#treating her like a proper tertiary

[fanonical]

sorry if this is a silly question but in trans hyrule is everyone trans? like zelda ganon and beedle too etc

no! #trans hyrule is just what i call the basis of the fic(s) because i haven't got a proper name for it yet. well, i do have ONE idea, but it's kind of ambitious, so i want to do more work on individual smaller projects first before i commit to the megafic.

it's just called that because it focuses on transness, transition & the different types of trans people and how they might live in Hyrule, not because literally every character is trans (though that would rule).

plenty (probably even a majority) of characters will still be cisgender -- or at least presented as perceived to be cisgender by Link at first; many of those characters may eventually reveal "oh no i am actually trans i'm just stealth" (i'm thinking Paya maybe?) or come out part way through the story or whatever (i have a couple of other NPCs lined up for this) because i want to portray a vast variety of trans characters with different identities, experiences & who are at different points in their journey

the three examples you used are interesting though! because i think i have interesting answers for those three specifically.

i think Zelda was assigned female at birth, but doesn't have feel a strong connection to that assigneder gender, & also hasn't (and perhaps won't) really examined that and how she feels about her own gender; i think that maybe if she were really forced to confront with it and identify a certain way she might even identify as agender, but i don't know if i'll depict this happening -- to me this seems like it might be beyond where she is at as a character in BOTW/TOTK, and something she might discover about herself later in life? imho, her own gender couldn't be the furthest thing from her mind so probably doesn't think about it much.

Ganon i think is a cis guy, just because i'm doing other stuff with the Gerudo, and i think it's actually really interesting to explore with what Nintendo's already set up for us; a lot of the Gerudo stuff in canon is whack and imho racist & kinda transphobic (not to mention it relies on some pretty backwards ideas about gender). i wanna see what i can do to "trans" that up a bit whilst still leaving the gendered tension in place; a lot of peopke have suggested making gerudo a total trans haven or just removing the gender stuff from it at all & making Ganon a trans guy from a culture with traditionally only one gender -- these are all interesting ideas, but what i have stored up for this is way more interesting i think; i want to challenge the idea that "every man" born to Gerudo culture is evil like Ganon, and explore how both transmasc Gerudos & transfeminine people of other races visiting Gerudo City might be treated worse for their perceived affiliation to Ganon & darkness. i'm being pretty vague here because whilst i haven't posted about it, the changes i'm making to Gerudo City are some of the most developed so far and i have big big fun fun plans to explore gender there

Beedle is a trans guy. it is known. i literally can't imagine this guy as anything but trans. i probably won't explore this too much because he's kind of a tertiary character at best, but trust me, it is canon to my fic, and he'll show up often enough that it'll be relevant

thanks for asking!!!! hope this was interesting

[gggoldfinch]

Please tell us about your dune fic

WEEEEE YIPPEEEEE THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR GIVING PLATFORM TO MY DERANGEMENT !!!!!! Frank Herbert would skin me alive for the things I'm about to say (not really bc i'm adhering to canon madness)

Here's a shitty outline (light tw for abuse, drugs, questionably legitimate incest lite™):

oc is named Minerva and is the shamed bastard child of a Bene Gesserit and a Mentat, her situation only worsened by the fact she is deemed a Fluke and is physiologically incapable of performing the Voice. She's an utter disgrace and instead of being reared on Wallach IX like the rest of her Bene Gesserit "sisters" she's locked away on a Guild Ship with a cruel ward until her early twenties, never setting foot on a real planet

She has distant blood ties to House Corrino on her mother's side (third cousin once-removed) which often spares her from worse punishment (aka a quiet execution)

She's presented as a tertiary gift to placate House Harkonnen around the time the Reverend Mother demands Paul and Jessica's safety under her Order. Her fate is up in the air—stick her in a pleasure house, kill her, etc—and because she isn't a proper Sister the Baron isn't threatened by her. She's intelligent and disciplined, though, a Bene Gesserit with no bite, and Piter takes an interest.

To placate the vulpine Mentat, Baron allows him to take Minerva as a pet/assistant. For months he treats her like a toy and gets her addicted to spice melange for his own sick enjoyment but she grows inexplicably attached to him in a weird psycho-sexual relationship. (stockholm syndrome? maybe. but he also seems to value her more than anyone else has). She accompanies him to Salusa Secundus and afterwards to Arrakis for the invasion

She herself narrowly escapes the Duke's assassination scheme but finds herself inexplicably saddened by the Mentat's absence. They'd become practically inseparable in the long months since her arrival on Geidi Prime.

Rabban drags Minerva back to Geidi Prime and since she does have some value (as previously stated) she's spared once more. She finally encounters the Baron's younger nephew and Feyd-Rautha immediately takes an interest in her. She doesn't like him at first, mostly because he does everything in his power to try to scare her and always plays tricks on her. She is generally never receptive to it, high for a while on the leftovers of Piter's private stash of spice.

He eventually tasks her with personally tending his wounds after brawls with his brother or fights in the arena. She doesn't know why, because they have fine healers. After a while he begins to grow on her tho, and she eventually can see past his hard facade to the charming, cunning young man beneath the carnage and rage.

Aiming to take the Golden Lion Throne, their budding relationship stays in secret (although nothing escapes the notice of the Baron), and eventually Minerva becomes pregnant with an illegitimate child.

She accompanies the Harkonnen and Corrino entourage to Arrakis where Feyd is slain in kanly and she too is nearly killed by Gurney Halleck for throwing herself over the body and making a scene. She's only spared because Reverend Mother Mohaim realizes she's pregnant with a Harkonnen heir, and Irulan demands her cousin be taken into her care as a part of the marriage agreement

Twelve years later, after the rise of the jihad and Paul's ascendency, Minerva conspires with Irulan, Scytale, Edric, and Mohaim against Paul. Over the years she grows strangely infatuated with Irulan, perhaps again because she's one of the only people who has ever apparently cared for her.

As for the finale of Minerva story, I've only gotten so far as Alia stabbing her to death ❤️

[firebirdsdaughter]

Important facts…

… Tsukuyomi gets to stand in front of Woz.

(x)

[variousqueerthings]

The thing I wrote once that got eaten by my crashing internet when I was almost finished (and I think the new version contains all the original points, but alas my instinctive sparkling wit is now more forced through recreation)

Speaking of analysis of “Hawkeye flirting with men is fascinating because of its lack of homophobia,” there was in fact a homophobic/transphobic joke in the last episode we watched, as a form of “friendly” ribbing, which is what you’d usually expect from that sort of comedy (and of this kind of social space)

Radar is modelling a dress for Margaret that she’s helping get together so a Korean couple can get married on the base – I mention that they’re Korean because then I can 1. Fawn over the beautiful, colourful dress, and 2. Briefly point out the character growth continues for Margaret (including how short she is every time Frank tries to find commonality with her through racism. Margaret being mean to Frank is currently one of our favourite things to watch)

Radar is already uncomfortable wearing the dress, when two tertiary characters (Igor and ??) come in and start flirting at him, making him even more distressed -- and then they leave. It’s not an interaction that means much to the characters, forgotten almost as soon as it’s happened, and quite probably not meant to be a particularly deep scene that would foster a comparison of queer narrative and comedy in the rest of the show (enter me, stage left)

The “joke” is that because Radar is wearing the dress, they’re allowed to strip him of his masculinity. The threat – not technically meant to be considered “real” here, as it’s just fond ribbing, and he’ll be taking off the dress soon to reestablish the natural order (or so it would usually be, except Klinger is a main character) – is that Radar is now considered fair game to suffer the sexual harassment that women face.

This is often further fanged by the idea that someone performing incorrect femininity/crossing gender borders could also be treated with disgust and ridicule on top of the sexual harassment, so as to ward off the idea that there’s any “real” attraction/homosexuality on the part of the harasser.

The second part isn’t really happening in the “joke” harassment, because they all know that Radar isn’t really dressing as a woman and none of them think he would. It is however enforced by the story that Radar tells of someone in his hometown called “Boris” who wears women’s clothing and is called a sissy by Radar’s uncle. The threat here is very real (real enough that I couldn’t help a small breath-hold, despite knowing where this story would likely end) until it is subverted by Boris punching the lights out of Radar’s uncle. But the threat isn’t really gone, because, unlike Radar, Boris won’t be able to diffuse the threat by stepping out of dresses again. Boris wears dresses and harassment is presumably commonplace. Somewhere outside of this army unit, the threats that inspire this kind of joke are still very real.

However here in Korea things work a little differently: Another reason there isn’t any real threat of violence against Radar, is that we all know that Klinger wears dresses often and isn’t generally treated disrespectfully, although he is at times called a freak or a pervert – mostly by Frank, who’s practically always meant to be in the wrong whenever he does anything, but occasionally by other men as a cheap shot.

The joke isn’t simply “a man wearing a dress,” it’s “Radar is very easy to distress.” Noticeably Klinger comes in right after and gets angry that Radar is muscling in on his territory, reminding the audience that “oh yeah, they may be making jokes based on incorrect femininity, but it’s not entirely about putting Radar back in his proper place/reestablishing the status quo. The status quo includes Klinger (at least while they’re all in Korea).”

The thing about Klinger is that the show has largely moved on from the “man in a dress is funny” joke -- which was why it was so noticeable with Radar and begged for an analysis -- and even largely the idea that the dresses are a way of getting a Section 8 discharge (a flimsier excuse every season). The funny thing is the surface-level surrealism in that a relatively sizeable bit of narrative is given to the trials and tribulations of owning a fantastic wardrobe, and that this story is being told by someone that at the time was presumably written to be considered a man most of the time (I imagine a lot of us have headcanons in which Klinger’s gender is far more fluid).

Even the people still laughing at Klinger are probably excited to see… what will the next dress look like? The power is -- most of the time -- in Klinger’s hands, in a way it isn’t with Radar or with Boris (sidenote: am I imprinting on Boris, whom I’ll never hear about again? Maybe).

If Radar getting teased for being in a dress were the only joke of this kind on the show, I’d probably shrug and go, “it’s a show set in the 50s, and I know men’s-intensive spaces today, if not funny it is realistic (although not as realistic or as interesting as what the show is actually doing with Klinger).”

But there is tons of comedy centered around men flirting with men, and most of it is, as we know, coming from Hawkeye.

Hawkeye doesn’t flirt with men like the two men in this scene flirt at Radar. When he’s doing it to be provocative, it’s usually not to harass or demasculinize, but to laugh as the other man slams into his own homophobia. What to do? Ignore it and allow yourself to be flirted at? Protest the flirting and take a “joke” too seriously? Flirt back in a game of chicken? (as if Hawkeye would ever lose a game of chicken). This is mostly seen when he’s aiming it at Frank – there was also that time he dipped him and smooched him full on the mouth, but I take that as very firmly in the category of “Hawkeye doesn’t know where the limit is” (and on that note, I think he ought to kiss another man who does want to be kissed for the sake of equilibrium, but then there wouldn’t be the acceptable boundary of “he’s kissing Frank who definitely doesn’t want to be kissed by Hawkeye, so there’s an element of no-homo built into the act.” -- also on that note thinks about the mysterious kiss that Trapper left him via Radar).

Of course, most of the time Hawkeye flirts with his friends: these days mainly BJ, Klinger, Mulcahy, Sidney, and even Potter on occasion, and of course Margaret, although she’s still figuring out that his teasing is affectionate. Radar less so, but he’s also got more of a youngest-child dynamic with everyone, and I’d have to go back to see how it materialised with Trapper, because I only really started on my noting down frequency after season 3 (but he definitely flirted. he insinuated. he opened his mouth and words came out, which amounts to the same a lot of the time).

I’ve already mentioned in other posts that a lot of these are presented as-is. Most of the time it’s a short call-and-response (have I ever told you that in this light you look like Greer Garson – what movie? – Mrs Miniver), but especially with BJ they’re sometimes full conversations or spread over multiple scenes.

Hawkeye will knit while beginning the overtures to an invented sexual fantasy for BJ. He’ll needle him as if he’s an insulted spouse when he thinks he’s not being appreciated enough. He’ll make jokes about losing his virginity to him (he makes jokes about losing his virginity to men more than a couple of times). He’ll talk about going dancing after the war.

And I’m still relatively near the beginning of their relationship, watching-wise, who knows what else I still have to look forward to.

The joke is its impossibility. But at what point does it become possible? At what point does “Hawkeye flirts with men” allow itself to be read as exactly what it is: Hawkeye flirts with men. (Trick question, it was the very first time).

