Medical Sociology

In last weeks lecture we talked about patient and doctor interactions, I watching the show named “ Jane The Virgin”  and came across an episode that demonstrates the relationship between a doctor and a patient and the effects it can have. In the first episode Jane goes to a check up with a doctor and before she goes in it shows a clip were the doctor is having a rough time due to a break up and the doctor becomes is very distracted and focused on her personal problem. The nurse tells her she’s late and that she is covering for another doctor to do an insemination. While the nurse following her and telling her what she needs to do, the doctor is walking a bit faster than the nurse and is looking at her phone. She walks into the room as the patient is sleeping and she tells her if she is ready for her insemination as she closes the door and the patient wakes up to the sound of the door and answers yes. She is crying as she is doing the procedure since she is still emotional, when she is finished she goes into the other room with the next patient and realizes she inseminated the wrong person. I will leave it at that because I do not want to spoil this great show. This episode made me realize that doctors need to be professional when they are seeing their patients and they need to be careful and be aware of what they are doing. Doctors should not let personal problems follow them into work because they can get distracted which can result in huge mistakes like this one. 

In the last lecture we talked about hospitals and I tried to look for a movie and a book that touched based on this topic but I could not and I did come across  this article that I found which is called “ Bad Hospital Design Is Making Us Sicker” This article focuses on how much better hospitals can be designed like for example the times I have visited a hospital or been in one at times you are in a room with beds and the only things that separate you are curtains. This is often unfortunate because you can hear what is going on next to you like hearing people moan in pain or hearing personal conversations between a doctor and a patient. I understand that there are times that there is just not enough room but maybe there are some ways in which that can be improved. It also seems unhealthy to be in the same room as someone that can have an illness that can be easily spread in this article it states “ Research suggests that private rooms can reduce the risk of both airborne infections and those transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces” I agree I think hospitals need to be built better so that there can be less risk of people getting sick. I recommend reading this article because I know there are a lot of hospitals that have this issue and hospitals at some point are supposed to make us feel better since we are reaching out for help. I do not think people should have to worry about getting sick if they visit a hospital. 

Citation: 

Khullar, Dhruv. “Bad Hospital Design Is Making Us Sicker.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/well/live/bad-hospital-design-is-making-us-sicker.html.

I want to write about a show named Shameless, the show is about a family of six who live in a small apartment. The oldest daughter Fiona has to raise her family on her own since her father was a drunk who does not provide for his family. They live in a low economic area and since they do not have money they often have to steal food and steal money. There are often homeless people that live in front of their house or there are a lot of needles. They are prone to a lot of diseases even in the show the father named Frank is always getting sick since he does not take care of himself. They often lie to try to get medical health because they can not afford it. This show really demonstrates how being someone that comes from a lower economic area can cause problems when they need to get medical health. This relates to the lecture that we read in week six which touches up on how a neighborhood can either promote or damage health. In this show the neighborhood they live in  damages health, there are people on drugs that walk around and often leave their needles on the ground. I attached a picture of the family from the show and I really recommend that some of you watch this show because it has great examples of how they struggle to get medical health and how unsanitary the neighborhood they live in is. 

The television show that I want to talk about is a netflix series named “ 13 Reasons Why” this show is about a high school girl named Hannah who goes through betrayal and bullying while she is in high school. She was going through a lot which drove her to suicide and she made thirteen tapes before she comitted sucide. In these tapes she tells stories about people that had something to do with her suicide. Either they did something to her or they bullied her or betrayed her. These tapes get dropped off at one of her friends house who is named Clay, he listens to it and follows the instructions and once he is done he passes them on to the next person on the list. I choose to talk about this show because we recently learned about different sucidie types, which I was surprised by since I did not think there were such things as sucuide types. Also since we did have to look at different people and try to deterime what type os sucuide they commited I figured that I would try to figure out what type of suicide Hannah comitted. After watching the show again I think she comitted atruistic suicide. She lived in a society where girls had to look a certain way or act a certain way I think she just had too much pressure to keep up with everything and on top of that she was being bullied and betrayed. I like how this show shows awareness and after every episode there is a hotline number that is provided in case anyone is having these thoughts or if they know anyone. It is a very serious and emotional topic, but like I said it raises awareness so I hope that people are more comfortable with reaching out to get help. 

The article I have chosen is “The Influence Of Income On Health: Views Of An Epidemiologist” the main points of this article is that income plays a huge role when it comes to health care. There are three ways in which it is important for example, not having enough money, maldistribution of money, and spending it on the wrong things. Having low income can result in people not having enough money for healthcare and this can be the reason why they have poor average health. I chose this article because income does play a huge role when it comes to health care, and I thought it was interesting how people that are low income get poor health services. We also talked about social class and income stood out to me as I mentioned, it it plays a huge role in health and I often believe people forget how expensive it can be for others that have a lower income and who also have families. This article also compares Canada and the United States to see how much is being spent towards healthcare. I found this article through health affairs and it does have facts, it also has graphs. This article was organized logically and very well put together, the format did remind me of some of the articles that we read. 

After reading the articles what stood out to me was that there are gender bias between men and women. For example, when women are overweight people judge them more instead of trying to help, when it comes to men being overweight they try to help them. It is not fair that women are always so quick to be judged. 

