Premium Essay

Personal Narrative: How Health Care Changed My Life

Submitted By
Words 408
Pages 2
All throughout my life, I have focused on serving through health care. My mother was a nurse practitioner in a rural clinic in South Korea, which was connected to our house. Consequently, the clinic became my playground and the stethoscopes became my toys. I also watched my mother patiently tend to the patients and put their well-being before her own, helping others both physically and emotionally. Our move to America when I was six changed everything. My mom had to sacrifice her nurse practitioner position and enter a new, confusing culture. It was difficult to adjust for our whole family and the language and cultural barrier was a ginormous obstacle. School life was also difficult as my peers belittled my intelligence and communication

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Social Sciene/ Medicine

...ARTICLE IN PRESS Social Science & Medicine 58 (2004) 1647–1657 Understanding breast cancer stories via Frank’s narrative types Roanne Thomas-MacLean* Dalhousie University Family, Medicine Teaching Unit, Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital, P.O. Box 9000, Priestman St. Fredericton, NB Canada E3B 5N5 Abstract While breast cancer narratives have become prevalent in Western culture, few researchers have explored the structure of such narratives, relying instead on some form of thematic analysis based upon content. Although such analyses are valuable, Arthur Frank (The Wounded Storyteller, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1995) provides researchers with an additional means of studying stories of illness, through the examination of their structures. In this article, the author applies Frank’s work to a phenomenological study of embodiment after breast cancer. Frank’s three narrative types are used to enhance understanding of the ways in which stories are culturally constructed, using data collected through one focus group discussion and two in-depth interviews with each of 12 women who had experienced breast cancer. The author then conveys the significance of this form of analysis for future research. r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Breast cancer; Qualitative and narrative Introduction Frank (1995) writes that those who are ill ‘‘need to become storytellers in order to recover the voices that illness and its treatment often take away’’...

Words: 9088 - Pages: 37

Premium Essay

Philosophical Foundations in Psychology

...have a parent with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The purpose of this study was to explore, appreciate, and describe their experiences using a phenomenological methodology. Narratives were collected from seven participants who have a parent diagnosed with PD and analyzed according to Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenological data analysis method. Seven thematic clusters were identified and an exhaustive description is presented to summarize the essence of their lived experience. The study indicates a strong sense of essential positivism from the participants’ stories, and overall, it seems PD has brought some degree of biological, psychological, socially, and/or spiritual meaning to their lives that they may not have otherwise noticed or experienced. Key Words: Parkinson’s Disease, Phenomenology, Biopsychosocial-spiritual, Adult, Children and Illness Introduction “The bond between mother and child is so deeply rooted in our emotions that we fear to discuss openly anything that threatens the bond” – Glenna Atwood (1991) Establishing links between chronic illnesses and family impact are not novel (e.g., Cooke, McNally, Mulligan, Harrison, & Newman, 2001; Kielcolt-Glaser & Newton, 2001, Martire, Lustig, Schultz, Miller, & Helgeson, 2004). However, much of the attention to study inclusion of a family caregiver into the care experience has focused on the spouse (Keefe, Buffington, Studts, & Rumble, 2002) or children under the age of 25 (e.g., Olsen & Clarke, 2003; Pakenham, Bursnall, Chiu,...

Words: 9280 - Pages: 38

Premium Essay

Rowlandson Captivity

...148-American History to 1865 Professor Palenscar February 4, 2013 Rowlandson’s Captivity Imagine yourself in a point of time where Puritans whose village would be attacked by Native American Indians. A book called Classic American Autobiographies tells about a short narrative story called A true history of the captivity and restoration of mrs. Mary rowlanson. Around the 1600’s, a puritan women named Mary Rowlandson would be captured by Indians and held captive for eleven weeks until she could finally escape. She was only able to endure her captivity only through the faith in God. Instead of Mary facing hardships daily from the Indians, she continually traced the goodness of God in keeping her safe from even further harm. That’s why in the following one will understand about what we learned from the Native American Tribe, the view that Mary wants the readers to see, and if any change upon Mary of her thoughts and behavior as time goes by. One will learn about the Native American Tribe that was holding Mary Rowlandson in captivity. Firstly, the Indians are to be described as beasts, barbarous creatures, murderous and wolves. These descriptions are taken from the Mary personal statement describing her personal feelings and actual experiences while watching horrific scenes taking place before her eyes. On page 28, Mary states “There was one who was chopped into the head with a hatchet, and stripp’d naked, and yet was crawling up and down. It was a solemn sight to see so many...

