Various Chemotherapy Sessions

RUNNING HEAD: SOCIOLOGY 0
FILM REFLECTION: WIT 2001

SOCIOLOGY 2
Part 1
Therapeutic care to a person is all about effective communication to the targeted person that
helps in the channelizing the emotions of the person towards positivity. In the Movie, a English
literature professor suffers from the stage 4 Ovarian cancer that made her hospitalized for several
weeks as she has to go through various chemotherapy sessions. According to ledema & Piper,
effective communication is one of the best forms of mental and physical healing as
communication is helps in channelizing the emotions towards positivity (ledema & Piper, 2015).
An individual is able to express all the sorrows related to the mental and physical pain, he is
suffering from. In the definition, effective communication involves the verbal and non-verbal
aspects of an individual’s expressions. The WIT movie was shot in a hospital where the
protagonist goes through the treatment of her stage 4 ovarian cancer. As Ovarian cancer is not so
common and treatment for it is was not available so the Vivian , cancer patient was convinced by
the group of physicians to treat her as a matter of study to understand the effectiveness of the
drugs on this incurable diseases.
During the phase of her disease, there are various episodes of effective and non- effective
communication with the patient. As the physicians at the hospital treated Vivian as the matter of
study, she was frequently asked about how she was feeling or is she all right that caused an
enormous amount of mental pain to her. This instance reflects the ineffective communication of
the medical staff with Vivian and she knew that the sole motive behind it was, for them to ensure
whether their experiments on her are successful or not. Such rude questions or ineffective
communication affected her self-esteem and made her feel nobody but a specimen for their
study. With their questions, she got accustomed to saying simply cold-hearted “fine” (The
Business Communication , 2019). In the movie, every week Vivian was exposed to the treatment
that continued for four hours in a row and every time after the session was over, she was asked
the same question that how she feels, she believes that such questions have become automatic
reactions of every medical staff after the treatment. There is no intentional desire from the
medical staff to know that that how a person is feeling . According to Levett-Jones, Therapeutic
relationship includes the components of trust and empathy where patient is able to develop good
and meaningful conditions with the medical staff (Levett-Jones, 2014). In the movie, there is
ineffectively of communication with the patient where the non-verbal cues of the doctors and

SOCIOLOGY 3
other medical staff depicts the lack of empathy. In various instances, when Vivian was in a
desperate need of knowing about her medical conditions with the doctor, she tried making an eye
contact with them for the motive of asking whether she would get recovered, on which the
doctors could be seen rolling off their eyes from her. According to Reader & Gillespie, non-
verbal cues formed the most important part of an effective communication as it conveys more
than 80 percentage of the message (Reader & Gillespie, 2014). The ineffective non-verbal cues
from various medical staff could be reason that the vivan felt highly dissatisfied during the phase
of her treatment (Redlandshospital, 2019).
On one hand, there was lack of expressions from the doctors while on other hand there was warm
connection showed by Nurse Susie to Vivian (Burchard, 2012). In the movies, among the
medical staff, Nurse Susie was the only one who shared good therapeutic relations with Vivian.
Sussie and Vivian shares good relations as Sussie come early in the morning to visit Vivian and
enquire empathetically about her health. Whenever Susie gets to know that she did not sleep, she
used to ask her the reason of not sleeping. Many a times Vivian replies that the fear of
uncertainty kept her awake throughout night, on which Susie used to calm her down with good
conversation or by a gentle touch that conveys that everything will be fine. According to eapfrog
hospital, therapeutic relationship is all about the non- verbal cues where the patient is able to
sense the care provided to by medical staff (Leapfrog hospital, 2019). The therapeutic relation
was completely comprehensible in the case Susie. Susie’s way of initiating a good and honest
conversation and her gentle touch was depictive of her therapeutic care towards the patient. In
one of the instances, Vivian complained to Susie about anxiety, on that Susie stayed with Vivian
whole night conversing with her so that she feels comfortable. She tried placating Vivian with
her soothing words so that she could sleep well.
Part B
Learning about the effective therapeutic and professional communication from the movie-
The Movie Wit had been a great learning platform for initiating effective therapeutic and
professional communication (Australian government, 2019). I have understood that patient’s
recovery is based more on the effective communication than simply providing them with the
medical treatment. I have learned that one of the most important things for an effective

