An overview on the topic of health and nursing of the eye, describing several conditions which damage the eyes and recognizing that the eye has a problem and explaining about certain things that should not be in contact with the eye also how the eye should be treated.

The eye is such an important organ that its care and protection are a major consideration. Care begins at birth and is continued throughout life. The nurse, as an important member of the health team, is looked on as a teacher and a practitioner of sound health habits. One of the most vital fields in health education is the care of the eyes and the prevention of eye diseases.

Since many problems and health habits begin in childhood, sound principles of safe care need to be stressed at this time. Complaints such as these need ‘to be investigated: headaches, dizziness, tiredness after close eye work, “can’t see well,”  letters “jump” or “run together,” eyes that feel scratchy or itch. The appearance of inflamed or watery eyes, red rimmed, encrusted or puffy lids, recurring sties, crossed eyes and unequal pupils may be significant. Unusual behavior also should be noted such as holding a book too close, frowning, blinking, skipping words, squinting, rubbing the eyes, stumbling, and failing in school work. A combination of these signs may be of short duration and often expected with an upper respiratory infection; however, persistence of these complaints indicates the need for an eye examination.

Faulty diet may account for the onset of many eye difficulties. For instance, deficiencies of vitamins A and B may cause changes in the retina, the conjunctiva and the cornea. Sensible eating habits can correct some problems; however, prolonged lack of vitamins A and B may produce irreversible eye damage.

Just as the eyes often reflect a systemic problem, an eye weakness may affect the total well being of a person. The concept of total health care must be recognized by the nurse. An individual may complain of a minor visual disturbance and pass it off as something that may clear by itself. Such procrastination may have serious consequences.

The recognition of the importance of eye care has extended to industry and industrial art schools. Protective devices are a necessity in procedures in which there is danger of injury from foreign bodies. Safety glasses should be worn when the task at hand requires it. Eyes should be protected from bright sun, sun lamps, ultraviolet rays and even hair sprays. In the home, ammonia and alkali products, such as lye, present a particularly dangerous hazard for both children and adults. These agents can produce severe eye burns.

Eyes need to rest after being used for close work for a period of time. Occasionally glancing out the window or around the room allows relaxation. Adequate sleep each night prevents the tired feeling of the eyes when one stays up too late.

The importance of adequate and well placed light in preventing eyestrain is essentially no longer a medical problem but one of general, industrial and social concern.health, recognized

This material contains information of preference shares, the different types of preference shares, advantages and disadvantages and explaining what should happen in the case of a closure.

Back to the balance sheet itself. The make up of shareholders’ funds is also more complex than in the case of Smith & Co. First, Jones Manufacturing has two classes of share capital: preference shares as well as ordinary shares. Companies with preference share capital often have it for historical reasons, though issues of preference shares (particularly convertible preference) have regained popularity in recent years. Various mutations of preference capital may also crop up in the financing of young businesses which are not quoted on a stock market and in the financing of management buy outs. Preference shares usually pay a fixed dividend and in this respect are more like a loan stock than an ordinary share.

But the dividend has to be paid out of profits which have borne tax, whereas interest on a loan stock is allowable against tax. Against this disadvantage, preference shares will not normally be counted in the gearing of a company whereas loan stocks will. And they are safer in that the company risks being closed down if it cannot pay interest on its loans whereas it could miss dividends on the preference shares without the same risk.

Preference shares are part of shareholders’  funds but not part of ordinary shareholders’ funds. They are share capital, but they are not equity share capital. They do not share in the rising prosperity of a company, because their dividend is fixed and does not increase with rising profits. But they are entitled to their dividend before the ordinary shareholders get anything, so the dividend is safer than that of an ordinary share.

And if the company should be wound up (closed down), preference shareholders are normally entitled to be repaid the par value of their shares (usually but not necessarily £1) before the ordinary shareholders get anything. This is assuming there is something left after loans and all the other debts of the company which rank before preference shares have been repaid. Preference shares do not normally carry votes unless the dividend is in arrears (the payments have not been kept up).