*

It’s very interesting to think about how bigotry and acceptance have often existed side by side (and often still do), within the same people who will accept one possible man wearing a dress in one circumstance but not in another, and to see that on the show even if it probably wasn’t intended to be as scrutinised in the way I am, rather than just... portraying it as it was.

The scene with Radar wasn’t meant to be that deep, but it’s a great piece of the puzzle of the rituals of acceptable heterocisness as is embedded in any story like this.

And it’s interesting that -- despite being the main POV character -- Hawkeye is a “safe” harbour of queer exploration, because he’s a serious character who hides behind jokes on a serious show that hides behind jokes. (I’m using “hides” in absence of the word I’m looking for, because none of it is really hiding at all -- hiding in plain sight by being incredibly honest).

I think about the way queerness has always manifested strongly in same-gender (ostensibly -- gender was always more fluid than that) spaces – often with a reactionary fear right behind it or surrounding it. Men who wore dresses in POW camps and took on women’s social roles, nuns having sex with nuns, sports changing rooms…

And lastly I think about how writing anything that has a lot of people of the same gender in it (again, ostensibly) mimics that queer manifestation, and how queerness is so inherent to storytelling and you the writer -- who may not have considered that you were writing anything queer at all -- have the choice to either play with whatever possibly unnamed dynamic that the text is telling you to lean into, or to fight it every step of the way.

And it seems like MASH, in a lot of ways, did the former. Obviously I know Hawkeye won’t make out with a bunch of guys, but he’s allowed to act in the way that he does without the show itself panicking and doubling down on the cishetero-acceptability that other shows have done and still do. And Klinger is a main character now!

[humansofstarshollow]

I know moodboard asks are closed right now, but in a general sense, could you ever see Paris and Honor as a couple?

I never thought of it until realizing that they both have mothers they tolerate at best and a 'certain image' to keep up (Paris an intellectual, Honor a trophy wife/underappreciated) that they may want to rebel against. They'd also seem like the type together who would be annoyed at Rory/Logan behind their backs and talk about it with each other.

i can see pretty much any of our beloved ladies coupled up, in any different variation we could think of, anon.

particularly, when it comes to secondary/tertiary characters we hardly know anything about from canon --i am a sucker for underrated characters.

i hadn't thought of paris/honor so far but now that i have, I absolutely cannot unthink it!

---------

Paris and Honor had always been in each other's lives, very much peripherally speaking. their parents, of course, were part of all of the same circles -attending the same parties and joining all of the same clubs- which means they had basically grown up alongside each other, hardly ever sharing more than a couple, mandatory, pleasantries. which, admittedly, paris had always sucked at (shocker!) so you can guess how well that had gone.

through the years, both girls attended the other's birthday parties, Honor was present for Paris' bat-mitzvah, they also went on a couple of schooltrips together because, for whatever reason, different grades were paired up, every so often.

they never interacted, aside from polite small talk.

then, as they grew, Honor was just so pretty, and smart, and funny that even super confident Paris couldn't avoid being a complete mess around the older girl. girl who was constantly surrounded by the exactly right clique, the perfect boys, the dar-to-be --everything that was expected from a young woman of such background. which paris wasn't, and would never be, despite her upbringing.

funny how Paris would have noticed the lingering, longing, awestruck gazes, if she only had dared to glance at the older blonde for more than a brief second. because Paris was incredibly smart, witty, confident and passionate like nobody else Honor knew. also, totally gorgeous (and, sadly, unaware of it. Honor could only hope to, someday, be the one to offer Paris the reassurance, and boosts of confidence, that she clearly needed.)

so, like, they go their separate lives, never closer than mere acquaintances -always nearby, yet out of reach-, watching each other building their own future and, most often than not, learning about the other just through the grapevine. because they certainly were not friends.

shame.

they both enter and leave relationships -Honor always the arm candy of some proper, handsome young man -her heart, though.. her heart is never invested, and the boys do not last long. after all, Honor dreams of plump lips, and soft breasts, deep deep down. Paris, on the other hand, slowly realizing things about herself, until one day she shows up to some cocktail party, during her second year at yale, arm in arm with this absolutely stunning redhead. and that was that. (paris' parents never openly talk about it, ever, but nanny is proud of her and always treats the (very few) girls she brings home as another acquired child so.. life is good. finally, for once.)

and that's exactly the moment Honor's world tilts on its axis.

four months later, Paris is single, yet again. Honor swoops in, with her pretty (heart)eyes, warm hands and so. many. feeings.

Paris, who never ever ever would have dared imagining a life in which Honor Freaking Huntzberger has a crush on her, and had long settled for simply glancing from the sidelines, until somebody -actually in her league- would show up-- Paris (in no particular order) gay panics, runs away to nyc to dissect the situation with Rory, gay panics some more, reconnects with Terence and analyzes her whole life, melts down with Lorelai and then

then, she gets the girl!

Honor proposes three years later, when they're both well on their way to be professionally accomplished, sharing a townhouse in nyc and parenting the cutest pup.

Paris, who is most certainly not dumb, marries the shit out of -apparently way in her league- Honor Freaking Huntzberger.

[unrelated, but here's rory/honor]

[polar-stars]

☕️ + megumi and hojo?

(Give me a ☕️ + a character/ship and I’ll ramble off whatever thoughts and opinion I have about it)

Oho, interesting! Thanks for the ask!

Megumi Tadokoro

Megumi is a character I love and adore. She has given me no choice in that matter, lol. I cannot possibly dislike a character who portrays such a huge amount of real, genuine kindness. Adding to that, she's incredibly easy to relate to (I know that I am not the only one who does).

In my opinion Megumi has had some of the very best moments in all of Shokugeki, especially in it's earlier parts. The Shokugeki against Shinomiya in Trainings Camp is still my favorite battle in the whole manga after all. Her performance in the Autumn Election Premlins was also really satisfying and sweet to see. (Monkfish Preperation Scene Supremacy)

Tsukuda really did great on making Megumi a character that I really want to see succeed.....But that is where the problem comes in.

The problem is that Tsukuda struggles with the Show, Don't Tell-Rule from Central Arc onwards.

Pre-Central, Megumi's character development was solid in my opinion. It was believable and not too fast-paced. But once focus was shifted to Azami-Drama, Megumi and other characters had to take a little step back from the action. And Megumi's character arc started to stagnate.

Through Training Arc. Autumn Elections and Stagiares, Megumi had visibly gained some more confidence in herself and her stage fright problem from the beginning of the series was ceasing. However there was something missing: pay-off. Her character arc lacks proper pay-off.

You see, throughout all of Central Arc Megumi has not won any single fight on-screen. She was given one victory against Shigemichi Kumai but not even second of that fight was actually shown to the reader. But when it's time for a more detailed fight against Momo, she looses.

In her fight against Momo, the judges do find the time to point out tho that Megumi might hasn't been able to beat Momo however there is quote unquote ✨potential✨.

Thing is that the "potential"-thing has been getting old at that point. It felt very reminiscent to Megumi's fight against Ryo back in the Autumn Elections. Ryo was able to win, however it was made clear through multiple dialogue-lines that Megumi did give him a good fight, defying the expectations the audience had from her. So basically that fight was like: Yes, she lost now. But she is on the right path. There is a lot of potential.

The issue is that time has progressed ever since the AE and it was about time for us, the readers, to see that potential unfold.

But we never got that.

We get a lot, a lot of talking about Megumi's potential throughout Central Arc but never an actual showcase of it. And it does not get much better with BLUE Arc either (I mean, what do you expect from that trainwreck of an arc anyway?)

First off, despite all of her potential and her participation in the Regiment de Cuisine & the retaking of Totsuki as a whole Megumi somehow ends up with the lowest seat in the Neo-Elite 10??? And I'm just: Why??? Why is she the only explicitly ranked below Eizan & Nene (who got a massive downgrade) with everyone else far ahead? (Tho the Neo-Elite 10 Ranking as a whole is one confusing mess and I should probably stop trying to bring sense into it if I do not want to go insane, lol.)

The infamous Hot Spring Fight against a Noir is where we finally see Megumi shine a little on-screen (at least in the manga). And well....I enjoyed seeing that but...

It is still not the proper pay-off she deserves, I'm sorry. Because ultimately that Noir-Guy is some random One-Off we never saw again. And that's a problem.

This character had no time establishing himself to us. We barely know him.

To put it into perspective: Satoshi Isshiki beating Julio Shiratsu in the RdC did not feel like a very impressive thing. Because we have only come to know Julio in that one fight and had absolutely no judgement on how powerful he may be (not to mention, that he was mostly placed in a very ridiculous light). It would have been a lot more impressive to the reader had Satoshi won his later fight against Eishi Tsukasa, because Eishi is a character who we have spent a lot more time with and who has repeatedly been portrayed as absurdly skillful and an actual threat.

See what I mean? As much as I loved seeing Megumi being an absolute badass in that Hot Spring Saga...It was not the satisfying pay-off I want for her.

The few victories she gets are always against random One-Offs while her fights against the more important characters are always a loss for her. Case in point: BLUE. She gets anOTHER off-screened match against some Noir in Chinese clothes, whose name I won't bother looking up if he even has one, where all characters talk about how talented she is but once it's time for her to go up against big bad bitch Asahi she looses. And that sucks.

Not to forget the fact that Megumi always gets strung along to every big event but we never get much justification for her participation (other than the obvious Meta-Reason that she's a main character).

Think about it, her and Takumi got extremely lucky in Train Arc by having Rindou giving them a free pass just for the lulz, while everyone else got expelled. Then a good number of messy chapters later, Megumi and Takumi get invited into BLUE without even a shred of reasoning behind it. Why them? How random is it to invite the 1st, 7th and 10th seat but no one else? Meanwhile when BLUE Arc was first mentioned in the manga they told Jouichiro that it's actually extremely rare for a student in that age to get into this tournament. And Jouichiro was a 3rd year back then, what are those three 2nd Years doing there??

The anime at least addressed that by having Totsuki's students fight for the participation (I appreciated that, if only the episode that covers it wasn't so lazily done)

I'd have much less of an issue with that if they actually gave Megumi something to work with in that arc. But really in RDC and even more so in BLUE, she's mostly just there I feel. She barely really impacts the story meaningfully in both of these arcs, I feel.

And it's one big shame.

As I said, I love Megumi and Tsukuda set her up as someone who I wanted to see succeed and defy expectations. Her journey up till Central Arc was a lot of fun and very compelling but then it just...came to a halt. And her arc never got any real, proper closure I feel. She was instead pushed more and more into the background and she just did not deserve that, man.

Never forget that she is one of the mains after all and she should have been treated as one.

damn I did not think this would get this long ahhdhdf

Miyoko Hojo

When realising that Miyoko's speciality is Chinese cooking, I was super excited for her! I really love Chinese food and I've been waiting for it to be covered in Shokugeki up till that point.

I like Miyoko quite a lot, she's definitely one of my faves from the...well, I don't think "secondary" cuts it...the tertiary cast. Unfortunately we've got to see so painfully little of her.

I like that Megumi, in the most Megumi-ways, made her learn a lesson like "Feminism =/= You can not possibly get along with a man. Ever.", but it was also interesting to see acknowledgement of the inequality of men and women within the culinary business through Miyoko.

Miyoko's friendship with Megumi is something I adore and I would have very much liked more of it please. I enjoy the thought of Miyoko, this tough, unapproachable woman, having her face soften whenever this pure, little angel approaches her. Also 100% sure Miyoko would drop-kick whoever gives Megumi a funny look.

I also would have liked to see Miyoko interact more with Kuga, because I imagine it could have been a lot of fun. From the one, tiny interaction they've had I feel that Terunori actually respects Miyoko quite a bit. Which I think is interesting, because Terunori otherwise seems to enjoy bitching at people.

Honestly? If you ask me??? Miyoko should have been in the Regiment de Cuisine.

I'll never get over how she's shown in the audience, alongside Nao, smiling when the rebels are about to snatch victory. Like ahdhFJG, excuse me Ma'am what business do you have just watching??? You can not tell me that from what we've seen about Miyoko that she would not be up to kick Azami's ass out of Totsuki. I generally think it's stupid for the Rebels to go up against the Elites in a number even to them.

Azami. Explicitly told you guys. That you can bring more than that.

You were up against the Elite 10 Council.

YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED ANYONE YOU CAN GET!

YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED MIYOKO

(and Nao as well tbh)

(The Regiment de Cusine could have been a lot better to buy for me if the Rebels had shown up with more participants tbh but that's a different subject)

Anyways, as I said I wish we could have seen a lot more of Miyoko. But it just wasn't meant ot be :( I mean, when characters like Alice and Akira get pushed to the side, what chances does the tertiary cast have?

I'm at least glad that she is sort-off shown being the new president of the Chinese RS in Les Dessert 1? I like that for her.

But yes, ultimately...another criminally underused character. I look forward to write her being a cool mom in my fanfic tho.

[dheir-slytherin-blr]

How to tackle and prevent Chinese Wuhan Virus waves; or infections like it

My views on how we ought to tackle not only this but potential future waves of Covid-19 infection (or any such other infection).

           The strategy against any disease/infection can be divided into:

1.      Prevention of the disease.

2.      Treatment of the disease.

Prevention:

           The single most effective measure against Covid-19, since it is a communicable disease, is social distancing. Although everyone knows this, people are not mindful about social distancing. To increase mindfulness, it is important to have multiple awareness sessions – in form of lectures, skits, essay competitions, etc. – as to how people are flouting the distancing norms and how they can learn to incorporate in their behavior to stop doing so.

           Diligent, continuous use of masks – preferably the N-95 masks, is another important step in breaking the transmission of Covid-19. Most people are not wearing the mask properly and there are a few who are not wearing it at all. Again, awareness sessions regarding the proper use and wearing of masks is necessary.

           The third measure is frequent hand washing and sanitization. With passage of time, people stopped using hand sanitizers and frequent hand washing.

           The most important factor that needs to be tackled is Complacency. With passage of time complacency set in and people stopped taking the above mentioned measures. Again, the way out is frequent awareness camps and involvement of citizens in suggesting and implementing measures.

Treatment:

           It is quite obvious by now that even more than Covid itself, it is the panic and fear that is making the situation out of control. People feel that only multi specialty hospitals and corporate hospitals are well equipped to treat Covid-19.

           Whereas the truth is that more than 50% cases of Covid-19 can be treated at home and the patients only need approach multi specialty hospitals for tertiary care in severe or critical cases.

           CMEs should be organized, training given and a proper protocol should be set so that mild to moderate cases may be treated by family doctors and single doctor nursing homes in a proper and systematic manner. The current best protocol of diagnosing, managing and monitoring Covid-19 cases should be taught to all qualified doctors and area-wise patients should be allotted to such doctors. A mechanism of online monitoring of beds available and those in need of it should be established so that most deserving patients get the bed facility and unnecessary occupancy of beds by mild cases which leads to shortage of beds and panic reactions can be avoided.

           If majority patients are treated in home set up by doctors known to them; proper and precise investigation and treatment is given, it shall lead to end of panic, end of spread of cases due to people gathering in crowds to purchase medicines and morale of the general public and medical fraternity shall be restored. Besides, it shall lead to optimum use of medical skills and infrastructure without hampering normal day to day life of the citizens.

           Unless proper prevention measures are propagated well, thoroughly and repeatedly till it becomes a part of way of life and till the family doctors (private practitioners or MBBS doctors manning PHCs or medical officers in organizations) are roped in to play a major stake in the treatment strategy, such bedlam and confusion shall keep prevailing in cycles.

           I would like to paraphrase my suggestions in short:

1.      Organize repeated seminars or awareness camps in form of lectures, skits, and essay competitions with the theme of Covid prevention and how each individual can contribute to contain this menace.

2.      Train MBBS doctors and single doctor nursing home doctors to effectively manage mild to moderate cases of Covid-19 through outpatient OPD so that patient recovers at home, use of medical infrastructure is optimized and tertiary care centers are not unnecessarily burdened.

3.      System of proper triage of patients should be set up so the right patient gets the right bed or ICU bed and her/his relatives don’t have to run from pillar to post for admissions or medication.

#Covid19 #AmitShah #TacklingChineseWuhanVirus

[jackoshadows]

Maria and Michael know each other from school.

From high school to present, Maria is one of the few positive human interactions Michael has had in his life. They have a fun barter system and dynamic where Michael does small repair and maintenance work for her and she gives him free drinks.  Michael enjoys the way Maria takes the piss out of him and Maria is entertained by his trouble making ways. They are both attracted to each other.

When we meet them, they have these fun interactions and both characters have lots of chemistry with each other. Then Maria is having a very bad day and Michael is there for her and comforts her and we see that something changes for him. He sees her when she’s vulnerable and sad and his protective instincts kick in. Then we get episode 9 where Michael and Maria give into their attraction and sleep together. Their feelings for each other start to change.

Then Alex drops the bombshell that Michael is his high school lover. Maria is shocked and distressed that she slept with Michael and that she is starting to feel something for this person important to Alex. She assures him that there is nothing between them. But we see here from Alex and Maria’s expressions that they both know she is lying. She then tries to avoid Michael when he pursues her.  

Michael is not having it. He tells Maria that it’s over between him and Alex and has been for a while. This is true. Alex dumped him in episode 3 – we are now in episode 10 and several months have passed. Maria is still like, yeah no, Alex is my friend. Then she gets roofied and Michael stays by her side and takes care of her – she feels loved and protected and falls for him all over again.

Maria feels conflicted about her feelings for Michael and her friendship with Alex. Liz then runs into her and Maria spills all the deets about the situation. Liz is like, you can’t help who you fall in love with. At the end, Michael wants to give his attempt at happiness a go with Maria and turns up looking all vulnerable and Maria gives into her feelings and attraction for him and kisses him.  

Some fans: Why is Michael/Maria even a thing? There is no build up at all to this relationship. Where’s the attraction? He just slept with her to make Alex jealous. I hope next season Michael is miserable with Maria, jealous of Alex and spends his time pining for Alex. Here’s all these fics where Michael cheats on Maria with Alex. Alex should never forgive these two until they break up and grovel in front of him and acknowledge his awesomeness. How can Carina replace a m/m relationship with m/f – where’s the queer rep?! 

Let’s spend this hiatus hating on Maria, Michael, invalidating their relationship and making fandom a miserable experience for Miluca shippers.

Show/Carina/Tyler: Alex has a new love interest next season!

The same fans: Yay! Let’s get info on the new guy. Wow, new guy/Alex is so hot and great. I don’t even know who this character is, which actor plays him, or what the story is about, but it makes total sense and I ship it! Here are all the fics with Alex/New guy.

I think this double standard is some of what the recent controversial podcast was talking about. You want Alex to be happy and in a happy, healthy relationship with another great guy? Good. Go for it. I hope Alex/New character have great scenes together, lots of chemistry and become a popular ship.  Ship them to your heart’s content, write all the fic, make all the art. But here’s the thing. Don’t Maria and Michael and their shippers deserve the same consideration? Don’t Maria and Michael as characters deserve happiness?

If you dislike Michael/Maria because it gets in the way of your fave ship Malex, then why all the exuberant shipping for Alex/new guy? Doesn’t that get in the way of Malex? So it’s only Michael/Maria that’s the issue? Why?

It’s pretty obvious and very clear that the ONLY canon ship that gets toxic hate in this fandom is the one for the only main black character on the show. I know that a lot of the hate is because Maria made the mistake of getting in the way of a popular m/m ship on the show. But there’s no denying that there’s also an insidious, underlying racism that denies Maria’s importance as a character in her own right and turns her into just an obstacle between Alex and Michael. She’s only important and good on the show insofar as her relationship with Alex. The racism that questions Michael’s attraction to Maria. The biphobia that denies that Michael can be attracted to and love a woman.

Michael should be jealous and pine for Alex next season? Fuck that shit.  I hope Michael is all over Maria next season and treats her as a sexy, attractive, amazing young black woman. I hope we get hot, make out scenes between them like we got for Liz/Max and Alex/Michael. I hope Maria is a central character with a story that’s about her next season. Anything else will make Michael a shitty person and Maria relegated to an obstacle. People really want Michael to cheat on Maria? WTF?  Give Maria a proper story before returning to everyone’s favorite Malex ship next season or whenever.

I will be looking at what you do next season Carina Adly Mackenzie. You already took a main white character from the original series (Maria was more important than even Michael in the original series), racebend her as black and then took away her OG romantic relationships, OG importance to the plot and narrative themes and turned her into a tertiary character less important than even Alex and Kyle. Part of the reason for Maria’s shitty treatment by fandom is because you gave the character very little with respect to story. You have promised to do better for the character in season 2. Do it.

[craniumculverin]

while planning ripper!au story stuff, i accidentally made an oc, rosalind, out of a wife character i made for one of @donc-desole​‘s ocs - wes, who got in as a tertiary character in the ripper!au cus his bf percy has such a prominent role. problem is, i ended up making a totally separate and unrelated story of how my oc and des’ oc(s) got together. what can i say, i just love these guys!

i know i’m not gonna get to writing it anytime soon, so i figured i’d share a few (unedited) rough drafts. hopefully my behind-the-scenes bullet point writing is as coherent to others as it is to me.

Wesley & Rosalind's First Meeting (also Harry’s there)

• at a social gathering thrown by some bigwig that invited everyone who could be considered noteworthy, aka old family and a lotta money - non-english and new-money need not show up

• it’s all stuffy judgey people, many of whom are old af or stuck up

• wes is hella uncomfortable and has no acquaintances to help him out - he’s looked down upon due to his family’s dwindling fortune/debts

• rosa is hella bored, no one wants to dance and everyone’s rude - she’s looked down upon for her family maybe not being entirely english, despite having a respectable fortune

• the two of them end up hanging around the periphery, drinking/eating too much, being uncomfortable and awkward

• wes keeps trying to join in conversations and the like cus he’s gotta maintain/make connections, but is hella nervous and ends up backing out again and again until he’s near rosa

• they end up sitting near each other as more dancing starts - the quartet is subpar and wes is sure half of the players are drunk, rosa notices too and makes an “unlady-like” comment, immediately correcting herself/apologizing

• wes has had just enough to drink to not mind the social misstep and even carry on the criticism, relieved to speak on a topic he remotely cares about for once that night

• they quickly move from the negativity to sharing their likes and dislikes of the modern music scene, sharing a few similar viewpoints, before moving to other topics - when they start hating on the other guests/how they’ve been treated, they move to a more private area outside

• rosa is proper but very open and insightful, and her manner of interacting with wes seems to draw him out of his awkward nervousness somewhat - despite her being a woman even, like what

• they have an enjoyable conversation ranging a multitude of topics, partly out of just being glad to finally be doing well socially - at one point rosa asks if he’d like to dance but he quickly declines, to which rosa is respectful and doesn’t ask again

• it begins to get dark and the few other guests outside head indoors, they’re all but alone - wes eventually notices and realizes how inappropriate it is, gets hella nervous again and says something about it

• rosa scoffs at the idea - what, is he going to do something to her? she to him? she trusts him and knows herself and her abilities, who cares if the people already unfairly judging them judges them more? why lose what precious little decent company they’ve found tonight simply because others might think something ill of them? etc., she goes off basically

• wes is silent cus one, he’s kinda dumbstruck and two, she’s right and he’s had enough to drink to let himself admit it, at least to himself

• rosa realizes she spoke out too much and backpedals, apologizes for her actions, wes is HELLA nervous and doesn’t know how to respond but eventually manages to say it’s alright

• they share an awkward silence cus neither knows how to proceed without likely making it even worse, when thank God for harry - he shows up in full dress uniform despite not being invited and supposedly still out of the country

• harry calls out to wes from just inside, plate of food in hand as he finds his friend and rosa - wes is insta-done and rosa isn’t sure what to think but acts appropriately - everyone inside is casting glares and muttering among themselves

• wes and harry greet and interact as they do, mostly about wtf is harry doing there, harry wasn’t invited how dare the host, how has the host not thrown him out, he’s made everyone mad, etc.

• rosa sees that they ARE in fact friends and watches with amusement - harry eventually stops to apologize and introduce himself to rosa and flirt a little, before raising his brows at wes, who is VERY done at this point

• rosa and harry share pleasantries and much to wes’s anguish start talking about him - harry being typical harry, rosa gently but firmly stating otherwise, that wes has been a wonderful conversationalist, is knowledgeable, acceptably verbose, etc., etc. - harry eventually raises his brows at wes even higher like, “oh~?”

