Patch Adams Critique - Essay Example

Naghmeh (Melody) Haghighi Matt Manson English 340 March 2006 Patch Adams Being a good physician is both a science and an art. Thismeans that a good physician learns not only how to take care of their patients with the skills necessary to treat their physical illnesses, but also how to respect and treat each of them as human beings. All individuals have the right to respect, and they do not lose the right to expect or receive it when they become patients in a clinic or hospital. Unfortunately, some physicians are less concerned about their patients than they are about their paychecks, or they simply don't recognize that patients may have other needs besides physical ones, which may need to be taken care of in order to recover. Patch Adams, directed by Tom Shadyac, is a film about this concept. It is about a doctor who does recognize the emotional and spiritual needs of patients with physical illnesses, and how he is successful in the medical world despite a lot of opposition. Shadyac compares and contrasts Patch Adams with the other, more traditional doctors portrayed in the film, to show Adams as an ideal doctor, who is breaking new ground with his non-traditional beliefs about the way doctors should interact with their patients. While there are plenty of good doctors out there who genuinely care for their patients, many people who study medicine are motivated by money. Such people are not necessarily concerned with the needs of their clients. For instance, in Shadyac's movie, a mother is desperate to visit her sick daughter in the hospital room where she is dying. Even though her daughter needs to see a doctor as quickly as possible and her mother wants to be with her to take care of her, hospital policy requires her to finish all the paperwork before her daughter can get proper medical attention. Hospitals often want to make sure that clients have enough money to pay the doctors before they "waste" the time of a physician. People often feel that hospitals and physicians are motivated by money rather than the desire to help people, and for this reason find it difficult to trust their doctor's words. In extreme cases people might see two or three doctors because they find it difficult to trust in them. In telling the story of Patch Adams, Shadyac challenges this view, portraying Adams as a different kind of doctor. He believes in treating the whole person rather than just their physical symptoms, a view which is very different from the one that most doctors hold. He believes in giving people the best care he has to offer. Shadyac uses the house that Patch Adams built as the symbol for this idea and the focal point of the film. The house that Adams builds is a free hospital, a place where "people will come from all over the world to fulfill their dream of helping others, where learning is the highest aim, where love is the ultimate goal." Adams' hospital is a place where all patients are welcome regardless of how much or how little money they can pay, and it is a house with "with no boss or title." Another issue that Shadyac examines in Patch Adams is the balance of power in hospitals - how doctors have it, and patients do not. In the small hospital society, the people who have power are defined by their clothes. The people who wear the long white coats have the greatest power and authority. Shadyac shows how physicians use their power by showing what they think of themselves, for example, a doctor in the film says "Physicians are business men. Patients need doctors to give them prescriptions. They don't need doctors to be their friends." This kind of attitude creates a gap between patients and doctors and makes it hard for patients to see doctors as helpful or caring. Patch Adams believes in the absolute opposite of this. He does not take advantage of the fact that he holds more power than his patients do - to him, "power is [when you]see what no one else sees, see what everyone else chooses not to seesee the whole world anew each day." Adams becomes a doctor because he wants to help people to the best of his ability, and does not take advantage of the power he has over his patients. For instance, when one of his classmates comes to him asking for help with a patient, he does not refuse. Even though his classmate has never treated him as a friend, he puts the patient first and helps her. He has the power to refuse to help, but he focuses on the positive side of power, which is serving and helping people. Another concern that threatens the relationship between doctors and their patients is class and status. Such things should not affect the quality of the relationship between doctors and patients, and this is another thing that Patch Adams tries to fight against. In the film, it is obvious that this is yet another way in which the ideas of Patch Adams differ from those of other doctors. For example, his instructor believes that: "You want us to get down there on the same level as our patients, to destroy objectivity." The instructor shows how he is thinking about the different levels between patient and physician, and how he believes that interacting with patients on a more human level would cause problems. This means that this instructor believes a more caring attitude from doctors would cause them to lose the status they feel they have. As Shadyac demonstrates the cold relationship between a doctor and physicians in the film, he explains how important the prestige of their job is to doctors. For instance, in this movie Patch Adams cuts his graduation dress and wears it during his graduation ceremony to show that prestige should not be more important to a physician than their patients, and that doctors should not forget their roles as caregivers for their patients. However, Shadyac shows that the physician's society is not ready yet to accept that idea, because they take away Adams' license, and try to end his career. In the world of the film, it does not matter how well a physician can do his job as long as he is seen to act in the way that is expected of him by people in authority. All in all, the image of doctors is a fairly negative one in Shadyac's film. Most of the doctors put more value in money, power, and prestige than they do on the wellbeing of their patients. Patch Adams is a kind and friendly physician, who believes that this should change, because a doctor who truly cares for his patients does more to help them recover from their illnesses. Shadyac also stresses the importance of the right all people have to medical care no matter how rich or poor they are. Patch Adams shows us the importance to doctors of being aware of effects of these negative images of money, power, and prestige and try to use their power in a better way to serve people. Read More