Worksheet WIT

WIT (2001) Worksheet
While watching the film:
 write down any relevant medical vocabulary;
neoplasms, metastatic, pelvic exam
 make notes in order to answer the following questions:
1. What does Vivian Bearing (VB) do?
Teaches 17th century poetry at university (English literature)
2. What is her diagnosis?
Insidious metastatic ovarian cancer stage 4
3. What do you think of Dr. Harvey Kelekian’s performance in giving her the bad news?
He delievered the news in a very direct and cruel way, having no empathy whatsoever. He used
advanced medical terms without explaining them to her, assuming she understood them
because she had a PhD in English.
The reason behind him giving her this treatment was because he wanted to further his medical
research without being empathic to her pain
4. What treatment does VB receive?
Full dose of chemotherapy
5. What is the standard greeting in the hospital? Why do you think it is not VB’s “standard
greeting”?
How are you feeling today? Because she said she figured they don’t really care how she’s
feeling, it’s just protocol.
6. What expectations are not met when VB is having a CT scan? What seems to baffle her?
Nobody tells her what to expect from the procedure. They treat her like an object.
7. What is Dr. Jason Posner’s role? What is his attitude throughout the interview and examination
and what causes it? Provide some evidence to support your view.
He was a clinical fellow at the medical oncology branch working with Dr. Kelekian. I thought he
felt weird having to examine his former teacher, “let’s just get started”
What do you think about the history taken by dr. Posner? What questions does he ask? What
questions doesn’t the patient understand?
1
He follows the history examination paper. He asks the questions rapidly. When he asks about
“ethanol” she is confused not knowing what it means.
8. How does VB describe the pain at the onset of the disease?
She felt a pain in her stomach “ like a cramp but not the same”. And she started to notice little
things like “a sharp and sudden pain” and started to feel exhausted and couldn’t withstand the
stress she was under.
9. How does the patient feel during the interview?
She seems relaxed, she gives details about her personal life like she’s trying to have a
conversation.
10. How does the interview end? What do you think about the doctor’s comment? (“That’s it?
That’s very interesting.”)
Abrupt. He probably said “that s interesting” bc he had nothing else to comment.He didn’t
empathize with her he just wanted to get it over with.
11. In your view, what doesn’t Dr. Posner do right when examining the patient? Why does VB say “I
wish I had given him an A”?
She probably thought that he was feeling insecure about the fact that she gave him an A minus
to her course. He seemed to be in a rush and distressed during the examination.
12. What do you think about the doctor’s chit-chat with the nurse about VB during the pelvic
examination? How does the patient feel?
The chit-chat was just to fill the silence, he had absolutely no intention to explain what he felt,
give her some feedback…….. so she felt ignored, ashamed, expoited.
13. How does VB describe her hospital experience?
“that was hard.. thoroughly degrading.”
14. How would you describe Dr. Posner’s bedside manner? (+, -, suggestions) What does he think
about the course on bedside manner from med school?
Disgusting manners.
15. How does VB describe the grand round? What do you think she needs to defend herself against?
(“My only defense is the acquisition of vocabulary.”)
She describes it “full of subservience, hierarchies. Gratuitous displays, sublimated rivalries.i feel
completely at home. It is just like a graduate seminar..with one important difference, in grand
2
rounds they read ME like a book (she accentuates the fact that she is the book) She needs to
defend against unknown medical terms.
16. Do you agree with the nurse? (“It is too much for her like this.”) Should the doctors lower VB’s
dose?
Yes, because it is obvious that this dose is more than her organism can take and it is killing her
more rapidy than the cancer.
17. Why is VB in isolation? What is the paradox she refers to when she is being kept there?
18. What does VB wish her therapists did? What is she seeking for as a patient?
Show her kindness.
19. What does code status refer to? Describe the two types of code status. Why do you think her
doctors did not inform her about the code status?
Code status means the patient’s wish regarding what the doctors should do if her heart stops
beating. The two types of codes are full code which means is the heart stops they call a code
blue and a resuscitation team will come and resuscitate her and the other one is DNR (do not
resuscitate).
Her doctors did not inform her because they wanted to let her live as long as she could in order
to protect their research, know more..
20. What is a patient-controlled analgesic? How does it work?
It’s a pump with a button the patient can press and deliver her a dose of analgesic so that she
can be in control of managing her pain.
21. What role does primary nurse Susie Monahan play in VB’s case?
She defends her, she really takes good care of her, shows her empathy, acts like her friend.
22. What has VB learnt from her experience as a patient? What are her conclusions?
She has learned how to suffer.
23. Comment on the following exchange: Nurse: ‘She’s DNR.’ / Dr Posner: ‘She’s research.’ How
does it summarize the two attitudes towards the patient?
Caring about the wellness of the patient and the intention to do her good versus not caring
about the patient, treating everything with no emotion.
24. What questions does the film raise?
3
Discussion questions
1. What aspects of medicine were shown in the film? (positive/ negative/ controversial)
2. Describe the evolution of the main character as a human being and/or the deterioration of her
condition as a patient.
3. What did you learn from the film (your take-home messages)?

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WIT (2001) Worksheet

While watching the film:

 write down any relevant medical vocabulary;

neoplasms, metastatic, pelvic exam

 make notes in order to answer the following questions:

1. What does Vivian Bearing (VB) do?

Teaches 17th century poetry at university (English literature)

2. What is her diagnosis?

Insidious metastatic ovarian cancer stage 4

4. What treatment does VB receive?

Full dose of chemotherapy

8. How does VB describe the pain at the onset of the disease?

9. How does the patient feel during the interview?

13. How does VB describe her hospital experience?

“that was hard.. thoroughly degrading.”

Show her kindness.

20. What is a patient-controlled analgesic? How does it work?

She has learned how to suffer.

24. What questions does the film raise?

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