Words: 819 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Upload

...NURSING AND HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT ISSUES Time management strategies in nursing practice Susan Waterworth New Zealand MSc RGN RNT Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, Submitted for publication 24 July 2002 Accepted for publication 20 April 2003 Correspondence: Susan Waterworth, School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, 85 Park Road, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand. E-mail: susanpw@xtra.co.nz W A T E R W O R T H S . ( 2 0 0 3 ) Journal of Advanced Nursing 43(5), 432–440 Time management strategies in nursing practice Background. With the increasing emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness in health care, how a nurse manages her time is an important consideration. Whilst time management is recognized as an important component of work performance and professional nursing practice, the reality of this process in nursing practice has been subject to scant empirical investigation. Aim. To explore how nurses organize and manage their time. Methods. A qualitative study was carried out, incorporating narratives (22 nurses), focus groups (24 nurses) and semi-structured interviews (22 nurses). In my role as practitioner researcher I undertook observation and had informal conversations, which provided further data. Study sites were five health care organizations in the United Kingdom during 1995–1999. Findings. Time management is complex, with...

Words: 6684 - Pages: 27

Premium Essay

What

...N I N G O B J E C T I V E S 10 1. Identify the purpose and structure of narrative writing. 2. Recognize how to write a narrative essay. Rhetorical modes simply mean the ways in which we can effectively communicate through language. This chapter covers nine common rhetorical modes. As you read about these nine modes, keep in mind that the rhetorical mode a writer chooses depends on his or her purpose for writing. Sometimes writers incorporate a variety of modes in one essay. In covering the nine rhetorical modes, this chapter also emphasizes these as a set of tools that will allow you greater flexibility and effectiveness in communicating with your audience and expressing your ideas. rhetorical modes The ways in which we effectively communicate through language. 1.1 The Purpose of Narrative Writing Narration means the art of storytelling, and the purpose of narrative writing is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration. In addition, a narrative can be factual or fictional. A factual story is one that is based on, and tries to be faithful to, actual events as they unfolded in real life. A fictional story is a made-up, or imagined, story; the writer of a fictional story can create characters and events as he or she sees fit. However, the big distinction between factual and fictional narratives is based on a writer’s purpose. The writers of factual stories try to recount...

Words: 14947 - Pages: 60

Free Essay

Whistleblowing

...Whistleblowing: Necessary Evil or Good Thing Maureen Haley University of North Carolina – Asheville April 16, 2014 This paper was prepared for Management 484-001, taught by Professor Donald D. Lisnerski Whistleblowing: Necessary Evil or Good Thing Is whistleblowing a necessary evil or good thing? Can whistleblowing be avoided? Can the whistleblower be protected? “A whistleblower is an employee who discovers corporate misconduct and chooses to bring it to the attention of others.”(Ghillyer, 2014) Whistleblowers can be viewed as providing a praiseworthy act or be severely labeled as informers who have breached the loyalty of their co-workers and company. Whistleblowing can be a service to the community and public. Whistleblowing can be ethical or unethical, and the whistleblower discovering corporate misconduct has the options to be an internal or an external whistleblower. Whistleblowing can save people’s lives. Dr. Jeffrey Wigand made the decision to go public with information that his employer Brown & Williamson (B&W) was manipulating the nicotine content, suppressed efforts to develop safer cigarettes, and lied about the addictive properties of nicotine. According to Sissela Bok, in the book Taking Sides: Clashing views in Business Ethics and Society, “not only is loyalty violated in whistleblowing, hierarchy as well is often opposed, since the whistleblower is not only a colleague but a subordinate. Though aware of the risks inherent in such disobedience...

Words: 3746 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Authentic Leadership

...own journey of personal development to earn the title leader (Whitmore 2012). The need for governance has mainly increased the pressures on organisations to have aspiring leaders with the skills needed for their fields of interest. This is supported by The Open University (on-line 2012) when it is suggested that clinical leadership is essential for service redesign, quality, innovation, productivity and prevention. It is recognised that in order to facilitate whole system approach in today’s National Health Service (NHS), leaders need to understand not only the people and culture they are trying to change, but also their own personality traits and how these may affect the process (Judge and Bono 2000, 754). In this regard a personal based analysis will be conducted, realising how far I have already gone concerning the developmental processes. I shall conduct a critical reflection (Gibbs 1988) of a personal leadership archaeology found in Appendix One. To facilitate the learning demonstrated two tools have been used; a full Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment has been completed, which allows a level of understanding by analysing individuals’ preferences as they make up a personality. Secondly the Belbin team role self perception inventory (BTRSPI) has been completed by both self and observer assessments used to consider my role within the team. The completion of these tools, and my personal archaeology will allow this assignment to focus on how my leadership style...

