The Sociology Of Healthcare

The Sociology of Healthcare, Second Edition explores the impact of current social changes on health, illness and healthcare, and provides an overview of the fundamental concerns in these areas. This new edition features a brand new chapter entitled End of Life which will help health and social care workers to respond with confidence to one of the most difficult and challenging areas of care. The End of Life chapter includes information on changing attitudes to death, theories of death and dying, and palliative care. All chapters have been thoroughly updated to address diversity issues such as gender, ethnicity and disability. In addition, expanded and updated chapters include Childhood and Adolescence and Health Inequalities. The text is further enhanced through the use of case studies that relate theory to professional practice, and discussion questions to aid understanding. Links to websites direct the reader to further information on health, social wellbeing and government policies. This book is essential reading for all students of healthcare including nursing, medicine, midwifery and health studies and for those studying healthcare as part of sociology, social care and social policy degrees. In an age when health policy follows an individualist model of personal responsibility this book by Alan Clarke demonstrates with a vast array of evidence, just how much there is such a thing as society. An excellent overall book.Dr. Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University

The Sociology of Healthcare, Second Edition explores the impact of current social changes on health, illness and healthcare, and provides an overview of the fundamental concerns in these areas. This new edition features a brand new chapter entitled ‘End of Life’ which will help health and social care workers to respond with confidence to one of the most difficult and challenging areas of care. The ‘End of Life’ chapter includes information on changing attitudes to death, theories of death and dying, and palliative care. All chapters have been thoroughly updated to address diversity issues such as gender, ethnicity and disability. In addition, expanded and updated chapters include ‘Childhood and Adolescence’ and ‘Health Inequalities’. The text is further enhanced through the use of case studies that relate theory to professional practice, and discussion questions to aid understanding. Links to websites direct the reader to further information on health, social wellbeing and government policies. This book is essential reading for all students of healthcare including nursing, medicine, midwifery and health studies and for those studying healthcare as part of sociology, social care and social policy degrees. “In an age when health policy follows an individualist model of “personal responsibility” this book by Alan Clarke demonstrates with a vast array of evidence, just how much there is such a thing as society. An excellent overall book.” Dr. Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University

"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 Care is 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.

Strohschein/Weitz' The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care in Canada: A Critical Approach, first Canadian edition is the first in its field to take a critical approach, challenging students to use their 'sociological imagination' to question previously taken-for-granted aspects about health, illness, and health care. Comprehensive, current, and thoroughly Canadian, the authors consistently encourage students to acquire for themselves the tools needed to see the world around them in a new way. As one of the largest fields in the discipline, the sociology of health and illness is vibrant, theoretically-rich and diverse. As such, The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healthcare in Canada: A Critical Approach places nearly equal balance of the three main areas in the field: the social patterning of health and illness, the social construction of health and illness, and the social organization of health care. It introduces students not only to structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism, but also to more recent theories such as Foucaultian theory, postmodernism, Bourdiesian theory and sociology of the body. The text places considerable effort into evaluating and interpreting the most current available research findings; Canadian statistics; and trends in health, creating a coherent 'story' that will engage students and stimulate active learning and independent thinking. The text's authors contextualize the sociology of health, illness, and healthcare in Canada's political, historical, and cultural landscape. At the same time, the authors examine the lessons to be learned by contrasting the Canadian situation with what occurs in the United States and other countries.

The Sociology of the Health Service responds directly to the need to develop a sociological analysis of current health policy. Topics covered vary from privatisation and health service management to health education and the politics of professional power. Also included is an histroical review of sociology's contributions to health policy and proposals for an agenda for sociological health policy research in the 1990s.

A comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary readings in the sociology of health. The Sociology of Healthcare will stimulate debate, reflexive practice and critical thinking in applied sociology and is aimed at the teaching and learning needs of both lecturers and students.

The Sociology of Healthcare Safety and Quality presents a series of research-informed readings on the sociological contributions of technologies, practices, experiences, and organizational quality and safety across a range of healthcare contexts. Represents the first collection of peer-reviewed research articles showcasing ways that sociology can contribute to the ongoing policy concern of healthcare safety and quality Features original contributions from leading experts in healthcare related fields from three continents Reveals the state-of-the art in sociological analyses of contemporary healthcare safety and quality along with future directions in the field Offers sociological insights from the perspectives of managers, clinicians, and patients