Sixth Sense Device...Incredible Yet Scary

When I saw this video of the "sixth sense," I first thought "Oh wow! That is so interesting!" However, as I watched more into the video, I actually started to think how scary the device acutally is. The amount of information available is almost crazy to think that it is available in a moment's time. It is like those super hero movies where after little kids watch the movie they find themselves talking with their friends saying, "If I were a super hero, I would want to read minds, or walk through walls, or breathe underwater." This new device is extraordinary, and only a genious mind can think of it. It is almost like getting rid of alot of limitations on life. We would always have a camera on hand. We can make sure we are getting our money's worth when buying products at the grocery store. We can get information on a book to see if it is worth buying. The one part I found amusing was that the device allows you to draw a watch on your hand and then all of a sudden the time shows up. There is no need for a cell phone, a computer, or most types of technology because it is already compacted into this device. I was surprised that it was only over $300. That costs less than the new ipad that just came out.



So how would this apply to the medical world? Well, since the device allows you to get information on any person you come in contact with, I was thinking that if this creator of the device continues his research like planned, it can have great use in the health care world. In class we learned that "health" was the second most popular topic searched for online. We wonder why people as they get older develop many illnesses or health issues that are unexplainable. Either that, or their illness has a complicated explanation of how they got it. Many people are learning now that health is such an important thing to consider at every age of life. Even during infancy, if the infant does not get the proper vitamins and minerals, he or she can have serious health problems, develop diseases, and can even result in death if these vitamins and minerals are not consumed. I am sure this device can be used to get the history of what someone's eating habits were throughout their life and could potentially reveal some of life's causes of uncurable diseases. Eating the right foods and getting all the nutrition our bodies need is vital. Many people go to the hospital not knowing the reason they feel ill or how they developed a disease, and in their hospital beds waiting for the doctor, they still order the same regular food as if nothing has happened to them. This device can be used to reveal the history of a person's nutrient intake or even their nutrient deficiencies that caused them to develop their illnesses. This is only one way this new yet scary device can be used in the benefit of others.

"Even Boulder Finds It Isn't Easy Going Green."

Please read this article by Stephanie Simon from the February 13, 2010 Wall Street Journal. It has some relevance for your work as health care communicators, especially as the article puts it, "...a cautionary tale about the limits of good intentions."

Brain, Creativity, Endurance -- Innovation.

At the end of the presentation on, “A Sixth Sense”, the young man who was one of the brains behind this new technology stood up and was applauded by the audience. When I saw him I thought -- this man is not only extremely smart, but must have endurance. When the presenter said she hoped we would see this technology more advanced in ten years, I thought who has the endurance to see this through?

The part of the presentation that caught my attention was the finger-picture taking. There have been countless moments when I have wished I had my camera handy to capture a moment in time. Then I thought, if you can capture memories, why not medical information?

I have had a few RN friends who talk about documenting the size, color, and depth of wounds. Now that more hospitals are doing away with paper charting, why not add pictures to electronic charts as well? There is also power in comparing any physical aspects of a sick patient. You can easily visually see the progression of their illness and document the speed in which healing or disease progression is happening.

In one post on delicious.com this week, I found a video that shows new innovative design for a lab the size of a postage stamp. The whole idea was to provide a way to test for certain diseases through materials that were cheap and widely available. Paper!

Another video was about a portable warming device to help premature babies, an incubator for the back country where those are not available. It used a wax-like substance that could be melted in water and then placed in a sleeping bag like blanket -- which was designed to be easily cleaned for use on multiple babies.

I have posted the link to both of these on my delicious.com account. I am not medically minded and have been amazed at these findings.

A Filing System We Can Wear

"A Digital Sixth Sense" was very interesting. The concept of having a virtual watch, file information, keypad etc. is the stuff of old futuristic videos showing all human in plastic suits and cars running only on predetermined tracks, ofcourse all happening by 2015.

The idea is fairly novel, having all the advantages of technology without the bother of using the actual gadget. While reading this blog and watching the video the thing that seemed to be the most beneficial for revolutionizing and improving healthcare communication is the feature of when you come in contact with someone, information about them pops up, virtually, on their person. Patient information and history could be readily available during a visit by using this feature.

