Meaningful life and death
Death is the inevitability that we as humans will have to face. Every human would have, or will have to experience the pain of death. Enduring the physical, emotional and psychological tolls that it may take. Not only their own death, but of family, friends, colleagues, and even just people we once knew( Sinclair, 2010).
As Physiotherapy students, we are used to helping people recover from whatever life has thrown at them (Wright, 2015). We are taught to be part of a medical team responsible for returning a person to their previous level of functioning prior to injury or disease. Or as close to this as possible. And we know very well how to celebrate patients and their achievements. We are taught to promote good experiences of improving ones life in this world, but is the experience of leaving this world any less important ( Corker, 2010)?
For me personally, starting out at placements during my 3rd year, death was one of the last things I expecting to find myself dealing with. I remember becoming so accustomed to being in this type of situation that for a while I barely paused to think about it before moving on. For a while I forgot that these people were human and that I more often than not, had a full conversation with them the previous day. I forgot that these people lived and had loved ones.
It started during one of my first placements. I had 2 clinicians in charge of my peers and myself who would hand us our patient load for the day. We would sit around a desk talking about action plans, progress, new admissions for the patients and so forth. It was during my first week there, while in one of these sessions, that I was casually told that 1 of my patients from the day before had passed on and that I would be given a replacement. Without a hint of grief in my clinicians tone or facial expressions I soon realised that death was something she witnessed here quite often. I soon fabricated a belief that I needed to be like that. I could not allow a patient death to affect me or else I’d struggle to get through the day. According to Corker (2010), he found that when analysing majority of medical students and their ways of dealing with patient deaths, they found majority suppress humanistic values to simply get on with their work. Why are we taught biomedical training but yet seem to be avoiding psycho-social training?
I maintained this outlook on patient death for a long time until one day, when explaining a patient situation, and death, to a peer in class resulted in a shocked and hurt response from her. At first I was confused. Why was she upset, it’s not like she knew the patient? I was left thinking about this for a while before I realised that I didn’t want to the type of person that seemed to not care.
Despite having to work in settings where death is around me, I’ve found ways and coping mechanisms, so to say, to not only get me through it but also feel like I’ve taken something from the experience. Our time spent at hospitals are ways to allow growth and learning. We are expected to learn something new with each patient we treat. Now, when I face a patient death I think back to what I experienced with them. Whether educational or not, any experience that could improve MY life, I use and try to remember and cherish as a lesson.
I believe that my way of handling death was molded by the lack of education on how to handle the situation as well as by the example being set by superiors. We know that placements are expected to be vital educational environments with regards to our field of work, therefore, established healthcare professionals and educators need to be positive role models (Powell & Toms, 2014).
References
Corker, D. (2010). PHYSICIAN’S EXPERIENCES WITH DEATH AND DYING: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY (Doctorate). Southern Illinois University Carbondal.
Powell, S., & Toms, J. (2014). Passing Away: An Exploratory Study into Physiotherapy Students’ Experiences of Patient Death whilst on Clinical Placement. International Journal Of Practice-Based Learning In Health And Social Care, 2(1), 108-121. doi: 10.11120/pblh.2014.00026
Sinclair, S. (2010). Impact of death and dying on the personal lives and practices of palliative and hospice care professionals. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 183(2), 180-187. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.100511
Wright, J. (2015). Dying to help: Counselling and support for physios following the death of a patient. FRONTLINE, (9). Retrieved from https://www.csp.org.uk/frontline/article/dying-help-counselling-and-support-physios-following-death-patient
3 thoughts on “Meaningful Life and Death: By Saarah Cader”
Hi Saarah
I like how you start of by giving us the definition of what you going to be talking about. However you focused more on briefing us about death and forgot that your topic is about “meaningful life and death”
While i was reading your piece i noted some of the grammatical errors such as “For me personally, starting out at placements during my 3rd year, death was one of the last things I expecting to find myself dealing with”. I believe that this sentence was suppose to be “For me personally, starting out at placements during my 3rd year, death was one of the last things I was expecting to find myself dealing with”.
Thank you for sharing your piece.
Good day Saarah!
I enjoyed reading your piece. I specifically like the fact that you mentioned that we as students are taught to promote good experiences and celebrate patients achievements. But then lack education and strategies to handle death.
I noted that in the sixth sentence of the fourth paragraph you said “patient” instead of patients. In the last sentence of the fifth paragraph you left put the word be between the words “to” and “the”.
Overall your piece made me realize that I too lack humanistic characteristics so that I can continue with work easier. Your piece made me realize just as our patients lives are relevant so are their death. I’m pleased to read that you have found copying mechanisms and have allowed yourself to take something from the experience.
All the best!
Hey Saarah
Your post was thought provoking and insightful despite this being a common phenomenon in our field. I found your ability to explore the lack of preparation by our curriculum and not being offered any debriefing sessions in essence, very well brought forth.
Your clinical scenario is refreshing due to the introspection that took place. Your honesty in paragraph three with regards to the lack of preparation on your part strengthened your argument about the importance of psycho-social model. In paragraph three; you look at the situation from your clinicians perspective and then found coping mechanisms to deal with session as best you could under the circumstances.
However, I would have appreciated an elaboration on what the psychosocial model is and exactly how it can impact us as students and well into our professional career. I liked your content and topic although I feel as though it would have been well rounded had you spoken about life and death itself and the associations that often follow.
Once again, I really l enjoyed reading your post.