Sociology and Health Care : An Introduction for Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals

by Sheaff, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780335213887
• ISBN10: 033521388X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

"The author's agenda in writing the book was to provoke critical thinking and awareness and to move beyond the simplistic rhetoric that so often characterizes much of public debate on health care matters.I have no doubt that he has achieved these aims...and more." Sociology Volume 43, Number 3, June 2009"Sociology & Health Care is easy to read and offers an introduction into selected, but key areas, of the sociology of health and illness. It is a useful book for health care students as well as health care workers who are interested in the social aspects of their work, their job and how it all fits into the wider society." Sociological Research Online Are patients 'customers'? What does this mean for the patient-practitioner relationship? What should the relationship be between expert knowledge and our own experiences when dealing with health and illness? Do people who are better off get better access to health care? Debates about the future of health care bring questions about patient choice, paternalism and inequalities to the fore. This book addresses some of the sociological issues surrounding these questions including:The social distribution of knowledge The basis of professional power Sources of social inequalities in health The ability of health care services to address these issues The book provides suggestions and examples of how sociological concepts and insights can be used to help think about important contemporary issues in health care. For that reason, it has a practical as well as academic purpose, contributing to improvement of the quality of interaction between patients and practitioners. The core themes running throughout the book are inequalities in health and the rise of chronic disease, with particular attention being given to psycho-social models of illness which locate individual experiences within wider social relationships.Sociology and Health Careis key reading for student nurses and those on allied health courses, and also appeals to a wide range of professionals who are interested in current debates in health and social care.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	x
Preface	xi
PART 1 Health care and the social distribution of knowledge	1	(110)
Health care and the `sociological imagination'	3	(20)
What makes this book different?	4	(1)
Themes of the book	5	(1)
Theory and practice	6	(3)
The personal and the social	9	(4)
Facts and values	13	(2)
Understanding society	15	(5)
Structure of the book	20	(3)
Whose knowledge matters?	23	(19)
Patients, knowledge and choice	23	(1)
Being a customer	24	(2)
Knowledge, choice and the MMR vaccine	26	(3)
Experience and knowledge	29	(1)
Science, reason and the Enlightenment	30	(2)
Science, illness and patients	32	(1)
Max Weber and rationality	33	(2)
Rationality and choice	35	(2)
Science, experts and problems of trust	37	(3)
Commercial interests and medicine	40	(2)
Science, values, emotion and tradition	42	(21)
Values and utilitarian calculation	43	(7)
Health care and the role of emotions	50	(5)
Health and the role of traditional beliefs	55	(2)
Defining `health problems'	57	(3)
Illness and its social setting	60	(1)
Relationships between science, values, emotion and tradition	61	(2)
Diagnosis, meaning and experience	63	(27)
Diagnosis as a `personal trouble'	64	(3)
Diagnosis as a `public issue'	67	(3)
Illness and deviance: Talcott Parsons	70	(4)
Illness and stigma: Erving Goffman	74	(4)
Illness and `medicalization': Irving Zola and Ivan Illich	78	(5)
From medicalization to commercialization?	83	(4)
Choice, power and knowledge	87	(3)
Patients, clients and professionals	90	(21)
The `sick role' and the legacy of paternalism	90	(5)
Paediatric Cardiac Services Inquiry	95	(1)
Alder Hey Inquiry	96	(2)
Styles of decision making	98	(1)
The informed patient	98	(4)
The expert patient	102	(2)
Consumerism and the patient as `customer'	104	(7)
PART 2 Health care and the social distribution of illness	111	(111)
Society, health and health care	113	(15)
A social history of infection	113	(5)
Clinical medicine in the late twentieth century	118	(1)
Social medicine and psychosocial medicine	119	(2)
Post-revolution health and health care in Cuba	121	(2)
Clinical consultations and social problems	123	(2)
Empowering or controlling the patient?	125	(1)
The social context of personal control	126	(2)
The social distribution of health	128	(25)
Health inequalities today	129	(1)
Do health inequalities matter?	129	(2)
Inequalities, risk and probability	131	(3)
Responding to health inequalities	134	(1)
The re-emergence of psychosocial explanations	135	(2)
Social relationships and work and control	137	(1)
Social class and health	138	(5)
Income, poverty and health	143	(1)
The concept of relative poverty	144	(2)
The social distribution of health	146	(1)
Health and the role of lifestyle factors	147	(4)
Health: rights and responsibility	151	(2)
Society, relationships and health	153	(22)
Intimacy and confiding relationships	153	(5)
Social relationships and community	158	(10)
Wider, societal relationships	168	(7)
Work, control and health	175	(21)
Marx and the `work-life' balance	175	(2)
Marx on working hours and health	177	(2)
Health and control in the workplace	179	(2)
Marx: work control and alienation	181	(2)
Taylorism and the `deskilling thesis'	183	(1)
Health, work and unemployment	184	(3)
Health care hierarchies and control	187	(5)
Markets and networks	192	(4)
Inequality and access to health care	196	(26)
The inverse-care law	196	(2)
Are health services accessed equitably?	198	(5)
Inequalities in chronic illness	203	(5)
Inequality and seeking professional help	208	(2)
Ethnicity, health care and `institutional racism'	210	(4)
Health care: making a difference	214	(8)
Conclusion: Choice, trust and responsibility	222	(5)
Contracts for health care?	223	(4)
Appendix: Marx, Weber and Durkheim	227	(7)
References	234	(12)
Index	246