General Audience Essay – Jeniah Villanueva Portfolio

Reflection

The general audience paper enhanced my skills in “negotiating my writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.” This was a large task because I had to take into account who my audience was, as well as ensure that I clearly explained my article in order for my audience to follow along. This was clear through my word choice and through my explanation, such as definition. I was also able to “formulate and articulate a stance”, through my arguments and my suggestion for getting involved.

First Draft

Have you given someone advice that you should be taking yourself? Have you helped someone with a problem because you have experienced similar issues? Everyone is guilty of giving advice that they don’t necessarily take themselves. This is the daily life of a medical professional. Medical professionals are entrusted with using their skills to assess the issues presented to them and provide a solution. These issues can range from mental problems, such as depression and anxiety, or physical problems, such as trauma or a cold. The examination room can somewhat seem like an interrogation room, consisting of multiple questions. How many times have you gone to the doctor and became the interrogator, asking how they were feeling instead of the other way around? Most visits to the hospital are particularly one-sided, focusing on the status of the patient.

A study called “Addressing Suicide Risk According to Different Healthcare Professionals”, evaluated the interaction between medical professionals and patients within different medical specialties, specifically psychiatrists, psychologists, emergency medicine physicians, and primary care physicians. They focused on patients who suffered from some form of depression, whether this was severe or minor. Their results resembled a timeline. Primary care physicians interacted with these patients during the early stages of depression, psychiatrists and psychologists treated the patients during their depression through therapy sessions and with the use of medications, and emergency medical professionals treated the patients after they had committed some form of a suicidal act that resulted in a visit to the emergency room. Through this research, they also concluded that psychologists were most vulnerable to internalizing feelings that their patients felt, therefore affecting their mental health as well. Psychologists, in particular, help their patients cope with issues pertaining to depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, and personal or social relationships. Just because psychologists are professionals in their field and are able to identify solutions to the problems their patients encounter, does not mean that they are not prone to the same problems. They say that medical professionals are the worst patients because they do not take their own advice ( as we are all guilty of this ), therefore psychologists may not admit that they themselves may need to see a psychologist. This is becoming a major issue, as the rates of depression within psychologists continue to rise. It is important that we encourage medical training programs to teach how to cope with their own depression, along with treating patients. It is also essential to remember that medical professionals are people too, therefore they are prone to the same issues as their patients.

In order to get a deeper understanding of the types of interactions between patients and medical professionals, it was essential to assess the responsibilities of each physician. The procedure in which this was conducted was somewhat ironic as the roles in the interrogation room were reversed. The doctors were placed into focus groups and questioned in ways that were similar to how they questioned their own patients. Primary care physicians were suspected to be the first in detecting depression or suicidal tendencies in their patients but found it hard to do so. Emergency physicians were mostly in contact with depressed patients after they had already attempted suicide, therefore lacked the skills necessary to deal with the patient and cope with the effects of treating them. Psychologists and psychiatrists work the closet with depressed patients and are trained in how to treat them, however, they also must have the skills necessary to deal with their own feelings after treating their patients. While analyzing the data, researchers also found biases within the data, which can be seen as a limitation. Emergency physicians were most likely to show negative attitudes to patients with suicidal tendencies because they are unsure how to properly treat them (Gale, et.al.). This may be unintentional but still, have a large impact on the patient and the medical professional as well. After specifically determining each professionals exposure to depression, there is a deeper understanding as to why the results of the survey suggest that your shrink needs a shrink.

In addition to this experiment, a survey was released by the British Psychological Society and the New Savoy Partnership, in which the rates of depression within psychologists were tested. This survey was sent to 1227 psychologists within the National Health Society. The psychologists were questioned on their daily work and how the felt regarding this work, specifically within the past few weeks. This may have been a limitation within this area of the research, however, they concluded that more than 48% of the psychologists suffered from some form of depression. According to the National Health Society, this is 8% more than the rate of depression in 2014 ( BPS ). They associated their depression with their progress in their jobs. Some of the reasons that they found to be the source of their depression included lack of supervision, lack of progression, and reduction of services and doses. Lack of supervision was an issue because the psychologists were unsure whether or not their patients were improving and if they were providing the correct amount of services, as every patient requires something different. Lack of progression was a very large issue because over the decades, psychologists have been treating the same issues, such as anxiety and suicide, and despite the advancements made in medications, most psychologists feel that they are not progressing. The rates of suicide have risen over the years, therefore they feel as if their forms of treatments have not been improving the statistics. Reduction of services and doses played a moral issue. This relates to when patients who need more sessions have completed their therapy sessions and are unable to receive more because they cannot afford it. Psychologists describe how they are filled with feelings of regret because they are unable to help them.

Some stories of depressed psychologists have also resulted in suicide. One story, in particular, resulted in the suicide of two psychologists. According to Daily News, there was a patient named Sarah who began looking for a new psychologist after her previous one had committed suicide. Hew new psychologists decided to take a vacation and left his resident in charge of his patients. The attending informed the resident about Sarah’s past and encouraged him to be extra cautious with her, as she suffered from severe depression. While on vacation, the attending took a boat to the middle of the ocean, swam away from the boat, and drowned himself. The attending was also suffering from depression. The depression from Sarah, as well as the other patients, began affecting the attending’s personal health. This continues to be a serious issue in society because medical professionals cannot be expected to take care of everyone else if they are unable to care for themselves. It is the job of the general public to encourage medical training programs to teach psychologists how to cope with their own health issues and to remember that medical professionals need help too. Once in a while, do not be afraid to switch the roles in the interrogation room and ask how your doctor is feeling.

