Justin Slinger

3695673

PHT 402 Assignment

In detention-Chris van Wyk

He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself while washing
He slipped from the ninth floor
He hung from the ninth floor
He slipped on the ninth floor while washing
He fell from a piece of soap while slipping
He hung from the ninth floor
He washed from the ninth floor while slipping
He hung from a piece of soap while washing.

This is a poem I first encountered during my matric year. It is a poem about the apartheid era of South Africa in which police guards were able to detain prisoners without any clear reason. The poem highlights how the guards start to feel less and less of a responsibility for the prisoners as they start giving outrageous reasons for the deaths of prisoners.

This poem in taught in grade 12 in order to initially teach the history of the country but also to show how when certain rules and routines are in place, along with an increased workload could lead to, the people that are supposed to be helping others, becoming detached from the people they are there to help. This detachment could be subtle and undenounced to the person but it can happen over time.

During my time on clinical practice I have seen how some patients tend to get overlooked by all health professionals to some extent. Sometimes this is based on their conditions, as some aren’t as dire as others, but also this can be attributed to the major time constraints facing the medical professionals. While on clinical practice I usually saw six patients a day for 45 minutes to an hour. While looking through the files I would sometimes need to ask doctors and nurses if they gave medication to some patients as it was sometimes not noted in the file or for them to take the vital signs of the patient as it was backed up at times. When physiotherapist clinicians hand patients over some patients are seen a lot longer than others despite having similar conditions.

I felt it hard to leave the block at times because I was caught up in a dilemma where I found myself thinking about who will see my patients once I have left. With the physiotherapists already overloaded with work and other health professionals unable to assist will they be seen every day and will they get the treatment needed to help them return to health. This however feels like I am over empathising with my patients.

However, according to (Shamay-Tsoory, 2010), there are two types empathy. Emotional and cognitive empathy. The emotional empathy is what I feel for my patients. The second kind of empathy is cognitive empathy. Cognitive theory is described as having the ability to create a theory about other’s mental state and cognitively take the perspective of others (Shamay-Tsoory, 2010). This is the empathy I should be feeling towards my fellow health professional colleagues. I should know and believe, despite the massive workload the health professionals are under, that they are doing their best for the patients the see every day. I should also understand that the current health system in the country does not really allow for patients to be seen for hours within the day because of the over crowdedness of hospitals in the public sector. I feel all I can do, and all other health professionals are doing, is treat every patient I see to the best of ability in the time I am able to see them. This will help reassure me that patients are seen with the best of care available to them.

References

Shamay-Tsoory, S. (2010). The Neural Bases for Empathy. The Neuroscientist, 17(1), 18-24. doi: 10.1177/1073858410379268

In detention. (2019). Retrieved 24 August 2019, from http://everythingaboutenglish.weebly.com/in-detention.html