As a physiotherapist you see many different patients in a lifetime; in condition, personality, culture and background. It is a vast world that has so many people that may come but not all patients are people you want to treat. Are we allowed as a student to refuse patients if we do not perceive a patient as eligible? The university says that we are allowed to refuse but in reality, we treat individuals that are given from clinicians without questioning their background. From the many traits patients have, this writing is going to focus on the background of patients have, relating to refusing treatment by distinguishing the background into “good” or “bad.”
By saying “good” or “bad” background, refers to a clean history record or a history of criminal records. In South Africa, there is an uprising community that is being in motion against rape through movements such as “aminext” and “menaretrash”. A student from a university was raped and brutally murdered when she was only going to the post office (Qukula, 2019). This triggered the motion into place with other similar criminal activities that had occurred in the week and month. I do not support criminal activities without a justified reason and horrified how these criminals can do to a innocent person. It is a sensitive time for South Africa as every news feed from social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and News has mentioned about the movement and through many strikes in September 2019. Over 500 000 people have signed a petition for the Death Penalty to be re-implemented into South Africa (Nkanjeni, 2019). This shows how angry and disgusted the community is against these rapists, murders and criminals which they are demanding for justice.
In 2018/2019 statistic, 2771 women were murdered which meant that every 3 hours a women is murdered (Check, 2019). The murder rate has increased in 2019 to be the highest (Cohen; Vecchiatto; Bloomberg, 2019). In South Africa, the murder rate to the world is 5 times against women (Maluleke, 2018). 1.2 percentage of crimes against women has increased this year and is still increasing (Manuza; Makinana, 2019). With all the crises that happened recently, it triggered many people in our class to support the movement. I also support the fact that we need to keep our community safe and that we need to do something about this problem. Then I met this patient. A gang leader.
A rapist, murderer, kidnapper and thief. He told his story on how his gang had kidnapped kids, raped women for pleasure, killed people, shot people in the head and stole from people. How his rank rose as time passed and that he did not regret his deeds. I, looked at him on the hospital bed, a quadriplegic patient that just confessed about his deeds that I distaste and revolt against. He carried on telling his story on how an opposing gang came to his sister house and kidnapped her with 2 friends. They came to her house and as she opened the door, they stormed in and kidnapped each individual that was in the house. The patient found out and ran to the police for help. Ironic. The police found the patient’s sister shot dead and raped on a field, one friend raped and murdered and one survivor. The police got custody of 3 males that committed the crime that was going to court but through blind rage of the patient. He stole the police’s gun and shot the 3 criminals and gave back the gun.
I. Felt. No. Remorse.
What did he expect? To have a happy life? In my mind, many mixed feelings came sparking in but as a human being I did not want to treat the patient. Imagine the crimes that he committed happened to your family.
Raping your daughter.
Raping your wife.
Murdering your daughter, your son.
Murdering your wife, your husband.
Murdering your mother, your father.
or what if… it happened to you.
Would you able to treat the patient? We are taught in our university that as health professionals, we need to treat each individuals without bias and to treat individuals regardless of their background. That it is professional and we must become professional. That emotions must be suppressed when going into the medical field. Treating the patient got myself thinking “What if he gets better and creates destruction again” does that lead to a part of my responsibility? Victims stated that they felt unsafe to walk alone in a survey done in 2012 but imagine what innocent people will think now(Stats SA, 2012). Questions. Questions. Questions ran through my mind but I did not say anything and carried with my work. Trying to give my best treatment. The environment built for students are completing the work given, finish the patient load and be a student. Who are we to judge people? What do we know? I should just do my work.
References
Check, A. (2019, September 12). FACTSHEET: South Africa’s crime statistics for 2018/19. Retrieved from https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/crime/2178462/factsheet-south-africas-crime-statistics-for-2018-19/
Clark, C. (2018, November 29). South Africans Are Taking the Law Into Their Own Hands. Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/29/south-africans-are-taking-the-law-into-their-own-hands-vigilantism-extralegal-justice-police-apartheid-anc-private-security/
Cohen, M., Vecchiatto, P., & Bloomberg. (2019, September 12). Horror of SA’s gender-based violence revealed in report. Retrieved from https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news-fast-news/horror-of-sas-gender-based-violence-revealed-in-report/
Mabuza, E., & Makinana, A. (2019, September 12). #CrimeStats | Crime nation: What the stats reveal about us. Retrieved from https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-09-12-breaking-murder-rape-worsen-in-sa-fewer-cash-in-transit-heists/
Maluleke, R. (2018). Crime Against Women in South Africa. Crime Statistics Series Volume V, 5(1), 1-24.
Nkanjeni, U. (2019, September 5). Wrap| All the details on SA’s anti-femicide protests and shutdowns. Retrieved from https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-09-05-wrap-all-the-details-on-sas-anti-femicide-protests-and-shutdowns/
SA, S. (2012). Victims of Crime Survey. SA Statistics, 1(1), 1-83.
Qukula, Q. (2019, September 2). Man charged with rape and murder of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana. Retrieved from http://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/359601/man-charged-with-rape-and-murder-of-uct-student-uyinene-mrwetyana
3 thoughts on “Just do your Work.”
Hi Steven
Thank you for sharing your piece with us. I believe that this is a very popular topic at the moment due to the recent events happening in Cape Town. As students it is sometimes really difficult to be placed in these certain positions, but I believe that it is shaping us to be the best possible professionals we can be in the next few months to come.
Your piece reflects the topics that we discussed in class. Try to add a few references to make your piece stronger and to support your ideas. Also try to add a visual aid, it will strengthen your piece further. I also suggest that you try to use shorter sentences to increase the flow of your piece. Below is a few grammar corrections:
First paragraph, last sentence: change “background of patients” to “background that patients have”
2nd paragraph, sentence 2: “a uprising” to “an uprising”
2nd paragraph, sentence 5: look at your sentence constructions, not sure what you want to say here.
2nd paragraph, 2nd last sentence: add a space before the reference.
4th paragraph, sentence 5: change “sister” to “sister’s”
4th paragraph, sentence 8: “found the patients” to “found the patient’s”
4th paragraph, last sentence: sentence construction.
Last paragraph, sentence 2: “individuals” to “individual”
Last paragraph, sentence 6: sentence construction
Last paragraph, last few sentences: add question marks.
Thank you for sharing your piece. Hope the comments will be a bit helpful. Good luck with the final piece and enjoy the last few days of holiday.
Deone ?
Hello Stephan. Thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed reading your piece. It was interesting and relatable. We all experience such things on a daily basis given the environment in which we work. You chose a good topic to speak about as it is relevant and real.
A few suggestions :
Sentence 1 par 2 : possibly reword. Maybe change “it is meaning” to “refers to”
Sent 2 par 2 : add full stop after inverted commas “menaretrash. ” – – > “menaretrash”.
Possibly reword last sent par 4: start a new sentence instead of putting a comma “blind range. He stole”. And maybe say he stole the/a police gun.
Comments on punctuation:
when using eclipses (…) use 3 full stops instead of 2.
You could possibly use exclamation marks for dramatic effect as well in place of a full stop
When using words of possession add an apostrophe eg: police’s gun
Add a space after sentence in in-text referencing EG. South Africa (Nkanjeni, 2019).
Lastly, maybe add some more literature/references which will tie your piece back to some topics we covered in class, as this is an important aspect of this task.
Well done on your piece. Use this comments to your discretion. I hope it helps 🙂
Don’t forget to add hyperlinks and add a visual aid (with references)