Emergency room visits do not always offer the luxury of having a conscious individual able to give you their contact information or brief medical history and there may be no third party with them to offer this information. Someone equipped with this new technology could bring up the information on this person and treatment could begin even quicker. But even in scheduled, nonemergency visits or checkups patients are not always open and thorough about their medical history, either because they don't remember all details or are hesitent to say. By being able to just pull up on their person this information treatment could once again begin faster and the doctor could do a more thorough job of examing and prescribing treatment to the patient.

One question I had was would this new technology save the healthcare system money? To me it seems as though it may because it would replace former technologies and equiment that may have cost more in initial buying, maintenance, or both.

Using Geography and Demographics To Enhance Behavorial Targeting

From ClickZ:

"Global brands struggle to reach unique markets that vary in levels of product awareness, brand maturity, and cultural norms. As a result, how people make decisions tends to differ as well. Take, for example, the pharmaceutical industry. In the United States, people are urged to go to their doctor and ask for the latest and greatest product. It's new - it must be better, these ads infer. Commercials and Web sites even offer tips on how to approach your physician with your request. Newness and innovation are king in this market. Cross the pond to Europe and marketers face two totally different audiences and behaviors. In northern Europe, consumers react positively to messages highlighting the science and testing that go into a new product. A bit further south, messages that demonstrate how a product may make you feel, invoking a much higher level of emotion, resonate with communities with a highly experiential, emotional communication style."

Read the entire article at this link.

Healthcare for Chinese-American elders

Chinese-American immigrants are the largest subgroup of Asian Americans living in the United States. Most of the first generation of these Chinese-Americans are born in China, and have moved to the States in their twenties. Because of the acculturation, language, and traditional beliefs, it makes healthcare communication difficult dealing with this group of population – Chinese-American elderly.

There are four major traditional religions/philosophies in China, Confucianism is one of those. Its primary purpose is to achieve harmony, which is the important social value. Because of this belief, the way patients communicate with their physicians are way different from western people. Chinese patients may not verbalize anxiety or doubts regarding their medical care in front of medical personnel, but then not follow through with treatments. For western physicians, they might see this as patient noncompliance.

Besides, Chinese people value their “face”. They may not want to question or disagree with physician to their face, since they think respect to the physicians is very important. As a result, they will not come back, or not take medication as prescribed. Furthermore, they might not inform family members of illness to “protect” both themselves and the family members. In order to keep the perfect mage in front of others, they need to lie or hide.

Immigrants rely heavily on health care practitioners who speak their native language for their primary care. They do not have to worry of any misunderstanding or communication difficulty. They trust people like themselves, and that can put them at ease.

Regarding these two big factors, there may be a conflict with Western concept of patient-physician relationship of partnership vs. the doctor as authority. They must be viewed as trustworthy, caring and willing to help. “To put the elder patient at ease, it is important to take a little time to “talk story” before beginning the clinical interview, to address patients with respect (Mr. or Mrs.), and to try to pronounce names correctly.” (Elliot, Di Minno, Lam, & Mei, 1996)

Every Sickness, Every Death is "Unnatural"

In Haiti, Every Sickness, Every Death is Unnatural
I was raised in a country where every sickness and every death is believed to be caused by some evil spirit. As a result, when people get sick, instead of seeking medical assistance, they go to the “Voodoo Priest’ to seek help.

However, there is also this other group, the church goers, who rely solely on their faith to find healing. They fail to realize that believing in God does not dismiss the responsibility of seeking medical assistance when the need arises. Although, in some instances, God intervenes and provides healing to people who cry out to Him, people still need to do their part in doing what they need to do.
There are some people who believe in the efficacy of natural remedy. These people, whenever they are sick, their natural tendency is to take a dose of tee of some sort. The danger in this practice is that without a diagnostic, how can you appropriately take the right medicine? I believe that one of the reasons why people try natural remedies as their first option, sometimes as their only option, is because most people in Haiti cannot afford the care of healthcare costs.

Not too long ago, there was a message on my voice mail from an old friend saying that her granddaughter got killed in Haiti. The only thing that I could think of as I was listening to her message was that her granddaughter got shut. However, when I got to speak to her, she explained to me that the child was sick with a fever for three days and when she was taken to the hospital, she died. Her whole explanation was that someone was the cause of the child’s death, somebody who probably doesn’t like her son, the child’s father. She added, “If they had called me to inform me of the child’s condition, I would have prayed, and the child would not have died.

