Health Care!

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace, and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

     I have often wrote about healthcare, the difference  between emergency care, such as illness, physical, psychological trauma, wounds sustained from war, to that care that is formed through a long-term healthcare plan. Emergency care is to take care of the body, to ensure that the risks of life are minimized as quickly as possible. Long-term care (if needed) is carried out with a team. The team consists of doctors/nurses/healthcare practitioners, and educators who possess specialized knowledge about individual care. While of course we all hope that this is the case, I wondered if factors such as: socio-economic class, race, gender/sexuality, religion, or ethnicity also intersect with the care a person receives. While any form of universal healthcare prescribes that we are all given equitable treatments as some level, we cannot ignore the fact that there will be impediments to ones treatment, based on the factors that I mentioned earlier. But this concerned me deeply. What if your treatment / care plan determines if you will live longer, or are put to death earlier? Any professional healthcare practitioner, or those in the industry know that healthcare is also a leading cause of death. Not to alarm or startle anyone, but it is a truth that we cannot ignore. Just as the educator who possesses the power to determine a students success of failure, so too does healthcare - that of life or death. 

     I am grateful for the immediate care, and the work that is done by the doctors/nurses/healthcare practitioner. Similar to any field, while the profession regulates how the professionals act, behave, or use their knowledge for the best interests of the patient, this is always going to be questionable. If you think about it, if you visit a doctor, there is an automatic power imbalance. They can either tell you, or not tell you, they can either guide you, or not guide you. In a sense we are talking about ethics. Is one being ethical with the knowledge that they posses? Is the knowledge being used for the best interests of the patient? The patient might not know, which is why it is a good idea to be informed, or aim to receive a 2nd, 3rd opinion. An ideal situation would be where your circle of friends / family includes individuals that are skilled, and professionals from all fields.

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

​Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on July 9th, 2018.
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