• wes is ready to strangle harry and his face says as much - he stops the talking short to steer harry back inside while his friend bickers, rosa not far behind stifling her laughter, which only makes wes blush more

• by now the old host knows harry’s come unannounced, harry sees him and is instantly ready to harangue the man for the offense of not being invited - wes is suddenly very much aware of how badly this could go and wants to get he and harry out of there asap before any damage can be done

• wes hurriedly says his goodbyes and gratitudes for the evening to rosa, who does the same albeit not as sloppily, and says she’d love to speak with him again sometime - this takes wes so completely by surprise that he just stops and stares at her for a moment, mouth agape - and then harry starts shouting

• wes tries to wrangle an irate harry out of the party, but harry doesn’t budge until he’s said his surprisingly eloquent fill about ridiculous prejudices and a bunch of other righteously furious stuff I can't think of atm - once he’s done he marches out without waiting for wes, who’s as taken aback by harry’s words as the host

• wes glances to where rosa was before quietly excusing himself - rosa had made herself scarce so as not to cause further embarrassment on wes’s part should he see her witnessing all of this

• wes signals his coachman before trying to catch up to a startlingly cheery harry who’s still munching on party food, rosa waits for her own carriage to leave the party, observing the fallout from harry’s outburst

• scene change (kinda) - wes catches up and starts questioning harry - what the hell was he thinking? he's ruined his status for sure! etc., etc. - harry finishes his food before stopping short to give him a less than acceptable answer

• near the end of his reasoning he starts walking again and casually changes the topic to "wes' little friend", during which he frisbee-style flings the snack plate off somewhere - wes is speechless and has to jog to catch up, deciding to start on berating him for using rosa as a distraction instead of proper chinaware etiquette

• harry seems to only half-listen as wes tells him off for making assumptions, blah blah, etc., which only makes wes angrier - he stops walking to stomp his foot and shout something that finally gets through to harry

• he apologizes to get wes to calm down, sincerely says he's simply happy to see his friend comfortably interacting with a lady for a change - wes is thrown off for a sec by the sincerity but gets indignant about harry thinking he's not USUALLY comfortable talking to women, and starts in on that

• by now wes' coach is within view (driver having heard the shouting) and harry realizes wes is a little drunk - he shepherds wes into his ride as he continues to complain, getting in after him after asking the driver if he could be dropped off on the way to wes' place

• drunk and upset wes, of course, is outraged he'd commandeer his coachman like that, says of course he can't, but eventually decides he doesn't want harry over for the night and demands he be dropped off - harry dramatically and oh-so graciously thanks him, which wes takes as sincere

• they ride off, wes continuing to complain about harry to harry, who at this point isn't listening at all

• end

[nurseelizanda]

Book that I'm writing:

My first few years as a nurse I decided that I was going to start writing a book about nursing ethics, patient care, personal theories, values and morals as well as my experience during the covid-19 pandemic. The first chapter of my book I’d like to attempt to define the multi-faceted traits of what nursing is.

Chapter 1: What is the Definition of Nursing

From a non-secular point of view, the beginning of mankind originated in the Garden of Eden where the man and woman lived in abundance, free from disease.  The curse of mankind was marked by the consumption of the forbidden fruit of knowledge.  The curse God plagued mankind with included difficult labor in life with the end result being death.  Arguably, from a non-secular standpoint nursing and the medical field can be defined as an attempt to regain what was lost when the curse began, to bring back everlasting life free from ailments and eventual death and to be in sync with the original form of mankind before the consumption of the forbidden fruit.

In order to accurately define nursing, the topic of maternity can also be used as one of the origins of nursing.   The bond between a mother and infant is innate; the infant is codependent on his mother for food, shelter, safety and clothing--The mother utilizes non-maleficence and beneficence the core of modern day nursing ethics.  The woman’s body brings the fetus to life providing sustenance from her first trimester all the way up to birth when the mother continues to provide nourishment, safety and security, shelter and clothing for the infant.   The very act of motherhood and maternity is synonymous to the relationship between the patient and nurse.  There are demographics of patients who are unable to communicate their needs and are codependent on their nurses to provide nourishment, safety and security, shelter as well as non-maleficence and beneficence.  These patients’ lives depend on the nurse and doctor to facilitate homeostasis—To be observant of signs of a disruption of homeostasis and to monitor changes in condition. 

Nursing can also be defined as evidenced-based research used to promote bodily, psychosocial and spiritual homeostasis.  It can be defined as primary, secondary and tertiary preventative care.  Nursing can be defined as treating current mental and physical conditions, facilitation of continuum of care including familial health. 

Chapter 2: Patient Autonomy

Patient autonomy is significant in providing nursing care.  With respect to human life, also comes respect for a human’s choices and decisions.   During patient care, yes means yes and no means no.  However, there is the topic of the demographic of patients who are altered mentally in which some may argue that they are incapable of making decisions for their well-being.  The mentally ill deserve quality of care and unfortunately there are several factors that hinder this.  There’s the concept of some with schizoaffective or psychotic diagnoses who have a combative or aggressive nature which causes conflict in providing quality of care. Identifying the patient’s needs can be difficult.  Proper assessment of the patient’s baseline cognitive status can become difficult and identifying the patient’s delusion from reality can impede with proper monitoring and assessment.  The mentally ill deserve to have autonomy in making decisions for their care; however, what are nurses to do if the patient’s decisions are detrimental to their health when there is no power of attorney?

The better question is, how can the nursing community increase compliance in our mentally ill patients to provide better quality of life?  Could a solution be to ask help from their family members to be instrumental in facilitating patient care and medication administration?  Would familial aid facilitate an increase in compliance in patient care?  Could another solution to providing care for the mentally ill be the “ask three rule?” Ask one time explaining the risks and the benefits, and if the patient is combative or refuses, to come back in 30 minutes and ask again when their mood is even and non-combative and to offer treatment three times and if on the third time they still refuse care then to document that they refuse--like a three strikes their out rule? This method would provide patient autonomy while encouraging patient care, thoroughly explaining the risks and benefits while waiting for the patient’s mood to be optimal for providing patient care.  Waiting for the patient’s mood to be optimal for patient care would be a safety precaution for the patient as well as for the nurse.

The purpose of these topics in my book isn’t to provide set solutions that are definite answers to nursing challenges, however the purpose of my book is to bring exposure to certain topics so as a nursing community we can think of ways to increase quality of care, learn from our past and improve the future of nursing. 

Chapter 3: Maladaptive Behaviors in Patient Care

The patient can present with maladaptive behaviors that impede with patient care.  Irritability for example is a symptom that often ties itself to an underlying cause.  When a patient strikes out, speaks profanities, becomes physically aggressive, self isolates, verbalizes feelings of sadness or hopelessness---these are all symptoms that may tie to an unidentified, underlying cause.  As a nurse I find it beneficial to perceive maladaptive behaviors that may cause offense, as a symptom.  

Aggressive behavior and irritability can be viewed as a change in vital signs such as hypertension or an elevated temperature.   In this case I find it beneficial to assess the patient’s needs. Are their physiological needs being met?  Are they in pain? Are they hungry? Are their psychosocial needs not being met? It’s beneficial to go through the steps of Maslow’s hierarchy and identify breaches where the patient’s needs aren’t being met.  There are some cases when the patient’s irritability is due to inadequate food intake and they’re just hungry, other cases the patient may be in an immense amount of pain and is striking out and speaking profanities due to their pain levels.  It’s beneficial to perceive these maladaptive behaviors in patient care as a symptom to an unidentified, underlying cause rather than to take offense to the behavior.

Chapter 4: Redefining the original 5 Vital Signs & Mood 

In Chapter 3 I elaborated on maladaptive behaviors and how in patient care they should be treated as a symptom to an unidentified, underlying cause. I also emphasized that aggressive behavior and irritability, for example should be viewed as a change in vital signs such as hypertension or an elevated temperature.  

Vital signs have been redefined over the years with new additions to the original pulse, oxygen saturation, temperature, blood pressure and pain.  To add on to the movement, I believe that the patient’s mood should be a 6th vital sign such as, anger, irritability, happiness, joy etc. The reason for this is, the patient’s mood often is reflective of the patient’s physical state and mental health status.  

Maladaptive behaviors or the mood of the patient should be treated as a symptom to an unidentified, underlying cause.

In order to efficiently assess the patient’s mood it would be beneficial to define common moods.  

A patient who is happy can be defined as an individual that is thriving mentally, physically and spiritually.  This patient can present with certain signs such as eating well anywhere from 75% to 100% of their meals, participating in group activities such as church, bingo, group discussions, is compliant with their doctor’s orders, is socializing with co-residents and isn’t presenting with isolative behaviors, and is future-oriented with goals for their future, to name a few. Hygiene and compliance to bathing and grooming can be seen in happy patients however, there are a demographic of individuals who are perfectly happy not being hygienic and perfectly happy un-bathed so this aspect can be patient-specific and is not necessarily an indicator of happiness or sadness.

A patient who is sad might present with a sudden decrease in compliance of doctor’s orders and medication administration. They may present with a sudden decrease in participation in group activities, is eating less than 50% of their meals; this patient may no longer want to talk to co-residents as they once did before, and they may have a decrease in their daily activities.  This patient may present with crying or may present with no expression at all.  Sad patients may also present with not wanting to do the things they once loved doing. 

Moods are patient-specific and these guidelines may be true in some patients however, other patients may present with moods differently.  

An angry, irritable, aggressive or combative patient may present with physical or verbal offenses.  They can speak in profanities and may throw things. These patients may also present with a decrease in compliance of doctor’s orders, medication administration and group activities.  These patients may also self-isolate themselves.

An anxious patient may present with the appearance of agreeing to do all things presented to them.  They may nod their head to all recommendations made by interdisciplinary staff without thinking about what they want to do.  By doing this they may also facilitate other emotions such as anger, sadness or loss.  Anxious patients may present with an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and sometimes shortness of breath.  Anxious patients may also present with thoughts that are fixated on future oriented aspects in their life rather than the present.  The anxious may present with inner conflict related to being unable to control their future while still remaining in the present.  Anxious people may also have anxiety about their past decisions and how it effects their present and future. 

There are a plethora of moods that can be defined and seen in patient care, however, I’ve defined a few common ones that I have seen in patient care.

 Chapter 5 : Consent From Non-verbal Patients & Addendum to Chapter 2’s Autonomy 

Obtaining consent from non-verbal patients can be a challenge.  However, it’s a misconception to think that non-verbal patients cannot have autonomy.

Body language is a big indicator of approval or refusal of patient care.  For example if the non-verbal patient is presenting with facial grimacing or retraction of their hand during attempts to perform accuchecks, that can be documented as a patient’s refusal of care.  

We cannot force a patient to do anything however, there are methods to increase compliance of patient care. This includes: thoroughly explaining all the steps of patient care so the patient knows exactly what is being performed on them.   Obtaining a translator for the patient if their native tongue is not English is another way to increase the patient’s compliance of care.  Familial presence can also encourage the patient to be compliant in treatment.  Clearing explaining the risks and benefits of medication administration can also increase compliance of care. 

I spoke in Chapter 2 about patient autonomy and how we can improve compliance for our mentally ill patients.  In this chapter I wanted to elaborate on ways we can improve autonomy and compliance of non-verbal patients.   I wanted to elaborate on how body language in non-verbal patients can be used as a tool to identify approval or refusal of patient care which in turn promotes autonomy in this demographic of individuals. 

Chapter 6: Communication Between Interdisciplinary Staff

Communication is a significant tool in nursing and if not utilized wisely, it can be used as a tool that can facilitate systemic neglect or abuse of a patient.  Being aware of what is said about a patient to interdisciplinary staff is important.  For example if comments with negative denotations about a patient is emphasized to staff members, it can cause a decrease in quality of patient centered care.   For example, comments such as, “The patient is so needy,” or “the patient is such a baby” are inappropriate comments and by communicating such comments to interdisciplinary staff, it may cause staff members to underestimate the significance of the patient’s needs. Changes in the patient’s condition, the patient’s symptoms, the patient’s call light may all be ignored and it’s value to a caregiver might decrease in comparison to if interdisciplinary staff did not make negative comments such as, “the patient is so needy, the patient is such a baby,” it in turn can facilitate systemic patient neglect and abuse.  

