Like the saying goes, ‘’there are two sides to a story’ it is usually unfortunate that one story seems more worse than the other. This picture entails the tree being our healthcare system and two patients, one being the shadow and the other patient being the the sunny area.
It is no doubt that shadows are associated with feelings of gloominess, hopelessness and being afraid which is exactly what many patients feel like interacting with our healthcare system whether it may be the lack of effective help, treatment or general feelings of comfort they receive from health-care workers. If we had to flip the coin, we’d find many patients feeling grateful, blessed or thoroughly cared for. These feelings I have associated with the sunny area of the tree. Again, whether it may be that these patients receive a high standard of healthcare carried out by health professionals with urgency, respect and compassion or whether it is the well-resourced and well-maintained hospital settings that puts them at ease- it is clear that there are patients that receive everything and those that receive little to nothing. I chose this picture because I believe it clearly reflects our health-care system. I believe the picture also blankly points out our main problem which is something we as aspiring healthcare workers have to fix which is firstly to get basic healthcare to those who do not receive any while secondly trying to improve the state and efficiency of our existing healthcare settings.
Through research, the analogy is evident through many surveys done whereby patients have scored their overall stay, treatment and care at hospital settings to be rather poor. Out patients sleep over around hospitals where settings are not safe and lack any food all in order to catch transport shuttles where their next referrals are situated in urban areas (Dlamini, 2019). However we also see South Africa reaching greater heights with the first ear transplant being done using 3D printed bones. This procedure was marked to be suitable for conditions associated with hearing loss, infections, congenital birth defects and trauma injuries. Although it is very exciting, we also need to make sure that these procedures will be available to all who need it despite their financial statuses (Mathibela 2019).
Reference list
Dlamini, Y. (2019) Rural communities should have ‘dignified access’ to healthcare. Retrieved from: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/rural-communities-should-have-dignified-access-to-healthcare-report-20844338
Mathibela, X. (2019) UP academic pioneers world’s first middle ear transplant using 3D-printed bones. Retrieved from https://www.up.ac.za/news/post_2750323-up-academic-pioneers-worlds-first-middle-ear-transplant-using-3d-printed-bones
2 thoughts on “There are indeed always two sides to a story.”
I found this assignment very interesting to read! I appreciate your reflection on the subject and found your comparison of the tree and the South-African healthcare-system very enlightening. I feel sad to hear how some people experience the health-care system. You describe both the negative and positive experiences with the system and start to describe some research that describes these experiences. There seems to be an abrupt ending to this paragraph, and I would like to read even more about these.
You point out how you, as aspiring healthcare workers can fix the challenges the South-African health-care system is facing, and I was intrigued to hear more about how you think you can achieve this.
Overall, I think it was a good text with interesting reflections on the healthcare-system. I found the text easy to read and structured, but I think you could take a look at the structure of some of the sentences.
Well done.
Hello Maia,
Thank you so much for your feedback, I found it very useful because your suggestions helped me see what aspects of the assignment are more important and where I can further elaborate. There are some silly errors I picked up when I reread the piece and thank you for pointing that out as well.