Medical Dominance : Power And Hierarchy

Healthcare systems are microcosms of the larger society in which they exist. Where there is structural violence or cultural violence in the larger society, so will there be evidence of systematic inequities in the institutions of these societies. The healthcare system in Australia is one example—from a plethora of similarly situated healthcare systems—in which the color of a patient’s skin or the race of his parents may determine the quality of medical received. Life expectancy and infant mortality rates are vastly different for non-Aboriginal, Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islanders residing in Australia. The life expectancy of Aboriginal men is 21 years shorter than for non-Aboriginal men in Australia. For women, the difference is

In the sociology of medicine Parson (1951) regarded medicine as functional in social terms. By tackling the person’s problems in medical terms the tendency towards deviance that was represented by ill health could be safely directed, until they could return to their normal self. (Lawrence 1994: p 64-65: BMJ 2004: Parson cited in Gabe, Bury & Elston 2006, p 127).

Nursing got defined according to the meta-paradigm for its ability to develop and sustain a connection and concern, which gets exhibited through the existence of a strong relationship between the patients and the nurses. According to Masters, (206), nursing gets views as the nature of care and the research into the illness, health and disease, and the relationship between the three aspects of a patient’s body. In my position as a Registered Nurse, we engaged in various missions aimed at checking the wellness of patients and the sustainable healthcare of the patients.

“The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised effort of society” (Acheson 1988).

It can be a positive or negative effect, having and using power depending on how it is controlled by the individual. Positive effect is to facilitate treatment and negative is preventing access to services, due to pre-existing conditions such as mental health. Power and control operate on varying levels and service users may recognise that the professionals due to their knowledge and expertise have the power. Social and cultural expectations can affect balance of power in health. Peterson and Bunton stated that there was a desire to identify, control and eliminate disease’ (2000, pg 9). In conjunction with the growth of medicine and science came the medical model. This approach focuses on the individual having dysfunction and treating identified health issues. Welshman suggested it was created to respond to socially upsetting or disruptive phenomena’ (2006, pg 9). The

Public health is positioned as one in light of the fact that public health is central to 21st century medicinal services and shares the same general objectives as whatever is left of the health care framework - lessening sudden death and minimizing the impacts of ailment, incapacity, and damage furthermore gives financial and social advantages to the area, due to some degree to expanded profit.

Throughout this essay an evaluation will be deducted on the health inequalities among Australians. Secondly, a further evaluation to appraise and identify the causes, scope and impact on the health and well-being of [the] individual (s), families and community. Thirdly, describe the paradigms and accountabilities that Government and non-Government Organisations [NGO] assume across community services and health sectors to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians. Additionally, reviewing the over-all health and wellbeing issues from service- operators and counselors to assist in the ongoing [future] development of better health-care for Australians. Finally, differentiate professional practices and reactions to appropriated community

This report will be investigating the various sociological perspectives on health as well as the models and definitions of health and ill health. These topics will assist in the understanding of how different people and different cultures react to ill health.

“Running a health care organization is a team sport. It is very important that all members of the team-whether on the medical staff, in management or on the board-understand the role of governance and what constitutes effective governance” (Arnwine, 2002). Running a hospital is a difficult task. Several factors need to be seriously thought of and considered in every decision and undertaking. Unfortunately, all the three important factors in governing a hospital is not always in harmony. As likened to a team sport, if the three major components are not working with each other as a team, there will be tension and a great divide will be experienced. And often times, the patients will be in the middle and will be greatly impacted. This writer believes that there are several factors that contribute to the tension that usually exists among the medical staff, the board and administration. One factor is the disconnect, where each entity is not seeing each other eye to eye and their visions may be different from each other. Another factor may be the lack of communication in order to bridge the gap and to build a respectful and a relationship wherein there is trust for each end every member of the group. Often times, the medical staff is concerned with ensuring that patients are cared for in a manner that their practice is protected as well as the patients are getting the appropriate care. On the other hand, the board of trustees may be focused in ensuring that that

