Holmes explained that he was really concerned with both theorizing social categories and their relationships with bodies and with the possibility that suffering might be alleviated in a more respectful, egalitarian, and effective manner. Additionally, he cites Kleinman’s writings on illness narratives and the explanatory models of patients as well as Farmer’s essays on pragmatic solidarity and structural violence. Kleinman’s work focuses on the ways in which patients somatize social realities and on the importance of clinicians listening to their patients understandings of illness. Farmer’s work basically explains the importance of structural determinants of sickness and calls for more equal distribution of biomedical resources. Moreover, chapter …show more content…
The clinical gaze is a term derived from Michel Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic. He explained that the clinical encounter changed drastically from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century and best described the new structure with the doctor asking the patient “Where does it hurt?” as opposed to previously asking the patient a question like “What is the matter with you?” He says that it was no longer considered necessary for doctors to listen to patients describe their experience of illness and their symptoms in order for the doctor to diagnose and treat them. Instead, doctors began to focus on the isolated, diseased organs, treating the patient as a body, a series of anatomical objects, and ignoring the social and personal realities of the patient. Furthermore, in the paradigm of the clinical gaze, physicians examine and talk about the patient’s diseases, while the patient usually remains silent. This can definitely be seen as the beginning of modern positivist science in which human, social, and historical contexts are considered completely irrelevant. (Holmes, pg. …show more content…
A couple of days after Abelino’s knee accident he and Holmes went to the urgent care clinic. Abelino ended up seeing several doctors and a physical therapist over the next several months, and he never had any translators proficient in Triqui. The urgent care doctor barely listened to Abelino’s description of what happened before he examined his swollen right knee. The doctor ordered an X-ray, which showed that no bones had broken but could not show anything of the soft tissue, tendons, bursa, and meniscuses. The report from the X-ray concluded that he had a “normal right knee” the doctor explained that Abelino should not work picking berries, emphasizing rest to let his knee recover. The doctor refused to give him an injection to subside the pain and instead referred him to physical therapy, an anti-inflammatory medicine, and instructions on icing his knee regularly. The physician also opened up a worker’s compensation claim. (Holmes, pg. 117) The next week Holmes accompanied Abelino to the clinic for his appointment, the original doctor was not available, so they had to see a different doctor. The new doctor looked at Abelino’s chart and briefly listened to Abelino as he tried to explain his knee problem. The doctor told Abelino that he could work “light duty,” as long as he didn’t bend, walk, or stand for long periods. The doctor also stated in Abelino’s chart that the cause of the injury as “while picking, he
Pam Jenkins is a 36 year-old woman that is 30 weeks into her third pregnancy. Since her pregnancy began, Pam has gained 20 pounds. Although Pam has reduced the amount that she smokes, she continues to smoke 5 cigarettes per day, which may cause some issues with her worry of another preterm birth. Another factor that could also cause complications is her delayed prenatal vitamin use. After logging her dietary intake within a 24 hour period into SuperTracker, I will be making recommendations on how she can alter her diet and lifestyle to ensure that Pam receives the nutrients she needs for herself and for her baby.
This quote centers Henrietta Lacks’ story around the same questions that have driven the Doctoring course: What does it mean to care for others? And how do we ensure that we care for our patients first as people, rather than as a disease? In many ways, Henrietta Lacks’ story is a textbook case in how not to be a good physician. In examining and learning from her story through the lens of Doctoring, we can inform our own practice and
In kilner’s case study “Having a baby the new-fashioned way”, present a story that can be relatable to a lot of families struggling to have a child. This is a dilemma that can be controversial and ethical in own sense. The couple that were discussed in the case study were Betty and Tom. Betty and Tom who are both in their early forties who have struggled to bear children. Dr. Ralph Linstra from Liberty University believes that “Fertility can be taken for granted”. Dr. Ralph talks about how many couples who are marriage may run into an issue of bearing a child and turn to “medical science” to fix the issue. He discusses that “God is author of life and he can open and close the womb”. That in it’s self presents how powerful God.
