71 Reflections on Learning
To me, reflecting on learning means to look back on my work throughout my time learning and taking note of how I have improved, as well as how I can keep improving. Looking to see my strengths and weaknesses in different kinds of assignments is very helpful for me, and it’s good to see how I can apply what I’ve learned in different places.
What I learned about health humanities
What I learned about health humanities:
I now know that health humanities is about looking at different aspects of the healthcare system within a humanitarian perspective. This includes looking at patients as individuals, looking at the different factors of their lives that could influence their health and overall well-being, beyond reports and numbers. There is a large emphasis on patient autonomy. It goes beyond the medical setting, into subjects like mental health, diet, recovery, and everything that involves keeping a person healthy.
Why Medicine Needs Art: Why Stories Matter
Art can be a crucial way to show the stories of medical patients. For example, when seeing the story of Bill Sacter, what stuck with me was not the formal diagnosis he had, or the charts, but the personal stories from his friends and loved ones, and what visual things he left behind that showed he was here. A picture from a child that knew him, clips from a documentary his close friend Barry made about him. Even Bill’s harmonica and a wig that was made for him. Art and storytelling show the personal journeys of disabled people and medical patients, and showing them can make strides in improving care for them. Bill’s sudden fame showed a mentally disabled person, not as something to laugh at, but as a real person to non-disabled people, and accommodations for things like schools and jobs improved in Iowa City, as well as bringing more backlash against institutionalization.