We can safely conclude that People’s economic, social, gender, religious, status play a major role on how they see health and health care communications

The Burden of Healthcare on Single Mothers

A large part of today's population is made up of single parent homes and statistics show this phenomenon is on the rise. Around 90% of this group are made up of single mothers. The standard of living for these single mother homes is often remarkably lower than that of two parent homes and because of this, healthcare related issues of the parent are neglected. With the number of single parent homes on the rise, so is the issue of how to help these parents receive proper healthcare.

Mothers of single parent homes have more responsibilities in aspects like time, energy, and money and all three are consumed twice as quickly when the responsibility isn't being shared by a second parent in the household.

There are two major factors that can be seen as the cause of a lack of healthcare among single mothers; time and money. Often single mothers don't have time to make healthcare related appointments due to having work or be with the kids. They need somewhere to go that is convenient and doesn't require a large chunk of their time. The second factor, money, plays the largest role. Many single mothers do not have health insurance. Because of this they must forgo what could be considered preventative medicine, like checkups, and only go in when absolutely necessary. Also, when having to choose between either getting healthcare for themselves or for their children, they will get healthcare for their children.

Many single mothers view options of healthcare as a luxury and are forced to use it only in cases of emergency, and rely on the emergency rooms and free clinics. Cash benefits these single parent homes receive is not enough to allow them healthcare provisions so outside of an emergency they do not use healthcare services.

There are organizations that do exist to help fill the gap left between government help and employment that doesn't offer insurance. One such organization is a nonprofit called WellCare Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona. Their mission is to provide free, continuous, integrated healthcare to single working mothers and their children in need. An organization such as this allows a one stop for healthcare for both the mother and child. And because it is offered as a continuous healthcare provider a relationship and history begins to form between physicians and patients, allowing the physician to offer better and more thorough medical care.

The conceptions of healthcare by single mothers is its too expensive, time consuming, and can only be used in emergencies. Whereas this is a very real problem, there are organizations and opportunities in which healthcare can be more readily available to single mother homes. The problem is a lack of communication about these resources to single mothers in a way that is convenient to them and will actually reach single parent homes, not just the people already using healthcare facilities.

Video: The Future Of Health Care Communication, from Sam Basta's blog "Healthcare Innovation By Design."

Acting Ethically

From Trusted Advisor: The financial basis for acting ethically.

Trusting through the waters

Our last class's main discussion was about trust and transparency. I was fortunate enough to come across another blog that was written by someone who feels that in this day in age, open communication is the only thing people do trust. While reading through Vinnet Nayar's post, he pinpointed our generation in the terms of reacting to certain different situations. Trust within a company is easy when everything is going well, or as he puts it "through the calm waters." However, in order to see genuine trust amongest the employees of the company, this same trust needs to be seen through the rough times or the "choppy waters."

Our generation is a fast passed generation in which does not always see the need to wait around to get all the details. Cutting to the chase is the more approachable way to handle situations. He explains that our generation has learned to swift through the information overload we recieve on a daily bases to get to the "heart of the issue." He mentioned transparency was the only way to deal with this generation, and that trust should be the cornerstone of it all. As we look to the news about Toyota and our class discussion comparing this company to Tylenol, we have come to a conclusion that people are all for trust. And when that trust is broken, everything is usually down hill from there unless regained through an action. Everyone wants to feel respected, and everyone wants to be seen as "the good guy and should not be lied to." His ending quote, I feel, really ties it all in with out topic of health care communication. He says, "The only way for a team to succeed is by trusting each other's abilities, action, and talent." While putting this in the health care perspective, I think that when it all comes down to it, these three attributes play a big part in this thing we so heavily look to in any company called trust.

The post: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/nayar/2009/01/trust-through-transparency.html

If You See Something, Say Something...That Should Be the Policy..

We are living in a world where it seems that ethical behaviors are not encouraged nor rewarded. Even worse, this article shows that ethical actions are sometimes penalized.

We are all human, and none of us is exempt of making mistakes. The problem arises when we are to proud to recognize our mistakes, and even worse, embracing the defensive side when someone pointed them out to us. While reading this article, I could not help asking myself: “Why would a nurse be penalized for reporting a doctor’s unethical conduct?” I must admit that up to this minute, my question has remained unanswered.