This internal conflict is a result of the mistakes a physician makes, and the ability to move on from it is regarded as almost unreachable. For example, in the essay, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”, Gawande is standing over his patient Louise Williams, viewing her “lips blue, her throat swollen, bloody, and suddenly closed passage” (73). The imagery of the patient’s lifeless body gives a larger meaning to the doctor’s daily preoccupations. Gawande’s use of morbid language helps the reader identify that death is, unfortunately, a facet of a physician’s career. However, Gawande does not leave the reader to ponder of what emotions went through him after witnessing the loss of his patient. He writes, “Perhaps a backup suction device should always be at hand, and better light more easily available. Perhaps the institutions could have trained me better for such crises” (“When Doctors Make Mistakes” 73). The repetition of “perhaps” only epitomizes the inability to move on from making a mistake. However, this repetitive language also demonstrates the ends a doctor will meet to save a patient’s life (73). Therefore, it is not the doctor, but medicine itself that can be seen as the gateway from life to death or vice versa. Although the limitations of medicine can allow for the death of a patient to occur, a doctor will still experience emotional turmoil after losing someone he was trying to
This wasn’t turning out as he had expected it to. Hell, nothing had turned out as he had expected. He had a bad feeling about everything and was on the way to tell Kyle what was going to happen at the restaurant, but his car had a flat and he didn’t have cell reception where he was stranded. He had told the guys to only throw Kyle out of the restaurant and stop him from getting back in.
Weiss, G. L., & Lonnquist, L. E. (2011). The sociology of health, healing, and illness (7 ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.
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).
In terms of what is looked for in the Biomedical model, it is believed that there is one aetiology of the disease or illness exhibited in the patient who is then treated as a passive host of the illness where only the medical technology provided by the medical practitioner can hope to cure or at least care for the patient. While at one point in time this method of treatment seemed apt due to the knowledge of the world of that period, it is not a holistic approach of intervention because the main thought behind this model, as discussed by G. L. Engel (1977:129), is that because a disease or illness is characterized by “somatic parameters, physicians need not be concerned with psychosocial issues which lie outside medicine’s responsibility and authority.” This implies that following the Biomedical model, medical practitioners do not take into account the living situations, economic standpoints, racial, gender and ethical viewpoints or the community involvement factor of the patient seeking help.
A description can never be as vivid as an event that has been experienced. An experience can never be as defining as an event that has left you changed. Under the intensity of childbirth, you're more likely to remember details that would otherwise go unnoticed. All the scenes come together to leave a permanent imprint on the mind's eye.
...e gap in attitudes between pre-medicalized and modern time periods. The trends of technological advancement and human understanding project a completely medicalized future in which medical authorities cement their place above an intently obedient society.
I have chosen to compare the postmodern perspective on health and the biomedical model. The biomedical model view of the body is mechanistic. This point was argued by Engels, who said that the body was a machine and the breakdown of this machine was disease. he also beleived that the the doctor was the only one who could fix the machine. this point leads to many biomedical views. Firstly, it shows the way that doctors view the body as a set of individual parts, diagnose and treat them as such. This non-holistic view of the body is often criticised because it fails to cnsider the person as a whole and entire building. Secondly it shows the importance of the doctor in the biomedical model. Doctors have and maintain power in the biomedical model. They have all of the information and knowledge and therefore all the power. This can mean that the patient gives total control of their body to the doctor.This power ratio is explored by postmodernists who are interested in how one perspctive gains so much power and influence. Foucault (1963) said that the choice of words and phrases can effect the way people think. So doctors who have more influence and respect can gain power over their patients bodies'. This use of language to affect thinking is called discourse to postmodernists.
I was born a miracle baby, which I believe is fitting enough. My umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck while I was in the womb, which led to my mother having to have a c-section in order for me to be born. It is pretty incredible what modern technology can do. A few decades ago and my mom would not have survived and I would not have been born. I have always been grateful for the doctors who performed this. I even wanted to become a doctor for a little bit while I was younger, but the whole profession just didn’t seem too entertaining.
People in modern Britain acts in a certain way that is seen as appropriate for ill people. In the 1950s, Parsons (1951) outlined the norms that govern illness behaviour and professional responses to it, in modern society. He also saw the patient - doctor relationship as a social system, governed by norms about appropriate behaviour. Also, Parsons (1951) claimed illness as disruptive, a kind of deviance and is therefore potentially disruptive to the social order. Parsons saw society as a functioning whole, and was concerned with how the social order was maintained, and how various institutions in society in the case health care institution function... ...
Since Parsons emphasised new advances in dealing with illness; thus, he put forward the historical method in the sociology of health known as sick role, he has then shifted illness from biological concept to social theory.
The second stage of the illness experience is the assumption of the sick role. In this stage, the indivi...