One technicality you may come across occasionally: certain types of preference share issued by subsidiary companies rather than by the parent company, but guaranteed by the parent, may have more of the characteristics of a loan than of share capital and may need to be treated as a liability rather than as capital in the consolidated accounts.share, dividend, shareholders’, company

Next we have to knock off everything the company owes. The short term debts are shown as current liabilities or creditors: amounts due within one year. These are the counterpart of current assets and are therefore deducted from current assets in the balance sheet to give net current assets (or net current liabilities if current liabilities exceed current assets).

The first item under current liabilities is trade creditors of £20,000. This is the counterpart of debtors. It represents money the company owes for goods and services it has received but not yet paid for. In other words, it is much like an interest free loan to the company: trade credit from which the company benefits. Each year a company has to make provision from its profits for the corporation tax it must pay on these profits. But corporation tax is payable by installments and at any time there is likely to be some tax which the company knows it will have to pay but which has not yet been handed over. This therefore appears as a liability of £6,000 under the heading tax payable.

Next comes the dividend the company plans to pay. A company needs approval from its shareholders for the dividend it intends to pay, and until they have voted to approve the dividend at the annual general meeting (AGM) which takes place at least three weeks after they have received the accounts it remains a short term liability: something that will need to be paid in the near future. A public company. Normally pays its dividend in two parts: an interim dividend in the course of the year and a final dividend (which has to be approved by shareholders) when the profits for the full year are known.

Finally, the company owes £8,000 it has borrowed by way of overdraft. Since an overdraft is technically repayable on demand, it has to be shown as a current liability.

Deducting the current liabilities of £38,000 from the current assets of £90,000 gives a figure of £52,000 for net current assets. Fixed assets plus net current assets give the figure described as total assets less current liabilities. From this figure of £79,000 we still have to knock off any medium or long term debts before arriving at a figure for net assets. In the event, John Smith has borrowed £30,000 in the form of a term loan. This is a bank loan, typically for a period of three to seven years, and normally repayable in installments. Keywords: current liabilities, company, current assets, borrowed, payable

In looking at a company’s finances as shown by its balance sheet (and when talking of balance sheets from now on we’ll be referring to consolidated balance sheets) it is vital to distinguish the different sources of money the company uses in its operations. There are three main sources. First, money put up as permanent capital by the owners (the shareholders) of the business. This is the company’s own money, usually put up in the form of ordinary share capital when it is also known as equity capital. Then there is the part of the profit the company earns which it ploughs back into the business rather than paying out by way of dividend to shareholders. This also becomes part of the equity funds of the business, because it belongs to the shareholders and is shown as reserves. Third, there is the money the company borrows and which it will have to repay at some point. The general term for this is debt or borrowings but it can take a lot of different forms: overdrafts, term loans (both bank borrowings which are not securities) or debentures, loan stocks and so on (which are securities of the company).

The easiest way to understand the various accounting terms that crop up in press reports is to take a sample set of accounts. The accounts for a mythical John Smith & Co Ltd are slightly simplified to emphasize the main items: some of the complexities that will crop up are examined. First, the balance sheet. Assume that John Smith is a young company which makes, say, and metal paperweights.

In fact, John Smith & Co was set up only a year ago by four friends who decided there was a future in paperweights. Each put £10,000 into the business by subscribing for 10,000 £1 ordinary shares and the company borrowed the rest of the money it required. Let us take the main balance sheet items in order.

First comes the assets of the business: what it owns. Assets are defined as fixed assets or current assets. Fixed assets are not necessarily fixed in a physical sense. A company operating oil tankers would show them as a fixed asset. They are ‘fixed’ because they are not something the company is buying and selling or processing in the course of its normal trade. They represent mainly the buildings and plant in which or with which the company produces its products and services.

In this case John Smith’s only fixed assets are £27,000 worth of paperweight making machinery. Originally John Smith paid £30,000 for this machinery, but out of its profits it has set aside £3,000 to allow for a year’s depreciation or amortization of the equipment and written down the book value by this amount. This recognizes that machinery will eventually wear out and need to be replaced.