Words: 5652 - Pages: 23

Premium Essay

Perseverance In Greg Mortenson's Three Cups Of Tea

...teacher, let alone a building. However, these people didn't hesitate to give Mortenson, someone at the time no more to them than a stranger, their best blankets, and precious sugar. Moved by their kindness, this was the tipping point when Mortenson lost interest in his own climbing goals and shifted his focus entirely on improving the lives of the people of Pakistan. He promised to build them a school on his return. Mortenson emphasized how poor the another side of the world is and how ignorant we, as westerners, often are. He learned that in Korphe, "In every home, at least one family member suffered from goiters or cataracts. The children, whose ginger hair he had admired, owed their coloring to a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor." He then inspired the readers by incorporating his experience back in his hometown Minnesota, where he wrote five hundred letters addressing the prosperous and amiable people of the United States, asking for financial help with establishing his first school. In addition, he gave up his own personal relationships and resorted to living in his van which he called La Bamba in order invest as much money as he could into his project. Mortenson translated the importance of perseverance by addressing the many times he failed but advanced. This includes but is not limited to when he first returned to Korphe but discovered that he needs to build a bridge in order to transport the materials for constructing his first school. He recognized...

Words: 2025 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Personal Development Essay

...‘All these personal counselling/therapy requirements for counsellors in training encourage selfish introspection. Counsellors are there to help others, and if they need counselling themselves, they should not be in the job.’ I am a counsellor in training on an integrative diploma course, which has a mandatory sixty hours of personal therapy that students must undertake. Here I will explore what other institutions expect their students to undertake, if any, and their reasons for this. I will also explore what could the intended or unintended consequences of these be, what the positives and negatives of being in therapy are and what my own opinion to this statement is. I will also look at my own experience of counselling and whether or not counselling will be impactful to everyone during the course. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), our professional body, removed the mandatory aspect a few years ago stating that the psycho-dynamic approach believed that forty hours isn’t long enough personal therapy whilst in training, the person-centred approach believed that personal therapy should be undertaken when the person is ready. They state that their criteria for accredited courses are, ‘Courses should ensure that trainees gain experience of being in the client role.’ I have found that there is a huge debate on this, some theorists believe it should be included within the training (Atkinson,2006) and some argue that it should not be mandatory (Wiseman...

Words: 2141 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Studies in Professional Life and Work

...STUDIES IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND WORK Mike Hayler University of Brighton, UK Autoethnography, Self-Narrative and Teacher Education examines the professional life and work of teacher educators. In adopting an autoethnographic and life-history approach, Mike Hayler develops a theoretically informed discussion of how the professional identity of teacher educators is both formed and represented by narratives of experience. The book draws upon analytic autoethnography and life-history methods to explore the ways in which teacher educators construct and develop their conceptions and practice by engaging with memory through narrative, in order to negotiate some of the ambivalences and uncertainties of their work. The author’s own story of learning, embedded within the text, was shared with other teacher-educators, who following interviews wrote self-narratives around themes which emerged from discussion. The focus for analysis develops from how professional identity and pedagogy are influenced by changing perceptions and self-narratives of life and work experiences, and how this may influence professional culture, content and practice in this area. Autoethnography, Self-Narrative and Teacher Education Autoethnography, Self-Narrative and Teacher Education STUDIES IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND WORK The book includes an evaluation of how using this approach has allowed the author to investigate both the subject and method of the research with implications for ...

Words: 18203 - Pages: 73

Premium Essay

Liberal Education

...making employability of the graduates the main goal of education. With two thirds of all majors being in business and finance, humanities don’t seem to play a big role in higher education overall. This work makes an attempt in defense of liberal arts education to our students, and the importance of teaching the subjects like English, Literature and Philosophy independent of a student’s major concentration. Even in our age of specialized and corporatized education, these courses are of great importance. These subjects can help young people find their way in this confusing web of life weaved out of pressure, expectations, failures, problems, fears. What other fields of study can teach them about history of cultures and languages, people who made history; who made contribution to the world in art, literature and science; what young people can learn from them. But most importantly, how to raise questions about life in...

