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Saturday, 16 November 2013
Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to understand discrimination experienced by Japanease male who was implanted cardiac pacemaker in the late 1970 .
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to find the male proved that he was a competent employee.
In Japan, cardiac pacemaker implantation has a history of 47 years. In the early days of pacemaker implantation, recipients had to tolerate discrimination and harassment in the work place to continue working due to low public awareness of the procedure. This study was conducted to examine difficulties experienced by an employee of a large company who returned to work after undergoing the implantation of a pacemaker 33 years ago, and understand the meaning of his experience. The subject of the study, a member of the Japan Association of Pacemaker Friends, agreed to talk about his past experience because he had already retired. A semi-structured interview was conducted in a private room in July 2011. Analyses were performed from a phenomenological viewpoint on difficulties and anxiety experienced in the work place and subjects associated with them. Ethical considerations were taken into account; the study was conducted with the approval of the ethics committee of Aino University. Difficulties and anxieties the person experienced in the work place following pacemaker implantation included: “not allowed to choose”, “viewed as an unreliable employee”, “discrimination in promotion and salary raise”, “discriminatory remarks from co-workers”, and “suffering from being unable to argue”. His experience had meaning in that he had to: “prepare himself for negative views on him from his co-workers”; and “prove that he was a competent employee”. “Expectations for himself” and “his desire to improve the work environment for future employees” had been supporting him.