Health Practitioner Practice - Essay Example

?Health Practitioner Practice Introduction This paper represents a critique of a media portrayal of the issue of dementia in the movies. Dementia is among the various health practitioner practices staged in this media. According to Greenberg (2010), dementia is a severe loss of previously attained intellectual abilities that interferes with social and occupational functioning of a person. The loss might be attributed to several factors, aging being one of them. It is characterized by an evident impairment of short term and long-term memories, loss of cognition, language, vision spatial skills and loss of personality (Thompson 2006). According to Denes (1999), Alzheimer’s disease is one of the dementia conditions. Dementia is a severe condition that requires long-term management. Furthermore, many myths associated with this disease need to be clarified. For this reason, this paper will discuss these topics. Two issues identified from the media portrayal The two issues I identified from media portrayal of dementia are the issues of diagnosis and detection and the issue of causal factors for this disease (Burge 2007). These issues are significant since they help the affected people in their effort to find assistance and care. They assist the sufferers and their families challenge medical practitioners to ensure that they receive gold standard of care for this disease. The issues are somewhat controversial and it was detected that the information given by this media portrayal lacked validity. For this reason, these issues will be addressed through comparison of current literature and evaluation of the content quality of the information from various facets of medical care. To address the issue of media portrayal of the detection of dementia, a literature review was conducted. The media portrayal of dementia detection was explored. I also looked at how this disease is detected in this professional media portrayal and compare it with what the literatures say. Important factors to be considered when detecting this disease were identified in the movie and compare to the literature available. It is proposed that information from both sources should be considered when detecting this disease. I use these guidelines to evaluate the medical information given by this media portrayal and to determine how this information compares with actual medical practice as revealed by the literature. In the issue of what causes the disease, a comparison was made between the causes identified in the movie and those identified in the literatures. To validate the information about the causes, I analyzed the causes in comparison to the kind of people who are most affected by this disease. I also looked at the evidence in the literature relating to causes and the arguments behind the information they give. This helps to evaluate the information regarding the causes of this disease portrayed by the media. Evaluation The media portrayal tries to show that the disease is caused by aging and mental inactivity. However, according to Ames et al. (2010), dementia is a syndrome that can have multiple causes. The media portrayal is true in its indication of aging as a cause of this disease since according to Zgola (1999), the disease is most prevalent among people who are above 65 years of age. The causes of dementia are dependent on its type (Cayton et al. 2002). Moreover, as stated by Silverstein et al. (2006), we have several types of dementia and thus the two causes portrayed by our professional media portrayal cannot be the only cause of this disease. According to our media portrayal this disease can be diagnosed through trying to detect loss of memory that is more prevalent in the old people. Using cognitive impairment patterns, a medical practitioner can detect dementia and its most likely causes (Schaie & Willis 2010). Since detecting loss of memory can reveal a cognitive impairment pattern, it can thus be one of the methods of detecting this disease. However, according to Kovach (1999), several factors contribute to cognitive losses other than dementia. Thus, using cognitive impairment testing to detect loss of memory is therefore not sufficient to diagnose this condition. Dementia also involves loss of cognition, language, vision spatial skills, and personality in addition to loss of memory (Gallo 2006). A diagnose that is therefore able to detect all this five losses is the most sufficient one for detecting dementia. As indicated by our evaluation the information portrayed by the professional media portrayal about these two issues of dementia are true. They give information in line with the available literature; however, they do not include as much detail as contained in the literature maybe because of the limited media space or other factors such as difficulty in conveying the message as effectively as required. As a result, this information should be used very cautiously since it can somehow mislead or offer a misconception due to its inadequacy. It is therefore recommended that one supplements the information from this media with knowledge from literatures when diagnosing this disease and when trying to identify its causes. Consultations from practitioners who have carried such procedures will also help to curb the risk of relying on the information deemed incomplete. Reflection