I honestly feel that the Mrs. Mitchell should not be penalized for reporting Dr. Arafiles because, first of all, Dr. Arafiles was not doing the right thing. He has been reprimanded in many occasions for indecencies in his prescriptions ‘writing and his way of performing surgery. Secondly, Dr. Arafiles had restriction in his license. Thirdly, he was sending e-mails messages to patients about herbal-supplements that he was selling on the side.

I to some degree, understand Mr. wiley’s logic when he says that the report was made to the state despite of internal efforts to discipline Dr.Arafiles. However, sometimes it is irrelevant to follow ‘complaint’s hierarchy’, depending on the magnitude of the event that has occurred. For instance, let say I live in the dorm and I was told on day one that any issue should be reported to the Resident Assistant. However, if I start receiving threats from a fellow hall mate, I may feel that that the Dean Assistant may be more capable to deal with this issue, or even the Campus Safety Director, and consequently decide to go to them instead; especially if my R.A has not shown in the past the capability dealing with issues of this nature.

I feel that Nurse Mitchell was just doing the right thing. Nurses should be encouraged to freely report anything that is not in accordance to the hospital’s principles, or anything that violates the right procedures to treat patients.

Are doctors supposed to be the authority?

After reading the article "Texas Nurse to Stand Trail for Reporting Doctor", I got really frustrated towards the healthcare system. I was actually mad while reading the article. Everything seems so unfair; the doctor was making up excuses to get away from the accusation, and the nurses are the one who got blamed by the public.

Forget about all those laws and obligations; just being a human being, aren't we taught to do the right acts and report for the wrong acts? And healthcare is related to our lives. One single move can take our lives; everything has to be proper and followed the rules. A lot of dead people can be saved if physicans did not make those little mistakes.

Maybe for those physicans, we are merely their "clients" or "tasks"; however, they ought to remind themselves that they are the ones who are controlling our lives. Besides, if anyone realizes there is something wrong going on, he or she has the responsibility to say it out. Keep slient is equal to helping the offender.

At Every Corner There's a Bias

The article “Nurse to Stand Trial for Reporting” in the New York times was fascinating. The different types of relationships and the communication within them are very evident throughout the entire story. Reading this article once through, you become outraged and immediately want to fight on the side of the nurses. You want to say the whole thing is unfair, charges should be dropped, Dr. Arafiles appropriately reprimanded, and that that is the only correct outcome in this situation. But before jumping on this bandwagon one should layout separately all aspects of the story.

Kermit, TX sounds like an incredibly small town where “everybody knows your name”. Being unbiased would be especially hard because there are so many relationships between everyone that objectivity, whether intentionally or not, goes out the window. And small towns also seem to have a mindset of hierarchically social classes. Of course a Sheriff and Doctor are going to have a lot of weight and be friends in such a community, look at their professions.
Second of all, let's look at the hierarchically system within the hospital. Doctors are above nurses, plain and simply. Even if the nurse is an administrative nurse. It also seems that when healthcare providers, especially nursing homes, have troubles the answer is to get rid of current administration and hire new ones. It should be of little surprise that the administrative nurse is the only one still be charged.

Because whistle blowing is a problem but necessity of ethical working conditions, laws are put in place to protect these people. Many, however, still feel the negative repercussions of trying to do the right thing. The fact that the nurses knew they would probably get fired for their jobs for writing the letter shows they understood risk of what they were doing but felt action needed to be taken despite the consequences.

Finally, let's not forget that Dr. Arafiles was from the Philippines and did some training there. Foreign doctors automatically have a prejudice against them when they start practicing in the states, no matter how qualified they may or may not be.

So what do I think? Well after my initial rolling of the eyes accompanied with a “that's typical” under my breath I reread the article. I think that for a case like this the investigation and punishments of the parties should have been handled by an objective third party from out of town. I also think its pretty fishy to have a nurse quit because of a doctors practices, have another complain internally about the problems, and then finally a letter being written to outside authorities and all on a doctor who was hired with restrictions on his license and it was known had done procedures that were not considered appropriate for those types of injuries. Its not like these complaints from the nurses would be the first questionable items to appear associated with Dr. Arafiles name.

I also think that Mr. Wiley may have been dragging his feet about handling the internal complaints. No one had died or been further seriously injured so no lawsuit to the hospital seemed to be on the horizon. Also I would assume Mr. Wiley would find it much easier to hire another nurse rather than find a new doctor in such a location as Kermit, TX. And its possible it would seem like just another administrative complaint from the grunt workers about the gods of the hospital.

