Friday, May 12, 2006

What is frustration and burnout?

Burnout is defined as a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. Other symptoms include a feeling of depersonalization, described as the development of negative, cynical attitudes towards the recipients of one’s service, sense of helplessness, progressive apathy, cold and illness in pressured, overzealous relief at the end of the day, disillusionment with field of work, increased alcohol or drug use, and work related dreams with anxiety and guilt. Self–reporting of burnout is most often labelled as feelings of frustration. Frustration is a sense of powerlessness and isolation.
Inadequate communication and unrealistic expectations are also result of overload in staff and feeling of isolation. For instance, social workers can also become frustrated when more time is spent on paperwork than with clients. Money or salary (Wages) is not only the motivation factor to work however workers often seek the intrinsic value of the opportunity to help or to have a sense of purpose. Negative communication from co–workers or supervisors is also one cause of burn–out.
Age and gender have been associated with workplace frustration and burnout. However, inadequate skills and lack of experience may explain the age differences in levels of burnout, as younger workers are more likely to be inexperienced. Female workers compose a large percentage of the person–centred working population and may present their own problems. Women are often “other focused” and may have difficulty asking for help and support and in communicating their own needs.
In summary, individual characteristics can contribute to one’s ability to cope with high stress clients or in high stress fields of practice are the key factors of burnout. In terms of individual characteristics, younger workers and women tend to be more vulnerable to burnout than the older workers and men.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Walking around the Bristol:

Last few weeks ago, Me and Ambika Dhakal was walking around Bristol city centre. I asked him to go Bristol Induatrial museum then Art Gallery. While we were at Bristol University, we saw Kathmandu store which brought our memory back about our Capital Kathamndu. Unfortunately, we didn't get time to visit inside the store however I had taken this photo:
While visiting art museum, we found this tiger's skin was brought from Chitwan, Nepal. This tiger was hunted by British emperor when they used to rule in India.
These are few of the selected photoes which I had taken at Bristol.

I have taken few more photoes, Please click here to view more.

Monday, May 01, 2006

What is Life?

"Life is not an inherent property of matter. Life is indeed associated with matter, but it appears only under very specific conditions and, when it does, it expresses itself in very diverse and individual ways...We shall come closest to understanding the principle of life if we can discover the principles according to which life could begin...How life did begin, however, can only be understood by appeal to historical evidence." Manfred Eigen

"Being alive is being sensitive to specific cues in the environment, to transduce and amplify minute signals into definite actions. Being alive is to achieve the long-range coordination of astronomical numbers of submicroscopic, molecular reactions over macroscopic distances. It is to be able to summon energy at will and engage in extremely rapid and efficient energy transduction" Mae-Wan Ho

There are different scholars have defined life in different ways however Manfred Eigen and Mae-Wan Ho has defined life comparing living systems and their relationship to the environment. Such knowledge can only give us perception about living systems and their relationship to the environment which define about what happened, not why it did. We should seek to understand some of the organizing principles of living systems, recognizing with humility.
Reflection on the nature of life even for a short while brings to mind the awesome variety, coherence, and organization in the functioning of live organisms. Exchange of materials with the environment and adaptation to environment are also evident. While we can try to understand these interactions, and guess at how life might have evolved on Earth, we can only guess at how life did begin and survive. In the words of the Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen, "life is historical reality."
References:
Eigen, Manfred. Steps Towards Life: A Perspective on Evolution.
Mae-Wan Ho. The Rainbow and the Worm, Singapore: World Scientific Publications, 1994. p. 10