Toxicant Pathways Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Toxicant Pathways - Essay Example The majority of our day to day actions help contribute to the presents of these chemicals and toxins within society. From the cars we drive to the factories we work in; from the water we drink and the foods we eat to the very air that we breathe. The ability to limit ones exposure is a matter of self awareness and education. In the meantime, it is important to take the time to understand what could be silently entering your body and how to limit those exposures, as much as possible. Toxicology is approached, primarily, from one of two models. The first is toxicokinetics, which focuses on the course and time frame that a toxicant takes to be absorbed, distributed, biotransformed, and evacuated from the body. Toxicodynamics focuses upon the effects experienced by the organism exposed. Meaning, that it follows the physiological manifestations of the toxic side-effects and tracking how these changes cause other compensatory reactions (Ashauer & Escher, 2010). There are three primary ways that toxicants can find their way into one’s body; through the skin, through the respiratory system, and through the gastrointestinal tract. Touching, breathing in, and eating these toxicants are not uncommon as they are commonplace in our cities and our homes. Once inside the body a toxicant then will move through the circulatory system and, potentially, disrupt, damage, or impair other organs and body systems. There are four ways that a body can â€Å"uptake,† which is how the toxicant passes through the call walls ("Toxic pathways," 2009). Passive Diffusion: The small toxicant molecules move along the cells surface and move along a concentration gradient. Facilitated Transport: The toxicant molecules pass through the cell wall while being aided by other molecules in order to enter the cell. Active Transport: Toxicant molecules are actively combined with carriers in order to infiltrate the cell. Pinocytosis: The cell membrane itself will create a fold around the tox icant molecules and once it invades the cell it can undergo the process called biotransformation. Biotransformation is a process that occurs in multiple tissues and organs in the body, eyes, lungs, skin, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract, but primarily, the liver. There are two important phases to the biotransformation process. In Phase I the toxicant molecules go through chemical changes through one of three processes; oxidation, which occurs when electrons are lost during this process, reduction, which occurs when electrons are gained during the process, and, lastly, hydrolysis, which occurs when there is a chemical reaction to water spillage that leads to a splitting of the toxicant into two fragments or smaller molecules. From here the toxicant may be stored, may become more toxic, and target and damage or destroy a targeted organ. Phase II of Biotransformation involves further chemical changes to be undergone by the toxicant. The process of conjugating determines if the toxic ant will be water soluble or not. The toxicant may then pass through your body as sweat or urine. However, it can, also, be reabsorbed, which can lead to the death of cells and organs ("Toxic pathways," 2009). Granted there are a number of other considerations that can contribute to how and at what speed one’s body reacts to the invasion of toxicants, like age, gender, ethnicity, and species. Our bodies are absorbing and â€Å"

Educator interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Educator interview - Essay Example There are a number of qualifications that nurses, doctors or any health care professional must meet in order to become an 'educator'. The main qualification, of course, is to have obtained the education necessary to educate others. Formal schooling, training, practice and instruction are all key components to obtaining that education. "The current emphasis on providing quality undergraduate and postgraduate medical education has focused attention on the educational responsibilities of all doctors. There is a greater awareness of the need to train doctors as educators and courses have been set up to satisfy this need" (Hesketh 2001, pg 556). Other training that this individual must go through is how to develop curriculum and effective lesson planning. It is important that they also develop the skills to communicate with students as well as appraising and assessing a student's progress. These skills can be obtained by attending courses focused on the training of teachers. Health care professionals can also be teachers who work with individuals already employed in the health care industry. Such roles may include providing education for staff development and continuing education. ... The teaching individual must keep current on the latest technology and training available in the field in order to communicate that to colleagues. Another method for obtaining the information to be taught is by participating in the industry, as a nurse, as a doctor or professional or even as a researcher. "Nurses are increasingly involved in clinical trials. Any nurse involved in clinical trials may perform one or more of the following roles; patient educator, patient ally, direct care giver, coordinator of care and research administrator of research resources and participant in the conduct of the study" (Ambaum 1997, pg. 5316). These increasing responsibilities for nurses also opens up a whole new world of opportunities for these individuals. Now, they can not only be educators in the 'normal' sense of the world, but in other situations as well. In order for these professionals to do so, they must have the support that any teaching professional would need to accomplish their objective. "A medical educator has needs that are specific to educators and needs that are common to all medical faculty members. And educator needs time to perform educational duties, space to carry out educational activities, and money to buy time, space and other resources." " Just as important as time, space, and money are to the success of an educator is having an infrastructure that supports the educator and the educational mission" (Collins 2005, pp 914-915).According to Collins, creating such an infrastructure would include building a system that could provide educational leadership opportunities, funding for medical educational research, students, student and peer feedback and faculty development and mentoring. It would also