Week 7-8: Midsemester Presentation Reflection
This past week, we had our mid-semester presentation reviews to showcase our progress over the last 7 weeks or so. I feel like I started putting together the presentation with the notion of simply compiling everything I’ve done so far, but having to shave it down to 8 minutes or less provoked me to really hone in on my actual conclusions.
During the professor review on Friday, I included three interviews (my dad, Elena, and Holly Stants) that I believe provided good insights but did not tie together very succinctly. As I made changes over the weekend, I originally thought I should take out Elena’s interview, since my focus seemed more directed toward’s my dad’s experience with cataracts. However, as I started to take a deeper look at what key insights each interview highlighted for me, I discovered a stronger juxtaposition in the two patient interviews that I could use to really push my narrative forward — their relationships (or lack thereof) with their doctors. I was glad that preparing for this presentation allowed me to articulate this key finding that had not been 100% apparent to me from the beginning.
In my breakout room, I had Daphne, Matt Z., Gretchen, and Wayne giving feedback on our presentations.
I was excited to hear when Gretchen affirmed my redefined focus on dealing specifically with anxiety around major procedures, as she agreed that this in particular is an area that can be very difficult for patients. One interesting point she made was that the concept of “trust” in doctors can really vary—a patient can have personal trust in a doctor based on their interactions with one another, or global trust if the doctor or department is highly recognized in their field as one of “the best.” Another interesting thing to consider is how people’s general trust in the medical field varies from person to person — some are inherently distrustful of all medicine, while some on the opposite end of the spectrum will blindly believe in the doctor.
Wayne had some interesting points as well, especially since he has experienced eye procedures similar to the ones I am focusing my project on. He reminded me that the patient is almost never alone—especially around the time of a procedure, there is a loved one or caretaker present to take them to and from the appointments. I was shying away from incorporating the companion too much in my solution because Holly Stants mentioned that family members can often “try to do everything”, causing the patient to lose their sense of autonomy. However, Wayne’s comments made me realize that perhaps Holly’s insights are more specific to the OT side of things, and people undergoing major procedures that will (hopefully) fix their eyesight may be more welcoming of that extra support.
Overall, it was interesting to get to hear about everyone’s work and see where people are in their progress. I was glad to get a lot of feedback from people who weren’t familiar with my project so I could see how it was interpreted from outside perspectives, and especially for the medical insights that Gretchen was able to provide for each presentation.
