The doctor’s culture and caregiver
The caregiver who I interviewed is a forty-five-year-old African American lady. She has been taking care of older adults in their houses for the last fifteen years. The work has been sustaining her, and she can pay her bills and assist her husband in raising their three children. The lady is professionally untrained, and she reported that her excellence in the job had been gained through practice, as she has taken care of many people in her life. According to the caregiver, her contract ends when the person she cares for dies and she has lost many clients to death. The challenge that she said came with the departure is feeling broken, as in most cases, she is connected with the people she looks after. She takes care of three people every day, as her shift mostly ends after two and a half to three hours. She operates on a tight schedule, as being late in one client’s home results in late reporting in another’s, which has equipped her with the discipline of observing time. The factors of race, class, and gender have significantly influenced the lady’s work, even if she does not know it.
The race has influenced the lady’s work because the work is generally performed by people who are unable to secure better-paying jobs. The African Americans historically failed to attend school to acquire training for better-paying jobs; hence, most are involved in manual tasks that require little training. The poverty associates the lady with the low social class, which is involved in doing menial jobs, and working for long hours. Therefore, the lady’s race has led her to be in the low social class sue to the race’s limited ability to pursue education, especially in the past. Unfortunately, there is still discrimination in the country against the African Americans, as many people are unwilling to offer them good jobs, and most are left to perform menial tasks that unfortunately sustain their vicious cycle of poverty.
The lady’s gender influences her work in that worldwide. House chores are primarily allocated to women. Therefore, she is deemed suitable to take care of a sickly elderly person, as she can connect with her emotionally, as opposed to a man. The lady can handle some duties in her work, like changing diapers and cleaning the patient with little disgust, which is common among women and not men. As support to her gender, the lady’s age and motherhood status make her preferable to most employers, as they consider her competitive to take care of a dependent person and understand the patient’s needs. The stratifies of race, social class, and gender influence the lady’s image and sense of worth in the society negatively, and she is unaware of it. Consequently, employers are likely to treat her with low respect, pay her the minimum hourly wage, and have high expectations on her performance as opposed to a white employee from a more upper social class.
The conflict social perspective best relates to the caregiver’s work as she is there because she lost the battle of being in a higher social class, and is equipped with better education and training to live a better life (Murji & Solomos, 2015). Caregivers are paid lowly, leading them to live impoverished lives, and their families struggle to meet basic needs. They must also work for very many hours to make ends meet. The lady’s race, according to the conflict social perspective, led her to be pushed to low social levels for the superior races in the society to maintain their power, with little concern of the African American race of the time ought to have schooled.
The conflict perspective explains that people end up in their status because they lose in antagonism with other groups who needed to achieve power at the losers’ expense. The situation can also arise when the regime fails to uplift some communities in the society but focuses on those it means to empower for future control of the state. People are therefore forced to make life choices and live lives based on the category the strong parties get them. Leaving the bracket where one is placed by such power requires high strength and persistence.
Interviewing is a beneficial research methodology because it allows the interviewer to acquire first-hand information from the interviewees. The method also facilitates fast clarification of unclear issues by asking follow-up questions, and is time-saving. Conversely, the technique is limited to parties of the same language as the interviewer and is expensive to conduct due to traveling costs. The lady’s African American culture of women being required to stay at home and perform house chores as opposed to men who seek better paying and more laborious jobs than women influences the position she takes in the society, in terms of the kind of jobs she seeks, the salary they attract and her voice in the society.
A Doctor
The doctor interviewed has been in practice for about twenty years, and is still working. He is a Caucasian male who has two kids. The first child is from his marriage and the second from his second marriage. He enjoys his work and is among the high social class in the society. The reason is that he runs a large private pediatric clinic that attracts him high pays. The work he does requires a lot of time and interest in research as one has to keep updating their knowledge to offer patients the most reliable and updated services. The interviewee’s class, race, and gender have influenced their work in various ways.
The class of the doctor has enabled him to go higher in society’s social classes, as he continues to accumulate wealth with limited struggle. Therefore, he can reach the high social levels with his services and charges them highly. Consequently, he remains out of reach for the below-average social classes. The man’s race influenced his ability to acquire medical training many years back because his parents could afford to educate him. They were able to secure reasonable jobs and offer their children education even when it was expensive. The doctor’s gender favors his work in that he has many hours to spend in his work as opposed to a female who has to inevitably commit time to family, especially children, leaving her with fewer hours to engage in professional practice.
The strata of class, race, and gender influence the doctor’s life in ways he is unaware of. First, he commands high respect in the society, and people hardly offer him low salaries, as they regard his competence highly. His race makes him favorable to people of all races in the country, as opposed to some races that racists would not prefer to attend them. His high class allows him to perform exemplarily, as his hospital is able to acquire the most recent tools and technologies hence, he offers a wide variety of pediatric services, which attracts him many customers, making him accumulate wealth fast.
The functionalist perspective explains the pediatrician’s life the best, as it explains that the society mist work in harmony for there to be stability (Murji & Solomos, 2015). Therefore, different people are required for a society to run normally and their significance is indispensable. The reason I chose the functionalist social perspective is that the doctor’s services are very important in the society, irrespective of how much he charges, and the society needs pediatricians to survive.
The functionalist social perspective explains the doctor’s life choices in that he has to commit many hours of his life in practice to save lives. In fact, the doctor must take the discomfort of researching continually to be highly skilled, and foregoing a lot of social fun for the sake of the patients. Therefore, his services are essential and require his self-giving. According to the functionalist social perspective, the doctors needs other professionals as much as they need him, in activities such as educating his children, and developing houses where he can live with his family. Consequently, all specializations in the society are equally important for a balanced living of the citizens.
When used in the research, interviewing had the advantage of obtaining in-depth information from the doctor, as opposed to other methods, as questionnaires that acquire limited information. There was also the advantage of creating a rapport that enabled the doctor to open up with ease and offer details that cannot be obtained using other methods. However, interviewing can sometimes present the interviewees questions that get them in awkward positions and feeling uneasy, and are forced to blub around. If another method was used instead of interviewing, the harassment would not result as the respondent would skip the question.
The doctor’s culture relates strongly with his profession. The reason is that he was raised seeing people being accorded good healthcare services, which he learnt are a part of the society. The exposure made to consider excellent medical services to be a part of every society.