Current assets are the assets which are constantly on the move. Stocks of raw materials that will be turned into products, stocks of products that will be sold to customers, money owing to the company by customers, money temporarily held in the bank that will be withdrawn as it is needed in the business. If there were a company whose business was buying and selling oil tankers, the tankers would be shown under current assets as ‘stocks’, and not under fixed assets.

John Smith has stocks of £50,000. These comprise mainly stocks of raw metal from which the paperweights will be made and stocks of finished paperweights that have not yet been sold.

The debtor’s item shows the money that is owing to John Smith, probably by customers who have bought paperweights they have not yet paid for. In effect, John Smith is making a temporary loan of £35,000 to its customers, on which it receives no interest. Trade credit of this kind is a fact of business life, but it poses problems, particularly for younger companies. John Smith has had to bear the costs of producing the paperweights, which soaks up its available cash, and does not get paid by customers till some time later.

Finally, current assets include £5,000 of cash sitting in the bank until it has to be spent. John Smith’s total assets are therefore £117,000: the £27,000 of fixed assets and £90,000 of current assets. This figure is known as the balance sheet total. It represents everything John Smith & Co owns.

Profits are not necessarily the same as cash flows, and the differences can sometimes be revealing. Take just one example. A company lends £lm to another company for two years at 10 percent a year interest but agrees that the interest will only be paid when the loan itself is repaid after two years. In its profit and loss account at the end of the first year the lending company will include in its profits the interest of Lim which has accrued (built up) by that point.

It has earned this interest. On the other hand, it has not yet received any interest in cash, so the £lm will not feature in its cash flow statement for that year. Companies go bust primarily because they run out of cash. The cash flow statements that they have been obliged to publish since the early 1990s make it far easier to see the early warning signs.

The balance sheet is a totally different animal from the profit and loss account and cash flow statement. It gives a snapshot of a company’s financial position on one particular date: the last day of its financial year. Everything the company owned on this date and everything it owed on this date will be shown in the balance sheet, grouped under a number of different headings. The balance sheet is usually the best measure an investor has of a company’s financial health.

But it needs interpreting with caution. The position it shows on the last day of the company’s year could be very different from what it would have shown if drawn up three months earlier or would show if prepared three months later. Where companies deliberately bring forward some items and delay others, so that the balance sheet gives a picture which is totally untypical of the company’s position at any other time during the year, it amounts to excessive window dressing. Creative accounting has a similar implication. It usually means that figures have been twisted beyond the bounds of decency to present the picture the company wants.

Note the difference between a balance sheet or parent company balance sheet and a consolidated balance sheet or group balance sheet. Most companies listed on the Stock Exchange are not, in fact, single companies. Bloggs Engineering Plc may be a group of companies consisting of Bloggs Engineering Plc, Scraggs Scrap Ltd and Muppet Metal bashers Ltd. Bloggs Engineering is the parent company and controls the other two by owning all or a majority of their shares. They are therefore subsidiary companies. The head company of a group is also sometimes called the holding company because it holds the shares of the subsidiaries.

A parent company balance sheet shows the detail for Bloggs Engineering alone; its ownership of the other two companies is represented merely by the book value (value for accounting purposes) of its interest in these subsidiaries, which is generally pretty unhelpful. A consolidated balance sheet, on the other hand, treats the three companies as if they were a single entity. The assets and liabilities of all three are grouped together. Thus, if Bloggs owned buildings valued at £2m, Scraggs’s buildings were worth Lim and Muppet’s worth £l.5m, the figure for buildings (or ‘properties’) in the consolidated balance sheet of Bloggs Engineering Plc would be £4 .5m. Companies are normally required to present both a balance sheet and a consolidated or group balance sheet, unless there are no subsidiaries, in which case only parent company figures are given. The consolidated balance sheet is the important one and virtually all press comment will be on the consolidated figures. Companies are not required to publish a parent company profit and loss account (unless the business consists of a single company), only a consolidated one which shows the aggregate of the profits and losses of all the different companies in the group.