Chapter 7: Teamwork, Cultural Acceptance and Organizational Initiatives to Combat Disruptive Behavior

            Teamwork is part of the framework of providing patient centered care within a nursing setting.  Aspects that can hinder teamwork and promote disruptive behavior include having a lack of cultural acceptance within a faculty setting that can facilitate a hostile environment where certain groups with similar cultural traits dominate the nursing setting and gang up on other minority groups.  A solution to this issue can include organizations providing incentives for faculty workers for pursuing continuing education on cultural pluralism to facilitate an open mind to other cultures in the nursing setting.  Another solution to this could be an organization can target cultural pluralism within an interdisciplinary team by encouraging outside nurses who are part of the minority demographics in the current faculty to apply for positions.  Organizations can facilitate a shift in dominating cultures in the nursing setting by providing more publicity of fast paced nursing programs in the form of commercials in cultural television programs to provide more opportunity for minority demographics in nursing to overall decrease the incidence of present dominating cultural groups. 

            Arguably, the framework of evidence-based practice relies heavily on specific cultural and ethnic demographics that shape patient care.  There’s importance to having a culturally diverse interdisciplinary team to improve patient quality of care.  Having a culturally diverse interdisciplinary team can improve quality of care by providing additional knowledge of diverse cultures and can for example provide insight in translating different languages and understanding otherwise unknown cultural traits that a patient may possess.  Increasing cultural and ethnic diversity in the nursing interdisciplinary team can facilitate better quality of patient-centered care by providing an extra blanket of understanding toward other patient minority groups. 

Chapter 8: Decreasing Risk for Neglect for Patients with Repetitive Verbal Disturbances

Patients with repetitive verbal disturbances may be inclined for neglect due to the idea that their verbal disturbances are seen as repetitive normal occurrences throughout the day.  Their voice may be seen less significant because of its repetitive nature, however I realized that these patients should be frequently assessed to see if their needs are being met by their caregivers.  I’ve realized that often times patients’ verbal disturbances may exacerbate if they’re presenting with discomfort such as being cold, hungry in pain, etc.  Therefore these patients like all patients should be frequently assessed, and their verbal disturbances should have the same weight and significance as patients without repetitive verbal disturbances.

Chapter 9: Prioritizing Uniform Care Within a Facility 

Prioritizing only alert patients is a common dyscrasia within high patient to nurse ratios.  The downfall to this is there can be patients with more serious conditions who may be unable to communicate their needs.  On one end of the spectrum, nurses may feel pressure from alert patients who are able to communicate when their medication may be late to family and administration.  However, a solution to this issue would be to provide interdisciplinary staff education regarding gauging priority based on the patient’s signs and symptoms such as the ABCs airway, breathing, circulation, and vital signs.  By doing so, it would provide uniform care within a facility and would take into account patients who are unable to communicate their needs.

Chapter 10: Facilitating career security for senior/elderly nurses in the modern day

There’s been a reoccurring trend of facilities replacing older nurses with younger nurses.  There’s been a movement made my faculties that de-value older nurses however, it’s beneficial for facilities to retain older nurses for the purpose of their strategies from experience that may not be spoken of in books.  There’s significance in hands-on experience and an older nurse may have strategies they’ve obtained over the years that a younger nurse does not possess.  Both traditional nursing and modern nursing would be beneficial in facilities. Traditional nursing is just as important as up-to-date evidence-based research that a younger nurse may possess.

Chapter 11: Full Therapeutic Dose & Medication Administration

It’s a common dyscrasia among high patient to nurse ratios in facilities for medication nurses to omit over the counter medication due to time constraints however, by doing so a demographic of patients are predisposed to a deficit in vitamins and minerals, are at risk for irregular bowel movements, abnormal lab values, dry eyes…etc.  It may be beneficial for administration to emphasize that administering medication orders to its entirety and being late in administering medication is preferred over omitting over the counter medication due to time constraints in an attempt to prevent a demographic of patients that present with a deficit in vitamins and minerals, patients with irregular bowel movements, abnormal lab values and dry eyes…etc.

In earlier chapters I’ve delineated the importance in obtaining patient consent and provision of autonomy in medication administration. Another concept that I wanted to touch bases on is the common dyscrasia regarding putting medication in a patient’s food due to lack of compliance.  It’s immoral and illegal to put a patient’s medication in their food without their knowledge.  By putting medication in a patient’s food, the bitter taste of the medication taints the patient’s food and can cause a decrease in food intake.  This overtime can cause weight loss and the patient can associate a bitter taste with meals and may not be willing to eat for this reason.   Another issue with this is, it effects the full therapeutic dose of the medication, in that the patient would have to consume the entire portion of their meal in order to obtain the full therapeutic dose of the medication.  Therefore, if the patient does not consume the entirety of the portion, then the patient will not obtain the full therapeutic dose of the medication that is being ordered by the doctor.  

[unicornachos]

A single life update (haven’t done one of these in yonks wowee)

HELLO EVERYONE IT’S BEEN LIKE. A YEAR?? 2 YEARS??? I never write text posts here anymore because I’m always yelling on my various twitter accounts. This has kind of become my place to organise and store inspiration for my art.

Anyway, I have some life news I guess. 

- I graduated from my final year in tertiary education so THAT’S DONE. YAAY

- I have a new housemate and she’s great

- I had a boyfriend for a lil bit but then we broke up and I’m perfectly ok. I think I’m a lot more on the gay end of the bi spectrum than I previously thought? Anyway we’re good.

- I went through a really tough time mental health wise a few months ago. Jobseeking, having to find a new housemate and having a lot of stress and uncertainty about whether I’d need to or not for months, trying to finish my advanced diploma, dealing with a really really shitty housemate whose aggressive boyfriend I didn’t want in the house which brought back a lot of not nice feelings from when I was younger, basically being asked to manage our entire store with my boss away after I finished uni, rent going up, etc really had my anxiety coming back in a massive way. I was also somewhat depressed but I was clinically diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder. Anyway- I put myself through a mostly online course on dealing with anxiety, low mood, and not great mental health for a few months and I’m feeling a lot better. There are still things I need to work on, but on the whole I’m managing it well and much better than I used to! It’s actually made me realise a lot of things about myself and helped me to improve and grow.

- As of today I have FINALLY BEEN ABLE TO QUIT MY SHITTY RETAIL JOB. I have been jobseeking for EIGHT ENTIRE MONTHS TO FIND A GOOD JOB. Not in my field (because I want to go freelance eventually) but a good, stable job that won’t make me want to cry each time I walk in the door. That pays me well and I can get proper lunch breaks and super and all that jazz. 

I’ve found it and I was sent my contract today!!!! It’s a course coordinator role for a non-for-profit organisation that organises tax education, and the team are incredibly lovely and friendly. 8:30-5pm 5 days a week. It’s in the city, so only a 20 min train ride from my place. I’M REALLY HAPPY AND RELIEVED THAT I CAN FINALLY START DOING WHAT I WANT.

I want to do a job that’s not too bad, save money, pay off my student loans or at least put a dent in them, maybe save to travel (I’ve always wanted to hike in NZ or visit my uncle in Wales) or be able to treat my mum to more nice things occasionally and go back home to the central coast more often to see her, be able to have more time and money to spend on doing conventions and zine fairs, and work on my art on the side. I want to save up a good amount so I can build up a base of clients, do a business plan etc, and when I finally do go freelance with my illustration have some savings to last me a few months before I get myself up and running.

But that’s all in the future. I start my new job on July 2nd! I’m really excited to, after 4 years of living in Sydney, being financially unstable, stressed from juggling work and uni, finally be able to get myself into a routine. I’m really excited to be able to come home from work and not write another resume or do another brief, but to just make the art I want to make for a while.

I have lots of ideas and projects in mind that I will finally have the time to work on!!

If you’re interested in my life enough to get this far, thanks I guess, haha. If anyone has twitter pls feel free to add me on there where I’m a lot more active.

Peace out

[adviceessay756]

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Storytelling, Books & Poetry, Featured She has written for Intuit, Avalara, NerdWallet, GoPayment, and as a ghostwriter for a few well-identified CEO’s. Her work has appeared all around the web, together with on websites like World News and Reports, Entrepreneur.com, and Forbes. She loves nothing greater than being presented with a bunch of knowledge and requested to break it down into digestible content material for readers. Most days you’ll find her sitting on her porch along with her laptop computer, writing to the sound of the ocean, and marveling that life can be this stinking good. In addition to this, the IAPWE supplies helpful tools, sources and networking alternatives for professional writers and editors, as well as making all members conscious of potential writing job scams. Professional writing differs from academic writing due to the difference in function and readership between the 2 styles. 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[oh-my-otome]

Hello! I love your blog. I was creeping around your blog and I saw that Ieyasu character analysis. It was perfect. I was wondering if you could do something similar for Saizo? I feel that his attitude towards his MC would drive her away in the long run. Like sure, she loves him and wants to be there for him, but he leaves her alone for considerable amounts of time, and idk he just feels so closed off. Their relationship has a lack of communication that could cause them to drift apart. Thoughts?

Hello, there! Thank you so much! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! 

These are really fun to do! Ieyasu’s can be found here. 

Saizō is the king of lies, and tells them as easily as the wind blows. As much as he tries to outsmart everyone else, even he becomes ensnared by his failure to tell the truth.

He’ll say that he won’t lift a finger to help, and the next thing you know, he’s been skulking in the shadows, making sure that everything is all right, ready to swoop in and assist at the drop of a hat.

Even other people notice it:

He gets annoyed when you or Yukimura don’t do things right, saying that it’s not his problem and that he doesn’t care, only to turn around and help you through until the end, despite what he said.

For as much as he declares that he does not care about love or family, and shows his annoyance outwardly, Saizō will do anything and everything that he can to protect the ones that he cares about, no matter the cost.

Hotaru even outs him:

MC: “What do you do when you get lost?”

Hotaru: “My older brother will come and pick me up.”

So in other words, he’ll stop everything to rescue his little bro from the elements.

Keep pretending to be annoyed, Saizō. It’s totally working! You’ve fooled us all!

For all of his posturing that they annoy him, Saizō does love his siblings, as he keeps Hotaru safe from Kotarō, whenever he shows up, and respects his sister’s advice. He bitches and moans about them, but in the end, even for Saizō, family is family.

To Saizō, it is not only blood that makes a family, but connection, as he cares deeply for his fallen friend, his protégé Sasuke, and his lifelong childhood friend Yukimura.

But for Saizō, these connections must be built over time, as we see that tertiary degrees mean little to him: he cares nothing at all for Inuchiyo, and shows a similar disinterest in Yahiko. He’ll speak to him when spoken to, but he doesn’t go out of his way to engage him, like other suitors who spent time with him.

Even though he is almost always away from his village, and even though he has lived with the Takeda since he was a child, Saizō considers his home to be wherever his MC is, and he makes a beeline for her the minute that he comes back.     

Firmly in the kuu and tsun categories of dere-types, Saizō displays a special dichotomy of behavior patterns, both coldly reclusive and hot-tempered. More often than not, Saizō chooses to withdraw from others, giving them the cold shoulder, but he is no stranger to blowing a fuse, either, and is quick to use sarcasm, both as an insult and as a defense mechanism.

Rather than admit when he’s wrong, Saizō will also use sarcasm as a shield to protect his ego. Sometimes, this manifests when he wants to tease you, only for him to realize halfway through, that you have him in the palm of your hand:

Saizō’s MC is far more inconsistent than most other MCs, even from event story to event story.

She is either convinced that her only purpose on this earth is to obsessively love him no matter how he treats her, and unceasingly make him dango.

Or she loves him like a regular person and is occasionally tired of his bull and will call him out on it. And then unceasingly make him dango. 

When Obsessed MC shows up, she is little better than Kotarō in his Fan Boy mode. They just go about it in different ways.

When she is more normal, she’ll speak her mind, but then immediately go back to worrying about what Saizō thinks about something, instead of just sticking with her original opinion.

While he does go on missions often, which can create emotional distance in a relationship, he has the added benefit of having an MC who is quite obsessed with his opinion of her. 

Her self-worth is one of the lowest of all of the MCs, as she tells herself again and again that she lives to make dango– just that one dish –to keep Saizō happy, and that so long as she can do that, she will be happy, herself.

With a dynamic like this, unless she boosts her self-esteem, no matter what Saizō does, she will remain, as not only are they not on equal footing in terms of *education and finances, but she believes that she is happy where she is.

Like Nobunaga, he’s also a hypocrite:

Saizō displays a certain amount of vanity when it comes to his job. He supplements his income with money from his front, the popular restaurant in Kyoto, and also with the books he writes. 

Using his reputation, he tends to pick and choose his missions to a certain degree, but even he cannot escape the rules of the village, and when they want to come down on him, they do not hesitate based on his previous accomplishments.

