Clinical reflection
During my community block I was placed at Baitul Ansaar a facility for abandoned or orphaned children. The children ranged from 2 months until 13 years old when they are either sent back to family members or placed in other orphanages. The children at this facility is the most loving and happy children ever. There was one girl that had a delay in her developmental milestones as she is a year and 5 months and cannot walk or stand independently. According to [ CITATION DrV11 \l 2057 ], children that grow up in orphanages is likely to have a delay in social, emotional and physical development. She is medically well. Her moods changes day to day as one day she is happy then next she is crying or wants to be left alone. She does not know her family members as she was taken away at a very young age (few months).
Knowing that some of these children does not have any family members makes me feel sad and want to treat them more kindly than I would treat any other child. I feel that these children need more love and affection knowing that they do not have parents or family members like other children have. This makes one feel sorry for them and a thought of “pity”. I could not imagine how this little girl must feel when she grows up without a mother or a father or any family member what-so-ever. All I could think about is how I would treat a patient knowing that he/she is or was an orphan growing up. I feel that I might treat the child differently and then make the child feel even more different from the rest of the other children.
I was pleased to know that these children was well taken care of by the careers at the facility and that they are receiving the love and affection needed. The children are also there for each other and help one another when needed such as getting dressed or eating. This give them a sense of belonging and make them not long in having a family of their own. The bad part about this experience was that once I left this placement the children did not understand why we left and this could have reminded them about their abandonment if they are able to remember.
This situation shows that the emotion can have an impact on a child’s physical development leading to a delay in their milestones. That is why the child cannot walk at the age of a year and five month old. Therefore, it is important that children especially young children that are still in the process of physical development are emotionally stable. Leading to a normal and good physical development. It is also important that professional workers do not treat these children any differently as this could affect the child’s emotional state.
I feel that in future I know that when receiving a patient that is an orphan I will not treat him/her any differently because I feel sorry for them. As this would make them feel inferior.
References
Groza, D. V. (2011). Adopt Vietnam. Retrieved from Adverse Impacts on Children Living in Orphanage Institution : http://www.adoptvietnam.org/adoption/health-institutional-impacts.htm
3 thoughts on “Orphaned but not alone”
Hi, thanks for sharing.
I liked your experience on how you felt empathy towards the children and that it affected you, but I think it will better to try to add on more information about the ethical problem that could occur in hospital setting. Such as giving better treatment for the less fortunate than the fortunate.
Empathy on its own is broad and I think choosing one criteria and focusing on it will be a better approach. Also explaining how emotions can influence you as a health practitioner and how we can overcome this as a professional.
But it was a lovely reflection, all the best!
Good Evening Gowa, I hope that you are well. I enjoyed your essay as it reminded me of my own clinical experiences. I hope that this feedback will help you with your final draft. I decided to comment on the rubric as I thought that it might be helpful to do so.
Content: Does the essay reflect the module content so far? Is it aligned with class discussion? I like how your essay related to clinical practice, however I felt that you needed to relate the incident more with ethics, like for example human rights and equality.
Argument: Are claims made? Are the claims supported with evidence? Are reasons given for claims? You do explain the clinical incident well, however it would better if you could relate the incident to ethical concepts, and then substantiate your actions by using those concepts. I think your essay can be great if you back up why or why not to treat orphans in a certain way. If you can provide evidence that emotion plays a role in developmental milestones, it would make your argument greater.
References: Are they present? Correctly formatted? I know that on drafts we do not really take references seriously, however in the final draft try to stick to one format and do not forget to in-text reference
Writing: Is the writing grammatically correct? Are there spelling mistakes? Does the text flow logically? I think that your writing follows a logical trend, however there are grammatical errors. For example in the first paragraph you use the word are instead of the word is. I think the flow can be better if you use the word however after the sentence “she is medically well”. You also use the word mood changes instead of change. In the 3rd paragraph it might be better to use the word “were” instead of was. There are a few other grammatical errors within your essay, however I think if you use the English handbook that we were given in 1st year, you will do great.
Well done Gowa, I enjoyed your essay and I hope that my feedback is helpful to you.
Hi Gowa,
Thank you for sharing your experience at Baitul Ansaar with us. Please see my guideline table below and feedback following this.
