Citing Research

As I continue to do my research about the my design process topic (safety for elders in the restroom), not only that I have to find lots of facts, reasoning, statistics, cases, etc. but most importantly I have to cite all my findings that will be used in my report. Why is it important? The most important reason is because it is necessary to credit other’s work. It is important to acknowledge all of the experiments, findings, statistics, interview, etc. that is found on any resources. Then if we cite our research, it will also help the readers who are reading our report to find the source work. Lastly when we cite our research or report well, it will give strong evidence that can back up or even strengthen our report.

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So referencing can be divided into different categories such as referencing books, websites, magazines, newspaper, etc. There are also various ways and formats on citing all of these references. The most famous format is MLA, Harvard, APA format, etc. However since I’m currently studying in NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts), I am required to follow my school format, which is very similar to MLA format. This week, for my design process class, I was given an assignment to cite two magazines, two books, as well as two websites. Connecting it to my topic, it’s not easy to find my issue stated in books, however my topic is quite common in websites and magazines. But at the end, I managed to find and cite it all. So the two websites that I found very useful was an article in the livescience.com website about the most dangerous items in a home, which definitely bathroom, by Lauren Cox. This website explain clearly how bathroom can be dangerous and harmful to elders. Then another website (caring.com) written by Paula Spencer Scott is also very useful it explains about various tricky things that we never thought can be a great danger for the elders. Then for the two magazines, I actually found more than two. There were several interesting article about my topic in the magazine, therefore I decided to cite all three. The first magazine is called “Home Trend” magazine. This article in the magazine helps me to understand how to make a safer bathroom for the elders. The other article from “Long Term Living” magazine by Elliott Mitchell is also about designing a perfect bathroom for elders, however there are some interesting things that are not stated by Betty Barkman in the Home Trend magazine. The last one is an article from “Home Care” magazine by Dave Henderson and Keiderling Jerry, explain more about how to prevent fall and injury. Lastly for the hardest part, the book, I found a book called “the Everything Alzheimer’s book” written by Carolyn Dean about taking care of elders who often have the Alzheimer’s disease. In one of the chapter, particularly chapter 12: caregiving at home, she specifically describes a short explanation about bathroom safety and how important it is to have a safety bathroom for the elders. Then the second book is called “in Home care for Senior Citizens: A Bedside Companion” by Shirley M. Baker Davis. Through this book, she explains a lot on how to achieve a home care for the elders. In chapter 8 of this book (title of the chapter: safety first), she clearly describe that a special provision in the bathroom is needed to ensure the elder’s safety. Finally, here are all of the compilations of all the citations in NAFA style guide that I’ve done for all 7 sources that will be used for my report.

Book:

Dean, Carolyn. “Caregiving at Home.” The Everything Alzheimer’s Book ; Reliable, Accessible Information for Patients and Their Families. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2004. 163-64. Print.

Baker-Davis, Shirley M. “Safety First.” In-home Care for Senior Citizens: (a Bedside Companion). Bloomington, Ind.: 1st Library, 2001. 30-31. Print.

Online Magazine:

Barkman, Betty. “For Today & Tomorrow: Accessible Bathroom Design.” Home Trends N.p., 9 Jan. 2015. Accessed 25 Jan. 2015. < http://canadianhometrends.com/today-tomorrow-accessible-bathroom-design/ >.

Elliott, Mitchell S. “Designing the Perfect Bathroom for Elders and Other EFA Observances.” Long-Term Living. N.p., 20 Mar. 2011. Accessed 25 Jan. 2015. < http://www.ltlmagazine.com/blogs/melliott/designing-perfect-bathroom-elders-and-other-efa-observances/ >.

Henderson, Dave, and Keiderling, Jerry. “Evaluating for Fall and Injury Prevention.” Evaluating for Fall and Injury Prevention. N.p., 15 Oct. 2014. Accessed 25 Jan. 2015. < http://www.homecaremag.com/aging-place/oct-2014/evaluating-fall-and-injury-prevention/ >.

Web source:

Cox, Lauren. “5 Experts Answer: What Are the Most Dangerous Items in a home?” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Jan. 2012. Accessed 25 Jan. 2015 < http://www.livescience.com/36074-5-experts-answer-dangerous-items-home.html/ >.

