Generate a short essay about your intended career.

What would be an ideal response?

My intended career is a medical doctor practicing family medicine. I intend to work in a hospital or clinic in an underserved area of the state. I would apply the concepts of saving face, acquaintanceship guidelines, and conflict management on a daily basis when working with the public and co-workers.

When it comes to saving face, that is one thing I will be doing constantly. I will be working with many people from many different walks of life and I am bound to offend at least one person throughout the work day. I obviously would try my best to make the situation better and explain that I did not mean to offend them in any way.

When working in a clinic or hospital you see many people throughout the day. Some might be regular patients and others just walk-ins. Regardless, the patient needs to be comfortable with the doctor and have some sort of trust in her/him. That is where acquaintanceship guidelines come in to play. According to the textbook, acquaintanceship guidelines help to be good at initiating and facilitating conversations and to meet other people and develop acquaintance relationships. I can take this information and apply it to my career as an MD by being able to make my patients feel comfortable.

Conflict management is exactly what it sounds like. Resolving conflicts in a calm and effective manner. I feel that conflict management would come into play more so with patients in the hospital rather than in my office. Sometimes people are so sick and tied that they just don’t want to be bothered by nurses and doctors during their stay and become belligerent. That is when I would obviously have to resolve the conflict using conflict resolutions as mentioned in the textbook.