SOCIOLOGY 4
communication is to positively appeal to the senses of the listener. The senses of the listener can
be positively appealed through non- verbal cues that include proper body posture, gentle touch or
concerned eye contact. Such non- verbal cues give listener the feeling that the person is attending
him in the best manner. According to Cavaleri, the professional communication includes
therapeutic care components that are trust, empathy, genuine care, and understanding (Cavaleri
& Shabana, 2018). I have learned that it is important to have all the components to make it an
effective communication.
Through the behavior of the physicians, I have understood their unprofessional communication
towards the patients made them the murderers of their patients, as they instilled in them with
toxic fears and negativity (Cave, 2019). Through the conduct of Susie, I have learned that it is
important to develop the empathetic connection with the counter-part so that the individual is
able to feel at peace. I have learned that empathy is highest form of communication that can
solve the problems faced by the among the people. According to Casadesus-Masanell & Ricart,
effective communication has the power to sort out all types of emotional issues thus leading to
better mental or physical health (Casadesus-Masanell & Ricart, 2015).
Knowledge gaps in my skills that may influence my effective communication in future –
After going through the film, I have analyzed that there are various gaps in my skills that include
my inability to build connection with the people and usage of empathetic words. In one of the
instances, in my high school, I had to deliver the speech on addiction to social media among
young crowd and it side effects. The speech that I prepared was amazing and informative in the
eyes of my English professors. My professors were quite confident that I would get the first prize
in the competition but to my dismal, I came last. After watching the movie, now I have
understood the reason for my last position was my ineffective communication style that lacked
connection with the audience. Although my speech was rich in vocabulary but it lacked emotions
which were required it to be successful.
The movie had pointed out to me the flaw in my communication style that was lack of empathy
or connection with the listener. Through the examples of doctors communicating to Vivian, it
became far clearer that the communication could either break or make the relationship between
the individuals (Caproni, 2011). The relationship of Susie and Vivian pointed out to be towards

SOCIOLOGY 5
the fact that the empathy can develop the good relations with the people. These short examples
had awakened me to the flaws in my communication style so that I can improve upon them in
future.
Improving the flaws in the communication style-
I have planned to improve upon my quality of connectivity with the individuals so that I can
achieve the good level of communication with the people.
For achieving the results, I would like to involve myself into following activities-
Development of Empathy
NGO visits-
Visiting the non-profit organizations will develop in me the feeling of gratitude after watching
the non-privileged section of the society. it will help me in developing my self –identity as I
would regard myself more previlged than many other people in the society. According to
Burchard, visiting NGOs is of great help as it promotes the attitude of gratitude in an individual
(Burchard, 2012).
Maintaining Journals-
I would like to maintain the journals where I could write down my all inner turmoil and
negativity thus paving way for greater clarity. The Journal will help me remind of my true
purpose thus strengthening relations with people around leading to the development of effective
communication (Levett-Jones, 2014).
Connecting with nature-
Connecting with nature is the highest form of developing empathy in an individual. The
connection with the nature develops in oneself the sense the calmness and peace thus resulting in
clear perceptions. According to Burchard,nature is helpful in achieving the high level of
connectedness with oneself (Burchard, 2012).
Practicing meditation-

SOCIOLOGY 6
Meditation is one of the best ways to build empathy in an individual where an individual feels
the sense of connection with one’s highest self. The meditation paves the way for greater clarity
and understanding in person’s life.
The other skills that are required to develop the quality of empathy is strong will, and discipline
to do it (CPA Australia, 2019).
Bibliography
Australian government. (2019, September 1). BELONGING, BEING & BECOMING. Retrieved
September 1, 2019, from aceqa:
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_earl
y_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
CPA Australia. (2019, July 1). APES 110 CODE OF ETHICS FOR PROFESSIONAL
ACCOUNTANTS. Retrieved August 24, 2019, from cpaaustralia:
https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/professional-resources/accounting-professional-and-ethical-
standards/apes-110-code-of-ethics-for-professional-accountants
Leapfrog hospital. (2019, August 1). Patient Safety. Retrieved August 30, 2019, from
hospitalsafetygrade: https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/what-is-patient-safety_m
ledema, R., & Piper, D. (2015). Communicating quality and safety in health care. Port
Melbourne:. Cambridge University Press. , 98-101.

SOCIOLOGY 7
Levett-Jones, T. (2014). Critical conversations for patient safety: an essential guide for health
professionals. . NSW: Pearson Australia , 556-603.
Reader, T. W., & Gillespie, A. (2014). Patient complaints in healthcare systems: a systematic
review and coding taxonomy. BMJ Quality & Safety , 23 (8), 678-689.
Redlandshospital. (2019, July 1). Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring. Retrieved August 3,
2019, from redlandshospital: https://www.redlandshospital.org/nursing-excellence/jean-watsons-
theory-of-human-caring/
The Business Communication . (2019, August 1). Business Communication. Retrieved August
15, 2019, from thebusinesscommunication: https://thebusinesscommunication.com/what-is-
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