I’ll never forget the day I swore I would never work in the medical field. It all began as an ordinary doctor’s visit, but then I heard the doctor throw around words like “abnormal increase in male hormones”. Suddenly, the room began to blur as I tried to hold back tears. “Wow I’m surprised you don’t have facial hair or a deep voice; you don’t show any of the signs” I immediately broke down crying as the doctor sat before me still charting away and asking the usual list of questions before dashing out the door. The second the door closed I could already feel my mom’s focus shift towards me and then I heard “What’s wro—” before she could finish I mustered out between sobs “She just said I’m a boy!”.
Although, my mom reassured me I was still in fact a girl I left that doctor’s office feeling confused, distraught, but most of all disappointed. Disappointed because the person I expected to comfort and heal sat coldly across from me without any empathy. As an impressionable 10-year-old I was instantly filled with disdain for the profession. Thankfully my experience is now merely an anecdote, but many others aren’t as lucky.
Having a passionate clinician who strives for optimum results and ensures a positive mentality for the patient is instrumental in the overall success of a treatment. A clinician’s bedside manner and overall approach is a crucial component for any prognosis and can be the determining factor whether a patient lives or dies. After this realization my animosity
The Changes In Medicine In The Nineteenth Century The nineteenth century was one of the most important eras in the history of medicine as many new cures and technologies were discovered. At the beginning, many poor people still lived in houses without proper sanitation, worked in dangerous factories and drank water from polluted rivers. By the end of the century, social conditions had improved, medicine was more complex, treatments were more widely offered and technology was more advanced along with many other improvements. But why did these changes occur?
Medicine has been developed and discovered for thousands of years; however, the 1920’s was the first decade that fashioned a pathway for new developments and discoveries. Medical professionals have taken a huge hit for their fight in finding new inventions that can save patients from death’s hands. In the 1920’s, medicine has also taken a tremendous leap in controlling fatal diseases such as diabetes (Pendergast 110). Medicine in the 1920’s has altered the way medicine is shaped today; furthermore, the development and discovery of the iron lung, penicillin, and insulin were the first pertinent breakthroughs in medical history (“Iron” par. 7; Grimsley par. 15; “Banting” par. 13).
With the creation of Medicare in 1966 in order to expand access for the elderly to the American healthcare system, the ways in which medicine and its corresponding industries were conducted were irrevocably changed. Prior to its inception, only 65% of people over 65 actually had proper health insurance, as the elderly paid three times as much for healthcare as young people (Stevens, 1998). The private medical sector had much more control over who they would treat, how much they would charge, and more; the passing of Medicare freed up the elderly to have reasonable access to healthcare as a consequence of a lifetime of paying into the system.
Sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, 7-year-old me swung my feet back and forth under the generic, time-worn furniture and anxiously wrung my sweaty palms. I’d been to the doctor’s before, but with each returning yearly visit the dread that sunk to the bottom of my gut never shrunk. “Jillianne Carrasco?” The nurse called. My stomach turned. I began to shoot my mother a pleading look, but she wasted no time in grabbing my hand and leading me to the smiling nurse waiting at the door, and we both followed her through the pasty white halls to a customary exam room. The nurse closed the door behind us and asked me to take a seat on the crinkly tissue paper cot. She smiled warmly, likely taking note of my nervous breathing and shaky hands.
The practice of medicine has been shaped through the years by advances in the area of diagnostic procedures. Many of these advances were made possible by scientific breakthroughs made before the 20th century. Modern medicine arguably emerged. Both normal and abnormal functions (physiology and pathology) were increasingly understood within smaller units, first the tissues and then the cells. Microscopy also played a key role in the development of bacteriology. Physicians started to use stethoscope as an aid in diagnosing certain diseases and conditions. New ways of diagnosing disease were developed, and surgery emerged as an important branch of medicine. Above all, a combination of science and technology underpinned medical knowledge and
In 1896 Isabel Hampton Robb formed a group of fewer than 20 nurses and the group became the Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada and in 1911 the organization was renamed as the American Nursing Association. In 1889 Isabel Robb became the first Superintendent of Nurses at John Hopkins Hospital and the principle of the Training School. Isabel Robb wrote the very first nursing ethics textbook.