Guideline Poor Satisfactory Excellent
Content: Does the essay reflect the module content so far? Is it aligned with class discussion? X-(SATISFACTORY)
Argument: Are claims made? Are the claims supported with evidence? Are reasons given for claims? X- (POOR)
References: Are they present? Correctly formatted? X-(EXCELLENT)
Writing: Is the writing grammatically correct? Are there spelling mistakes? Does the text flow logically? X- (POOR)
Comments:
Content- Your content deals with empathy and the impact of physiotherapy treatment on the emotional state of orphaned children. This definitely lies with our discussions and module content of ethics however i think you can emphasize this more in your writing. I have given more in-depth feedback and examples later on.
Argument-There were one or two claims made but these were not justified well enough or in the right context as I think you can provide. Your claims are supported by reasons but again this can be emphasized more. More in-depth feedback about this below.
References- excellent. Good referencing.
Writing- Please see spelling mistakes and grammatical errors/ sentence structure. I have also provided an example of a more logical flow.
Spelling and grammar is underlined below.
I think it would work well and emphasize the main theme of you piece if you started off with your statement of According to Groza… Then go on to explain how you experienced this on your community block at Baitul Ansaar whilst working with orphaned children. You noticed that there was a child of 1,5 years who was still not able to stand or walk independently. The experience of working with children who are emotionally traumatised provoked you to write and read about how physio management can also affect the emotional state of the child and thus their milestone development as stated.
Perhaps then go onto how you feel when treating a patient that is an orphan. How can you perhaps find ways to help you with emotional detachment and ways of treating a patient exactly as you would if they weren’t an orphan. Maybe find a relevant article about this? And research how other medical professionals cope with this too, maybe there is a journal article?
Your writing can all link together. Once you’ve explained the statement about milestone development being affected by emotional state and the emotional state being affected by the physio management you can then conclude by saying that it is important for health professionals to acknowledge this, and perhaps find another reference or the same one to justify this evening further, use a statement and then provide reasoning or experience to this statement.
I also think that you can refer back to the picture you have chosen. The child in the middle represents the orphan as I read your piece and the chalk drawing around her and the shoes represent the milestone that she is delayed on- walking and mobility/ gross motor skills. The fact that her shoes are not on her feet really emphasized that she is not walking as they are not in use and her body position shows unhappiness, loneliness and abandonment. Refer to this picture as your write as it may be helpful in leading your reader through your thoughts. The example that you mentioned in the first paragraph could be this girl in the picture. Well done!
Clinical reflection
During my community block I was placed at Baitul Ansaar, a facility for abandoned or orphaned children. The children ranged from 2 months until 13 years old, at this age they are either sent back to family members or placed in other orphanages. The children at this facility are the most loving and happy children ever (can you reword this and further your thoughts on this statement to give it more presence). According to (Groza, 2011), children that grow up in orphanages is likely to have a delay in social, emotional and physical development. (if you start your argument and claims with this statement it will flow more and your ideas will link).
This was evident in my experience at Baitul Ansaar, there was a girl that was 1 year and 5 months and it was apparent that she was delayed in her developmental milestones as she is still unable to walk or stand independently, although she is medically well. On an emotional level, her moods fluctuated from day to day. This was noted by her happiness on one day or occasion and on another, her tearfulness and desire to be alone. She does not know her family members as she was taken away at a very young age (few months).
Knowing that some of these children do not have any family members makes me feel sad and want to treat them kindlier than I would treat any other child. I feel that these children need more love and affection knowing that they do not have parents or family members like other children have. This makes one feel sorry for them and a sense of “pity”. I could not imagine how this little girl will feel when she grows up without a mother or a father or any family member. All I could think about was how I would treat a patient knowing that he/she is or was an orphan growing up. I feel that I might treat the child differently and then make the child feel even more different from the rest of the other children.
I was pleased to know that these children were well taken care of by the careers at the facility and that they are receiving the love and affection needed. The children are also there for each other and help one another when needed such as getting dressed or eating. This give them a sense of belonging and makes them not long for having a family of their own. The negative aspect about this experience was that once I left this placement the children did not understand why we left, and this could have reminded them about their abandonment if they were able to remember.
This situation shows that emotion can have an impact on a child’s physical development leading to a delay in their milestones. That is why the child cannot walk at the age of 1 year and 5 months old. Therefore, it is important that children, especially young children that are still in the process of physical development, are emotionally stable so as to lead to a normal and good physical development. It is also important that professional workers do not treat these children any differently as this could affect the child’s emotional state.
I feel that in future I know that when treating a patient that is an orphan I will not treat him/her any differently because I feel sorry for them as this would make them feel inferior.