Discussion Post Week 9:

In modern society, a person’s value is based upon their socioeconomic status. Privilege is given to those that attain high socioeconomic status. It is those same people that are given a pass in life even though they are equally the same as everyone else. Although there the key components that contribute to socioeconomic status such as wealth, employment and education, race significantly influences perception of socioeconomic status. In the article, Judicial bias crimes in New Jersey: Rapes excused, seemingly on the basis of race by Olga Torres, white males are given the benefit of the doubt even in the presence of incriminating evidence. This suggests that court system fails to hold criminals accountable for their illegal actions. It is especially telling that a pattern occurred where most of the cases discussed in the article showed that white males were simply given a slap on the wrist and the women were blamed for white males’ actions. The victims were blamed and shamed for actions out of their control. These males were protected because of their “upbringing” and their family’s status. 

The stigma surrounding mental illness that was previously talked about last week is exacerbated in a prison setting. The prison system in the United States fails to emphasize the reformation of people’s characters and instead confines them to the punishment of solitude. In the nordic countries, the prison system is a means of rehabilitation for its criminals. This allows for the criminals to get back into society in a better state of mind than before incarceration. It is the reason that these nordic countries of known for their impressive track records of people entering the prison system and returning. Unlike the nordic countries, the United States fails to achieve the same goals. The prison environment is not conducive to the personal growth of inmates therefore they are left to struggle for the rest of their lives. Even when they have served their time, they are not properly equipped with the tools to assimilate into society and oftentimes return back. In Graybar Hotel, the culmination of different prisoner narratives exemplifies my previously mentioned claim. It is alarming that a prisoner would prefer death than the harsh conditions he experienced. This seemingly endless cycle of suffering is similar to Farmer’s “On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View from Below.” Acephie continued to struggle because society had prevented her from moving up the “social ladder.” Due to her parents’ low socioeconomic status, Acephie was forced to make difficult decisions that gravely impacted her future. Ultimately, Acephie’s destiny was predetermined because of an outside factor. It is a never ending cycle because as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer which can be attributed to society’s constructs. 

As future physicians, we must be objective in our treatment of all patients. No single patient should be slighted due to a lack of “high” socioeconomic or given special treatment because of aforementioned status. We assume the responsibility of upholding the health of society as future physicians. 

Discussion Post Week 12:

In the medical profession, the rejection of eros through suppressing the emotional aspect of medicine has continued to be counterproductive. In the medical world, patients are confined to being just another number to be treated. The term patient dehumanizes humanity aspects of that respective person. Besides the illness the patient is going through, the patient is now forced to bottle up their feelings about the entire situation which exacerbates the whole experience. Medical students are still being told to repress their emotions which in turn leads to them becoming indifferent to the patient’s perspective. The long term effect of this practice is that the patient will be justified in feeling that they are being ignored by their physician. Take for example in “Life is Sacred,” the physicians are only concerned about what treatments can be used to aid against the illness, but they failed to take into account how the patient may be feeling throughout the entire experience. The way some physicians treat their patients could be likened to how physicians are playing a numbers game. Each patient treated is just an addition to the total the physicians have accumulated over their careers. This could be seen in “Just the Facts,” where the physicians were looking a patients through a numerical lens which restricted the rapport the physicians could have established with their patients. Both “What The Body Told” by Rafeal Campo and “Un-forgetting Asclepius: An Erotics of Illness” written by David B. Morris the divide between patients and doctors is highlighted. Patients lack a voice to express their feelings while doctors continue to lean on desensitization as a reason to suppress their emotions. Thereby creating a rift in the medical profession. 

It is up to physicians and future physicians to bridge this rift by actively listening to the patients’ narratives and stories. This allows patients to begin trusting medical professionals again. In “The Surgeon as Priest” Richard Selzer acknowledges that the medical profession needs to change its rigid stance on how to cure patients. Medicine goes beyond the realm of science and that needs to be understood. Take for example in the poem “Nunca Tu Alma,” Cortney Davis tries to encourage a young rape victim to be strong despite her traumatic experience. It is small things like this that can go a long way in improving the quality of care no matter the patient.

Discussion Post Week 13:

Medicine nowadays has shifted its focus to the logistics of treatments. There aspects beyond medicine that do not contain solely treatment. The relationship between the doctor and patient is one that is especially important in order to establish trust. As mentioned in “For New Doctors, 8 Minutes Per Patient” by Paulie W. Chen, doctors are continuing to decrease the amount of time they spend with their patients. This further confines the patient to being just another number to their daily totals. The patient has a story to tell, but the doctor fails to acknowledge their story which only congregates the divide between patients and doctors. This not only creates an animosity towards physicians, but also reduces the accuracy of diagnosis which seems to be counterintuitive of medicine. In contrast, Abraham Verghese’s Ted Talk highlighted the importance of the doctor-patient relationship. This allows the patient to also be involved in their health and sound their concerns. In this particular relationship, the doctor is tasked with being a supportive character in guiding the patient towards their desires and health. It is this relationship that should be the goal physicians attain to cultivate with their patients. In “Whose Body is It, Anyway?” by Atul Gawande, we see how important it is to determine a balance between allowing some independence in terms of the patient’s decision, but also the physician’s role in the entire decision making process. As exemplified in the character, Debbie, it is especially important that the relationship is built on the foundation of trust. 

Although physicians have decrease patient interaction, it is completely unacceptable to allow the discrimination against people with mental illnesses. Juliann Garey expands upon this in “When Doctors Discriminate.” As told in “When Doctors Discriminate,” Garey was completely mistreated because her physicians chose to attribute her pain with her illness and failed to even acknowledge there could be another cause of the pain. The physician allowed themselves to act in an unprofessional way by personally attacking their patient. It is actions such as these that have created a mistrust in the healthcare system. The patient is always regarded as the first priority, but is rarely treated as such.