Parson’s sick role is a description of social expectations for the sick individual (Freund et al., 127). This model is useful in some roles, but also has theoretical weaknesses. This essay will briefly describe the sick role and its weaknesses by introducing a counterexample. I will challenge the usefulness of the sick role through the disease Type 2 diabetes and describe why it would not apply to this sickness. The expectations within the sick role are: 1) It was not the individual’s intention to get sick so they are not held responsible, 2) The sickness is a legitimate reason to be excused from normal obligations, 3) Being excused is permissible so long as the individual intends to get better, and 4) Getting better means seek and cooperating …show more content…
The temporal issue with the sick role is that illness can be acute or chronic. Acute is a short-term ailment, whereas chronic is often a lifelong illness the individual must learn to cope and adapt with (Freund et al., 128). With chronic ailments being long-term, it knocks the balance off the model in part of the illness making the deviance a permanent resident that the individual is often partly to blame for. Voluntarily accepting the sick role is not always apparent because both the patient and a provider must be in mutual agreement on the prognosis (Freund et al, 130). Some social factors, such as the ability to afford care or to avoid negative stigma associated with an illness, may disrupt this mutual understanding by discouraging the individual to reject or deny their reality. These factors can also correlate in the variation of legitimacy of a sickness based on social class or job sector. With the points regarding theoretical weaknesses, it can be applied to Type 2 diabetes as an example of how the sick role would not be applicable to this …show more content…
This illness falls under as a lifelong condition a patient must continuously manage. Often times, patients may be held partially responsible for this condition based on their dietary intake and daily lifestyle. While a mutual understanding can be established between the individual and their care provider, legitimacy for deviance can be complicated. Based on their socioeconomic status, a diabetic individual may face the challenges of being unable to maintain care whether it is due to high medications costs or produce costs at the market. Substantial work hours or other daily obligations may not allow a balanced incorporation of health management into someone’s life until their condition worsens. These factors illustrate how Type 2 diabetes is not easily described using Parson’s sick role because of its various complexities on a diabetic’s life that is not readily accounted for in the
I chose not to use any of the prompts provided, but instead connect the article to what I learned in my sociology class lass quarter. In class we watched part one of film series of Unnatural causes, titled Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick "In Sickness and in Wealth". While reading the article this reminded me about the cases studied in the film to see whether wealth inequality contributes to making people sick. In the film they focused on the social determinants of health, wealth and education. In both the article and part one of the film Unnatural Causes they focused on three different individuals and how their health are affected by they choices they make and the access they have to care.
Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 44(9), 406. doi:10.3928/00220124-20130617-38. Torpy, J. M. (2011). The 'Standard' Diabetes. Jama, 305(24), 2592 pp.
through the illness not being identified as an illness, is a social stigma and inadequate
Possible benefits are if a patient eats his or her breakfast and his or her blood sugar returns to normal. However, there are applications in the computer where a diabetic educator is able to view when a patient had low blood sugar and it was not rechecked in a timely manner to ensure that the blood glucose returned to normal. Managers are often being talked to by diabetic educators, because nursing staff at times decide to use their own judgment when treating low blood sugars rather than following the hospital protocol, and then nurses are forced to explain their decisions. Thus, the importance of documenting and ensuring a patient’s blood glucose has returned to normal, even though the flow chart was not implemented, is often emphasized. Discussion B Describe an ethical dilemma that could occur in your organization.
The sickness is not something that affects the human body but it is the poverty, violence, unaffordable healthcare, housing crises, food scarcity, and health stigma that has become normal in society. By placing a high value on health and healthcare, the patriarchal society we live in has been able to set a value on people. Thus those which are considered inferior to begin with, such as racial minorities, women or queer people, have a bigger disadvantage. The persons worth is then measured in the ability to sell labor, mediated by identity, and defines our access to the basic needs of life, those who are sick are seen as expendable in exchange of the interest of those who are "well". Hedva states, "To stay alive, capitalism cannot be responsible for our care… its logic of exploitation requires that some of us die” (2015).
