Книги

В монографии представлены результаты исследования форм оплаты медицинской помощи населением, проведенного Независимым институтом социальной политики в 2002-2003 гг. На основе данных опросов работников здравоохранения и домохозяйств в двух типичных регионах России получены ответы на следующие вопросы. Кто, как, сколько и почему платит медицинскому персоналу в обычных больницах и поликлиниках? Существуют ли правила теневой оплаты? Готовы ли пациенты и дальше платить в руки медикам? Довольны ли происходящим врачи? Какие возможны перемены? Имеет ли смысл легализовать часть этих платежей, и как к этому отнесутся обе стороны?

In this powerful and probing look at the reality of everyday choices in neonatal intensive care units, Renée Anspach explores the life-and-death dilemmas that have fueled national debate. Using case studies taken during sixteen months of extensive interviewing and observation, Anspach examines the roles of parents, doctors, nurses, and bioethicists in deciding whether critically ill newborns--be they premature, terminally ill, or severely malformed--should be saved by medical technology, or at least kept alive a little longer.

Health and illness are intensely personal matters. It seems self evident that health is a basic necessity of the 'good life', though it is often taken for granted. Illness, on the other hand challenges our sense of security and may introduce acute anxiety into our lives. Health and Illness in a Changing Society provides a lively and critical account of the impact of social change on the experience of health and illness. It also examines the different sociological perspectives that have been used to analyse health matters. While some of the ideas developed in the last twenty years remain relevant to social research in health today, many are in need of urgent revision.

A study of the process of dying in American hospitals focuses upon discernible recurrent patterns of interaction between staff members, terminally ill patients, and their families. Strauss and Glaser suppose that the expectation of death by both the dying and the relatives are a key to understanding the interactions between those people. Their choice of hospitals and stations allowed them to compare various kinds of expectations. On a premature infant station, mortality was high but the patients were not aware of their impeding deaths, while on an oncology station, dying was slow and differences in the awareness of dying were very pronounced. The hypothesis results in a theory on the influence of awareness on the interaction with dying people.

This book is based on a substantial collection of video recordings of everyday medical consultations in the UK, and offers a micro-analysis of the visual and vocal aspects of the interaction between doctors and patients. Using actual examples, accompanied by numerous illustrations, Christian Health explores the moment-by-moment coordination of body movement and speech by and between doctor and patient. He discusses various aspects of medical examination, leavetaking, and the ways in which the participants sustain each other's attention. He also raises certain practical issues of medical work, such as the use of records and computers during the consultation, and the impact of 'bureaucratic' demands on the flow of information between doctor and patient. The book reveals the delicacy and precision which enter into the articulation and synchrony of visual behaviour and speech, and throws light on the systematics - the social organization - underlying the seeming minutiae of everyday life. In this way, it contributes both to our understanding of doctor-patient communication, and to the growing body of research on face-to-face interaction.

This book focuses on the social situation of the hospitalized child in twentieth-century America. It contends that the children's hospital has many of the characteristics of depersonalization and enforced helplessness that are associated with other "total institutions" in our society. The book also examines the interpersonal approaches employed by staff and patients in dealing with the tensions created by the reality of the total institution, on the one hand, and the more idealistic goals of the children's hospital, on the other. The observations that underlie this book were carried out by participant observation in two hospitals. In "County Hospital," where observations were carried out in 1971 and 1972, the researcher also acted as a visitor to ill children. At "Metropolis," observations were carried out in the admissions area, the waiting rooms, and on the floors, where the researcher acted both as a worker with the play-therapists and as a visitor. Extensive notes were made at the end of each day. Ongoing fieldnotes were maintained and written in unobtrusive areas such as in meetings or in the lobbies. This material was occasionally reinforced by notes taken in other hospital settings. Chapters include discussion of the role of person-in-a-total-institution, socialization for patienting, and coping strategies of children and hospital staff.

The book provides a broad overview of the way medicine is experienced, perceived and socially constructed in western societies. Drawing on the tradition of the sociology of health and illness, Deborah Lupton directs readers to an understanding of medicine, health care, illness and disease from a sociocultural perspective. At a time of increasing disillusionment with scientific medicine and the mythology of the beneficent, god-like physician, there is also - paradoxically - a growing dependence on biomedicine to provide the answers to social as well as medical problems. This book illuminates why attitudes to medicine are characterized by such strong paradoxes, and why issues of disease, illness and the medical encounter are surrounded by controversy, conflict, power struggles and emotion.

Pain--it is the most common complaint presented to physicians. Yet pain is subjective--it cannot be measured directly and is difficult to validate. Evaluating claims based on pain poses major problems for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other disability insurers. This volume covers the epidemiology and physiology of pain; psychosocial contributions to pain and illness behavior; promising ways of assessing and measuring chronic pain and dysfunction; clinical aspects of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation; and how the SSA's benefit structure and administrative procedures may affect pain complaints.

The author through discussions of her own experiences, shows how cultural heritage can affect delivery and acceptance of health care and how professionals, when interacting with their clients, need to be aware of these issues in order to deliver safe and professional care. Traditional and alternative health care beliefs and practices from Asian American, African American, Hispanic, and American Indian perspectives are represented.

First of all the author focuses on the background knowledge one must recognize as the foundation for developing cultural competency. In chapter 1 she explores the concept of cultural heritage and history and the roles they play in one's perception of health and illness. This exploration is first outlined in general terms: What is culture? How is it transmitted? What is ethnicity? What is religion? How do they affect a given person's health? What major sociocultural events occurred during the life trajectory of a given person that may influence their personal health beliefs and practices? Chapter 2 presents a discussion of the diversity—demographic, immigration, and poverty—that impacts on the delivery of and access to health care. The backgrounds of each of the U.S. Census Bureau's categories of the population, an overview of immigration, and an overview of issues relevant to poverty are presented. Chapter 3 reviews the provider's knowledge of his or her own perceptions, needs, and understanding of health and illness. After that R. Spector explores the domains of health, blends them with one's personal heritage, and contrasts them with allopathic philosophy. In chapter 4 she introduces the concept of health and develops the concept in broad and general terms. The Health Traditions Model is presented, as are natural methods of health restoration. Chapter 5 is devoted to the concept of healing and the role that faith plays in the context of healing, or magico-religious, traditions. This is an increasingly important issue, which is evolving to a point where the health care provider must have some understanding of this phenomenon. Chapter 6 discusses family heritage and explores personal and familial health traditions. It includes an array of familial health beliefs and practices shared by people from many different heritages. And chapter 7 focuses on the allopathic health care delivery system and the health care provider culture. Once the study of each of these components has been completed, the author moves on to explore selected population groups in more detail, to portray a panorama of traditional health and illness beliefs and practices, and present relevant health care issues.