Martin Luther Kings 'Letter From A Birmingham Jail'

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Pages: 6

The Ripple Effect in Healthcare
A person can cough and spread an infection to ten people around them, those ten people can spread the infection to ten other people each, and eventually an epidemic is created. People don’t realize it, but each person can have an effect on the greater population. What you do, the way you act, and the decisions you make can ultimately affect everyone around you. I work as a CNA in a Rehabilitative and Dementia Nursing facility, and I experienced daily how the attitude of one resident can affect your entire day. I would have close patient contact with up to ten residents a day, I would always work in a positive manner so their days would be a little bit better. That being said, if I was sick there was a risk that
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When working in a long-term care facility, you can’t go into work with a bad attitude, residents immediately sense it and they can give attitude back. I’m not going to lie and say I never went in when I was in a bad mood -because I hate the place I work- but I tried to never let it affect the residents. It’s almost impossible not to let a person’s attitude affect you. In Martin Luther Kings “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” he makes it clear that the attitudes of the clergyman have ultimately led him to voice out. King writes the letter to voice his concern about the clergymen’s opinion and to do it in, “patient and reasonable terms” (564). King is upset about the lack of support he is getting from his fellow clergymen, but he’s not letting that anger and hostility be apparent in his letter, because the recipients would be affected by the anger he wrote in and in turn, turn to hostile language as well. This can be seen in many day-to-day activities, when someone resorts to passive-aggressive behavior they sort of grin and bear it, leaving the other person to have to decipher how the person actually feels about the matter. The way a person acts and their attitude can affect the attitudes and actions of …show more content…
CNA’s see daily how the mental and physical health of one resident can affect and entire floor dynamic. Without the work of the certified nursing assistant, nothing would get done. Nurses are too busy giving out pills and delivering treatments to 50 residents countless times throughout the day. Without the CNA, dependent residents wouldn’t get out of bed, they wouldn’t eat meals and they would most likely be depressed because of the lack of contact and attention they would get. People need interactions, as a CNA I see firsthand how just by my attitude I can change a resident's day. Even just putting on a smile immediately makes a resident more willing to get out of bed and do their activities of daily living. I was a companion for a woman that broke her C2 Vertebrae (breaking one usually results in paralysis or death), she was highly functioning, but her quality of life was abysmal- to her. I had taken care of her before the accident and she was a vibrant energetic 92-year-old, she used a walker but other than that she was outstanding in all aspects of her health. As soon as she had her accident everything went downhill. However, her husband and she told me that just by having me taking care of her every day was amazing. Her face would immediately brighten up when I would walk in at 7 each morning. Granted I was tired and agitated for having to work at this long-term care facility,