Mural painted on Lentegur Psychiatric Hospital
The storm always passes
During one of my blocks I came across a patient who was willing enough to tell me her life story. The patient grew up in a rough environment where drugs and gangsterism ruled over the neighborhood. She was raised by her single mother of 5 children and never had the opportunity to finish school. During her teenage years, she could not fight the urge of partaking in drug activities, and at that point her life took a turn for the worst. A few years into her drug addiction she got raped and fell pregnant. After the baby was born, the only thing she could see in him was the man who raped her. Anger turned into violence and one night she went over to the man’s house, who raped her, and set the house on fire, with him and her baby in it. She ended up killing both of them and is currently living out her sentence in prison. Our session ended up with the patient in tears, remorseful of what she did and not being able to turn back the clock. Her words at the end, “this too shall pass”, stuck with me for a while. These words immediately came into mind when I saw this mural (the storm always passes) on the Lentegeur Psychiatric Hospital one afternoon.
During my encounter with this patient, I realized that as a health worker, we will come across a lot of different patient with different backgrounds and stories. During the session with the patient I first had a lot of mixed emotions, since this is not stories I hear every day, but immediately felt a sense of sympathy towards the patient. I knew that her background and what she had done in the past, should not play a role in the type and quality of treatment that she requires. At that point, she was just like the patient’s sitting next to her, waiting to be helped.
Working with patients with a criminal background should not influence your treatment towards them. Every person has the right to the best possible and equal health care. Although this patient took someone’s rights from them, I do not have the authority to take her rights from her. Health care is given to prisoners for social reasons too. The vast majority of inmates will return to society within a few years. Proper care helps to preserve their physical function, which makes it possible for ex-inmates reintegrating into society to embark on productive activities. For example, hypertension and diabetes treatment are known to prevent strokes, heart attacks, and other sequelae that would burden society with long-term care of disabled persons. It is in society’s best interest that recently released prisoners be free of disabling diseases.
Professionalism should also not be influenced by a patent’s background. Each patient deserves to be treated with respect no matter their age, race, gender or background. As a health worker respect and dignity should always be equal throughout your engagement with patients, since they deserve to be treated to the best of your ability. Although this patient was in inmate, she still deserved the best possible care at that time. I realized that we all face certain storms in our lives, some bigger than others, but that with the right mindset and courage to move forward, that the storm will always pass.
3 thoughts on “Deone Burger ethics draft: The storm always passes”
Hi Deone’
thank you for sharing your experience, it was really nice to read and I enjoyed your piece.
I specifically enjoyed that you were able to use one of the sentences or phrases from the patient as a life lesson, it nicely links to your case that she is also human and by you taking some of her words and using it as a “motto” just shows that despite her actions she is human, its beautiful to see that we as physio students are able to learn from our patients as well.
the piece is well related to the topic or the discussions we have had in class and the art piece is also linked well to the writing.
a bit of advice I could give is – check your spelling I noticed in some words you maybe forgot to add a letter or something , just minor errors , and then lastly maybe add a few references, maybe an article related to your experience or similar experiences.
other then that well done your piece was beautiful and I truly enjoyed it .
Hi Deoné,
Thank you for sharing your writing with us. Please see my guideline table below and feedback following this
Content: (Excellent) The content does reflect on this module. It is aligned with the class discussion about ethics. It is nice to read about your personal experience and how this patient has affected your line of thinking and your future practice. This piece represents how ethics plays an important role in your physiotherapy career.
Argument: (Satisfactory) There were good arguments made on how patients should be treated equally. However, these arguments can be made stronger by including references that link up to equality and professionalism.
References: The reference of the painting is satisfactory. However, add a reference of an article linked to treating patient’s that are in prison or an article from a similar experience. It would be nice to read about how other people feel about the topic.
Writing: (Satisfactory) Well done on using strong words such as remorseful to bring the story across. This keeps the reader wanting to read more. When doing your final just check as there are a few spelling mistakes that slipped in. One or two of the sentences are difficult to read. I suggest that after you have done your final to read the piece out loud.
Comments:
“She was raised by her single mother of 5 children and never had the opportunity to finish school.”
The above quoted sentence is difficult to understand. I’m not sure if the patient is part of the 5 children or the mother. Please rephrase the sentence.
When talking about when the patient was raped and got pregnant, use a different word than fell. One cannot fall into pregnancy; one can only get pregnant.
I really like how you concluded your piece. It brings your writing together and represents how this experience influenced you.
Thank you again for sharing, I really enjoyed it.
Hi Deone
Your content is good and it reflects the ethics module. I like the fact that you used a personal experience and gave a background of the patient. You took the experience and related it to ethics. When reading this as a physiotherapy you start to think of how you would have reacted in this specific situation. The background captured my attention as I can relate. Growing up in my neighbourhood I saw and am still seeing stories like this and it made it easier for me not to judge patients as I know how growing up in these environments affects kids and they eventually become the same bad influence that influenced them.
You make a good argument on how patients should be treated. I like the fact that you reflected on your experience as it is essential that we as health practitioners are able to look at a situation, reflect and make plans to improve when the situation should arise again.
I suggest that you add references to your content, as you then can make an argument about whether or not a patients background influences how you treat them or not. You also make some claims about rights with no evidence.
Your writing is good. The piece has structure, I like how you start with your experience, give an argument and then you concluded.
I really enjoyed your piece.