Professionalism Paper

To fully grasp the concept of professionalism, one must understand the word ‘profession’. By itself, the word ‘profession’ means, “… in its etymological roots, to declare aloud, to proclaim something publicly.”1 This idea of a proclamation is seen in numerous aspects of medicine. The first is seen when doctors take the Hippocratic oath. This oath taken is a profession of one’s commitment to medicine and their commitment to use their special knowledge and skills at the service of the sick.1 The second proclamation is seen whenever a doctor interacts with a patient. When a doctor proceeds to treat a patient, they are committing to having a certain level of competence to help the patient and to use that competence in the best interest of the patient. It is in these proclamations, that professionalism is observed. 

Professionalism relates to medicine when observing it through the aforementioned commitments that doctors make. In order to uphold these commitments, doctors must adopt principles in order to ensure their patients are treated with both the best physical and emotional care. The principle of engagement is one of the main ways doctors initiate professionalism. “Engagement includes a capacity to communicate effectively; to manage a patient centered clinical transaction…”2 A doctor being able to interact with a patient in a way that expresses attentiveness is one of the main pillars of professionalism and the commitment that comes with the profession of medicine. The principle of engagement segues into the concept of dignity in medicine. Dignity is the, “…conduct of the clinical relationship in a manner that subsumes the idea that something serious and important is going on between the physician and the patient…”2 Dignity is the ability of a doctor to maintain the best possible care for the patient while respecting the patient’s boundaries, as well as the relationship between the doctor themselves and their patient. The maintenance of effective boundaries between the doctor and patient relates to their commitment of engagement to the patient as they will be more focused on the patient’s health rather than the patient’s personal life details, aside from those that attribute to providing better care for the patient. These boundaries also give rise to another aspect of professionalism that is vital in medicine, in the form of patient autonomy. “This principle incorporates honesty with patients and the need to educate and empower patients to make appropriate medical decisions.”3 By putting boundaries up between their patients and themselves, doctors must also allow their patients to make a decision about their own health on their own. By doing this, a doctor can provide better care by making the patient feel safer and more comfortable in a hospital setting, as they would feel like they had more control of their situation. 

An aspect of professionalism that is prevalent in my life is to strive for excellence and continuous self-improvement through professional and personal development. Running Track and Field has been something that I have done since I started high school. From my first meet, I fell in love with it. Track is a sport in which you constantly must improve; stagnation means failure. This idea of constant improvement instilled in me the drive to compete and better myself as an individual. The feeling of lowering my time even by a fraction of a second was addicting. The feeling of sprinting down a track at top speed is one like no other. Track has shown me what it means to truly dedicate yourself to something and this has touched so many other aspects of my life. The hours every day I dedicate to training myself, and the pain and fatigue that comes with it has taught me discipline, determination, and perseverance. Every new task I began, I started just like I would a 100 meter dash; I give it everything I’ve got from the beginning and finish strong at the end. This feeling of constant self improvement and determination is why I feel like I will become an excellent physician and a leader in my field. Track has given me a sense of camaraderie and community with my teammates. While track is a sport run by an individual, I still support my teammates and cheer them on as if I was the one running. Their victories were my victories, and their losses I treated like my own. Being on the track team has taught me that being a great teammate means leading by exampleWorking hard to improve myself inspires motivation in my teammates. Leading by example means setting the culture for how everyone else should act.

References 

1. Pelligrino, E. (2002). Professionalism, Profession and the Virtues of the Good Physician. [ebook] Available at: https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-43298545-dt-content-rid-355893370_1/xid-355893370_1 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
2. Barondess, J. (2003). Medicine and Professionalism. [ebook] Available at: https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-43298545-dt-content-rid-355893371_1/xid-355893371_1 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
3. Kirk, L. (2007). Professionalism in Medicine. [ebook] Available at: https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-43298545-dt-content-rid-355893371_1/xid-355893371_1 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].

Narrative Medicine Discussion Posts

The movie “Gun Hill Road” was about the relationship between Michael, properly known as Vanessa, and her father, Michael Rodriguez. Vanessa is a transexual woman who struggles with balancing her identity when her father returns home after three years in prison. There were obvious metaphors displayed in the film, such as Vanessa’s bras and wigs being hid in a trunk beside her bed. This symbolizes the way in which vanessa, must hide herself as “Michael” the son her father always wanted. She must place her true identity in a box in order to please a man who was barely there for her. Aside from this metaphor, my main takeaway from this movie was the father, Michael’s, motivation for trying to change Vanessa so much. The movie alluded to Michael being sexually assaulted in prison, evident in the way he told the man in the headband, “don’t touch me again fa**ot.” He said “again” because he assaulted Michael before and Michael wanted to make sure he never went through that again. This is also evident in the way Michael talks about prison to his wife, he speaks to her in a way that revels trauma in his experience there. The way he also beats the man in the headband at the end of the movie and makes him open his legs, revealed a deep rooted hate towards him, and Michael constantly hitting his genitalia showed he had a hatred toward him for sexual reasons. This sexual assault is the main motiovation for michael’s actions because Michael feels like he lost his masculinity in prison, and as a result, he tried to hold on to what he has left through his son. The way he places so much emphasis on his son having the same name as him shows that he is living vicariously through his child. He couldn’t bear to see his son reject the very masculinity he was trying to hold on to, as that would confirm his greatest fear; total emasculation. Since Michael returned home from prison that was all he faced. Aside from his son being transexual, his wife cheated on him with another man, and even assumed a father-like position in the household. Knowing another man was sleeping with his wife, and was able to connect to his own son better than him, was mentally damaging to Michael. He was no longer a father to his son, and the son that he wanted to raise as a “true man” rejected the ideals that Michael was so desperately clinging onto.

The text “Farmer, on Structural Violence” resonated with me because of the stories told in it. The struggles of Adephi and ChouChou were used to illustrate the concept of structural violence. Structural violence is the pain that people go through as a result of the environment they live in. These people are subject to the conditions of the people and rules around them. In Adephi’s story, she had to conform to the norm of sleeping with wealthy men in order to survive. She was essentially forced into making certain decisions simply because she grew up in an environment that gave her very little options or opportunities. I viewed this concept of structural violence through the lens of systematic oppression in black communities. The community in which black people live in puts pressures on them to make certain decisions that eventually lead them to death or incarceration. The prevalence of drug abuse and gang violence are some examples of factors that perpetuate the cycle of black people getting “trapped in the hood.” The environment in which they have no choice in being apart of is one of the main reasons black people are in the position they are in.

The TED talk was very polarizing to me. I understood the need for improvement in the intimacy between doctors and patients. The shift away from the patient by doctors has resulted in DIFFERENT care. I emphasize different because I am still unsure as to whether or not the shift was totally negative. I understand and recognize that the lack of empathy has caused patients to feel more uncomfortable in hospital settings, and as a result, seek less help, but at the same time, the reason for the shift has to do with the huge advancements made in medical technology. Doctors are now able to view the body more accurately than ever with the use of new scanners. This new accuracy has improved the care of patients by allowing doctors to detect irregularities that would have been missed years ago. I believe that the intimacy in medicine was sacrificed for being able to take better physical care of people. To label the lack of intimacy as totally negative without understanding the cause of the distance between doctors and patients creates a misconception around doctors and how they treat people. While I don’t completely agree that doctors should be robotic towards their patients, I do believe in changing the style of healthcare to better provide for the patients health, because the end goal of medicine is to keep people alive.

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