When I look at people, I see different shapes and colours. And yet – like smarties – what we see is the only difference because we all look the same inside.
It was my second block (General) and I was placed at Stellenbosch Provincial Hospital. During this block I spent almost 3 weeks with Mr. R, a 64 year old male who suffered a posterior CVA and presented with right sided hemiparesis, pusher’s syndrome and complete vision loss.
Mr. R was a good man. He was kind, very religious and loved to talk. We spoke English to each other, but he did understand some Afrikaans which made communication a lot easier. It is important to note that Mr. R is a coloured man (ethnically, I do not mean to be offensive or racist).
One day, after about two weeks of working with Mr. R, I took him to his room after a session. He shared the room with two other men (also of coloured ethnicity). When I got Mr. R into bed, he said to me: “I’m so happy to be helped by my own people. It’s not like I do not like whites or blacks, but it is just better to be helped by one’s own.” I was a bit awestruck with his comment and it caught me off guard for a second (I am a white individual). I did not know how to respond to it – do I tell him I am white, or just let it go and have him believe that I am also a coloured person? I looked around the room at the two other men and they were trying very hard not to start laughing. Both had realized what was happening. I smiled (as it was a funny situation) and said to Mr. R that I am happy he likes working with me. I bid him and the other two farewell and left the room.
The following day when I saw Mr. R again, the other two patients had already informed him that I am white. So he called me over and asked me in Afrikaans if I am white. I said yes, and I think he was a bit embarrassed. He apologized to me for what he said, and told me that he respects me and would like to continue working with me. I assured him that I took no offense and actually found it a bit funny. With that we went straight back to the gym to start another session.
Initially I was very surprised about Mr. R’s comment. I did not know that after spending so many hours together he thought that I was a coloured person too. Then I realized what was happening, and I thought it was real funny. I did not want to offend Mr. R and therefore kept quiet about it, but I was not offended at all. The man was blind. Maybe I am more of a Capetonian than I realized.
In the end the whole situation was resolved peacefully, I handled my patient with respect and he returned my respect the same. It did not matter to me if the patient thought that I was of an other race, and I treated him the same as I would any patient. Race and socio-economical inequities should never determine the level of care given to a patient.
We might all be from different backgrounds, cultures and history. When you understand and respect these differences, you realize it does not matter. Whether you’re black, white, pink, blue or coloured, when you take off the shell, we all look the same inside.
I do not think that I handled the situation poorly. I could have told him the moment I realized what was going on, however due to the other patients smiling at me in the room made me feel that it was alright. I had a feeling that they would ‘help’ Mr. R when I left.
If it should happen again I would say that I am flattered that they feel so close and comfortable with me, but then I would correct them. I would do it in such a manner as not to offend them, or to seem being offended.
References:
Anderson, J. M. (1996). Empowering patients: Issues and strategies. Social Science & Medicine, 43(5), 697-705.
3 thoughts on “We’re all the same inside”
Hi Theron.
Thanks for sharing. I really liked the concept you chose to write about. I also feel that often people struggle to look past what they see on the outside and judge a person without really knowing them.
I would suggest making a stronger link to your image within your writing. I see the relationship between the two but it would add more depth to explain the symbolism or connection between your image and clinical experience. I am also struggling to clearly identify the professional ethics concept you focused on.
Well done with the reflection. Your experience has a nice flow to it and you handled it well. Perhaps exclude the headings you have provided as it flows well without them, and turn the evaluation section into a smooth paragraph. Try looking at some literature relating to health care professionals and situations similar to these to explore other scenarios, as it is not always the way you experienced it and we can learn a lot from it.
References are not present and would be nice to include so that the reader can explore more and your statements can be well supported. Spelling and grammar is good. Just a suggestion, but you can look at re- wording some of the sentences to a more formal tone to add a slightly more academic feel to the writing eg. ‘burst out with laughter’.
Overall a good draft. Hope this helps.
Hi Theron,
Thank you for sharing the experience you had. I have had similar encounters, and is interesting to see how the different scenarios played out.
The concept you chose to write about is relevant and does link to what we discussed in class. However, I think you need to change your writing style that it is more ‘academic’ writing. For example, ‘burst out with laughter’ – you could describe this in a more academic way. There are also instances, such in paragraph 2, where you use the pronoun ‘he’ constantly – you could replace this by just using a apostrophe ” He was kind, very religious and loved to talk’ (this is just a suggestion).
You used the Gibbs Reflection style to help the flow of your writing. I think this helped you to get your thoughts on a piece of paper, but as a suggestion, maybe for your final piece do not use the sub headings? I feel like this restricts and limits your writing. For example, in your ‘description’ paragraph, instead of just describing the scenario, maybe introduce your picture and the link or significance it has to the scenario. I think there is very clear symbolism between your writing and the image that can be explored. I would also recommend not using bullet points, and writing in full sentences (this is a another example where I think the Gibbs model limits you specifically for this assignment). You were more focused on ‘filling’ in the correct content under each specific heading- this limits the flow of your writing.
There are no references. I would recommend that you add references to strengthen your argument.
Overall, a good piece.
Hi Theron.
Please see my feedback below according to the feedback guidelines.
Comments:
I can clearly see the link between your reflection and the colourful picture used. To link your picture with the reflection start with an introduction paragrapgh explaining the picture and what it means to you as a person. We can all read this reflection and make our own assumption as to why the reflection and picture link, but why do these two link for you?
Content:
The content of your reflection should link to the module content. For example linking your experience with empathy, ethics, morals etc. Try to find your own unique way of linking your clinical practise experience with what was discussed in class.
Argument:
There are no clear argument made. By this I mean there is no clear indication of what you believe in as a person and there is no evidence(references) used to support your reflection. Try and find ways to incorporate your own feelings to equal treatment for all races to link the reflection back to the module content. also to further strengthen your argument find evidence on how other people feel about equal treatment and try link that back to the ethics discussed in class. This will help other people to better know how you as well as other people feel about this topic.
References:
Not present, but try to include some as discussed in the argument section.
Writing:
The text flows nicely and I can clearly notice your feelings during this experience. For the final draft remove the headings to make it flow even more. Another thing to add to make the writing link more to the photo is an introduction paragrapgh explaining the photo as well as a conclusion paragraph to sum up your reflection at the end.
Lastly just generel writing corrections to consider:
Paragraph 1: Reconstruct the second sentence. “During this block I spent almost 3 weeks with Mr R a 64 year old male. This patient suffered a posterior CVA and now presents with right hemiparesis, pusher’s syndrome and vision loss.”
Paragrapgh 4: Reconstruct sentence and wording. “The following day I saw Mr. R again the other two patients had lready informed him that I am white individual.”
Also try not to use words such as “obviously” this makes your writing less professional. Rather replace the word in that sentence with “I will certaintly tell them in a nice and non offensive manner” this will then make your writing more professional.
Overall a good piece. I am sure that your experience has shaped your thoughts about clinical practise.
Feel free to ask if you are unsure about my comments.