Sick Role Theory Literature Review

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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter reviewed theories, models and empirical research findings related to the trend of quality of health care delivery and the NHIS. It covered basically the perspective of some writers and researchers, whose findings could give a significant guide and background to this study.

2.1 Sick Role Theory
Parsons (1951), proposed the sick role theory of health care utilization. According to this theory, when an individual is sick, they adopt a role of being ill. This sick role has four main components: 1) the individual is not responsible for their state of illness and is not expected to be able to heal without assistance; 2) the individual is excused from performing normal roles and tasks; 3) …show more content…

During this second stage, the individual also explores his or her lay referral system1 for validation of the sick role and for exploration of treatment options; 3) medical care contact. During this stage the individual seeks a professional health care system. However, the pace at which a person enters this stage is determined by their membership within parochial and cosmopolitan social networks. If a person’s social network is parochial, they will tend to delay medical care contact by continuing the first two stages for longer than a person who is a member of a cosmopolitan network; 4) the assumption of a dependent-patient role via acceptance of professional health care treatment. It is possible for this stage to be disrupted if the individual and the professional health care provider have differing opinions of the illness; 5) the individual’s recovery from illness. The individual recovers upon relinquishing their role as patient. However, if an illness is not curable, a person may assume a chronically ill role (Wolinsky, …show more content…

The first dimension for assessing quality of healthcare delivered is the structure, which relates to the setting where healthcare is delivered (McQuestion, 2000). Donabedian opines that, the structure refers to provider attributes (e.g., nurses/patient ratio or doctor/patient ration) and this affects processes (Raleigh and Foot, 2010). The second dimension on assessing the quality of healthcare delivered is the process, which has to do with whether or not good medical processes are followed (McQuestion, 2000). Process measures, in general, are more responsive than outcome measures. They avoid the effects of time lags and they reflect the quality of health care more accurately, as they measure the care that patients receive (Raleigh and Foot,