Saizō’s arrogance is one of his defining features, and to be fair, he does have quite a bit of plot armor, but he is never able to escape the memory of killing his best friend.

Whenever it rains, Saizō is overcome with feelings of guilt, and the rain itself represents how helpless he is to change what he’s done– no one can change the weather, and no one can go back in time.

In fact, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Saizō to see it as his own personal hell that the friend he loved so much, and is responsible for killing, shares a similar personality with the woman he loves.

As it turns out, Saizō is particularly sentimental, going out of his way to keep a comb in near mint condition from childhood into adulthood, and setting traps just to protect it. He won’t even tell you that he has it, keeping it a secret, even though it’s yours.

He extends the same reverence for his friend’s sword, keeping both items close to him, and not allowing another person to touch them, barely speaking about either one, as he continues to internalize his feelings.

Saizō has the odd kink of being turned on by ear cleaning. He does mention that he likes the way you “moan” (his words, though MC is not moaning out of pleasure), but he also finds the entire act itself– including the ear gunk, etc –arousing as well.

If anyone’s ever used an ear pick before, you know there’s no way he’s doing all of that “thrusting” it “deeper” without also encountering not only liquidized **ear wax, but blood.

Because Saizō loves dango so much, and because his MC obsessively desires to please him by almost exclusively making his favorite food and little else, and because Saizō just sits there happily eating it without a care in the world, Saizō’s lack of energy when he’s off-work is not entirely due to battle fatigue, but lack of proper nutrition.

Eating one type of food, exclusively, leads to malnutrition and lack of vitamins, which causes, among other things, fatigue and muscle weakness.

Realistically, rather than being buff, Saizō would experience the cannibalization of muscle tissue, as well as impaired brain function (and hemorrhages, gum disease, etc.)

When it comes to things that he doesn’t know, Saizō typically avoids it rather than learn about it, writing it off as something he doesn’t need to know about, or by saying that it’s just not done where he’s from.

At the end of the day, his plot armor takes care of it, rendering the story moot.

This is one of the reasons why people complain about Saizō– he’s rarely allowed to have any real flaws, because he can get out of any situation.

If another man accosts his MC, Saizō displays his jealousy by psychically inserting himself into the situation. 

He doesn’t just say something to the guy, or try to de-escalate the situation by leaving. Instead, he uses intimidation to mark his territory, often provoking the other man, even though he knows that he outclasses him on physical strength alone.

That is, if the other man is of a lower social station than himself. 

Saizō doesn’t dare to pull that type of thing with Kenshin and his nephew Kagekatsu, who both have him beat as far as being highborn.

When these two show an interest in his MC, Saizō quite politely squeezes between them, but smartly refrains from showing any disrespect.

When it comes to Kotarō, Saizō is plainly indifferent. 

He will only engage him if he absolutely has to, instead allowing Kotarō to exhaust himself in a star-struck frenzy, but Saizōkeeps his guard up, all the same.

If his MC or his brother are around, Saizō is a little more on his toes, but there is a slight difference in the way he protects the two from Kotarō:

Saizō will step in immediately if Kotarō is near his brother, but if it’s his MC, he is willing to use her as bait.

Saizō is Sasuke’s guardian, but true to the way children of Iga are raised, Saizō refrains from coddling him, instead giving him the same tough love that any other ninja would receive. 

Sasuke adores him, though, and respects him greatly. Of his two dads, he is close to Yukimura, but reveres Saizō.

Saizō, for his part, understands fundamentally that he could be much gentler when it comes to how he’s raising Sasuke, and walks a fine line between treating him the standard Iga way and wanting to give Sasuke a little bit of what he never had, himself.

Because he is a kuu/tsun mix, though, it is difficult for others to pinpoint if he’s actually being kind to them, or if he’s just doing enough to get them to leave him alone, in the moment.

As the reader, we know, but we can also tell that the characters usually take whatever they can get from Saizō, even if they’re confused about why he’s behaving the way he is.

This can usually be seen when Saizō, seemingly randomly, treats Sasuke to a surprise mission, when Saizō gives Yukimura a rare straight answer with no back-sass, and when he gives his MC some service.

When it comes to Yukimura, Saizō’s loyal to the bone, but he’ll still tell him off when he gets too reckless, such as when he faced off against Ieyasu and was about to be killed.

Although he treats Yukimura as both family and his closest friend, he does find him attractive as well.

Kiyohiro is usually tasked with gettingSaizō to actually show up for missions, and he plays a nanny role for Saizō the same way that Kanetsugu has to stay on Kenshin in order for anything to be done.

Saizō is the author of the Lover’s Guides, which have several volumes and spin-offs, but it should be noted that they do not include any information on foreplay, often leaving the people reading them to either be completely stumped as to what to do next, or become frustrated– usually to hilarious effect.

*none of the MCs would be on the same level as **any of the lords when it comes to wealth or education.

The Maeda family was the second largest land-owning family, the Tokugawa being the first., making them incredibly wealthy and powerful.

**Still gross, but:

 @wonky-glass-ornament: “Spot on, but I wanted to point out something about the earwax thing: Asian have a different type of earwax than white and black people. Theirs is dry and flaky, whereas ours is wet and oily. Cleaning your ears, therefore, is quite different if you are Asian. Link.”

[the-fallen-blue]

Okay, as promised: Etta Candy.

So. Listen. I know that Marston was a million years ago and the dude was basically a crackfic factory with a lot of weird and unproductive ideas about gender and BDSM but he is still the progressive and inspired genius who created Diana and if your Wonder Woman has nothing in common with his it is not a good Wonder Woman. And here is a major thing about Marston's Wonder Woman: Etta Candy was her Robin.

Now admittedly this is something that was erased really thoroughly by ten minutes into the Silver Age and has remained basically abandoned ever since, largely in favor of making Steve way the fuck more central than he was ever meant to be, because it was and is ~just~ tolerable to have a female hero if you make her life entirely about romance, but God fucking forbid you let more than one woman be important to the story at once. So I can understand that most people aren't really aware of it. But under Marston's pen, Steve was not part of Diana's inner circle. Etta was. Etta came to Paradise Island with Diana, Etta met Diana's mother and participated in her culture, Etta helped Diana preserve her secret identity from Steve, Etta and her crowd of sorority hooligans were the ones Diana went to first thing when she needed help with a villain or to get someone to guard her comatose body while she astrally projected herself to another world. Etta was Diana's sidekick. Steve was a major character, yes, and often helped to move the plot, but he was ultimately far less intimate with Diana than any of the women in her life; he was kept constantly in the dark, spent most of his time as an affable damsel in distress, and existed primarily to teach boys that a man looking up to and relying on a woman was totally manly and acceptable, not to be anything remotely approaching Diana's equal or partner. To the extent that Marston's Wonder Woman had a partner at all, that was Etta's job.

And while the romance with Steve is a perpetual stone in my shoe in post-Marston adaptations of Wondy, the continual aggressive use of him as story-consuming male lead and central figure around whom Diana’s life revolves while Etta is lucky to even exist is really the part that's just fucking rage-inducing. To imagine Steve as Diana’s closest Man’s World relationship and just shove Etta in a corner is to put Commissioner Gordon in tights and a cape alongside Batman and turn Dick Grayson into some random clerk at the police station who gets four lines and a first name only, and yet it happens all the goddamn time.

And you know, writers who understand Wonder Woman’s feminist center do try to ameliorate the fact that Etta got dropped off a cliff the minute Marston left the book. We do get other women (about one per new author in fact), plus Hippolyta when she’s not being crazy, and for a few nice decades there Steve just kind of fell off the same cliff as Etta, which isn’t great but is still better than making him more important than Diana’s family or the few female friends she occasionally manages to be allowed to have. And since those are the decades the film draws from most strongly, the fact that movie!Steve is the deuteragonist and Etta is a trivial tertiary character who barely interacts with Diana at all is all the more blatant a deviation and all the more blatantly wrong.

And she wasn't even a bad Etta, really. She's short and (Hollywood) fat and mostly cheerful - she lacks the proper joie de vivre in favor of a sort of upbeat snark, but she projects a very can-do roll-with-the-punches sort of attitude that I don't think is a terrible translation - and she's apparently extremely competent, to the point of casual field promotion to spy handler in a crisis. She's the most visibly, verbally feminist character in the movie, actually (which is a painfully low bar to drag your feet grudgingly over but at least someone for one half second in this story about a historic feminist icon glancingly acknowledged that maybe women haven't always been treated 100% fairly in non-Themysciran society). And despite having, as far as we know, absolutely zero combat training, she baldly stalls out a German spy with a sword she held for the first time all of five minutes prior, which is the most Etta fucking Candy thing I have seen since she was a nineteen-year-old in Beeta Lambda. (Note to whoever was responsible for the finished screenplay: that scene would be a perfect fit for a "humans have more worth than they at first appear" sort of flashback, just saying.)

But like. All the points they get for that? They toss about a third of them back when they make her an adjunct to Steve instead of to Diana who has no relationship with any other women onscreen and zero agency in the plot, and another third when they make her impatient with/snippy about Diana's naiveté while Steve is of course patient and charmed. I mean at least she and Diana don't get in a shitty little sexist catfight thing like in the DTV animated thing, but if that's the highest standard we're trying to beat, why even bother.

[juniperpublishers-gjpps]

Effects of Work Content and Work Context on Job Motivation of Hospital Pharmacists-Juniper Publishers

The behavior of employees is influenced by the environment in which they find themselves and dissatisfaction associated with bad working conditions account for employees’ new job searches and actual separations. The objectives of this study were to examine the relationship between work content and motivation, on one hand, and work context and motivation, on the other hand, of hospital pharmacists in Osun state of Nigeria. Eighty seven out of 110 practicing pharmacists in secondary and tertiary hospitals in Osun State were selected randomly. They were then interviewed with the aid of a set of pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire that comprised two sections. The main section employed thirty three items made of statements on a Likert-type scale to elicit information on the relationship between work content, work context and motivation of the respondents. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages and medians were used to summarize the data while linear regression analysis was used to test for relationship between variables at 5% level of significance. The results showed that work content and work context contributed significantly to the regression model, F (1, 89) = 93.68, P =.00) and accounted for 55.6% and 51.3% of the variation in job motivation respectively.Conclusion: Work content and work content factors are important determinants of job motivation of hospital pharmacists.Keywords:Work-content; Work-context; Pharmacist; Motivation; Satisfaction; Employees

Introduction

The workplace is a significant part of an individual’s life that affects his or her life and the well-being of the community. Campbell [1] asserts that the average adult spends much of his or her life working, as much as a quarter or even a third of his waking life in work. As much as a fifth to a quarter of the variation in adult life satisfaction can be accounted for by satisfaction with work Campbell [1]. The work environment has effect on the performance level of employees and absence of office building, drugs, equipment etc. can affect the performance of the employees Asigele [2]. The behavior of employees is influenced by the environment in which they find themselves and will be a function of that employee’s innate drives or felt needs and the opportunities he or she has to satisfy those drives or needs in the workplace. Employee motivation has been defined as: “the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need Ramlall [3]. Poor employee motivation can manifest as lack of courtesy to patients; tardiness and absenteeism; poor process quality, such as failure to conduct proper patient examinations; and failure to treat patients in a timely manner Gilson [4]. In the workforce, it can manifest in high staff turnover rates, high vacancy rates and indifferent performance Bennett & Lynne [5]. If employees are never given opportunities to utilize all of their skills, then the employer may never have the benefit of their total performance. Work performance is also contingent upon employee abilities. If they lack the learned skills or innate talents to do a particular job, then performance will be less than optimal. The success of productivity improvement strategy is dependent on employee commitment, job satisfaction, skills and motivation Alshallah [6]. The two-factor theory of Fredrick Herzberg [7] distinguishes between:

Motivators

(e.g. challenging work, recognition and responsibility) that give positive satisfaction, arising from the intrinsic conditions of the job itself, such as recognition, achievement or personal growth.

Hygiene factorss

e.g. status, job security, salary, fringe benefits, work conditions) that do not give positive satisfaction or lead to higher motivation, though dissatisfaction results from their absence. The term “hygiene” is used in the sense that these are maintenance factors. These are extrinsic to the work itself and include aspects such as company policies, supervisory practices or wages/salary. Herzberg’s hygiene factors contribute to the work context dynamics Schermerhorn [8]. According to Herzberg factors that involve job context (hygiene factors) tend to lead to job dissatisfaction Herzberg [7]. When these factors are considered good, or acceptable, workers do not tend to become “satisfied“, they simply become “not dissatisfied Herzberg [7].” Productivity is not restricted – it is just held at an acceptable level. When workers become dissatisfied with any of these factors they tend to restrict output.

