Five Key Stages of Illness Experience

Although everyone’s illness experience can be argued to be unique, Edward Suchman has designed a schema that portrays the five key stages of illness experience that most patients undergo. Suchman’s “five stages of illness experience” are the symptom experience, assumption of the sick role, medical care contact, dependent patient role and recovery and rehabilitation. Suchman’s “five stages of illness experience” are crucial to understanding the illness process of Robert Banes, but do not however depict an entirely accurate picture of his illness experience.

The first stage of the illness experience is symptom experience, which is where the individual first realizes that there is something wrong with them. At this moment, the individual undergoes through three distinct processes which are the physical pain or discomfort, the cognitive recognition that physical symptoms of an illness are present, and an emotional response of concern about the social implications of the illness (Weiss 143). At this point an individual can accept to seek help, delay treatment, or go into denial. Robert Banes was first diagnosed with focal glomerulosclerosis, a progressive scarring of the kidneys that will eventually destroy them, four years before his kidneys failed (Abrahams 10). However, Robert chose to ignore medical treatment because he had not been socially constructed to understand the perceived seriousness of his symptoms and because he did not have the means to accessible and affordable care (Abrahams 30-31). If Robert had been socially constructed in illness, then he never would have let his illness get so far as to lose his kidneys.

The second stage of the illness experience is the assumption of the sick role. In this stage, the indivi...

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...There is much the United States can learn by analyzing the different health care systems around the world. There is clearly something wrong when a country as influential as the United States is not able to look after its own citizens. It is time to realize that the health care system in the United States is broken! The United States needs to look at its neighbors and friends in order to rebuild itself into the great, blooming country it once might have been. The United States needs to toss aside its pride and ask for help from countries like those of Great Britain.

References

Abraham, Laurie K. 1993. Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press

Weiss, Gregory L., and Lynne E. Lonnquist. The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. Print.