What excites me most about the medical humanities program is that it encompasses the actual knowledge utilize in healthcare today. Medicine is not solely about memorizing chemical formulas, drugs, or the origins of diseases. Medicine is about combining the knowledge of these aspects with knowledge about people and being able to manipulate this information for the context depending on the environment. Furthermore, I am extremely interested in anthropology and even more cultural anthropology. As a matter of fact, cultural anthropology is related to the subject of my current study about how geographic location, ethnic origin, or race impacts the importance of healthcare.
I embrace the search for the effective, mutual beneficial relationships within medicine that aims to improve the lives of patients and fellow physicians to uncover the body’s complexities that are not always apparent through pure medical intervention. It’s not an endeavor that can be done with haste. Only with deliberate focus and care can I learn how to hone a person’s tale to their own telling and maintain their wellbeing. I look forward to the
My fascination of both the biological and chemical elements of the human body has led to my aspiration of becoming a doctor. I have enjoyed the discovery of new elements in my AS syllabus, from learning about the cardiovascular system to the placebo effect in drug testing. Reading a book called Sick Notes by Tony Copperfield entails an account of his daily life in his profession as a General Practitioner. I was able to see how the science in the syllabus was used in the application of General Practice. Through my work experience I understood that the GP’s job was not just based on being a general specialist but also the lives of the people around him.
I went to the appointment on that Monday, and being a bigger hospital, I was even more terrified. We checked in, and luckily found a spot to sit in one of the waiting room. The room wasn’t filled with sadness or negativity, it was somehow filled with laughter. There were many children, therefore some of the parents had brought coloring book for them. I just wanted to know what these children were at the hospital for. They seemed to be the most charming children ever, and I just couldn’t understand why whatever they're going through was happening to them. My parents had left to buy coffee,
After losing my aunt to cancer, I realized the best way I can make a difference in society is by providing the optimum quality of healthcare to others in need. Throughout my Internal Medicine clerkship, I experienced the complex excogitation involved in managing patients with multiple co-morbidities, while maintaining patience and compassion needed to care for an individual as a whole. I took great pride in patient education, empowerment and guidance in all of my patient encounters, which is vital in Internal
If these medicines were considered factual, the biomedical scene could change the medical community significantly. However to find if CAM treatments are effective, one needs to prove it. On the other hand, this has become significantly difficult in the medical and scientific field. Although the amount of funding and users of alternative medicine is on the rise, scientists continue to hold a strong interpretation of CAM being unproven with insufficient evidence to believe these medicines are working (Keshet, Y. (2009), p. 148-149.). Many questions can be formed on the topic of the approval of CAM. Such as, why is alternative medicine not more popular? Why won’t scientists approve of the validity of CAM, and what is holding it back? And finally the belief that society holds on alternative medicine might be considered in the medical and scientific community as unprovable regarding the placebo effect; however, if people create the idea of the medicines working for them through their treatments in which evidence is formed through the improvement of the individual, would that be considered sufficient evidence of the
From the time I was four years old, I sensed an expectation from my parents to become a doctor. I was to rise to the top of the ranks and conduct research to find cures for the greatest ailments. Using pieces of information I had picked up from my parents; two doctors I admired, I enjoyed watching medical television shows and pictured myself on Grey's Anatomy as a doctor who found the cure for cancer. Yet, there was always
Growing up, my mother always told me that I was going to make her proud by becoming a doctor. Me being the complete momma’s boy, my plan is to make her the proudest and happiest mother ever. Soon my mother’s dreams became my dreams. As I get older, I realized that there is more to “being a doctor.” From being a dermatologist to a surgeon, the medical field is so vast and when
In the spring of 1918, the first wave of one of the deadliest influenza pandemics began plaguing its victims (Peters, ix). Over the span of three lethal waves, the pandemic claimed approximately forty million victims, eradicating nearly twenty percent of the entire world’s population, or about one out of five individuals (Peters, ix). To make matters more dire, the ill-suited medical community was exceptionally unprepared for such a wide-scale pandemic: Doctors had very basic tools, knew little about diseases, and had no experience with vaccinations or prevention (Peters, 1-5; “The 1920s: Medicine and Health: Overview”, n.p.). People blindly faced the epidemic, relying on folk remedies such as consuming wine, drinking antiseptic, and