Health Care Sociological Analysis

Importance of sociological perspective in healthcare professions

Sociology is the study of human society, culture and relationships on a group level, It covers a range of diverse subjects on a micro and macro level. it 's purpose is understanding why humans behave in a certain way and how they perceive their surroundings.

Using and understanding Sociology as a healthcare proffessional can be very useful, it leads to better understanding of the sector. It will change the way you look at the healthcare sector and provide you with new insights.

There are three major sociological prespectives on healthcare, one which cover the micro level of anaylsis and two cover the macro level of analysis.

1. The functionalist perspective (Macro level)

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3. The symbolic interactionist perspective (mirco level)

The symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on sickness as a social construction rather than simply a medical condition. It is concerned with how people develop shared meanings of health and sickness through ongoing interactions.

From this perspective, people develop their subjective notions of different sicknesses. In some cases, they might have misconceptions and attach negative labels to certain conditions such as mental disorders or disability, resulting in the creation of stigma.

The symbolic interactionist perspective also leads one to think about how patients mentally or emotionally cope with their sickness, how they make sense of their identities as patients and their attitudes toward sickness and death. Delving into this can lead to greater empathy and understanding that sickness concerns more than just the

This perspective also emphasises the need for patients to receive social and emotional support alongside medical treatment.

Each to their own

Different people subscribe to a different sociological perspective of healthcare, and the role played by healthcare professionals and patients. Each perspective has their fair share of praise and criticism, such as the functionalist perspective not accounting for patients with chronic disease — by definition, ‘sick role’ would account only for patients with acute illness.

As a healthcare professional, knowing these different perspectives of healthcare not only broadens your understanding of the field, but can also help you to see where other healthcare professionals might be coming from. Sometimes, looking at certain problems from another perspective may just be what is needed to understand the crux of it and work towards a solution.