Reflection - Future Career - Essay Example

Reflection Essay

I have been careful throughout the course of the semester to meet the outlined objectives in order to not only acquire the necessary academic knowledge but also prepare myself adequately for my future career. I have learnt how to analyze relevant academic and professional researches aimed at addressing challenges in the healthcare setting critically, and to apply the knowledge gained in making recommendations on how to address healthcare needs among the members of the community. Through reading the journal article entitled “Changes in Adverse Event Rates in Hospitals over Time: A Longitudinal Retrospective Patient Record Review Study” written by Rebecca J. Baines and nine co-authors, I have known that many of the persons affected by mental problems in hospitals, industries, and other areas of work do not even realize that they have a problem until it becomes severe. This information has then enabled me to compose an academic paper providing key recommendations that should be implemented in different settings to promote mental health. First, I have recommended that professional counselors should be deployed across the different professional settings as training instructors in order to create awareness among employees and staff members on how to identify and address mental problems.

In addition, I have also read another journal article entitled “The Biomedical Model of Mental Disorder: A Critical Analysis of its Validity, Utility, and Effects on Psychotherapy Research” written by Brett Deacon that has enabled me to acknowledge the fact that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Psychotherapy are effective therapies that should be used to address mental problems among patients. I have known that psychotherapy encourages the patient to share their feelings about past stressful incidences as well as other stressors such as challenges in meeting daily demands. In this case, the psychotherapist would identify the most appropriate interventions to use in enabling the patient to overcome mental problems which might even involve calling for intervention of the patient’s family members. On the other hand, I have also known that CBT works most effectively when the professional establishes an environment of trust with the patient in order to encourage open sharing and expressing of genuine feelings and perceptions. It is through this process that the professional becomes able to identify any negative perceptions held by patients regarding different stimuli and intervene to help in replacing the negative perceptions with positive ones.

I have also met another course objective by reading a lot of healthcare-related news articles, academic papers and books in order to understand how the different authors structure their messages to suit their target audiences. For instance, I have realized that Brett Deacon has used a lot of technical terms and professional writing style in his journal article because his target audience is the healthcare professionals who have the ability to understand and resonate with that writing style. On the other hand, most of the news articles presented on matters regarding healthcare have been written in an informal style and with minimal technical terms in order to enable members of the public, who are the target audience, to understand the message been put across. In the same way, I have applied a formal and professional writing style to compose my paper bearing in mind that the target audience is my peers and other healthcare practitioners who are able to understand the technical terms used effectively.

Nevertheless, I have also been able to relate scientific studies in healthcare with community needs and identify the gaps that exist in order to be able to propose implementation of patient-oriented solutions without relying entirely on the generic regurgitation approach. Bearing in mind that I have interacted with a lot of patients suffering from mental problems in the streets who have gone through traumatic experiences but haven’t yet gained access to counseling services, I have acknowledged that there is need to diversify the scope of healthcare services, particularly psychotherapy services, to reach the most needy persons. Although most scientific studies propose implementation of counseling services to people in professional settings, it is important to understand that there are a lot of other people who are in dire need of healthcare services but are not in these proposed professional settings. In fact, during one of my reflective sessions after reading a Deacon’s journal, I began to wonder who will provide psychotherapy to the street families and people in the informal sector if all the attention shifts towards serving those in professional settings. I noticed that although Deacon made important recommendations to deploy counselors across different professions, he ignored the fact that even people outside the professional settings need help. In fact, during a personal encounter with street families, I came to know that they are in dire need of psychotherapy given the fact that they undergo through traumatic experiences almost on daily basis. In addition, I also noted that Baines and the nine co-authors paid too much attention on recommending implementation of key interventions in hospitals hence ignoring the fact that a significant percentage of people having mental problems in the community do not even recognize that they have a problem hence they might not volunteer to go for check-ups unless convinced by other members of the community. For this reason, I proposed implementation of an integrated healthcare model which would target all members of the society in all settings of work, residence and business.

Throughout the semester, I have also learnt that, as an healthcare administrator, I need to interact with researchers, colleagues, patients, the government and even members of the general public in order to align my profession with the current healthcare needs as well as contribute to the healthcare body of knowledge and in policy-making aimed at improving the welfare of the healthcare setting. For instance, it was through analysis of professional and academic journal articles that I was able to understand key interventions that can be capitalized on to improve service delivery in mental healthcare. In addition, personal experiences with members of the public made me aware that there is need to improve access to mental healthcare by the less fortunate persons in the streets. This could be achieved through reviewing policies governing financing of the healthcare sector in order to increase financial allocations to facilitate effective service delivery to all members of the society. For instance, increasing budgetary allocations in healthcare setting would facilitate introduction of mobile clinics targeting provision of mental healthcare services to the needy people in the streets.

My peers gave quite insightful responses to my personal narrative essay that have helped me to conduct an assessment of my writing skills. In the three responses, they explained that I had incorporated good examples on personal experiences that have enabled them to know why I chose to pursue healthcare administration as a career. In addition, they also said that I had organized the paper well by ensuring a logical flow of non-contradictory ideas. In the first response, the respondent pointed out that I had done well to incorporate secondary sources in the paper which provided more insightful knowledge to the reader. The second respondent also pointed out that I had been effective in providing useful recommendations aimed at improving the healthcare industry in terms of finances, human resources and health services. The third respondent also made similar remarks by expressing satisfaction on how I recommended implementation of a psychological element in healthcare service. However, all the respondents made an observation that I had focused more on writing an analytical essay rather than providing a personal narrative as it was expected.

I have taken note of the three responses and I will implement their recommendations in future essays in order to avoid going out of the way to write an analytical paper in the incidences whereby I am supposed to write a personal narrative and vice versa. I understand that my paper began to shift from a personal narrative to an analytical paper when I began to analyze the information provided in the secondary sources with the aim of relating it to my personal experiences. However, I appreciate the observations of my peers and I will consider them during my future papers.

In conclusion, the semester has been very educative and useful to me by providing an opportunity to examine critical literature in healthcare, and understanding how it can be applied to solve real life challenges. I have been able to go through multiple sources of information in order to understand how different authors structure their messages to suit particular audiences. I have also relied upon the knowledge gained to write a personal narrative with critical reference to secondary information addressing mental health problems and recommending solutions to them.