Job or work context

This includes the condition or environment in which the specific activities involved in the job take place. It identifies the actual duties and responsibilities associated with the job. They are the factors which are externally controlled by the organization and include company policy, supervision, and relationship with supervision, work conditions, relationship with peers, salary, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status and job security Ruthankoon & Ogunlana [9].

Job content factors

They are the factors which are internally controlled that the individual is responsible for. They include growth, achievement, responsibility, advancement, recognition and the quality of work itself. Another key direction involves identifying the conditions under which rewards increase motivation. A debate exists about whether managers underestimate the power of intrinsic relative to extrinsic rewards for motivating employees Heath [10], or whether there is a discrepancy between what employees say and what they do, such that employees report that extrinsic rewards are relatively unimportant, but the preferences revealed by their behaviours suggest otherwise Rynes [11]. Scholars may take steps to resolve this debate by attending not only to the instrumental features of rewards, but also to their symbolic features. For example, Mickel & Barron [12] propose that rewards will be more likely to increase motivation when they are distributed by high-status authority figures, for high performance and accomplishments and in public ceremonies. This raises a more general issue with respect to rewards.Lumping all rewards into a common category may obscure the importance of understanding the effects of different types of rewards on motivation. In particular, researchers have focused primarily on pay and financial incentives, giving far less emphasis to more symbolic rewards such as recognition and appreciation, even though these rewards are frequently intended to motivate and can be effective Frey [13]. Herzberg [7] considered compensation as a more potent dissatisfier than as a job satisfier. Herzberg discovered that salary was connected with other factors such as company policy and administration and how it affected advancement, recognition, rewards and work itself. The fairness and timeliness of the compensation system was mainly the cause of dissatisfaction. The working conditions included the amount of work and the physical environment including ventilation, lighting, tools, space and other environmental characteristics Herzberg [7]. A study that explored the relationship between pharmacists‘ job satisfaction, intention to quit the profession and actually quitting, found that those who actually left the profession did so for extrinsic reasons such as physical working condition and long hours Seston [14].Identifying and assessing the various extrinsic (organizational characteristics) and intrinsic (personal characteristics) factors of a job situation as they potentially relate to the tendency to leave is important for the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization. Under the conceptualization of factors that affect job attitude and cause behaviors, job satisfaction can be viewed as “the sum total of an individual‘s met expectations on the job” Porter & Steers [15]. A study carried out by Ojokuku & Salami [16] at the University of Ilorin teaching hospital concluded that some improvement in motivation could be attributed to how well a hospital’s management organizes and runs the hospital. They also posit “workers’ monetary considerations cannot be gainsaid; however, implementing nonmonetary factors like quality of supervisions, availability of tools and materials to work with, staff welfare and career development also appears to be important in creating satisfaction with job environment.”Adams [17] equity theory shows how fairness affects motivation of hospital pharmacist. The theory explained that employees are motivated when their inputs (e.g., effort, knowledge, skill, loyalty) are matched by outcomes (e.g., pay, bonuses, benefits, recognition), which creates a sense of equity or fairness. Also according to Adams, when outcomes do not match inputs, the resulting perceptions of inequity leads to distress, which motivates employees to take action to reduce it. The objectives of this study are to examine the relationship between work content and motivation on one hand and work context and motivation on the other hand of hospital pharmacists in Osun state. A worker’s motivation is not an attribute of the individual or the organization; rather, it results from an interaction between the worker and the work environment. The health care sector is important and the quality and efficiency of service depend to a large extent on human labor. Poor health worker motivation can greatly affect health outcomes and patient safety.

Experimental

The study is a descriptive cross-sectional survey of hospital pharmacists in Osun State. It covers pharmacists in secondary and tertiary hospitals in the state and excludes pharmacists in primary health care, private hospitals and other pharmacists outside hospital pharmacy practice. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institute of Public Health Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife Osun State. The study was conducted at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Osun State in South-western part of Nigeria between January 2015 and August 2015. The towns covered included Ile-Ife, Ilesha, Osogbo, Ijebu-Jesa, Ila, Ikire, Iwo, Ede, Ipetu-Ijesha and Ikirun. All the hospitals (two tertiary and nine secondary) in the State were selected for this study. The population of study comprises of 110 pharmacists from which 87 were selected by random sampling method. Policy makers which include the head of pharmacy unit in each of the hospitals as well as the director of pharmaceutical services (DPS) at the Hospitals Management Board were also selected. The questionnaire for the study had two sections. Section A was designed to elicit demographic information about the respondents. Section B contained statements on work content, work content and job motivation of the pharmacists made of thirty-three items on a Likert-type scale of agreement with alternative responses of neutral, strongly disagree, disagree, agree and strongly agree with weighting scores of 1-5 respectively.Construct validity was ascertained by the professional judgment of hospital staff members, the researcher’s supervisor and relevant senior Faculties. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined and gave a Cronbach alpha value of 0.84. The questionnaire was subjected to test-retest reliability check over a two week period and gave a test retest reliability coefficient of 0.79. Initial visits were conducted to establish rapport with the participants and to prepare the ground for data collection. The consent of the respondents was obtained as appropriate before administering the questionnaire to them. Out of the hundred and ten questionnaire administered, ninety-one were retrieved for a returning rate of 82.7%. The data were loaded into computer using SPSS package Version 20. The entered data were cleaned of any errors and descriptive statistics techniques such as frequency counts, percentages, weighted averages (WA) and median (Mdn) were used to organize and summarise the data. Inferential statistics including correlation and regression analyses were used to determine significant relationships at 5% level of significance.

Results

Motivators

Table 1 presents the demographic data of pharmacists by age, gender, marital status, religion, hospital type, hospital location, cadre, and length of hospital pharmacy practice. Of the 91 respondents, the highest number of respondents was recorded from Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife (40, 44%). A considerable proportion of the respondents were within the age bracket of 30 and 39 years (36, 39.6%). 64.8% (59) of the respondents were males and 35.2%(32) were females. Majority of the respondents were christians (69, 75.6%) and were married (57, 62.6%). 72 (78.7%) of the respondents had 10 years or less of hospital pharmacy experience with 24 (26.4%) of these possessing five years or less of hospital pharmacy practice experience. Only 11 (12.4%) of them had between 11 and 15 years of hospital pharmacy practice. Of the lot, 26 respondents (28.5%) were actually internees with majority of those remaining (22, 24.2%) located within the Grade 1 Pharmacist cadre.

Table 2 presents the relationship of work content and context on the motivation of the pharmacist. The weighted average (WA) scores of the responses for each of the numbered items were computed. In order to examine the association between work content and motivation; and work context and motivation of the hospital pharmacists, the null hypotheses were suggested which states that:

There is no relationship between work content and motivation of the hospital pharmacists.

There is no relationship between work context and motivation of the hospital pharmacists

These were analysed using Spearman rank correlation coefficient test at a 0.05 level of significance. The work content factors (Growth, Work itself, Responsibility, Advancement, Achievement and Recognition) all had significant relationship with job motivation as moderate correlation values were obtained (Table 3). The work context factors (Interpersonal relationship, Company policy, Supervision, Status, Salary and Job security) had significant relationship with job motivation as moderate correlation values were obtained (Table 4). When all these factors were reduced to two variables ‘work content’ and ‘work context’ factors and correlated with Job motivation, a significant relationship was observed between the variables and Job motivation (Table 5). ‘Work content’ factors gave correlation values of r = .698, P=.00 while ‘Work context’ factors gave correlation values of r = .618, P=.00.

A linear regression analysis was conducted with job motivation as the dependent variable and work content with work context constructs as the independent variables. The result of the analyses (Table 6 & 7) revealed that on one hand work content construct contributed significantly to the regression model F (1, 89) = 111.426, P =.00 and accounted for 55.6% of the variation in job motivation and on the other hand, work context construct contributed significantly to the regression model, F (1, 89) = 93.68, P =.00 and accounted for 51.3% of the variation in job motivation.

Discussion

The results of this study revealed that the work environment of the respondents did not support high productivity and agrees with the work of Asigele [2] who observed that the work environment has effect on the performance level of employees and absence of office building, drugs, equipment etc. can affect the performance of the employees. Also according to Herzberg, factors that involve job context (hygiene factors) tend to lead to job dissatisfaction Herzberg [7]. These factors are externally controlled by the organization and include company policy, supervision, and relationship with supervision, work conditions, relationship with peers, salary, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status and job security Ruthankoon & Ogunlana [9]. Ojokuku & Salami [16] asserted that implementing nonmonetary factors like quality of supervisions, availability of tools and materials to work with, staff welfare and career development also appears to be important in creating satisfaction with job environment. The results of this study also show that for most pharmacists, the work environment did not allow high productivity. According to Alshallah [6], the success of productivity improvement strategy is dependent on employee commitment, job satisfaction, skills and motivation.The respondents in this study appear to be marginally motivated on their current job and employee motivation has been defined by Ramlall [3] as: “the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. When employees do not feel motivation towards their jobs as a result of some unmet needs, they would not put their best into it and Gilson [4] posits that poor employee motivation can manifest as lack of courtesy to patients; tardiness and absenteeism; poor process quality, such as failure to conduct proper patient examinations; and failure to treat patients in a timely manner. In the workforce, it can manifest in high staff turnover rates, high vacancy rates and indifferent performance Bennett & Lynne [5].It was also observed from the results of this study that respondents believed they did not receive recognition for their accomplishments on the job. Herzberg [7] discovered that salary was connected with other factors such as company policy and administration and how it affected advancement, recognition, rewards and work itself, therefore equity and timeliness of the compensation can cause job dissatisfaction. Mickel & Barron [2] work also reveal that rewards will be more likely to increase motivation when they are distributed by high-status authority figures, for high performance and accomplishments and in public ceremonies. Frey [13] inferred that researchers have focused primarily on pay and financial incentives, giving far less emphasis to more symbolic rewards such as recognition and appreciation, even though these rewards are frequently intended to motivate and can be effective. The respondents also reported that the benefits offered by the hospital to meet personal and family needs are not satisfactory. What happens in an employee’s personal life can affect productivity on the job. Family time and personal goals are important to total fulfillment of the employee and if the work does not permit time for other important activities that the employee deems necessary, then it may adversely affect the work.Most of the respondents reported that favouritism is a problem at the hospital. Favouritism at the workplace displaces the perception of equity by the employees and this can create a lot of problem as expressed by Adams [17] in his work. They also perceived that communication of information and a sense of direction were deficient at the hospitals. The pitfalls of lack of communication would be seen in lack of direction and suboptimal results when the pharmacists are evaluated. The respondents’ reported that the hospitals did not provide support to deliver high standards of quality to patients and this is a major problem if optimized patient care is the goal of the hospitals. Work content and context play significant roles in an employee’s life and Campbell [1] asserts that the average adult spends much of his or her life working and as much as a quarter or even a third of his waking life in work. Also much as a fifth to a quarter of the variation in adult life satisfaction can be accounted for by satisfaction with work. From the foregoing, the correlation obtained between work content, work context and job motivation from this study could easily be understood.

Conclusion

There is strong correlation between work content factors and motivation and between work context factors and motivation of hospital pharmacists. Employers of pharmacy can explore improvements in the content and context of work to increase productivity and maximize profit.

Conflict of Interest

There is no conflict of interest as regards the work done and results obtained in this study and no financial gain is intended.

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[intergalacticadventures]

Explorer’s Tale

Active isolationism…. That’s what they called it. An idea that had fumigated through the upper echelons of the elite, propagated through the ivory towers that dotted academia, and eventually found itself within the highest levels of government. A novel idea, a rather simple one, albeit one that was flawed and very much self-defeating from the very inception of its cause.

The very title, was something to be scoffed at. Merging two vastly different worlds and mindsets into a single cohesive thought process…. It was laughable, almost ridiculous to imagine as something that would really be considered as a legitimate policy…..

And yet here they were. Having ridden on the coattails of this newfound stance for a good few centuries now. Long enough that the Ranger and Scouting corps were recognized as a force to be reckoned with in and of themselves. Something to be respected, a position to be touted; as opposed to the initial reception of the dual-winged corps as something but a farce. A combination of political heavyweights butting into military affairs. Creating a joint venture that needn’t be created between that of the bureaucratic academics and the independent military. A joint venture that would last centuries, that now had a home of it’s own aboard the massive station that was the bulwark of their military might….

