Getting Well at Get Well Essay example -- Medicine Physical Therapy Pa

Getting Well at Get Well In this ethnography I will take a look at the differences brought into my place of employment, a physical therapy clinic, which we will call Get Well. I explored the viewpoints of patients, therapists, and the physical therapy aides like myself on the issues of either the job or therapy. I wanted to get a look at the different ideas of patients and my co-workers because our age rages are so distinct. We treat elderly patients and students in junior high school. The different ages bring on different opinions of what therapy really is to some people. This is yet another example of how everyone has their own opinions and views on things. In the essay written by Kenneth L. Pike entitled, A Stereoscopic Window On The World, he explains the differences of etic and emic perspectives when conducting an ethnography. He states, â€Å"Different people may see the same event in different ways.† He explains this throughout his essay. As is my study my view as an outsider would be considered the etic view and the patients would be considered the emic perspective. Pike begins with an example of his own experience of interpreting situations with others. He and another woman had two opposite takes on the same situation. The essay then goes on to explain the difference in situations with reference to the etic and emic perspectives. Get Well is a fairly large facility located in a middle-class society mostly made up of Caucasians. This middle-class society is the small town of Romeo, Michigan. This clinic is located on Van Dyke Road between Thirty-one and Thirty-two mile roads. It is directly across the street from another physical therapy clinic whose patients always believe they are in ... ...hotherapy clinic rather than a physical therapy clinic. You have the young and old and all have similar problems, but yet they are so different. I sometimes get the impression that patients do no want to listen to me because I am so young. The young patients tend to take my instructions more seriously than the elderly do. They would rather hear it from the therapist himself. The major differences in patients’ attitudes all depend on their age. I enjoy working at the clinic because it is such a diverse place and not one day is ever the same. As I learned from my co-worker’s interviews just take everything with a grain of salt. Living with people’s opinions and attitudes is just part of our everyday life. Works Cited Pike, Kenneth. â€Å"A Stereoscopic Window on the World.† 23 February 1998. 9 December 2001 http://www.sil.org/klp/eticemic.htm.