Piece of art by: Jon Spayde
Broken branch, person has lost an ability or an event that led to loss, something that helped to keep them up.
Person on the swing represents someone who experienced loss, Feeling the loss off the broken branch
Person behind, trying to stand in for the branch and support the person on the swing.
In clinical practice we are exposed to patients that have lost an ability in their lives that change the way that they live, think and react. It may be a physical loss such as a limb or an injury like a stroke that throws their live in a different direction. The branch that was always there, that they always could rely on, snapped on them.
After the change in a patient’s life, the branch that was taken away. In clinical practice some patients loose the capability of an arm, leg or sensation, but sometimes the disability cannot be seen which can be even more frustrating to a patient. That leads to the emotional component of “nobody understand my situation, my struggle”. Then the patient tends to think “how am I going to live now?” Their world just changed and when they do not understand their condition they get more confused and that can be frustrating. This can lead to self-pity and negativity. Now it is a new experience lying ahead.
As physiotherapists, person standing behind holding up the swing. The hand on the shoulder, shows empathy. As therapists we cannot be there just for the physical exercise, we have to help the patient by listening, motivating and encouraging through the rehabilitation process. Our days can become long, but we still have to be there for emotional support and make sure that the patient is comfortable when treated (Bhatt, 2017). Empathy can help calm down an anxious patient (Hirsch, 2007). Hand on the rope, physical help by keeping the swing up. Giving physical help through therapy, exercise and rehabilitation. We cannot guarantee to give the patient the exact same life as what they had before their incident. We can only try our best to improve the patient’s life the best we can (we can only keep the swing up, we cannot become the branch).We slowly start to retrain the patient to be able to do activities on their own, but in a new way. As the rehabilitation continues we are the ones that need to give support and encouragement to the patient so that they can face their new way of life and live the best life possible. Physical and emotional support goes hand in hand. In clinical practice we should remember to give physical and emotional support to be able to treat the patient holistically.
References:
Bhatt, Z. (2017, January 1). The art of empathy to become a better healthcare professional. Retrieved from MIMS Today: https://today.mims.com/the-art-of-empathy-to-become-a-better-healthcare-professional
Hirsch, E. M. (2007). The role of empathy in medicine: a medical student’s perspective . American Medical Association Journal of Ethics , 423-427.
3 thoughts on “Broken branch”
Hi Madelein
Thank you for sharing your ethical piece with us. Please find my feedback below.
Content: (Excellent) Your piece reflects and is aligned with content we discussed in class. I enjoyed reading on how you experience empathy in clinical practice and how it plays an important role in an holistic treatment.
Argument: (Satisfactory) I enjoyed how you linked empathy together with an holistic treatment approach to ensure that a patient get the best possible treatment. Try to expand a bit more on how the therapist’s empathy can play a role in how the treatment outcome of the patient would be.
References: (Excellent) Thank you for adding your references in the piece as well in your reference list. It makes your piece stronger by supporting the argument that you made.
Writing: (Satisfactory) Your piece is written in a way that is easy to read, however, when doing your final piece just make sure all the necessary punctuation marks are added to ensure a good flow of the piece. Another suggestion is to use full sentences at the beginning of the piece to explain each part of the art work i.e. “The person on the swing presents someone who is experiencing loss.”
Thanks again for sharing your piece. I enjoyed how you linked your artwork with empathy, and how an holistic approach will be beneficial for a patient’s outcome. Please look at the comments and see where you can make any necessary changes to make your piece even stronger than it is. Keep well.
Hi Madelein
I enjoyed reading your ethics piece and can see you’ve related it to the module and what we have learnt thus far.
Content: (Satisfactory) As I said, the piece shows that you have made use of the knowledge gained in our ethics module. The piece shows that you have taken to heart that physiotherapy doesn’t simply address the physical aspects only.
For your final piece I think you could try expanding on the meaning behind the art in the beginning.
Argument: (Satisfactory ). The argument was well presented and flowed. You made strong links to the art and what you tried to convey.
References (Excellent ). Not sure if you added the reference for the art but perhaps you could add that too.
Writing: the text flows well but check for grammar and spelling such as when and where to add commas and dashes.
Good luck with final submission.
This is a great piece.
Hi Madelein.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful picture and the wonderful piece you wrote with regards to this. I really enjoyed reading your piece and I could relate to the point that you were trying to make, that rehabilitation and patient care is very closely intertwined with emotional support of the patient as well, not just physical. I especially enjoyed the part were you wrote that we as therapists cannot become the branches, meaning that we cannot replace what the patient has lost (for example a limb), but we are able to support and help (treat) the patient in order for him/her to return to their original state of health or way of living as close as possible. I also saw this in a way that patients should not become dependent on us and that we should only be there to help them and serve as a stepping stone in their process of rehabilitation and reintegration into the community (Obviously dependent on the patient’s condition). I liked the statements that you made and I could sense that you truly value caring for your patients and supporting them emotionally.
This being said, I think it would really benefit your piece if you could maybe add some of your own personal experiences or examples of similar situations in clinical practice where you had to support your patient and show empathy towards him/her. How did you do it exactly and did you find that it changed your patient’s outcome at the end? Was it easy to be empathetic towards your patient or did it take practice (a skill you had to learn)?
I liked your references and I thought they were well related to your writing as well as this Ethics module and topic.
Spelling and grammar:
Throughout your piece there were a few spelling and grammar errors, these are a few of them that I could pick up on. You could maybe have a look at these and decide if you would maybe want to change a thing or two 🙂
Line 1: “lead” – Led (past tense)
Line 6: Perhaps add a “,” after physical loss. e.g physical loss, such as …..
Line 9: “Patient” – Patient’s
Line 10: “Clinical practices” – Clinical practice
Line 14: “understand” – understands and also close the ” after ‘my struggle’.
Line 15: “Tend” – tends
Line 20: “therapist” – therapists
Last note regarding grammar: I understood that the first sentence of each paragraph was a referral to a part of the picture which you were going to discuss more in depth, but perhaps you could slightly rephrase some of these sentences as I did not understand them initially. Line 1 of the second paragraph is quite confusing. The idea is there, so perhaps you could just play around with wording the sentences differently to make it flow better and make it easier for the reader to understand.
Overall I really enjoyed your piece and it related well to this module. I think a few finishing touches will make it even better.
Good luck and all the best for the upcoming exams.
Kind Regards
Janine