Words: 17805 - Pages: 72

Premium Essay

Warehouse Worker

...Roen−Glau−Maid: The McGraw−Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/e II. Using What You’ve Learned to Share Information The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, Second Edition 4. Writing to Share Experience © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2011 13 Reading, Inquiry, and Research ■ PART 2 | Using What You Have Learned to Share Information 57 TANYA BARRIENTOS Se Habla Español MEMOIR he man on the other end of the phone line is 1 Tanya Maria telling me the classes I’ve called about are firstBarrientos has rate: native speakers in charge, no more than six stuwritten for the dents per group. Philadelphia “Conbersaychunal,” he says, allowing the fat vow- 2 Inquirer for more than els of his accented English to collide with the sawedtwenty years. off consonants. I tell him that will be fi ne, that I’m familiar with 3 Barrientos was born in Guatethe conversational setup, and yes, I’ve studied a bit mala and raised of Spanish in the past. He asks for my name and I in El Paso, Texas. Her first novel, Frontera Street, was supply it, rolling the double r in Barrientos like a pro. published in 2002, and her second, That’s when I hear the silent snag, the momentary Family Resemblance, was pubhesitation I’ve come to expect at this part of the exlished in 2003. Her column “Unchange. Should I go into it again? Should I explain, conventional Wisdom” runs every the way I have to half a dozen others, that I am Guaweek in the Inquirer...

Words: 9852 - Pages: 40

Premium Essay

Procreation

...Second, I do believe, that understanding of origin of procreation and ability to build personal approach in this issue plays significant role for every professional in the Health Care System. Even if in real life situation some of us will never directly participate in solving such problem, still establishing firm personal position on this issue will benefited everyone who involved in running of human services. Third, I think that in the scope of course “Legal and Ethical issues in Health Care”, procreation could be a best example to justify my personal opinion on the social role of ethics and its priority over the social role of legal system. In comparing law and ethics, many people thinking about law as a sphere of clearly identified and easy to recognize points, while sphere of ethical issues for many, more-less limited to the individual stand points in terms of what is good and what is bad. However, it is an ethics established law, not law established ethics. Especially in the procreation dilemma, it turns out ethics plays a big part in all aspects of breeding, in the sense that ethics makes our choices relevant to other people. The decision to have or not to have children has a profound impact on all dimensions of life. Choosing not to breed may be a sacred personal choice, and choosing to breed the same, but both socially and ethically, whether you have children, how you raise children, and how you interact with society in terms of raising your and other peoples children, is basically...

Words: 2676 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Work-Life Balance Scale

...Work-Life Balance Scale* A study regarding the six aspects of work-life balance scale Presented By: Tazeen Hamid Umer Qasim Presented To: Miss Saba Rana Final Research Project Human Resource Management Work-Life Balance Scale* Introduction Work-life (W-L) Balance Scale is meant to diagnose the level and areas of W-L balance in an organization, as perceived by its employees. It should be responded by their employees at various levels in different departments/sections. (Pareek, 2002) Creating a balance between one’s personal life and one’s professional life is now considered to be the very tool in achieving a prosperous multidimensional life. Organizations worldwide are trying hard to create a balance for their employees, which in turn would create a healthy and satisfied workforce that would allow any organization to grow successfully. The study presented here discusses work-life balance of fifty individuals (twenty five Working Males and twenty five Working Females) with respect to the following six aspects namely: 1. Social Needs 2. Personal Needs 3. Time Management 4. Team Work 5. Compensation and Benefits 6. Work The ability to combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the wellbeing of all household members. It is also important for society as a whole, as it ensures that people have sufficient time, to socialize and participate in the life of the community. This chapter presents a selection of indicators...

Words: 5070 - Pages: 21

Free Essay

Breaking Bad Media

...broadcast from 2008 to 2013. Over these 5 seasons, many blog personal pose the question that Breaking Bad doesn’t examine the extent to which American institutions are failing and the drug problems. That it is deceptive by only exploring Walter White’s (actor) problems rather than the drug problem as a whole, specifically the urban poor. The middle class focus left questioning if it is the greatest series of all time, as popularly reported. The show squarely represents the target audience; forty-something, middle class, good living, conservative, suburban white America in the midst of an economic downturn, where the equilibrium (Todorov) of health and fortunes are pulled away from under them. Walter’s response conforms exactly to the American Dream; he personalises responsibility for other’s (bankers/corporations) actions, looks to himself to seek out opportunity, he becomes the entrepreneur, a manufacturer of a commodity much in demand. The middle class however can relate to the problems as it almost mirrors them. I got thinking and decided this argument really excites me and can write a lot about this argument prompted from breaking bad. The wider drug problem isn’t explored, but it is interesting as there is a lot to argue, in the fact it narrates the story from the middle class perspective. While similar shows, the wire, solely focuses on the underclass being exploited by higher authoritative people in society. My research started by looking at academic reports scattered across...

Words: 2011 - Pages: 9