Portrayal Of American Medicine

The readings this week solidified many long standing questions that I’ve had about the healthcare system, and further proved to me just how flawed it is. The introduction and chapter four from The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr established a framework and common language surrounding how the current healthcare system came to be. The introduction specifically heavily focused on the concept of authority and how cultural and societal authority differ and work to strengthen an individual's power. Following this intro, the fourth chapter serves to provide the reader with baseline historical context on how hospitals and physicians have evolved from voluntary institutions into for-profit corporations. Using these chapters as foundational knowledge Gambles chapter gains new nuances to the need for Black hospitals to be established, and the competing forces that were at work to ensure their failure.

In order to understand current health delivery services changes and formulate predictions, one must thoroughly comprehend the three developmental eras of the health care system. The evolution of our current health care system began in 1850, and has metamorphosed in three time periods, 1850 to 1900, 1900 to World War II (WW II), and WW II to 2009. Significant distinct and overlapping trends in disease prevalence, availability of health care resources, social organizations, and the public's knowledge and perception of health and illness and technology.

The paper will discuss the evolution of health care in America and how it has affected the health care system today. It will discuss the advancements made in technology and medical services that have evolved over two centuries. It will review how health care delivery has evolved and impacted today’s health system. The delivery of medical services has changed over many decades. The culture, social economics, and political views, have influenced society on how the medical services and advancements in medical technology have evolved. The three phases of health care structural change is preindustrial era, postindustrial era, corporate era (Shi & Singh, 2013).

Escape Fire: The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke addressed many issues seen in the American Healthcare system that have gone uncorrected for years. The importance of primary care physicians was noted and this view continued to make more and more sense as the film went on. The lifestyle choices that Americans are and have been making do not promote wellness and actually make the jobs of primary care physicians much more difficult. Also discussed in the film, was the severe issue of the overuse of narcotics in the military. The thought that alternative therapies can actually make a significant difference in people’s lives is to most people something that sounds completely insane. But, these therapies have been working for those that need them most. What truly impacted me during the film was how interconnected all of our problems in the American healthcare system are. The fixes seem to be possible and not as difficult as some would have others believe. After seeing this film I feel that I have gained a new respect and understanding of the system that I will be a part of in the not too distant future.

The delivery of the U.S. healthcare system has changed drastically over the years from the inception of organized healthcare to today’s underdeveloped system. Prior to the 1920’s,

emerge as a professional entity until the beginning of the 20th century, with the progress in biomedical science. Since then, the

Second women in medicine until the 19th century women were excluded from almost all professional medicine. Yet they provided almost all medical care. Ordinary people could not afford qualified doctors, treatment and care were provided by the woman of the house, or by a local woman skilled in the art of healing. In prehistoric, hunter-gatherer societies, women could not hunt if they were bearing or caring for children, so they collected plants and grubs. It is probable that the women had greater knowledge of the healing powers of herbs, although evidence is slight. Mothers passed down their knowledge to their daughters. In Western Europe, especially skilled healers were highly respected as ‘cunning’ wise women. Sometimes their herbal knowledge was confused with witchcraft. As most people were illiterate, there are very few records of women 's huge contribution to medicine. The surviving records were written by men, and concentrate on the all-male medical profession. In the 19th century there was a dramatic change in the status of women. Until this time, men controlled all ‘civilized’ societies. In Christian countries men used arguments from the Bible to justify women 's inferior status. Women were expected to be housewives and mothers, and were deliberately excluded from almost all other types of work. For example, by the 17th century, even professional midwives were male. In 19th-century Europe, women began to enter the male-dominated world. In

There are four evolutionary phases in healthcare. The first phase was the preindustrial era, which started in the middle 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. At this time, American medicine was not developing as fast as other countries; in Britain, France, and Germany, medical science and research was much more advanced than America. The postindustrial era began in the late 19th century, physicians in America were becoming more successful than others in the world. The third phase was the corporate era, which was marked by the growth of managed care, organizational integration, the information revolution and globalization. Finally, the fourth phase is the one in which we are in today, it is still fairly new and is characterized by the health care reform, which was brought about by the Affordable Care Act.

What aspects and characteristics of American health care of the 18th and 19th centuries have had a major impact on shaping today’s U.S. health care system?”

In this paper, I want to talk about what kind of roles the physicians are playing in regulating access to reproductive choice in the United States of America. My focus in this paper is how some doctors are trying to encourage the middle-class heterosexual whites to have reproduction while discouraging the people of color, and gays and lesbians. I want to argue that a lot of American doctors are trying to use their cultural authority as a profession to promote their own preferred family ideal. There are still a lot of discriminations in the United States against women with different social status because there are decent amount of physicians trying to promote the “appropriate reproduction”. For example, race and sexual orientation are continuing to have big impact on the reproductive care offered to and received by women. This paper indicates how doctors exert their power in area like birth. Among all the problems we have, questions regarding to what constitutes appropriate childbearing are at the forefront.

The improvement of medicine over the course of the human successes gave great convenience to the people of today. Science has cured and prevented many illnesses from occurring and is on its way to cure some of the most dreadful and harmful illnesses. As the world modernizes due to the industrialization, so does the ways of medicine. Some cures are approached by chance, some, through intense, scientific measures.

The field of medicine has been constantly progressing through the centuries with surgery, as one of its most fundamental structure of medicine. Cutting people open to find the harm and relieving them of it. But as the field of surgery progress over time; the surgical environment has developed a gender sphere that makes it difficult for women to become surgeons. The glass ceiling is a political metaphor that exists to explain the gender disadvantages within disciplined jobs (The Glass Ceiling Effect*). Women today, regardless of their qualifications face an obstacle that “appear[s] to be a distinctively gender phenomenon” (1) in any highly disciplined jobs, especially in the field of surgery.

Gender roles were sharply defined in the 19th century. Women were expected to stay at home and carry out the domestic duties as well as taking care of the children and educate them and provide a peaceful home for their husband. Women were seen as loving and caring. On the other hand, men were expected to work and earn money for the family. They would fight wars and were seen as strong and powerful. Men had more freedom and rights, such as the right to vote, than women in the 19th century. Society had created two completely separate spheres. In the medical field, men were doctors. There were laws in many states, such as, that prohibited women from becoming doctors. Women, who decided to practice medicine in the 19th century had to struggle with much opposition because it went against prevailing ideas about women’s role in society. Women belonged in the private and domestic sphere. Men belonged to competitive and immoral public sphere of industry and commerce. The women in medicine would face accusations that they were abandoning their sphere and threatening society. Due to these arguments and the fear of economic competition from female practitioner, male medical schools and hospitals denied women access to institutions. However, Elizabeth Blackwell, changed this idea of separate spheres when she decided to take on the medical field and become a doctor. Although Elizabeth Black had a natural aversion to the medical field, her

Progression through these eras resulted in the improvement of health strategies and interventions, allowing for the United States to be proactive in their preparation efforts of disease, rather than reactive to the imminent threat to human health and safety. The 20th century was the single most advancing era of public health in history, changing not only the world of medicine as we know it, but changing public perception of the world they live in .

Doctors comprise approximately 0.29% of the population in the United States; there is roughly one doctor for every 300 people (“Percent”). After spending eight rigorous years in college alone, doctor's them complete a three to seven year residency, during which they work an average of 59.6 hours per week (“Degree”). Doctors work incredibly hard for 12 plus years, all so that they can help those who would otherwise remain in poor health. A hero is defined as, “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities: a person who is greatly admired,” (“Hero”). Doctors can be categorized as heroes because they show characteristics of altruism, ambition, and confidence.