References

Gale TM, Hawley CJ, Butler J, Morton A, Singhal A. Perception of Suicide Risk in Mental Health Professionals. Plos One. 2016;11(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149791

Muñoz-Sanchez J-L, Sánchez-Gómez MC, Martín-Cilleros MV, Parra-Vidales E, Leo DD, Franco-Martín MA. Addressing Suicide Risk According to Different Healthcare Professionals in Spain: A Qualitative Study. 2018. doi:10.20944/preprints201808.0514.v1

NHS. Daily Mail Online. [accessed 2019 Mar 7]. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/nhs/index.html

Final Draft

A study called “Addressing Suicide Risk According to Different Healthcare Professionals,” evaluated the interaction between medical professionals and patients within different medical specialties, specifically psychiatrists, psychologists, emergency medicine physicians, and primary care physicians. They focused on patients who suffered from some form of depression, severe or minor. Their results resembled a timeline. Primary care physicians interacted with patients who suffered from depression during the patients’ early stages of depression. Psychiatrists and psychologists treated the patients during their depression through therapy sessions and with the use of medications, and emergency medical professionals treated the patients after they had committed some form of a suicidal act that resulted in a visit to the emergency room. Through this research, they also concluded that psychologists were most vulnerable to internalizing feelings that their patients felt, therefore affecting their mental health as well. Psychologists, in particular, help their patients cope with issues pertaining to depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, and personal or social relationships. Just because psychologists are professionals in their field and are able to identify solutions to the problems their patients encounter, does not mean that they are not prone to the same problems. They say that medical professionals are the worst patients because they do not take their own advice. Therefore psychologists may not admit that they themselves may need to see a psychologist. This is becoming a major issue, as the rates of psychologists who suffer from depression continue to rise. It is important that we encourage medical training programs to teach how to cope with their own depression, along with treating patients. It is also essential to remember that medical professionals are people too, therefore they are prone to the same issues as their patients.

In order to get a deeper understanding of the types of interactions between patients and medical professionals, it was essential to assess the responsibilities of each physician. The procedure in which this was conducted was somewhat ironic as the roles in the interrogation room were reversed. The doctors were placed into focus groups and questioned in ways that were similar to how they questioned their own patients. Primary care physicians were suspected to be the first in detecting depression or suicidal tendencies in their patients but found it hard to detect early onset suicidal tendencies. Emergency physicians were mostly in contact with depressed patients after they had already attempted suicide. Therefore, they lacked the skills necessary to deal with the patients and cope with the effects of treating them. Psychologists and psychiatrists work the closet with depressed patients and are trained in how to treat them. However, they also must have the skills necessary to deal with their own feelings after treating their patients. While analyzing the data, researchers also found biases within the data, which can be seen as a limitation. Emergency physicians were most likely to show negative attitudes to patients with suicidal tendencies because they are unsure how to properly treat them (Gale, et.al.). This may be unintentional but still, has a large impact on the patient and the medical professional as well. After specifically determining each professional’s exposure to depression, there is a deeper understanding as to why the results of the survey suggest that your shrink needs a shrink.

In addition to this experiment, a survey was released by the British Psychological Society and the New Savoy Partnership, in which the rates of depression in psychologists were tested. This survey was sent to 1227 psychologists within the National Health Society. The psychologists were questioned on their daily work and how they felt regarding this work, specifically within the past few weeks. This may have been a limitation within this area of the research. However, they concluded that more than 48% of the psychologists suffered from some form of depression. According to the National Health Society, this is 8% more than the rate of depression in 2014 (BPS). They associated their depression with their progress in their jobs. Some of the reasons that they found to be the source of their depression included lack of supervision, lack of progression, and reduction of services and doses. Lack of supervision was an issue because the psychologists were unsure whether or not their patients were improving and if they were providing the correct amount of services, as every patient requires something different. Lack of progression was a very large issue because over the decades, psychologists have been treating the same issues, such as anxiety and suicide, and despite the advancements made in medications, most psychologists feel that they are not progressing. The rates of suicide have risen over the years. Therefore, they feel as if their forms of treatments have not been improving the statistics. Reduction of services and doses played a moral issue. This relates to when patients who need more sessions have completed their therapy sessions and are unable to receive more because they cannot afford it. Psychologists describe how they are filled with feelings of regret because they are unable to help them.

Some stories of depressed psychologists have also resulted in suicide. One story, in particular, resulted in the suicide of two psychologists. According to Daily News,there was a patient named Sarah who began looking for a new psychologist after her previous one had committed suicide. Her new psychologists decided to take a vacation and left his resident in charge of his patients. The attending informed the resident about Sarah’s past and encouraged him to be extra cautious with her, as she suffered from severe depression. While on vacation, the attending took a boat to the middle of the ocean, swam away from the boat, and drowned himself. The attending was also suffering from depression. The depression from Sarah, as well as the other patients, began affecting the attending’s personal health. This continues to be a serious issue in society because medical professionals cannot be expected to take care of everyone else if they are unable to care for themselves. It is the job of the general public to encourage medical training programs to teach psychologists how to cope with their own health issues and to remember that medical professionals need help too. Once in a while, do not be afraid to switch the roles in the interrogation room and ask how your doctor is feeling.

References

Gale TM, Hawley CJ, Butler J, Morton A, Singhal A. Perception of Suicide Risk in Mental Health Professionals. Plos One. 2016;11(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149791

NHS. Daily Mail Online. [accessed 2019 Mar 7]. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/nhs/index.html

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