Tomorrow by BTS
We are all living in the same world, surrounded by people trying to make the most of this one life that we are granted. As a third year physiotherapy student, my day consists of going to my block placement, seeing patients, going over theory and practical components at night, then waking up the next day and doing the same things over again. In reference to the picture it is a literal copy and paste every day. This pattern will differ from person to person, as a patient will not have the same routine as me. This leads me to think that everyone is different, from thought processing, to interpretation of pain, and even though I cannot feel my patient’s pain, be it due to physical pain or emotional pain, does not mean that it is not real for him/her. This is known as empathy, which is the ability to feel another person’s pain without having gone through his/her trauma.
A particular event that occurred will always stay with me. This occurred when I was having my supervisor session, with my supervisor. During the session I was not able to notice that my patient seemed uncomfortable, even though I had gained consent from her to be seen with my supervisor. She kept moving around in her chair and could not find a comfortable position, as she was in so much pain due to her having osteoarthritis in the spine. This however, was not noticed by me at the time, as I was more focused on trying to remember all that I had studied the previous night, so as not to look incompetent in front of my supervisor, and as a result I was more focused on myself than my patient.
When the session was over my supervisor sat me done and told me that my patient was in discomfort, and if I had noticed. I told her no, I had not. She then informed me that when busy with a supervisor session or exam, the patient should be the most important person in the room and that I should forget about the examiner. Even if i was not able to properly assess my patient, showing empathy towards someone will allow them to be calm and allow a better flow for talking. I took all her advise as I could, however this was still difficult to so, as my nerves usually get in my way when I am with someone else.
At the time i thought that I was doing just fine, and while the assessment was good, my professionalism was not, and my patient had a difficult time due to this fact. It is very difficult for me to talk about how i felt after the session, as i was very embarrassed about how I handled the situation, however i understand i am still a student and this is my time to experience and learn.
This incident has opened my eyes to see that although we learn how to assess and treat patient, we still find it difficult to deal with the stress of trying to keep on top of all the studies. (McAleer, McConville, Hahne, 2017) This can then interfere with the manner in how we treat our patients.For certain students it might seem easy to deal with the studies as well as dealing with clinical practice, but as I have stated above, everyone is different and we all deal with stress differently. I will try my utmost best to be more empathetic towards my patients, not just to be a better physiotherapist in the future, but also to be a better person in life.
Reference
McAleer, R. McConville, J. Hahne, A (2017) Mindfulness Training for health profession students- the effect of mindfulness training on psychological well being. Vol.13 (1) Retrieved on the 5 September 2018 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830716301616
3 thoughts on “Tomorrow?”
Dear Ilse
thank you for the piece. very informative. We tend to be negligent of our patients during supervision hey.
your reflection is good. however, i do not see the link between your picture and your reflection, how it affects you as a physiotherapist and your clinical practice. try to include that in your piece and be creative. include your photo in the reflection.
lastly, in-text reference as well must be included in your piece.
overall your work is good. well done, very good experience.
i hope this will help.
Hi Ilse,
Great piece you have here, I understand the message you’re trying to convey as it is clear and concise. It ties in well with the content that was covered in class. I experienced no difficulties when reading through your piece as it flowed easily and in a logical order. I think your grammar is good, I didn’t notice any errors with regards to that. There were however, claims that were made that I think would need some referencing. For example, the definition of empathy in paragraph one needs to be referenced.
Other than that, I think your work is satisfactory, great work and good choice.
Hello Ilse, I have reviewed your work and noted a few things that i will discuss below:
Content: excellent, this writing piece discusses empathy, which was a topic discussed in class. I like how you tied your own experience in with this topic and how it made you grow as a person
Argument: satisfactory. You have made a valid claim that it is difficult to show empathy towards patients as a student since we all are so focused on trying to pass the exams and knowing everything. the claims are supported with evidence and reasons are given for these claims but your argument could use more depth overall.
References: satisfactory, just double check on your formatting.
Writing: satisfactory; the text flows logically, and is easy to read and understand. Although, i have identified few grammatical and spelling errors
Para 1:
-line 6: ‘In reference to the picture, it is.. ‘, or you could consider rephrasing the sentence
Para 2:
-line 1: sentence needs to be tied with the next sentence. it is grammatically incorrect on its own.
-line 2: “supervision session”; “with my supervisor” is repetitive
-review the last sentence, you could end the sentence after ‘previous night’ and start a new sentence
Para 3:
-line 1: done –> down
– ‘ and asked me if i had noticed ‘
-consider how you phrase direct speech . ‘ i told her that i had not noticed’ / ‘ i said “no, i had not'”
– ‘supervision session’
-advice(noun), advise(verb)
-‘difficult to do’
Para 4:
-you can end the sentence ‘… the situation. However,..’
-last line: you could possibly say ‘ and also a better person’ rather than ‘but also a better person’
Overall, capitalise ‘i’ throughout your writing piece
i enjoyed reading your essay and is relatable. i hope you find my feedback useful
happy writing! 🙂