Assignment #16: Written Proposal Draft

My essential question remains the same – How can I, as a future ophthalmologist, communicate with patients in a way that will reduce their preoperative anxiety? Patients are typically very fearful going into eye surgery with concerns ranging from “Will this hurt?” to “Is there a chance I can completely lose my eye sight?”. Learning how to make patients more comfortable is important not only to the relationship the doctor has with their patients but also to the doctor’s entire practice. One patient’s poor experience with a doctor can hurt business as many doctors build their patient base on referrals. Of course, the overall goal of a doctor is to help patients with their medical needs and if the patient is simply too anxious to follow through with a procedure, they may never receive proper treatment for their condition.

Other than this website, I plan to make a slideshow that displays my research, likely on a website such as Prezi or Emaze. I would also like to create an illustrated story or possibly a film that demonstrates a patient’s journey through eye surgery starting with their preoperative appointment and ending with their one-month postoperative appointment. For my “real inquiry”, I would love to interview a patient both before and after their operation to learn firsthand about the concerns they have, how the doctor made them feel comfortable before and during surgery, and their thoughts after surgery. Between the information I receive from a patient and the information I have already received from a surgeon during my interview last week, I will hopefully be able to generate new questions to help move my research along.