Within the halls of the superstructure of the station, a lone Ranger walks casually to one of the observation halls, and settles down on one of the benches that overlook the observation port. A flurry of activities can be seen outside of the viewing port, construction yards hastily putting together new ships, cargo and supply vessels attempting to dock with the station, a pair of HC-702v2 refits patrolling the general vicinity of the station, and an F-205 fighter squadron practicing emergency maneuvers just outside of the viewing port. The ranger gazes over the sights and activities,

It was here where Ellen spent most of the increasingly rare times she had away from her long range missions, as she walked along the wide halls within the superstructure of the station. Peering out to observe the constantly flurry of activity that constituted for a rather dynamic background view. Construction yards hastily assembling new ships, cargo and supply vessels docking with the station as well as many of the innumerable relay stations that dotted the space above the planet. There were even small-scale military exercises taking place, fighters and smaller frigates forming defensive maneuvers as they swerved and navigated around the tight corners of the stations and satellites above the planet. Navigating through the invisible ebbs and tides of their respective navigational lanes.

“Lieutenant Commander, the Endeavor is ready for launch, ETD, 2 hours.” A voice quickly made itself heard within her earpiece as she reached a hand to respond. “Affirmative, on my way now.” The Ranger responded, walking off, leaving the hallway barren and empty yet again.

Upon arriving in the massive hangar, the Ranger exchanged a few salutes with the personnel there, all the while, running through the final checklist as she headed to her ship.

“D2732-G1-Q3-S2910-P4. Quite a mouthful.” She murmured to herself, as she made her way out of the briefing room and onto the tarmac as it were, towards what would be her home and only means of conveyance home for the next few months. “VAI, you got everything the Administrator mentioned?”

“Affirmative, mission notes, and relevant information has been saved onto the ship’s local databanks. Mission related materials, equipment, and supplies are all packed up and ready to go.”

“Personal effects?”

“Loaded, in your quarters as per usual Lieutenant Commander.”

“Good.” She stood there, right outside of the craft. “Bigger from the outside. Let’s just hope we don't’ get too cramped in there, I don’t want a repeat of the Dujan storms.”

“Affirmative.”

Stepping onto the landing ramp she took one last look at the base, at his home. There was a part of her that understood the ramifications of this mission. This could be the last time she ever gazed upon her homeworld, or perhaps it could be yet another routine drift through space. Only time would tell.

Her craft felt small and insignificant in comparison to many of the juggernauts within orbit (a vessel that barely qualified as a frigate, 250 meters across from bow to stern, a smooth dagger-like craft with but a handful of decks and a prominent bridge at the aft of the ship, with most of its space relegated to fine tuned instruments, top of the line engines, and defensive countermeasures), but such was its necessity. It didn’t take long before she made her final checks leaving the hangar proper, and made her approach, towards the massive array of satellite-like objects arranged in a ring. Each satellite lit up in a dull red color, one after another, before a brilliant beam of light enveloped it’s center. The tiny craft moved into position, and with one swoop, entered the light….

One would imagine the actual travel to be somewhat life changing, but in reality, it felt barely any different than standard gate travel. Instantaneous and without much effect on the craft or its occupants.

This time however, it was clear something had gone wrong, severely wrong. Whether it was the coordinates or some error on the calculations’ parts it wasn’t clear. But the tiny vessel had seemingly emerged prematurely out of its designated corridor in space, right into the presence of what was an alien vessel, insectoid in design, and very much alien….

Any observers from space would’ve seen a massive ‘rip’ in the very fabric of physical space itself before this ranger’s craft zoomed out of it like a bullet fired from the barrel of a gun.

It had gone for a straight trajectory towards the alien craft before stopping but a few kilometers away from it, utilizing all of the inertial dampners and reverse thrusters it had available; any lesser vessel would’ve collided without a chance of stopping quickly enough. The craft looked mostly intact, but was smoldering, the engines flickering.

Whether or not the premature materialization of the wormhole was a product of this alien vessel’s own design, or perhaps simply a freak stellar anomaly was unclear. What was clear however was the real and pressing danger of inadvertent first contact…. The first in what could be several decades, no, centuries even - in recorded Ranger history.

“Ugh….” Ellen regained consciousness. The sudden deceleration having caused a blackout akin to several Gs of force being applied to her form. But thankfully with mitigation from the dampners, most of the lethal elements of such a rapid deceleration were avoided. “Agh! E-.” She stared at her surroundings, at the entire cockpit which glew in a dark amber red, clashed by the harsh blue of her console. It didn't take long for her to snap out of her stupor. “VAI! Sitrep now!”

“Lieutenant commander. It appears a spatial anomaly has knocked the Endeavor off course and has prevented appropriate QEC wormhole manifestation at the designated target coordinates. However I detect latent background energies, possibly the anomalous energy reading we’d detected from midway relays. Telemetry suggests quantum entanglement mechanisms were unable to hold a stable primary wormhole location, primary site was deferred to secondary followed by the tertiary site that happened to be within this sector of space. Main life support systems functional. Secondary life support systems damaged. Weapon systems, nominal. Repair systems, nominal. Primary Reactor Core power, nominal. Primary Sublight Engines, nominal. Secondary power modules, damaged but 41% functional. Primary Hyperspace engines, offline, damaged. Primary alcubierre drives, offline. Primary QEC-LR drives, offline. Primary Scanners and external sensors online. Alert! Alert! Unknown vessel detected! First Contact Protocols Breached!” The AI responded, its tone calm and measured all throughout, as it gradually had its tone grow considerably more serious and dour. Culminating in the sharp, alarming voice indicative of such a critical moment at the latter most statement.

“We’ve breached standard protocol,.... Article 7, but that doesn’t apply here being that this was an anomalous mishap…. Right, move on to Emergency Encounter Protocol. We’re treating this as it should be, an accident.” Ellen mulled over her options, very much glossing over the apparent threat of the Reach ship in front of her. The Ranger showing the tell tale signs of her people’s dysphoria when it came to the galaxies, the universe at large. Fearing their own breach of protocol, petrified of ostracization, legal action, or worse….

“Affirmative.” The AI responded once more, as Ellen nodded, tapping at her console with trepidation as the looming fear of the alien unknown began to sink in. The initial preliminary scans coming up with nothing but what their optical sensors and cameras had already informed them of…. The absolutely bizarre design, the aesthetic that was more alien than anything she’d encountered…

“I fucking told you I didn't want another Dujan storm situation…. Fucking hell.” The Commander griped, even under such conditions she was sure to maintain that unique uppity spirit. Perhaps that gave her brownie points in the vetting process for this job.

“Counter-indicative statement, Dujan storm was a result of terrestrial anomalies, not spatial failures of QE and FTL equipment.” The AI replied, before adding something that was very much appropriate for their rather unique friendship. “Yet another logical fallacy, but such things are appropriate for organics.”

The Commander scoffed out a sharp snicker, before a series of alarms began to blare within the cockpit yet again. “All drives are offline, sublight won’t get us anywhere if the damn alien ship can just catch up…. It’ll make us sitting ducks” She began as energy readings from the alien craft began to spike.

“VAI, are those scanning signatures or weapons arrays?!” The Ranger exclaimed, reading the live scans but unable to discern anything from the alien craft. As if it had passive and active cloaking countermeasures that even their advanced scanners couoldn’t penetrate…

“Unknown, Lieutenant Commander, with no preliminary data on this species to cross reference and extrapolate from…. Statistically speaking it is an equal probability.” VAI responded promptly yet again, barely giving Ellen pause for thought as she stared at the increasingly threatening alien vessel, and the limited data offered on her consoles.

“But this isn’t statistics VAI. Factor in organic innate responses. Certainty in security, when approaching the unknown….. In first contact scenarios - always assume aggressive intent.” Ellen spoke under hushed breaths as she began powering up the ship’s defensive countermeasures….. Whether or not the Reach ship was simply scanning them, or whether it was powering up its own weapons was unknown….

What would happen next however would either go down in Ranger history as the worst act of misconduct on record, a simple scout following protocol, or perhaps a selfless ranger out on the fringes acting on her heels to do the right thing….

“Any lifeforms on the vessel?” Ellen inquired, as the targeting systems were barely able to make sense of the vessel in front of them. The Ranger having to manually input telemetry data, correcting for every conceivable factor from stellar drift to actual distance as she awaited the AI’s response.

“Affirmative. Scans are able to discern organic matter within the vessel. Probability of a crewed vessel…..” VAI spoke, once again, with that cold bluntness that the Ranger had become so familiar with.

“Probability?” Tensions soon spiked as the weapon system’s powerup reached their full potential, the conversation between the pair limiting to but a scant few words. Every precious second needed to be saved.

“59.7%”

It was with that number, that estimation based on scant data…. That Ellen decided to halt the attack for now…. Long enough for the reach ship to react and fire the first blow…. The craft effectively gaining tactical advantage over Ellen’s inability to act out of line, to act in aggression against possible threats, or more accurately, to bring herself to ending the lives on that ship….

It wasn’t long however before she managed to return fire…. the 250 meter, dagger shaped craft briefly revealing a spinal canon that spanned the length of the ship, right at the blunted end of the aft of the vessel. It fired. At first, seemingly nothing as it unleashed wave upon wave of variable radioactive wavelengths to assess the vessel’s shielding systems before finally, a bright beam of ionized particles slammed into the Reach’s vessel. An ion blast meant not to destroy, but to disable and perhaps permanently incapacitate the sensitive systems onboard, giving the Ranger ample time to repair her own vessel and leave.

Ellen nervously glanced over to her console as if to see if his efforts had brought them any closer to salvation…. Her eyes practically glazing over the sensitive systems as if to turn away at the slightest inkling of a weapons lock from the enemy vessel….. But none came. In fact, the energy buildup seemed to have dissipated entirely. Ellen breathed a sigh of unfettered relief as she leaned back against his chair, her entire visage that of complete and utter exhaustion at what had transpired over the course of these few minutes….

But she knew it wasn’t over yet…. With an act of aggression having been initiated by the aliens (and reciprocated by her own returning fire), she’d have hell to pay if she didn’t come home with at the very least, a full technical and tactical report of this potential threat…. And being that the craft in front of her was disabled and ripe for the picking…. Her mission profile had suddenly shifted. From one of passive observation to active data-gathering. She continued to reason with herself about the transpired events, cross referenced it with every ranger protocol she could remember as she tried to find an ‘out’ for herself.

What happened next however certainly wasn’t expected…. Nor was it something that she’d believed was even possible. All she remembered at this point in time was hearing a number of blaring alarms indicating a hull breach, followed by successive alarms indicative of a boarding party, finished off by her bridge bulkheads being forced open. In but a span of what she imagined was half a minute, they’d boarded her. Disabled her, and dragged her onto their own vessel. Not after managing to capture her vessel, holding it within the alien ship’s massive hangar bay as they dragged Ellen off to whatever fate awaited her….

Thrown into a cell on the Reach ship, the same one she disabled but a scant half an hour ago, she struggled to recall the series of events that had transpired, as she tried to discern where she went wrong and most importantly, how she could get out of this mess…. And then she remembered, that black suited figure that had knocked her out in a single blow….

Protocol stated that upon capture, all Ranger elements must self-terminate. That included the ship…. And the ranger themselves.

Her thoughts were taking a rough turn just as VAI began a brief communique over her private comms.

“I’m with you.” It stated, short and simple.

“N-no. No! Y-you can’t. Protocol…. Y-you stay with the ship. If they take it, it, it will-”

“I’ve already taken the liberty of activating failsafe protocols. If any foreign attempts at tampering with sensitive equipment is detected, it will trigger the self destruct and a reactor overload. Sec 22-910-ext.”

“Y-you. VAI. You know what. What they’ll do to you, to me, to us, to the- Damnit! This shouldn’t have happened, why, how did this happen?!” She shouted in frustration, as her breaths were clearly intensifying now.

“Unforeseen circumstances. We will manage to persevere through the coming dark. I will stay. Regardless of what happens. Ad infinitum Ranger Caldwell.” There was a conviction in the AI’s voice, enough to give Ellen a pause for thought as she gritted her teeth in an attempt to stand up to what was surely to come.

“Ad infinitum….” She weakly replied as she sat alone in her cell, staring out to gauge her next move….