PHT402: ETHICS 3RD YEAR ASSIGNMENT (2018)
Janine van Niekerk (3635180)
(Photo attached below)
Since I can remember, from a very young age, sunrise has always been my favorite part of the day. Not only is the most beautiful picture that nature paints, but it also represents new beginnings and new found energy. I especially love sunrises over landscapes, such as mountains and the ocean. During April this year – for the 5th consecutive year, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the annual IRONMAN race, which takes place in Port Elizabeth, my hometown. As always during this day, I was privileged enough to see another beautiful sunrise over the ocean in this friendly city. Naturally I walked over to the pier to take a photo, but this year I did not walk to the edge, but rather stopped halfway to take this photo. This photo immediately symbolized something greater – it symbolized the characteristics of a health care professional. I had often thought of how the sunrise linked to me as a person, symbolizing that I should take each day on with new strength and see the beauty in everyday things, but in this moment I realized that this sunrise and all the detail surrounding, represented me as a clinical professional.
Just as the sunrise takes it’s time to break dawn, professionals are patient and take their time with patients. I often work with patients where language barriers exist and treatment does not go according to the pace I would like it to, but during this time I have the opportunity to be patient and show understanding towards the patient. The sunrise may not always look the same every day, but it is important to note that it still occurs every single day. Just like the sunrise, health professionals should be consistent when working with patients looking at treatment, time and behavior. The rays of the sun reach out lightly one by one, inviting you in and each making their appearance, the same as health professionals should be approachable and confident in clinical practice. In clinical practice I have learnt that a smile is often all you need to make the biggest change in your patient’s attitude or day and being confident also restores the patient’s confidence in you as a health professional. It has been shown that communication with patients, are facilitated if the health professional is approachable (Fathers & Stevens, 2008). In this photo I also took note of the rocks lying in the shallow waters. For a lot of sea creatures and other forms of life, these rocks are seen as a safe haven. We as health care professionals should be reliable and patients should be able to trust us fully. The pier, a famous landmark of this city, has been there for as long as I can remember and while growing up in PE, this was always one of my favorite places to go. There is something very honest about this structure, the pillars are stable and have not changed in all these years. We as health professionals should also have this honesty and professionalism to us in clinical practice. An honesty which will outlive us and professionalism which we will be known for many years in practice. According to O’donnell (2015), professionalism is one of the 8 most vital and important traits that a health professional should have. Lastly one of the most important components of this photo I took was the flags situated along the sides of the pier. All these flags representing different countries and diversity, are aligned behind one another facing towards the rising sun. These flags represent our patients waiting for us, the patients we see daily in clinical practice – these flags each so unique in character, deserve each of these characteristics from us as health professionals.
References:
Fathers, C.P & Stevens, S. (2008). Improving the patient’s experience. Community Eye Health Journal, 21(68), 55-57.
O’donnell, M. (2015). Health Careers. Retrieved 12 September, 2018, from https://www.healthecareers.com/article/career/8-vital-traits-every-allied-health-professional-should-have
6 thoughts on “A characteristic sunrise”
Hi Janine.
Thank you for sharing your piece. I like how you described the picture in depth mentioning the finer details and related that to how we are and should be as health professionals in a clinical setting. It was nice that you started off your piece by giving a bit of background to the picture you chose and why you chose it. This gives the reader a bit of insight of what is about to come and makes reading the piece more understandable. It is important that we as health professionals remember to always be patient and understanding towards our patients as they are human beings too. It may just be a normal day for us but to them it is a big day and although we may only see them for a few sessions, our impact will always be apart of them. The health professional traits we should have should be practiced everyday and equally with every patient, no matter the differences (sometimes we tend to forget that and that effects our treatment) – this is where the relationship forms and trust comes into play. Everyday we learn more about ourselves and our capabilities the more we get outside our comfort zone and the willingness to learn.
I think maybe you can add your personal experience of what it is like working in a clinical setting into your piece – do you adhere to these principles (as stated above) all the time? do you treat your patients equally? do you find it easy to be patient when working with different patients everyday? If not, why?
Your references definitely played a part and benefited what you said. You can do some further reading which could help – Ethical Decision Making and Behavior. (2018). Retrieved from https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/39590_Chapter7.pdf
As previously stated, well written piece and easy to follow. Well done.
