This is a picture of a mother carrying a small child and she is crying. This picture reminds me of a patient that I saw in one of my blocks, she was diagnosed with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) for the 3rd time. As soon as we did subjective assessment, it linked as to why she continuously had this diagnosis, she was a heavy smoker and lived in a crowded place, the disease is easily spread through air droplets from a cough or a sneeze, pulmonary tb occurs because of TB spreading to other organs, (Carey. 2018). What was heart breaking for me was when she mentioned having children at home and that she was unable to look after them while she was in the hospital and that she was a struggling mother who is unemployed because she does not have the required level of education to get employment and to add on she was sick. Relatively to the picture, the patient though she was struggling, sick and did not know what was to come in future, she was still a mother and was very worried about what her children might be eating while she got hospital food, to an extent where she took left overs of other patients, because she had a good prognoses she was going to be discharged soon, she was saving up the food to give her children when she went back home. This incident was very emotional for me as a child who grew up with my mother, who strive for me to be able to go to bed in a full stomach, clothed and happy though we did not have much at home at to some extent she was not employed for a while. This was an emotional yet made me realize that the patients we see also have struggles and tend to want to go home because it is a stressful stay at the hospital not knowing what is happening at home is very unbearable for them. I came to a realization that even though the incident was very emotional for me, there was not much that I could do, but because we work as an interdisciplinary team (Nancarrow et.al. 2013), I was able to refer my patient to a social worker, who would be of much help for her regarding her personal home situation. In stead of crossing boundaries of being professional in the work place, rather I chose a way she would get helped without anything that is unethical is done. Mothers always want to be there for their children, though they might not be well themselves, but they always put the children first. This incident made me realize the mothers love and how as a future physiotherapist I need to rehabilitate and treat patients effectively and yet try to get them out of hospital stay as soon as they can, with proper health.
Ariss, S., Booth, A., Enderby, P., Nancarrow, S.A., Roots, A., Smith, T. (2013). Ten Principles of Good Interdisciplinary Team Work. NCBI. Retrieved by 07/11/2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662612/
Carey, E., Hinguera, V., Nall, R. (2018), Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Healthline. Retrieved by 07/11/2018 from https://www.healthline.com/health/pulmonary-tuberculosis#causes