89 Reflections on Learning
What does reflecting on learning mean to me?
Reflecting on learning to me means going back and figuring out what information and knowledge is valuable in the past few weeks. What information have I been taught? What examples do I have to back up this information? Can I use this information in the future? How can I connect this to my life and my experiences? These are all questions that I think are important to reflecting of knowledge.
What do I know now about the two languages/cultures/epistemologies (biomedical/social science vs humanities).
I guess prior to taking this class, I didn’t really know what health humanities was at all. This class was recommended to me by an advisor because I showed an interest in research and the medical field; and she thought that this would be valuable class for that. However I had no idea what health humanities or humanities actually was. Social Science was something that I had previously been exposed to in my science/math based classes which all focused on looking at data, conducting experiments, looking at statistics, finding the probability of so and so event occurring, etc. Humanities seems to focus more on art, literature, film, music, conversations, advocacy, etc. Both of these languages can be utilized in healthcare. Humanities seems to have more of a focus on advocacy, awareness, spreading a message through deep understanding of a persons affliction. Social sciences seems to be more broad and looking at how one variable can affect another, or how common a disease can be. This class has definitely been a new experience for me compared to all the other classes I have taken so far in college. I think its just as valuable for my future career goals as I want to be a physician one day. Listening to peoples stories and health care experiences from a humanities perspective (such as the “wait times” story we read in class) offers much insight and improvement about empathy (or the lack of) in the medical field.
Using active listening
Active listening is the process of attentively listening to someone speaking in order to understand a situation. This is not a process where you interrupt them mid-sentence and give them advice. It is a process of listening on what is being said while being engaged throughout the process. However, active listening can be complex in some settings. I used active listening with a patient at the hospital. I worked in the Circle School (which is Educational Services for the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psych Unit). The patient was telling the room about how her sister is in jail for drugs but her sister is the family member that she trusts the most. I did acknowledge her, her name and react appropriately, nodded my head, let her talk and finish her sentence. I have always done this for this patient as she comes from a very difficult home life. I have always noticed that since I address her properly and acknowledge her/her difficulties without talking over her; she has behaved very respectfully towards me, didn’t disrespect or verbally abuse me (which is very common in the unit). She talks to me and asks about my week and how I am doing as well. It is challenging to actively listen to patients all the time because there are many sensitive topics (like this one about her sister) that are completely off limits for them and we have to quickly redirect them to something else. But I also think its important for kids that are in the hospital for mental issues to be able to talk about their personal problems as it is their life issues that might have caused them to be here. I always wish that we were able to employ more active listening in this setting instead of censoring topics.
“What have I learned about burnout, stigma and/or shame?”
I learned how shame and stigma about a disease or person can lead to mistrust and feelings of “otherness”. I do not have a disease but I connected it to my own experience of being in the hospital and when a white nurse jokingly asked me if “I was an illegal”. Even though it might be irrational – to this day, I still am mistrustful of nurses and avoid talking to them at all costs because I don’t want someone to make an awkward and offensive joke based on my skin color or my foreign name. When someone is in a vulnerable position in the hospital (where nobody wants to be), it is important to not joke or bring up comments that create distrust because that can discourage people from seeking medical care again.
I also learned about burnout which can affect any medical professional but also even a family member that has to take care of another family member. Burnout is a state of exhaustion after a period of time that prevents you from doing your job or your role. It is dangerous for a caregiver or medical professional to experience this as it could negatively impact the patients they take care of. While healthcare is an incredibly rewarding and necessary field of society, it is also capable of negatively impacting he people in the front lines. A very close immediate family member of mine is a child psychiatrist at the hopsital and she herself had to start taking SSRI’s after struggling with her mental health for months which kind of reminded me of the NOCTURNISTS episode- the Unwell Doctor. There were many months of denial from her side about what she was going through. She was totally exhausted after starting medical school at the age of 18, residency, fellowship, even working 100 hours a week while she had a baby. Her burnout was valid and the effects were starting to show up years later. It was interesting that obviously my family member as a trained psychiatrist knows and understands the field of mental health very well but was unable to recognize what she was going through and that it was serious. It was difficult for her to admit that she was burnout from all the constant “go,go,go” attitude of medicine.
Bills Exhibit
Bill’s exhibit in the library was really cool and I am so glad that we got to go because I would have never known that it was there. I will remember that Bill was an artist in his own way. Even though traditional medicine and society had failed him and left him with nothing than a label that he was an unintelligent person… he was able to use music and art as a way to cope with being torn away from society and cause happiness for other people. He utilized the harmonica from his times in the “institution” where he was labeled as “feeble minded” all the way until his death, playing this instrument all the time to make people laugh, smile, dance, converse . He was also able to utilize art in his employment as he was the owner/employee at a coffee shop. This utilizes art in its own way as creating food and drink as well as a business for other people is creative and artistic. Despite his physical (and perhaps mental) health problems; he was able to utilize various forms of art to be a positive influence in peoples life which probably alleviated his own mental suffering after going through such a traumatic experience. In Bill’s life if there was only medicine and no art, we would probably never know his name. I was also interested in looking at his coffee shop and reading more about it and seeing if I could visit it. Wild Bill’s is no longer a coffee shop after the pandemic (due to coffee shop competitiveness, less customers) and their mission has shifted a little to be more a workshop/classroom space for the School of Social Work which is interesting. (https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/wild-bills-coffee-shop-in-iowa-city-drops-coffee-keeps-mission/). However, I was able to find a youtube video of the space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u13YLT56tzY.
Midterm Reflection: What have I learned so far
In this course, I have learned how valuable the use of media can be for understanding various illnesses and disabilities. Prior to this class, I never considered how movies, narratives, songs can help a person understand symptoms and the process of living with a disease. As I have previously mentioned, as a Biomedical Sciences students; most of my classes focus more on statistics and what leads to certain diseases or illnesses but don’t address how the disease/illness affects the person day to day and the way they are perceived in the world. I really enjoyed the “Hey Buddy I’m Bill” exhibit in the library as well. I thought it was interesting (and good) how there was not a lot of clarity on what Bill had. For example, the exhibit didn’t focus on naming exactly what type of disability Bill had but instead focused on understanding who Bill was and how he impacted others. It’s valuable to see a person as a person instead of as just a disease/disability/illness- which (in my opinion) many that work in healthcare struggle with. I also think there is a lot of value in addressing how medicine needs art. With my job, I see kids in the psychiatry unit and the number one coping skill that they always write down is art. Many of them use art (drawing, painting, using chalk, sketching) or instruments/music to cope with their mental illnesses. I am glad to see the connection between medicine and art is acknowledged in a class. This doesn’t qualify at all as medical but watching Jill Sonke’s talk made me think of an interaction I had with the person who leads my research team. There was 2 weeks in the school where I had to go out of the country to India for a family emergency, and my dance team was increasing practices as we were going to be going to Indiana to compete in a dance competition soon. This dance team is a South Asian dance team and it has been a valuable source of exercise, friendship and connection to my culture for me. I was expressing to my research leader that I was struggling with balancing some of the commitments of research and dance after just coming back across the world. This supervisor told me that my future career path wasn’t going to be dance so I should quit my dance team as my research experience was more applicable to my future. I left that interaction feeling pretty upset and to hear that art (dance) does play a role in benefitting health in Jill’s talk made me happy (and vindicated).