'Historical Awareness' By Holly Tucker

Historical awareness is a different type of perspective to view the world through. There are many different lenses, but the common perspective today is the scientific way of viewing the aspects of the world that surrounds us. While the scientific way of viewing things is not bad, it mainly focuses on finding the answer or solution to a certain problem. The conclusion that the scientific perspective views their problems is that there can either be a wrong answer or a right answer. This methodical approach is great and has allowed for many societal advancements. However, it does limit the way we approach problems in our lives as they often do not have simply a right or wrong answer. The historical perspective of the world is more than looking

She brings forward the value of having historical awareness when evaluating situations, especially when it comes to the field of health care and the topic of health. Health and health care are generally viewed through a scientific lens due to the profession having a majority of the workers having science-related majors and degrees. However, in the book, Holly Tucker discusses one topic of health care and how it does not have a simple right or wrong answer when viewing how it came to be: blood transfusions. When looking at the history of blood transfusions, Tucker points out that many people in today's society view science as mainly unbiased due to it producing facts that have evidence to back it up, and this positive look at science allows for society to assume that the evolution of medicine and health care has only been going in the positive direction when it comes to success. This is far from the truth, and Tucker points out that “early transfusion…does not fit at all neatly into the larger narrative of the ‘revolutionary’ triumphs of science in the seventeenth century” (Tucker xxii). The reason why blood transfusion history is

For myself, reading and learning that medical history consists of as many advancements as setbacks helped me to enhance my understanding of the importance that historical awareness has when viewing health and health care. When viewing health, there is no easy answer on what is right and wrong because, as historical evidence has shown, many factors such as society’s beliefs and morals contribute to how people decide what is acceptable and right. Historical awareness also analyzes power structures throughout the history of health. The group of people who reside at the top of power structures get to make the decisions of what is deemed acceptable and right. This can be good if their judgment can be void of bias, but more often than not, there will be a bias since everyone has their individual moral compass of what is right and wrong. A modern example of this bias within power structures can be found in nutrition research studies because many companies will fund the research of their own food so they can ensure that positive findings are released to the public which will boost the sales of their products. Overall, the introduction to historical awareness throughout Blood Work has helped me see that having a new perspective lens to view everything allows for the realization that discoveries have ebbs and flows in