Topic > Society and medicine: insights from the course experience

The universal human experience of illness and the consequent need of patients for assistance, care and healing give medicine its essential character. These aspects distinguish medical practice from other human activities and allow it to persist. With this in mind, the lessons learned from the “Society and Medicine” course are many, including the fact that medicine is not used simply to treat biological pathologies as some perceive it, but to actually improve human capabilities. However, it would be incomplete to exclusively explore this aspect within the debate on the aims of medical practice, neglecting the aims of society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay I am therefore convinced beyond any doubt that medicine does not exist in isolation and must communicate with the society it serves. This means that thinking about medicine and its purposes must take into account the social framework within which medical practice occurs. The Society and Medicine course taught me how to apply behavioral science for effective healthcare; how to use behavioral science principles in communicating with patients and their families; how to integrate behavioral science knowledge with medical science into clinical training and future practice, and how to take a holistic approach to treatment, care and disease management. Given this, I also noticed that approximately half of all causes of morbidity and mortality in the world are linked to behavioral factors. Smoking, sexual promiscuity, diet, risk-taking, and other overall lifestyle factors can increase a person's chance of developing lung cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, diabetes, and other diseases. Behavior can also influence the risk of contracting infectious diseases. In addition to these negative health effects resulting from harmful behaviors, behavioral factors also include social factors and psychological factors. I also learned a number of compelling reasons why all clinicians must have knowledge and skills in the behavioral sciences. Reasons included: to become an effective doctor and that it is important to understand individuals, family and community as well as the social context from which one operates and to prevent a narrow (narrow) view of medicine which confines the doctor to the hospital and limits the influence on the individual or community. Other reasons were that clinicians need to possess knowledge and skills in behavioral sciences because they become better equipped to recognize patients' risky behaviors and promote changes in those behaviors through appropriate interventions. Doctors also acquire social and medical skills that are essential for the prevention of many chronic diseases and for the effective management of patients with these diseases. These skills help doctors build therapeutic relationships with their patients and increase the likelihood that patients will follow their advice. The course also taught me about learning theories and how they could be used in medical practice; in-memory processing and the three memory systems; the process of forgetting, ways to improve memory, and using information to help devise effective ways to revise for tests and exams. According to Leibowitz (1997) “complex thinking, communication and collaboration will be among the essential process areas for the world as we will know it”. This suggests that the ability to think critically is an important characteristicfor all members of society. With today's multinational, multicultural and complex issues, citizens must be able to sift through large amounts of data to make intelligent decisions. Critical thinking must be at the heart of higher education in order to provide the intellectual training for its students to participate in this world. The course also made me understand the terms of motivation and emotions; explained theories of motivation, the relationship between motivation and health, the components of emotion, and the relationship between emotion and health. Additionally, the course taught me how to use communication skills in medical practice; how to discuss and show good communication skills; how to develop a language and approach that shows an appreciation of other cultural values; how to interact freely with colleagues and share information; how to manage difficult patients from different social, cultural and economic contexts; how to develop approaches and strategies to use to address communication challenges in various contexts. The course also gave me an understanding of nonverbal communication, communication barriers, how to outline and analyze various barriers to effective communication and also how to demonstrate an ability to recognize, avoid or adapt to barriers in doctor-patient communication, including importance of nonverbal communication in doctor-patient relationships, how to identify nonverbal cues/signals, how to use nonverbal communication appropriately, how to write academic papers, how to use correct references, grammar and style, use dictionaries and thesauruses, how to write well-structured paragraphs, how to write structured introductions, discussions and conclusions, how to express myself cohesively, coherently and logically (signposting), and how to be aware of the dangers of plagiarism. And according to the Journal of Contemporary Medical Education, “about 80% of a doctor's work involves communication such as speaking, listening and writing. But what we hear such as tone of voice, vocal clarity and expressiveness only conveys 40% of the message. Facial expression, posture, eye contact, touch and gestures can convey 50% of the message and words can only convey 10% of the message. Therefore, doctors must prioritize how they communicate based on the situation and the person. This can only be achieved through training. “Sari et al also state that effective communication between patients and doctors is fundamental to good medical practice. Primary care patients identified interpersonal communication skills as the most important and desirable attribute of professionalism influencing the health care process. Good communication skills have benefits for patients, doctors and the treatment process. According to Boissy, organization-wide relationship-focused communication skills training at Cleveland Clinic improved patient satisfaction scores, empathy and physician self-efficacy, and reduced physician burnout. The course has gone as far as teaching me how to develop student-physician counseling skills, how to develop the characteristics to be a meaningful helper, how to develop communication skills that form the basis of doctor-patient interaction, how to develop excellent doctor relationships -patient and how to use the holistic approach to the practice of medicine through the five star doctor. This in turn would help a doctor build strong relationships not only with patients but with family, colleagues and the community at large. The course was interesting because it also clearly highlighted the concepts of pain, suffering, death and dying;the difference between pain and mourning; characteristics of pain; identified the mental, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of normal pain responses; identified and highlighted techniques to use to deal with grief and loss; described the importance of using cross-cultural communication in caring for patients from different cultural backgrounds who are suffering. In this context, it is sufficient to state that knowledge of society and medicine has opened up new perspectives. The new perspectives opened in this regard include: the involvement of doctors in a sort of performance, in which every word, every gesture, every intonation, is carefully sculpted for the benefit of the patient. This suggests that doctors should never express anger, show favoritism, or inspire false hope or unnecessary doubt. When a doctor feels tormented, exhausted, insulted, conflicted, excited, teased, pulled, taken advantage of or panicked, he should keep it to himself because this is what patients want and have the right to expect: someone from their part, fighting for them, a human being, without bad feelings, who does not make mistakes. With this in mind, doctors must continue to seek out and remedy “society's flaws” if health is to be recognized as a fundamental human right. Another perspective that could be mentioned here is the technological advancement that has made medical information available to everyone. any member of the public who has access to a computer. However, in a health service driven by political imperatives that insist on ever-increasing productivity, these demands cannot always be met. This discrepancy between growing expectations and what can be provided in routine practice has resulted in much dissatisfaction and increasingly intrusive policies that prescribe medical practice ever more closely, without narrowing the apparent gap between what some patients want and what they get. doctors have sometimes failed to keep up with society's changing expectations. This has been highlighted by responses to high-profile cases of inappropriate, or even criminal, practices. There is a perception that the profession has not taken reform of its regulatory procedures seriously enough. Keeping in mind that medical science and society changes all the time, and will continue to change in fundamental ways, what I have already learned during the course apply in my current life because as a medical student I have already started helping patients in my community to minimize their pain; helping them recover more quickly from illnesses and also helping them learn to live with a disabling injury, if this is the case in question. They are also able to improve patients' ability to enjoy life, even when they cannot be cured. This is to say that I make a huge difference to them and their families. And I am also up to the tasks related to the onset of future illnesses, above all because I am aware that when an individual gets ill, he lives an existence characterized by anxiety, and this is essentially for two reasons: on the one hand they do not know the causes of that altered state of their existence and do not have the knowledge and skills necessary to cure themselves; on the other hand, they cannot be sure that they will be “healthy”, “whole” again. In these cases, I have to use good judgment and deal with uncertainty. As you may know, good medical practice can never consist of automated pathways through algorithms and standardized care pathways. The course also applies to my relationship with a patient as it offers a unique insight into the lives and needs of a broad cross-section of the Zambian population. public. Furthermore, medicine being one.