Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212
Happiness Interview
Me: How do you define happiness?
Dr.: Wow, that’s a tough one. Let me think for a minute. I think happiness is being able to laugh and have a smile on your face at any time throughout the day and allowing that to influence others by encouraging them to have a smile on their face or making them smile via the things you do for them (compliment, joke, task etc). Is that a silly answer?
Me: No, I think that is a great answer. I have never looked at it as smiling, but now that you say that, I completely agree. What do you believe makes other people happy?
Dr.: A lot of things can make other people happy, such as saying nice things to them and being kind in every task that you do for other people. When people are surrounded by those they love and care about, I think that makes a lot of people happy. In many cases, being sincere and appraising people when they do good things can make them feel good about themselves and in turn will make them happy.
Me: Do you think happiness is important?
Dr.: Yes, very important!
Me: Why do you think that?
Dr.: Well I have a couple answers for this. First off, sadness is not fun at all! A positive attitude and mood not only is good for an individual in regards to their health and well-being, but other for other around them. Happiness is able to be spread from one person to the next based on their mood each day. Also, happiness can lead to very successful relationships in an individual’s life, especially marriage. These relationships will ultimately lead to a better well-being for the individual.
Me: I really like all of those. You are giving great answers and I like hearing the insight from you especially since I want to be a physician in the future. So more specifically, what makes you happy?
Dr.: I have so many things that make me happy, the first one being my husband! The other things include vacation, helping people, sunshine, shopping and definitely other happy people. It also makes me very happy when people thank me for helping them, because not all patients and their family members are pleasant to work with.
Me: Does your job bring you happiness?
Dr.: Of course it does. I look forward to going to work every day.
Me: What characteristics of your job bring you happiness?
Dr.: Well, my job brings me happiness in many forms. Not only do I get to save people’s lives, but I get to help people in any way I can every time I come to work. When I receive positive feedback from patients and their family members it also makes me very happy because I know I made a difference in both of their lives, even if it was just a very small one.
Me: Do you think in general that most people are happy?

Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212
Dr.: I would say that yes, in general most people are happy. I’m basing this off of the people that
I am surrounded by every day. My colleagues and many other people I am surrounded by are happy. However, since I work in the ER, many people that I see on a daily basis are unhappy and these tend to be the people that stick out in my mind. If you think about it, not many people tend to remember all of the happy people that they encounter in a day, but I know that I definitely remember the ones that were not very nice, which seems odd. I feel like we should be remembering the happy people and forgetting about the people who appeared sad or mean.
Me: Honestly, I have never even really thought of it like that. But now that you mention it, I completely agree. I tend to only remember the negative encounters I have with people throughout the day because they make me upset, instead of remembering all of the positive things and people I encountered that day. Great point! Do you find yourself being happier when others around you are happy?
Dr.: Yes, definitely. Like I said, many of my colleagues are very happy each day and if I am in a bad mood, they always tend to cheer me up. Happiness is contagious and when other people around you are happy, you really can’t help it but to be happy yourself. I think that I am a pretty happy person and when other people are around me, they tend to be happier too.
Me: Well, that is all of the questions I have for you. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me and answer them. I think my paper is going to turn out great!
Dr.: It was no problem at all, anything I can do to help you out, you know that.
Interview Questions:
1.
How do you define happiness?
2.
What do you believe makes other people happy?
3.
Do you think happiness is important? If so, why?
4.
What makes you happy?
5.
Does your job bring you happiness? If so, what characteristics do?
6.
Do you think in general most people are happy?
7.
Do you find yourself being happier when others around you are happy?

Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212
As a future physician, I thought it would be interesting to get insight on a current female physician’s thoughts on happiness and what makes her happy. Dr. Nicole McCadie is in her third year as an emergency room physician at Covenant Hospital in Saginaw. She received her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and continued her education at Lake Erie
College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. McCadie is a very young, successful physician that always has a smile on her face when I see her around the hospital. Although I’m not sure if I want to be an emergency physician in the future, I look to Dr. McCadie as a role model and a mentor. She is able to influence, and even save hundreds of people’s lives with her knowledge and skills throughout each year. Dr. McCadie is an intelligent, happy and successful woman at the age of
33. She has already accomplished so much in her short career and she has inspired me to try and do the same as I pursue my goals of becoming a medical physician.
A physician’s life is very hectic, and she is recently married so scheduling a time to sit down and talk was no easy task. However, we were able to find time to talk after a shift were we were scheduled to work together. Currently, I am a scribe in the emergency department at
Covenant Hospital. A scribe follows a physician and completes all of the documentation on various patients in their medical chart. Prior to our shift, I asked Dr. McCadie if it would be okay with her to conduct the interview at the end of our shift when we no longer had patients to see, and she agreed. She seemed excited to talk after our shift and it gave both of us something to look forward to at the end of a stressful day. The interview was conducted at Covenant Hospital
Emergency Room in the physician “fish bowl” (area with all the computers where the physician’s sit). We were scheduled to work a night shift on February 13, 2014, so the interview took place at around 2:30 AM, near the end of the shift. Since I have built a relationship with Dr.
McCadie over the past year in the hospital, it is a very familiar and comfortable environment for

Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212 both of us. This allowed the interview to be a little more relaxed and allowed the conversation to be more intimate because it was more like we were just talking about happiness, like we would any other subject. I think this helped both of us be completely honest with each other and encouraged her to answer all of the questions about her personal happiness.
To begin the interview, I explained to Dr. McCadie the purpose of the interview and the writing assignment that I had to complete using her answers to the interview questions. After having her sign the consent form, I asked her the first question of how she defines happiness. At first, she did not really know how to answer the question. She thought for a few moments then replied with, “I think happiness is being able to laugh and have a smile on your face at any time throughout the day.” While she was answering the question, I could tell that there was a small amount of uncertainty in her voice, like she was not sure if that was the answer that I wanted to hear. She then added on to her answer and included, “…using that smile and laughter to bring happiness to other people.” As a physician, Dr. McCadie is able to bring happiness to patients by helping them feel better and improve their quality of life in any way that she can. When I asked her what she believes makes other people happy, she turned to what she experiences every day in order to answer the question. She replied with simple actions that can be done in order to make others happy, such as giving compliments, praising others for completing tasks, being sincere and in general showing kindness to one another. I admired that Dr. McCadie looked at all of the small and simple things that can be done in order to make other people happy, something that many people seem to overlook. Part of Dr. McCadie’s role as a physician is to be concerned about the health and well-being of others on a daily basis. When I asked her if she believes happiness is important, she was very quick to respond with “Yes, very important.” She then began to explain that sadness is not fun for anybody and that people with positive attitudes make

Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212 other people around them much happier. These thoughts were then followed by the aspect of happiness in regards to creating more successful relationships and overall improving the wellbeing of a person’s life. While I was listening to Dr. McCadie answer this question, I could hear the passion in her voice and the expression on her face made me realize how strongly she believed in the words she was saying. She supports the belief that happiness can lead to a healthier lifestyle and improve the quality of life for individuals who choose to be happy.
For the next section of the interview, I wanted to dig a little deeper and learn the things that make her happy both as a person and as a physician. The next question I asked her was,
“What makes you happy?” She immediately got a huge smile on her face and quickly answered,
“My husband.” After that, she began talking about other material things and activities that make her happy, such as shopping, taking vacations and the sunshine. The last portion of her answer showed me why she enjoys being a physician. She stated that helping people and the gratitude that she gets from patients and their families after helping them also makes her very happy. This answer led me straight into my next question, which inquired about her job bringing her happiness. Again, Dr. McCadie immediately got a smile on her face and reported that her job brings her happiness every day. She is able to save lives on a daily basis and receive the positive feedback from patients and their families. Being able to know that you helped somebody and then listen to them thank you for everything you have done, is a very rewarding experience and helps physicians forget about all of the bad things that may happen throughout their day at work.
I see this happen on a daily basis and to see the look on the physician’s faces during that time is truly amazing and motivates me to work harder and one day follow in their footsteps.
To conclude the interview, I wanted to ask Dr. McCadie about her general opinion and her feelings about happiness. The first question I asked her was if she thought most people, in

Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212 general, were happy. I was very surprised by the answer she gave me. Although she reported that she thinks in general that most people are happy, such as her colleagues and other people around her, working in the ER is not exactly the happiest place you could work. Most people come to the ER because they are very sick and during those times, not many people are happy until you improve their situation and make them feel better. She then talked about how even though you may experience many happy things throughout the day, the unhappy or mean people or the negative events that occurred during the work day are always the ones that you remember most. I have never really thought about this aspect of being a physician until she pointed this out to me, and after some thought, I noticed this is something that applies to everyday life. We all seem to dwell on or remember the negative things that happened during the day, instead of forgetting about them and focusing on all of the positive things and happy people that were encountered. I thought that this was a great response and it really made me consider the events that take place during my day and how they make me feel. My last question for Dr. McCadie was whether or not she thought happiness was contagious. Again, her response was an immediate “yes”. Not only does she believe that her colleagues make her happier when she is down, but she also thinks that she is able to improve the moods of other people when she is happy. I admire that her response addressed the fact that she can make others happy. Many times people look to external things to make them happy, and seldom do they realize that they can have a drastic impact on other people’s moods around them.
Throughout this process, I have learned that happiness can be defined in many different ways and found in many different things. Talking with Dr. McCadie opened my eyes, and allowed me to understand that happiness is something that is not uniform among people. In order to experience true happiness in our lives, we must seek the things that bring us happiness and

Stephanie Coates
2-18-14
English 212 pursue those with great passion. She also stressed that there is much more to being happy than looking to material things or relying on other people to make you happy. Happiness can come from anything, but in order to be truly happy, it must start from within. Although I agree with many of the things we talked about, I also found the understanding that it is important to find the things that are truly important and the things that bring me happiness. Dr. McCadie is someone that I will always look to as a role model in the medical field, but after our conversation she is also someone I know I will be able to look to as a role model for life, and most importantly, happiness.