By the end of my third read through I wondered why it is that so much invesitgation is being done on the nurse. Why isn't more investigation being done on the doctor. Wouldn't investigation on Dr. Arafiles tell you whether or not the nurses complaints against the doctor were legitimate and carried a credible threat to the patients? If the nurses complaints came up false or of an inappropriate magnitude, well yes, than they should be punished appropriately. But if an investigation shows Dr. Arafiles indeed is not correctly practicing medicine that he should be the one appropriately punished. Why is all the focus, positive and negative on what the nurses doing before any attention is paid to what Dr. Arafiles is doing?

Discussion Topics For 2/9/2010

Tonight's discussion topics:

• Blog post reviews and discussion.
  
• Bookmarking links and discussion.
• Trust and transparency as key issues in communication, as exemplified by Toyota specifically, and the financial services industry in general. Trust is hard-won over decades and can be lost in one crisis...lessons for healthcare communication.
• Schiavo says health care communication is "audience centered, research based, multidisciplinary, strategic, process oriented, cost-effective, creative in support of strategy, audience and media-specific, relationship-building, and aimed at behavorial or social change. Think...consider...discuss.
  
• Cultural, gender, ethnic, religious and geographical influences on health care communication and conceptions of health. How does who we are affect what we think, say and do?
  

I would also like to hear from each of you re: topic you're planning to for your major project.

2/19/2010 blog assignment: Pick one unique population and discuss how culture, gender, ethnicity, religious and/or geography will affect conceptions of health and health care communication. (Note: this should be longer than the standard 2 paragraphs!)

Attributes of effective health communication

Health communication requires communication strategies to inform and influence individuals and community on matters related to healthcare. Effective communication can increase the demand for appropriate health services.

According to an article I read online, there are eleven attributes of effective healthcare communication.

1. Accuracy

The content is valid and without errors of fact, interpretation, or judgment

2. Availability

The content is delivered or placed where the audience can access it.

3. Balance

The content presents the benefits and risks of potential actions or recognizes different and valid perspectives on the issue

4. Consistency

The content remains internally consistent over time and also is consistent with information from other sources

5. Cultural competence

The design, implementation, and evaluation process that accounts for special issues for select population groups and also educational levels and disability

6. Evidence base

Relevant scientific evidence that has undergone comprehensive review and rigorous analysis to formulate practice guidelines, performance measures, review criteria, and technology assessments for telehealth applications

7. Reach

The content gets to or is available to the largest possible number of people in the target population

8. Reliability

The source of the content is credible, and the content itself is kept up to date

9. Repetition

The delivery of/access to the content is continued or repeated over time, both to reinforce the impact with a given audience and to reach new generations

10. Timeliness

The content is provided or available when the audience is most receptive to, or in need of, the specific information

11. Understandability

The reading or language level and format are appropriate for the specific audience

The conclusion is the ethics, transparency, are innovation are the most crucial elements leading to the success on healthcare communication; the last but not least, how well it listened to patient needs can alter the outcome. It requires interaction among all stakeholders within the healthcare unit. Unlike other organizations, interpersonal communication is a key part of this interaction. Healthcare communication is a two-way show, both for information exchange and for effective content that may accompany the information.

"Caremunication"

As I was browsing for articles this week, I came across a website for a company, “Stamp & Chase”. The website includes a statement of “Why We’re Different”. It stated, “Caremunication -- Improving care by improving communication”. The company’s philosophy is that health care communication is complex and because of this, a different approach must be taken. They believe in holistic communication, which they say influences customer satisfaction, patient safety and the work environment. The focus is on front-line staff competencies and behaviors in diverse situations involving patients, families, physicians and colleagues. Primarily focusing on active listening to achieve real understanding and connection with others; emphasis is put on the “how” and not the “what”.

Something I find interesting is the need for a company with services like what Stamp & Chase offer. In other articles about healthcare communication, definitions included words such as influence, inform and awareness. Essentially, taking the basics of communication practices and molding them to influence, inform and make persons aware of medical information. In all my readings, the benefit of healthcare communication is increased interpersonal interactions. When all team members are able to communicate effectively, healthcare is enhanced. Is this not the foundation of what all healthcare personnel are trying to accomplish; to better their patient’s health? If this is true, it seems that healthcare communication should be at the very top of their to-do list.

