Sociology and Healthcare

Health-care is a sociological institution within the American Culture. Health-care has many different aspects that pertain to patients, care givers and governmental approach to supply healthcare to all citizens. Sociology is the “scientific study of social behavior and human groups.” (Schaefer, 2009) Sociology plays a large role in how Americans look at our health-care systems and approach health and illness in one’s own life.

Health-care has many different definitions and can be interpreted differently by each culture and social class and even by the three different sociological perspectives. The main goal in health-care is the prevention, treatment and management of illness, to preserve mental and physical well being. Health-care is a science and system much like sociology. As defined by the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int) health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Health-care is a practice not a defined science much like sociology. Many Americans believe that health-care is a fine tuned science and should have all of the answers to one’s own health issues and concerns. But much like sociology health-care is affected by numerous variables such as human behaviors and interpretations.

 There are three different theoretical perspectives in sociology: the Interactionist perspective, the Conflict perspective and the Functionalist perspective. The Interactionist perspective is the study of micro sociology and how humans interact with one another. The Conflict perspective is the study of tensions between groups and how social human behavior reacts to the tensions especially focusing on power and the allocation of resources. The Functionalist perspective is the study of human behaviors that focuses on stability and reliance of groups are structured to support one another. All three perspectives play a large role on the success of health-care within the American culture.

 Looking at the Interactionist perspective on health-care and its approach is from a “point of view, patients are not passive; often, they

actively seek the services of a health care practitioner.” (Schaefer, 2009). Patients are what make health-care happen. The interactions between patients and health-care providers are what form the functioning of the practice of health-care. To perform the practice of health care to sustain health and prevent illness health-care providers and patients must interact. Many studies have been done on the interactions between health-care providers and the relationships to patients. These studies have found that there is an order applied to the relationship between patients and health-care providers. Such as a patient must initiate a relationship with a provider, discuss their health concerns and establish a plan of action, such as in the study by a group of health-care providers from Australia focusing on health plans for patients and the interactional order of caring for patients. “The paper reveals the exercise of both "competitive power" and "collaborative power" in the negotiated order of health services. Both forms of power are exercised in all settings. Relationships among clinicians in various occupations are mediated by the expectation that doctors assume responsibility for patient management and coordinating roles in health care teams, and the degree of acuity of particular health care settings.” (Nugus, Greenfield, Travaglia, Westbrook, & Braithwaite, J. 2010). The interactionist perspective on health care influences relationships between patient and provider, by establishing a give and take platform. Patient gives or presents the problem; the health-care provider takes on the problem and recommends a plan of action for cure or maintenance of the illness. This perspective is a one on one interaction between patient and health-care provider.

 When looking at the Conflict perspective on health-care and its approach the conflict approach to health care is “Social control involves techniques and strategies for regulating behavior in order to enforce the distinctive norms and values of a culture.” (Schaefer, 2009). One of the conflicts that arise in health-care from a conflict perspective is the focus of the provider and is the provider functioning as a scientist or a care giver. Are there objective versus subjective concerns for the patient and is the health care provider treating the disease or is the provider treating the person? The conflict that arises between health-care provider and

patient is vastly influenced by the patient’s cultural and social beliefs.

 The conflict theory is extremely relevant to today’s society within the American culture. One of the biggest social movements in today’s society involves the conflict of access to quality health-care among all Americans. Not all Americans have access to quality health-care. This conflict is of great debate if America should transition out of a private health-care system and into a universal health-care system that would allow for quality access for all American citizens. The conflict of this transition is between the different social classes within the American society. The wealthy social class would feel a negative impact of having to pay taxes for the poor social class to have access to universal health-care, where the under privileged social class would not be sacrificing as much for the same health care as the wealthy social class. This causes great debate of universal healthcare versus private healthcare platform in America. This perspective displays the disarray in the American healthcare system. The conflict perspective differs from the interactionist perspective because it is not a problem for a single patient or provider but is a problem for the entire society.

The Functionalist perspective to health-care is “being sick must therefore be controlled, so that not too many people are released from their societal responsibilities at any one time.” (Schaefer, 2009). In the functionalist perspective the patient and the health-care provider both assume specific roles. Such as the health-care provider assumes the role of a gate keeper to manage the illness and to help detour it from spreading. Where the patient assumes the role of the sick and takes on a new social role and behaviors temporarily of being sick. Majority of the time the patient who is sick is relieved of their normal social responsibilities. The goal of the sick patient is to quickly recover and to diminish the possible spreading of the disease. When the provider is treating the patient they must assess if the illness is an acute attack such as the common cold or virus or is it a chronic illness such as AIDS or cancer. Then they must provide a plan of action to help control or gate keep the illness. “This can make people with incurable conditions, including disabled people who are classified as sick,

seem to be deviant” (Oliver, 1998). Since the functionalist perspective is based off of an equilibrium platform when one member of the team is not taking responsibility for their portion of the teamwork, the system is not functioning at its highest level. “Functionalism confuses impairment and disability with the sick role. By failing to recognize that disabled people do not necessarily have "something wrong with them," it simply reproduces discriminatory norms and values-instead of addressing the cultural and economic forces that precipitate them.” (Oliver, 1998). This perspective is based on a teamwork philosophy that keeping illness and health under control is crucial to the success of the American society.

 The similarities between the three different perspectives are simple; all perspectives main goal is in quality of health for all members of the society. How quality health care is approached is where the differences come into play between the three different perspectives. Such as the interactionist perspective is based off of a one on one relationship and ownership between the patient and the provider. The conflict perspective is based off of the dysfunction of the American health-care system and its inadequacies in ensuring that all members of society have access to health care. The functionalist perspective differs from the interactionist perspective because it is based off of an equilibrium platform that all systems must be working together and taking ownership with one’s own health and their responsibilities within the society to keep balance and form.

 In conclusion both sociology and health-care are about sciences, the science of human life in both health and wellness and in social behaviors. All sciences gather and collect information and study the methods of resolution to gain understanding of how the science affects the human life. Most lay people do have the belief that medicine is an exact science. I encourage people to restate that and say that “medicine is not an exact science. Thereby, leaving room for human error, faulty interpretations and the patients own behavior and commitment or lack there of to comply with a treatment plan. Many times these are affected by the individual’s culture or community and societal beliefs of those communities. Health-care and sociology go hand in hand in maintaining human life.

Read also good article about sociological aspect of doping in sports by healtheappointments.com.