The health care system is not as good as it should be, it is not affordable for most people and even when it is there are sometimes people who have it harder when it comes to trying to receive the proper care. For example, in the article American Doctors Are Failing Their LGBT Patients it states how when people of the LGBT community often receive poor or lackluster healthcare it can be hard for them. What are some ways that we can challenge these biases in the future? I think we need to be more understanding of people like there should not be a bias between men and women they should both get treated equally especially when it comes to health care, doctors can offer them both great treatments and advice. No one should be judging these people. Also people from the LGBT community should not be having a harder time when it comes to receiving health care. Over all health care needs to change by becoming more understanding. 

I watched an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and in this episode there is a man named Jerry who has man tree syndrome skin condition that causes tree like warts on the skin. This illness is rare and the causes for the illness is gene mutation. Jerry does not want to get out of the car to see a doctor, he is covering his face and the doctors are standing out his car with his wife letting him know that the doctors can help. When he gets out one of the nurses screams when she says to him. There is no cure and he has to keep going back to the hospital to get surgeries so that he it does not get worse. Although after surgery there were able to remove most of it his skin still did not look like how it used to be. His wife sits beside him asking the doctor if he is always going to look like a freak. There are social judgements to this because it is rare and people are just not used to seeing someone with this. When they see someone who does not fit the ideal look, people start to judge even though like in this case the person has no control over it. As I mentioned, even the nurse screamed which is very unprofessional and it just made the person feel worse. 

http://www.csueastbay.edu/raw/

The first resource that I want to mention if the Recreation And Wellness services also known as the “raw”. Access to the raw is included in your tuition, but there are some resources that you have to pay for, for example if you want to get a massage you will have to pay for it. There are free fitness classes like zumba, cycling classes and much more and yoga. You can also borrow equipment which is free to use. 

http://www.csueastbay.edu/shcs/

Another on campus resource is the Student Health and Counseling Services. In order to be eligible for this service you must be a regularly enrolled student, non-regularly enrolled student, or transition health care participants to be eligible to use medical services.You do not have to pay when you make an appointment that goes for counseling appointments as well. There are some medications and exams that might have a fee but they will tell you ahead of time. For example Flu Vaccines are not free the cost varies. When you make an appointment to see a counselor you have only 10 sessions per academic year. Although nothing is ever free, this service is included in your tuition so yes you do pay for these resources, but you pay it through your tuition. There is also a Family Pact which is “to make available to citizens of the State who are of childbearing age comprehensive medical knowledge, assistance, and services relating to the planning of families.” 

The first picture I took is a picture of a stop sign by my house. I realized that it does not have a bench for people to sit on. Most bus stations often do I even saw some further down the street that had a bench. This is not accessible to many people for example, someone that has back problems that needs to sit, or someone who is pregnant or someone on crutches. I think there needs to be a bench here for people who need it. 

This is a picture I took outside of the East Bay dorms. The pathway to enter this door is a nice smooth sidewalk which is easy for people to walk on. The doors slide open once you scan your baycard if you dorm. This is accessible for people who are not able to open doors for themselves. As soon as you walk in there is an elevator which is also very helpful for those who are not able to take the stairs. 

I went to 711 to get some snacks and when I was opening the door it was heavy to open. This made me think that if i struggled to open this door I wonder how other people feel that might have a harder time. You have to pull the door to get in and this can be a problem which can be a problem for some people. This is a popular convenience store that a lot of people go to and the doors are not accessible to people that can not reach, someone who is on a wheelchair. 

I went to my neighborhood library and this is an accessible building. There is a ramp on the side of the library that people can use. The doors are heavy which makes them a little hard to open. There is a button that people press which opens doors for those who can not open it themselves. There is parking in front of this library which makes it a short walk from your car to the building. There is also a bus station near by and it drops you off very close to the library.

My last picture is the front of my neighbors house which has a pathway to the front door. Before you make it to the front door, there are a couple steps. My neighbour is actually on a wheelchair and I asked him if he has difficulty making his way up to his own house. His answer was yes that he struggles and that it is too expensive for him to add a ramp. I can not imagine having to struggle to make it up to your own house, I hope when future houses are built they include a ramp on the side.

The last time I got sick it was slightly severe, I got the flu for a week. Since it was not my first time being sick with the flu, I took steps that I have taken in the past. I made sure to stay home that day and drink plenty of fluids and medicine. I also tried to avoid contact with other people so that I would not get them sick. Since I got sick during summer I stayed at home and the only people around me were family and they reacted as they would when someone gets sick, they made sure to stay away. I did not see any friends during the time that I was sick, but if I am at school sick my friends do not stay away they only avoid contact and my teachers never say anything to me when I am sick. 

 The last time someone in my life got sick was last week, my friend got sick with the flu. I did feel like their illness was legitimate since they were coughing sneezing and had a runny nose, all signs of the flu. The legitimacy of my friend being sick impacted my feelings in a way that I knew I had to not make physical contact or share any drinks with her because I did not want to get sick. 

These two experiences made me realize that the one thing they had in common was that neither person wants to get sick therefore they avoided and limited contact the person that was sick. I think this impacted the illness experience because when I was sick, I felt bad for getting sick even though people get sick all the time.