Health Care Communication: A cluttered one.
I woke up one day, realizing that there was no dial tone on my home phone. Back then, cell phone was not in vogue, therefore, I felt that the only option that was left to me to keep in touch with the world was the public phones on the streets, while impatiently waiting for my home phone to be fixed. It turned out that it was not the best option, because coughing was all I did after I hang up with a friend whom I was speaking with from a public phone. I am guessing that I caught the virus from the phone’s handset.
As the days went by, my condition got progressively worse, to the point that my friends, my family, along with random strangers; would be giving me unrequested diagnostics of my case. They will say things like, “You are probably catching a cold, you should take some ‘Day Quill’…”, or “I am suspecting that it is probably an attack to pneumonia, if I were you, I would buy some Thera Flu”, and some of them suggested some natural remedies. Let alone, the variety of cough medicine that I saw on the shelves at Rite Aid. All of these created confusion in my mind, and I simply did not know which direction to go.
Some people may say they have not had this experience. Although, the reality may be that, they have just probably never experienced the clutter in this fashion, still have in a different fashion. The clutter occurs when you are receiving tons of information which for the most part conflicts with each other. For instance, someone may have chest pain, and before going to the doctor, decides to pay a visit to ‘You tube’. ‘Google’, ‘Ask Jeeves’, and so on. Each of these websites may suggest something different, yet evokes some sense of clutter in the mind of the reader. As a result, when the person finally made it to the doctor’s office, he or she is loaded with different causes of the chest pain as well as different ways to get rid of it; and he or she may feel reluctant to be corporative with the doctor’s instructions.
I honestly believe that the increase of technology will always cause health care communication to be bombarded with clutter. The reason is, as human, we like to try different options, because it takes away the burden of not having our curiosity satisfied.

Making The Workplace in Healthcare Fun

One of issues discussed in class this week was how health care organizations could make work more attractive and appealing to employees to the point where instead of dreading coming in in the morning they would dread leaving for home. And what does that have to say to job satisfaction and the overall success of the organization? Would happy doctors and nurses make happy patients? Would this attract health care professionals to seek employment at such an establishment because of the environment more than the paycheck? I suspect to some degree yes and would hope so.

For four summers between high school and college I worked at a summer camp in Yosemite National Park in central California. Why would someone from Michigan fly out to California to work at a summer camp? Well, for one thing, the environment. Yosemite is filled with some of the most breathtaking views of nature. Secondly, the monetary paycheck is not anything to boast about. However, the job satisfaction I felt made the check feel like lunch money. The difference I helped make in campers lives was worth it all and a factor for me returning year after year. Of course no organization is perfect and there are struggles but I can see how the degree of appeal makes a world of a difference

Transparency in Communication

You attend college to receive a degree in communications. Along the way you take classes that emphasize the importance of transparency and an open line of communication between parties. Then you graduate, get a job for a healthcare facility, and suddenly realize everything you've learned over the last 4+ years isn't necessarily how it works.

Although specific communication techniques and forums vary depending on what type of company or organization you are working for, theories stay the same. But this isn't necessarily true for the healthcare system. Although you, and some others, may be advocating for these theories to be put in place the rest of the administration and staff are not necessarily going to share your opinion.

There is one main difference between healthcare communication and non healthcare communication. Transparency. The more transparent a company the more people feel they can trust it, the more they will use that companies product or service, and the more successful that company is. But the healthcare system wants as little transparency as possible. Although there are a variety of reasons for this, it creates a mess of communication. Those in charge of communicating between publics for the healthcare system are supposed to do their job effectively but are expected to do it without actually communicating all, much less bits and pieces, of what is "really" going on. It seems transparency is believed to be the key to successful communication in all types of organizations, except healthcare. And whether or not the communication professionals agree with this isn't the main concern.

2/2 Lecture Outline

Tonight:

• Blogging status
• Report on new bookmark content.
• Reaction to "Running A Hospital" blog
• Begin discussion of leadership communication theories and practices.
• Empathic listening, driving out fear, shared values and meaning.
  

Status Check

I'll have some blogging grades for you next week. As of today, you should have two posts up on the class blog. Nancy and Reena - I have no posts for either of you. Cassie and Becky - I have just one from each of you. Please let me know ASAP if you're having difficulties.

In my comments on your posts, I've tried to make suggestions for further research, study or thought on the communications issues and challenges you've posed. Please pay attention to what your classmates are saying and my responses in the comments.