program for a Specialized Pediatric Population.Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing,30(4), 301-307. Jennings, C. (2002). The power of the policy brief. Policy, Politics and Nursing Practice 3(3): 261 263. Lalani, S. B., Ali, F., Kanji, Z. (2013). Prolonged-stay patients in the PACU: a review of the literature.Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing,28(3), 151-155. Lee, E., Li, N., Yates, A. (2015). Magnet Journey: A Quality Improvement ProjectImplementation of Family Visitation in the PACU.Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing,30(1), 39-49. Nadeau, S., Larson, S., Bennick, V., Bergan, T., Martin, L., Senst, K., ... Wait, R. (2016). Development of a Formalized Pediatric Visitation Program in the PACU Through Evidence-Based Practice.Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing,31(1), 73-82. Stevenson, K. (2014).Registered Nurses Experiences of Patient Violence on Acute Care Psychiatric Inpatient Units(Doctoral dissertation).