Hi Erin
Thank you so much for the helpful feedback. I really appreciate that you took the time to read and engage with my written piece. I am glad that you understood the point that I was trying to make with the photo and my link to ethics in clinical practice.
I have followed your advice and added some of my personal clinical practice experiences in the piece to make it more relatable.
Thank you also for the reference you added with the extra reading I could do. I found it very helpful.
Kind Regards
Janine
Hi Janine
Thank you for sharing your piece with me, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I really liked how you broke down this beautiful photo into individual components and linked them to something related to clinical practice. I liked how you started by sharing a personal link to the photo’s location and then made a connection between you as a health professional and the symbolism of the photo. The way you present yourself in front of a patient can have a profound affect on a patient and therefore patience, honesty, confidence and professionalism is important as a health professional. We see many patients every day but the patient only sees one physio and they deserve the best treatment and professionalism from us.
The link between the photo’s components and clinical practice is clear and very well linked and explained. I do think that maybe you could use more literature to support aspects of being a health professional. Do you have any personal clinical experiences relating to what you have mentioned relating to honesty, patience etc. that you could share to make it more personal to your clinical experience. A link between the photo’s symbolism and your clinical experience with a patient could strengthen the piece. What components from the photo do you apply in your clinical practice and what can you improve or apply in your future practice.
Overall a very well written piece and easy to read and follow and well linked to clinical practice.
Well done!
Hi Emma-Leigh
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my piece and engage with my writing. I really appreciate the thorough feedback you provided me and I found all your suggestions very helpful.
I took your advice and added more literature to support aspects of being a health professional and I also added my personal clinical practice experiences in the piece to make my writing more relatable. As part of this personal experience and my own application of these characteristics in clinical practice, I also added some of the characteristics that come easily during clinical practice, but also those that do not and that I want to improve on an apply in the future.
Kind Regards
Janine
Hi Janine
Thanks so much for sharing this piece. It is a beautiful picture and overall a meaningful piece. I found it to be a heartfelt description of the picture and your interpretation of it.
I like the background given in the beginning, it makes it easier to follow and understand and it leads nicely into your actual piece.
The point you make about the impact health professionals have on their patients, is a good reminder about what a big impact small moments and actions have on our patients and how important it is to be patient, pleasant and empathetic towards them.
There are however some minor changes you could possibly consider making.
Suggestions for possible changes:
The references you used are relevant to your piece and support your claims in the piece, yet I think you could possibly do some more research to link your piece to more of a clinical perspective and elaborate on the 8 traits that a health professional should have, according to o’Donnell (2015). You could also possibly explore the ethical side of how one should/ideally react in certain challenging situations.
I think you could add more of your personal experiences e.g. you said you have been challenged with language barriers and stated that you were patient and understanding but maybe you could give a scenario regarding what happened.
Spelling/grammatical changes:
2nd line- “Not only is the most beautiful” add a ‘it’ after ‘is’.
9th line second paragraph- “rays of the sun…” possibly a new paragraph, as it is a new idea.
17th line second paragraph- “In this photo…” also rather a new paragraph, as it is a new idea.
7th sentence from the bottom of second paragraph- maybe also make that a new paragraph, as it will be a nice way to end with that thought.
23rd line second paragraph- maybe use another word instead of honest, as it makes the sentence a bit confusing. Do you possibly mean constant or reliability or unchanging?
Overall a very well written piece with a very meaningful interpretation. Well done. I hope the feedback is helpful.
Hi Zara
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my piece and to engage with my writing. I found your feedback to be very helpful and I feel as though my writing has improved after implementing your feedback.
I took your advice to do more research to link my piece to more of a clinical practice perspective and to elaborate on the 8 traits of a good health professional. I also added some of my personal clinical practice experiences and how I could have or should have reacted in those situations which would have been ideal.
Thank you also for helping me correct my spelling and grammar mistakes. I truly appreciate that you took to the time to help point out and correct these mistakes in my writing piece. I changed all them that you pointed out above.
Thank you for the time and effort you put in to provide me with this feedback!
Kind Regards
Janine