Nursing

Through the Expansion of What in Life Is Deemed Relevant to the Good Practice of Medicine This factor is exemplified by the change from a specific etiological model of disease to a multicausal one. The “partners” in this new model include greater acceptance of comprehensive medicine, the use of the computer, and the practice of […]

Navigating the Amazing Maze of Health Care. (continued) 198 ■ Chapter 8 Class A person may be from a class that is not part of the dominant culture, limiting their ability to determine the need for health care and to understand the subtleties involved in making health care system choices. Education A person may not

Overcoming the Built-in Racism and Male Chauvinism of Doctors and Hospitals Students tend to have little difficulty in describing many incidents of racism and male chauvinism: that they are mostly women suffices and that they are nurses adds meaning to the problem. Classroom discussion helps identify subtle incidents of racism. For example, students may realize

Finding Out What Went Wrong What did you do the last time a patient asked to read the chart? Traditionally, you uttered an authoritative “tsk,” turned abruptly on white-heeled shoes, and walked briskly away. Who ever heard of such nerve? A patient asking to read a chart! Today, there is the “patient’s bill of rights.”

What is the doctor doing now and why?” These hypothetical situations are typical of the usual physical examinations that you may encounter routinely in a clinic or a private physician’s office. Sup- pose you have a more complex problem, such as a neurological condition, for which the diagnostic procedures may indeed be painful and complicated.

Figuring Out What the Physician Is Doing It is not always easy for members of the health professions to understand what is happening to them when they are ill. What must it be like for the average per- son who has little or no knowledge of health care routines and practices? Pretend that you are

Finding One’s Way Amidst the Many Available Types of Medical Care A friend’s experience illustrates how hard it may be to find appropriate medi- cal care. She had minor gastric problems from time to time and initially sought help from a family physician. He was unable to treat the problem adequately; Health and Illness in

Finding Where the Appropriate Care Is Offered at a Reasonable Price It may be difficult for even a knowledgeable consumer to receive adequate care. One summer, I was on vacation with my 11-year-old daughter. She complained of a sore throat for 2 days, and, when she did not improve on the third day, I decided

The following are examples of health care events in the 1990s and 2012: ■ Human Genome Project (1992) ■ Assisted suicide; Dr. J. Kevorkian (1996) ■ Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (1993) ■ Septuplets born and survive (1997) ■ Octuplets born; 7 survive (1998) ■ Stem cell cloning (1998) ■ Biologics and follow-on biologics (2004) ■ Affordable

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment began in 1932. 190 ■ Chapter 8 ■ First test tube baby born (1978) ■ Biotechnical Explosion (1979) ■ Cyclosporine developed (1979) At the end of the 1970s, efforts were developed to “control” the costs of health care, yet the seductiveness of the “advances” in technology actually began the out-of-control escalation