This essay aims to clarify the historical, political and socio-cultural influences which have helped to shape healthcare and healthcare access in Australian society. This essay will also help identify the issues or concerns related to academic writing which is very important for University students. This essay will help build up a good understanding of Academic writing. Another important thing is related with the context of this essay. The main focus of this essay is influence of healthcare in Australian society which is grouped under three categories i.e. Historical, Political and

The “Sociological Perspective on Health and the Health Care” introduced perspectives about social structure, and social relations. The readers learn the sociological theory and the main misconceptions related to health care, and their policies. It provides an explanation of the production and the distribution of health care services. Firstly, structural functionalism focuses on individuals and groups in society and how it maintains a social role. Furthermore, symbolic interactionism focus on the conflicts in interaction amongst individuals. Moreover, social constructionism focuses on the medical facts and social authority and the reign over all in society. Also, gender and race influence the social conditions, and implications evident in Canadian health. Class conflicts with the control of power and the relationship between the employers and employees. It enhances the inequality evident in workplaces and the social stratification; ranking one by their assets. Materialism portrays that society is a social consensus rather than a conflict. However, this conflicts between the rich and the poor. Therefore, the healthcare impacts the minority, and affects it the most. Since the rich have an advantage of other options, however the minority struggles to afford private health care or buy their way around. Furthermore, the Marxist theory and oppression focuses on the exploitation by capitalism. It emphasizes on

The conceptualisation of medicine as an institution of societal control was first theorised by Parsons (1951), and from this stemmed the notion of the deviant termed illness in which the “sick role” was a legitimised condition. The societal reaction and perspective was deemed a pillar of the emerging social construction of disease and conception of the formalised medical model of disease. Concerns surrounding medicalisation fundamentally stem from the fusion of social and medical concerns wherein the lines between the two are gradually blurred and the the social consequences of the proliferation of disease diagnosis that results from such ambiguities of the social medical model.

This paper will focus on the differences and conflicts between doctors and midwifes. Doctors have been been the lead care providers for women for hundreds of years. Just short of one-hundred years ago Mary Breckinridge became the first midwife in the united states. Today there doctors and midwives have an ongoing feud. Many doctors feel as if midwives are uneducated and are not trained enough to provide health care to women, and do not agree with their more natural approach to child birth. However there conflict is slowly but surly being resolved, as many health care facilities are allowing midwives to have more authority in the work place. Secondly, this paper will go over the differences between doctors and midwives, many people are uneducated

Townsend and Davidson (1988) also suggested that the term health is derived from the word “whole”, which is a recipient of the healing process. Therefore, an attempt to heal or cure in medical field literally means, to make whole or restore health. It is this idea that influences medicine to adopt a mechanistic approach towards disease management thereby obscuring the understanding of health in human context of well-being, which advocates for alternative or complementary approaches. This viewpoint also reflects in some definitions and the medical model discussed above. The criticisms of the medical by Illich (1974) is that the medical view only deals with the cause of disease or illness rather than the external factors affecting the person’s health. Within different sections of medicine, for example the mental health department, there are marked differences when explaining the origin of illness, disease and treatments.

The treatment of physical and mental problems has undergone a rapid change in the past few decades. An increasing number of bodily and behavioural symptoms now have a recognised medical diagnosis and corresponding treatment. Sociologists have attributed these changes to the process of medicalization, wherein “non-medical problems come to be defined and treated as if they were medical issues” (McLennan, McManus & Spoonley 2009: 271). Medicalization is an ongoing, gradual process which occurs through the social construction of new diseases by groups such as health professionals (Conrad 2007: 4). It can be argued that medicalization is an active and passive process by which diseases are constructed in an attempt to find treatments for patients; and that diseases can be ‘socially’ constructed as well as ‘corporately’ constructed by companies to create a profitable market of consumers. At the micro level of society, medicalization in the Western world has been influenced by liberal notions of individualization which has extended to some parts of the health sector. At the macro level, medicalization has been buoyed by the process of the professionalization, expansion of state monopoly over the health profession and religious and political social movements. Although some academics argue that the medicalization of society is less significant than the process of “de-medicalization”, there is clear evidence that the process of medicalization is intensifying and outstripping the rate