Scott, Paula Spencer. “Bathroom Dangers.” Caring.com. N.p., 05 Nov. 2014. Accessed 25 Jan. 2015. < https://www.caring.com/articles/killers-lurking-in-bathroom/ >.

Empathizing with Elders?

In this post, I will be connecting my last post to an interesting topic that I’m working on. From the title, it is clear that my project has something to do with the elders! 🙂 So, in my design process class, we were divided into groups. Then in the group we were given a chance to choose a problem that we will work on. Apparently, my group chose a very interesting topic, which was “safety for old people in the restroom?”

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This topic personally makes me wonder about things that never even crossed my mind. I never thought that bathroom could be so unsafe, especially for the elders. But then after I think back about what happened to my friend’s grandma, I started to realize that it is very possible that bathroom could be very dangerous and unsafe. Briefly, my friend once told me that her grandma slipped in her restroom after she went to the toilet. This small incident caused her grandma to become semi-paralyze. Unpredictably, slipping can actually cause lots of damages, especially to the elders.

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Since I was so curious on how bathroom can be so harmful, I did some research. In the end, the most important and main reason amongst all of the reasons of why bathroom is so dangerous is simply on slipping or it happened while they were bathing (81% injury caused by falling). However, after I researched on the topic more and more, I eventually understand that though the problem is only on slipping, there are several factors that are causing it. There are lots of things that can cause elders to slip while they are in the restroom, from the simplest thing such as unbeveled edges, toilet seat, to the most important thing like bathroom floor, shower and bathtub, etc. Though, in my research I found that people who often injured themselves in the bathroom are mostly the elders (in the 2008, more than 19,700 elders died after falling unintentionally), but it actually also happened a lot to people age 15 and above. However, when elders got injured in the bathroom, usually it is fatal.

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Having a grandma often make me thinks how safe is the bathroom around her. I can imagine that later when I’m old, I would definitely feel the trouble that most elders are going through. Imagining how fatal that the injury can be caused only from slipping, I understand now why most bathrooms are very unsafe and it can be considered as one of the most dangerous room in the house. That’s why I want to make a safer bathroom for all the elders.

Empathizing

First thing first, it is important to know the difference between empathy and sympathy before knowing more about empathizing.

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Both empathy and sympathy are people’s awareness about others. These two are very similar yet it has completely different emotional meaning. According to its definition, empathy understands what others have felt because we’ve been in the situation before. In other words, empathy is the ability to mutually experience the thoughts, emotions and directs the experience to other. In a way, empathy goes beyond sympathy, which is only a feeling of care and understanding other’s suffering without experience it. By definition, sympathy is just understanding other’s sufferings and providing comfort for them. Unlike sympathy, empathy involves deeper emotional experience.

(http://www.diffen.com/difference/Empathy_vs_Sympathy)

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The idea of empathy and sympathy then brought us to understanding the notion of empathizing. As the dictionary meaning of empathizing is to feel empathy. Through this, it’s clear that when we are able to empathize with others, it means that we have put ourselves in other’s shoes or we may have experienced what others are experiencing.

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/empathizing)

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In today’s society, I personally feel that the idea of empathizing is very crucial. Why? Because I often find that people who are often empathizing with others will more likely to be more successful than those who don’t. This modern world does not only require us to be highly intelligent with our thinking and reasoning abilities, in fact these days, emotional intelligent is beyond important. Emotional intelligent doesn’t only describe our ability to work with our own but as well as others’ emotions. Therefore this notion of empathizing is very important, not just for our personal but also for relationship and work success.

(http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/promoting-empathy-your-teen/201005/are-empathetic-teenagers-more-likely-be-intentionally-succes)

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In conclusion, I think that empathizing with others by understanding others’ feeling and putting ourselves in their shoes will not only make us more successful, but it will definitely make our life happier. To empathize with people will help us understand why people do things the way they do. Other than that, I really feel that empathy can help communicate people’s ideas, and so empathy can be considered as one of the building blocks of great social interaction. Therefore it is important to empathize a lot with others and try to put us in others’ situations to understand what they are going through.

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