This model considers other aspects of an individual 's life such as their culture and environment. Unlike the biomedical model, the social model tries to prevent the disease in the first place, so it focuses more on educating people and health promotion. The biomedical looks at an individual’s physical disease but the social model also looks at a person’s well-being. According to Stephan Sutton, Andrew Baum and Marie Johnston (2004) the SAGE Handbook of Health psychology ‘a combination of high psychological demands, such as time pressure and low decision latitude increases the risk of psychophysiological stress reactions and subsequent ill
Pincus, T., Esther, R., DeWalt, D.A., & Callahan, L.F., (1998) Social conditions and self-management are more powerful determinants of health than access to care. Ann Intern Med. 1998 Sep 1;129(5):406-11.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease defined by high blood glucose concentration, also known as hyperglycemia (Mertig, 2012). Hyperglycemia is the result of having a problem with insulin release and/or a problem with insulin action. In other words, a person living with diabetes produces little to no insulin (type 1 diabetes) or does not have the ability to utilize efficiently the insulin produced (type 2 diabetes) (Mertig, 2012). Diabetes is a growing epidemic in the United States. In an effort to better manage and reduce the incidence of diabetes, researchers dedicate an enormous amount of time each year trying to gain a stronger understanding of the disease (Philis-Tsimikas and Decker, 2011). After all, the long term complications of uncontrolled diabetes (i.e. blindness, renal failure, heart disease, amputations, etc) can be devastating and needs to be prevented and/or controlled (Mertig, 2012). Individuals living with diabetes need to incorporate nutritional management, physical activity, compliance with medications, proper monitoring of blood sugars, self education and most importantly actively participate in their own diabetes care. According to Inzucchi et al, a patient centered approach is best and means, “Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.” An approach proven to be effective in managing diabetes is the diabetes self-management education (DSME) approach. DSME is a “patient centered” approach that actively involves the client in all aspects of their diabetes care and provides the necessary tools to encourage self-directed growth. A huge part of the DSME approach is the client’s diet,...
Health as a Social Construction In my essay, I aim to find out why social construction affects the health of our society. Ill health may be defined as 'a bodily or mental state that is deemed undesirable'. This means that health is the condition of the body both physically and mentally. Social construction of health refers to the way health varies from one society to another.
Almost everyone knows someone who has diabetes. Studies show that diabetes affects 23.6 million people-7.8 percent of the U.S. population. Being diagnosed with diabetes may cause changes in some people’s lives. You can never just look at a diabetic and understand the things that they go through on a daily basis. A question you may ask yourself is, “What is the life of a diabetic like?”
When living with a long-term health condition it can for some people present them with many new challenges. Not only does it take time for them to adapt and accept their illness but also they may feel affected not just physically, but psychologically, culturally, and sometimes even personally such as financial or relationships with family and friends. In this essay, I will examine in turn the main challenges people with diabetes face.
This also requires the person to be socially and economically productive in order to be seen as healthy. According to Mildred Blaxter (1990), there are different ways of defining health. Furthermore, disease can be seen as the presence of an abnormality in part of the body or where there is a harmful physical change in the body such as broken bones. So, illness is the physical state of disease, that is to say, the symptoms that a person feels because of the disease. However, there is some limitation of these definitions which is not merely an absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing.
Parson’s sick role generalizes today’s modern-day view of the sick role. It is the role given to those who experience illness beyond the physical condition of a sick state- it constitutes a social role because behaviors are shaped by institutional expectations and reinforced by the norms of society. It's based on the assumption that being sick is not deliberate or a choice of that person. According to Parsons, the sick role requires an ill person to fulfil a series of obligations to gain many rights. They are obliged to: Seek medical advice, cooperate with medical experts and therapists throughout their illness, want to get well as quickly as possible (Cockerham, 2016). In return for fulfilling these obligations they are exempt from social responsibilities and self-care, which are taken upon by family and friends. These rights, however, are granted only when a recognized medical authority, such as a doctor, acknowledges the person’s illness. Some illnesses do not justify people claiming all the rights of the sick role. For example, minor ailments may be self-treated and should not require time off work. In such circumstances, an inappropriate adoption of the sick role puts a strain on this social contract and may be met with a lack of sympathy from family and careers. This reaction can also occur when people who are genuinely sick fail to follow prescribed medical advice (Parsons,
Diabetes is a common disease, which can be a serious, life-long illness caused by high levels of glucose in the blood. This condition is when the body cannot produce insulin or lack of insulin production from the beta cells in the islet of Langerhans in the pancreas. Diabetes can cause other health problems over time. Eye, kidneys, and nerves can get damaged and chances of stroke are always high. Because of the serious complications, the purposes of teaching a plan for diabetes patients are to optimize blood glucose control, optimize quality of life, and prevent chronic and potentially life-threatening complications.
Introduction: For this essay I am going to critically discuss the biomedical model as well as the social model of health and how they both relate to the lay perspectives on health and illness.