The health care system impacts people’s lives one way or another; whether they have been a part of someone’s life or death. “Wit”, directed by Mike Nichols is the story of an English scholar, Professor Vivian Bearing (played by Emma Thompson) who gets diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer (Wit, 2001). The film revolves around the eight months that she spends in the hospital in which she consents to take a high dose of a chemotherapeutic drug (Wit, 2001). This movie touches on biomedical elements such as professionalism, technology and power, institutional culture and as well as medicalization in which were discussed throughout the lectures, tutorials, in-class films as well as the readings in the health studies course. The health care system
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Typically, the nurse informs the doctor about the patient’s symptoms and the doctor states what the nurse should do. This is known as the Nurse-Doctor Game. This was demonstrated several times throughout the film. Whenever Vivian was in pain, Suzie would immediately inform Dr. Posner who would give her orders indicating how she should proceed with the situation (Wit, 2001). This was especially evident when Vivian came into the hospital freezing to death and her nurse Suzie instantly called Dr. Posner explaining the situation (Wit, 2001). In the end, Dr. Posner told Suzie that she must give Vivian morphine. Compared to the doctor, the nurse does not give orders as they simply must obey them. The Nurse-Doctor Game is crucial in a health care environment such as a hospital as it is a way of ensuring the patient’s …show more content…
One in which greatly related to “Wit” was Vivian Ho’s “The Subject of Science”. In this article, Ho discusses an experiment she performed which involved mice that had Lou Gehrig’s disease. This concept was similar to that of Vivian Baring; both the mice and Vivian were being experimented for research. Throughout the length of the film, Vivian Baring was undergoing intense chemotherapy that was carefully monitored. Her chemotherapy was greatly encouraged by her doctors as they were continuously persuading her to increase her dosage of the chemotherapeutic drug (Wit, 2001). Vivian accepted the higher dosage however it brought upon physical and mental pain. This scenario greatly relates to that of the article since in both cases the doctors were willing to do anything for their research, even if it involved discomfort to their
Typically, the nurse informs the doctor about the patient’s symptoms and the doctor states what the nurse should do. This is known as the Nurse-Doctor Game. This was demonstrated several times throughout the film. Whenever Vivian was in pain, Suzie would immediately inform Dr. Posner who would give her orders indicating how she should proceed with the situation (Wit, 2001). This was especially evident when Vivian came into the hospital freezing to death and her nurse Suzie instantly called Dr. Posner explaining the situation (Wit, 2001). In the end, Dr. Posner told Suzie that she must give Vivian morphine. Compared to the doctor, the nurse does not give orders as they simply must obey them. The Nurse-Doctor Game is crucial in a health care environment such as a hospital as it is a way of ensuring the patient’s …show more content…
One in which greatly related to “Wit” was Vivian Ho’s “The Subject of Science”. In this article, Ho discusses an experiment she performed which involved mice that had Lou Gehrig’s disease. This concept was similar to that of Vivian Baring; both the mice and Vivian were being experimented for research. Throughout the length of the film, Vivian Baring was undergoing intense chemotherapy that was carefully monitored. Her chemotherapy was greatly encouraged by her doctors as they were continuously persuading her to increase her dosage of the chemotherapeutic drug (Wit, 2001). Vivian accepted the higher dosage however it brought upon physical and mental pain. This scenario greatly relates to that of the article since in both cases the doctors were willing to do anything for their research, even if it involved discomfort to their