I found out that several media portrayals like movies, TVs, magazines, etc. continues to be a major source of medical information among the Australians. The majority of Australians know that loss of memory and forgetfulness is a major early diagnostic symptom for dementia. However as indicated by the information provided, media portrayals cannot be considered sufficient, thus there is a need to supplement it with literature information. However, according to Burge (2007), some Australians are aware of some other information about dementia that is not provided by media portrayals. Currently the Australian health care system encourages distribution of medical information through media portrayal. This is a good policy since it can enable this information to reach a large group of people. However, this policy should be improved to ensure that the media portrayal information is enhanced to make it more informative. Moreover, I propose that a policy directive be introduced to ensure that medical practitioners do not rely mainly in the media portrayals. This is because I feel that this has made them to mislead the patient especially in such diseases where the portrayal is insufficient. Sometimes this can lead to wrong diagnosis thus resulting to wrong prescriptions that worsen the condition of the patient. However, the nonmedical professional like social workers who care for the affected people, should be allowed to use the media portrayals to enhance their knowledge and make themselves better care givers. I have come to realize that there are several public portrayals about the health professionals in film, media, and books in Australia. All these portrayals offer very good information to the public especially in terms of the level of services they are entitled to from the health professionals. However, I have come to understand that the knowledge offered by these portrayals is inadequate for the medical practitioners. I thus would not advice any practitioner to rely solely on them as sources of professional information. Conclusion Different media like television, radio, movies, and magazines can be used to convey medical information to the public. This is done through media portrayals like the use of movies to stage the issue of dementia. The information they give compares in some way with the information given in the literature from their respective fields. Like in our case, we find that the media portrayal conveys the same information conveyed by various literatures. This makes them to be a good source of knowledge to non-medical professionals. However, their knowledge is inadequate for practicing medical practitioners. The media portrayals have achieved some required goals in terms of information conveyance to the public; however, they need to be enhanced by introducing policy directives that should bar medical practitioners from using them. This practitioner should rely mainly on information provided by medical literatures that are adequate and well researched. However, there is a way in which this media portrayal can be improved to provide more sufficient information. I thus recommend that a research be undertaken to identify the improvements that can be implemented soon to make this media portrayal more self-sufficient in terms of the information they portray. The research should not be limited to the media only but should be extended to getting reliable information from people who have handled such cases before. Self-assessment This assignment has been very enlightening in terms of the various concepts I had to address. It has equipped me with knowledge about the health profession especially when it comes to information conveying either to the public or to other professions about certain diseases. It has also equipped me with knowledge on the policies that directs the medical profession in Australia. I have learned that deep consultation gives one a wider knowledge in the field. Changes from study summary The change from study summary that I have included in my final project is use of factual data to support my various project concepts. This will help me to clarify more the concepts discussed in my final project thus expressing my understanding on those concepts. References Ames, D et al 2010, Guide to Psychiatry of Old Age, Cambridge University Press, New York. Cayton, H et al 2002, Dementia: Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias: The ‘at Your Fingertips Guide, 2nd edn, Class Publishing Ltd, London. Denes, G 1999, Handbook of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, Psychology Press, East Sussex. Gallo, JJ 2006, Handbook of Geriatric Assessment, 4th edn, Jones & Bartlett Learning, Sudbury. Greenberg, MS 2010, Handbook of Neurosurgery, Thieme Publishers, New York. Kovach, CR 1997, Late Stage Dementia Care: A Basic Guide, Taylor & Francis Publishers, Washington. Schaie, KW & Willis, SL 2010, Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, 7th edn, Academic Press, London. Silverstein, NM et al 2006, Dementia and Wondering Behavior: Concern for the Lost Elder, Springer Publishing Company, New York. Thompson, SBN 2006, Dementia and Memory: A Handbook for Students and Professionals, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Hampshire. Zgola, JM 1999, Care That Works: A Relationship Approach to Persons with Dementia, JHU Press, Baltimore. Read More