Joint Terrorism Task Force Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Joint Terrorism Task Force - Essay Example Before 911 the United States had 35 formal joint terrorism task forces. Immediately following the attacks the FBI director instructed all field offices to establish these task forces. Task forces are staffed with a supervisory special agent and the staff generally consists of those with experience in domestic and international terrorism. These are combined with state and local law enforcements officials who are trained in a variety of skills and abilities which are useful in situations that threaten the security of an area, citizen, or the United States. Coordinators have experience in counterterrorism measures and are able to manage administrative tasks effectively. They manage budgets, acquisition of needed supplies or manpower, hey will also schedule surveillance coverage; these functions are assigned by the Supervisory Special Agent. Those special agents in charge within local field offices must harmonize and accommodate all law enforcement agencies that want to become involved in the counter terrorism efforts. Following 911 these agencies increased substantially and it is recognized that local agencies now play a critical part in maintaining homeland security (Casey, 2004). It was in 1979 that New York first used the idea of combining federal and local law enforcement resources in response to the overwhelming crime rate and the high percentage of crimes considered federal crimes committed in New York during a period of organized crimes days of glory. Bank robberies were also an influencing factor in this decision, being federal crimes occurring locally. The JTTF began with only 11 members form the New York Police Department and 11 FBI investigators (Robert, 1999). The success of the JTTF concept is the combination of personnel with a variety of backgrounds, skills, and abilities, the public’s perceptions and the actual functions of the JTTF were changed drastically after the initial World Trade Center bombing which

PATIENT TO NURSE RATIO IN HOSPITALS Research Paper

PATIENT TO NURSE RATIO IN HOSPITALS - Research Paper Example The first group of subjects examined consisted of 2585 patients that had utilized mechanical ventilation following admission for pneumonia treatment or for more than two days irrespective of diagnosis made at the time of admission. The research subjects, categorized on the basis of varying staffing levels were taken into account during the study. Results from the study showed that 393 patients developed pneumonia out of the 1658 subjects that were in the secondary group. This amounted to a percentage of 23.7. In study groups with PNRs of 1:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, and 3:1 units with patient to nurse ratios of 1 to 1, 2 to 1, 2.5 to 1, and 3 to 1, the rates of pneumonia development were 9.3 percent, 25.7 percent, 18.7 percent and 24.2 percent in that order. Overall, the study showed that after adjustment for contradictory variables, PNRs of more than 1:1 were not associated with elevated risk for pneumonia linked to ventilator usage. The conclusion, therefore, was that even though a 1:1 ratio i s associated with a reduced risk of ventilator-linked pneumonia, adjustment of the variables reduces the significance of the difference. The second article under scrutiny is titled â€Å"Patient-to-Nurse Ratios and Outcomes of Moderately Preterm Infants† and is written by Profit et al. (2010). The research article begins by denoting that, in many spheres of medicine, increased PNRs are linked to improved patient outcomes. The authors are keen to note that the impact of nurse-staffing on health outcomes of preterm babies has not been addressed in research. This clearly identifies the research gap and justifies the study. The objective of the study, therefore, was to examine the influence of PNRs on the outcome of healthcare afforded to fairly preterm babies. In this study increase in nurse staffing was linked to a decline in the preterm infants’ weight gain each day. However, nurse-staffing in relation to the number of infants, as measured by the