Introduction
The processes of life were being born, growing old, having illness, and death. In our life, we suffered from different sickness. It was a good reason for the absent from school, work or other daily working activities. However, in the view of a sociologist, the people who were in the sick role, they were regarded as having committed a crime and it was treated as deviant behavior (Peter & Meredith, 1998). In the structural functional model, people took various tasks and role in society or in different institutions. These were dependable with the structures and norms of the society. Did sickness have any effective elements in society? This paper would describe the concept of sick role and the application in the nursing practice (Parson, 1979).
Concept of sick role
Talcott Parsons (1902 – 1979) was a famous American sociologist and a structural functionalist. He developed a general theoretical system for analyzing the society. In his theoretical system, people hold their status and perform their role in the society, which was called social role. In his concept, the social roles were expected behaviors (including rights and obligations) of everyone with a given position in society (Diligio, 2005). This kind of social role maintained the structural and functional status of the society. I used Mr. Lee as an example to illustrate about the social roles. Mr. Lee was a registered nurse. He lived with his wife and his daughter. According to the Parsons’s theoretical system, Mr. Lee has three social roles. At hospital, he took a role as a nurse. He cared his patients. At home, he took a role as husband to his wife and a role as father to his daughter.
The sick role was first defined by Talcott Parsons (1951) in his seminal work which was describing a set of behaviors. These behaviors were associated with people who became acutely ill. As described by Parsons, the sick role was a process in which an individual experiences a change in role identity or role expectations. As a result, people were suffered from the illness. Base of the Parsons, there were some components in the sick role. Firstly, the illness was involuntary. Secondly, residents of the sick role were exempted from their usual work; family, civic and permits to be “take care of” by health care professionals and others.
During 1951 Parson was the first to debate about the sick role. According to Parson, there are the few expectations which need to be met before considering individual sick. Firstly, individual should not cause their own health problem an example could be by eating a high-fat food which leads to overweight and linked to type 2 diabetes. An individual receives a less sympathy. Secondly, individual who is sick must adamant to get well otherwise will see as faking the illness. Thirdly, an individual illness should be confirmed by a physician so they can follow the instruction. The relationship between the physician and the patient is hierarchical where the instruction is provided by the physician and followed by the
An analysis of the psychological constructs of the various stages of health in Fatima's life, a single mother and 50-hour weeks worker that developed hypertension. Using the Psychology of Health and Illness as the main point, comparing the biomedical model and health psychology. Even though according to Ogden (ano) a biomedical model regards, Fatima illness is beyond her control and she is only a victim of some external force that invades the body and caused physical change or is originated as an internal physical change. (Ogden, ano, p.5). Fatima health and illness is a psychological construction of her habits and behaviors also of her social environment.
In this regard, the paper will be bridging the mind-body divide and explain the relation of the body, by ascertaining that the body of the patient that is suffering from chronic illness is communicating both to the person and the world that
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Our group definition of health showed that health is broad and consists of objective and subjective parts. In contrast, the king’s interaction model (theory of goal attainment), the purpose of nursing is to help people maintain, or restore health by mutually goal setting. Her view towards the concept of health are easy to understand, but difficult to realize because the role of nurses is based on the health needs of patient, family, community and population. The other needs of patient, family and community will be resolve by nurses giving patients referrals or follow-up for care to other professionals. These health needs exclude health disparities and inequities in vulnerable population that nurses serve. Also, these health needs include reciprocal
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By the 1980s, Marxism, the economics forces define the political and cultural realities in society, mixed with feminism claimed “that gender is not class but a driving force of history.” This created the notion that “when women are subordinate men benefit” and that women had a disadvantage to men in the workforce (Conley 2013). Marxist feminist would called this gender conflict. The nuclear family has gender roles which are “set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female.Gender roles is more general term,but Parson’s sex roles is more of an ambiguous term. Sex roles theory states that men are work oriented, while women are domestic oriented to form the ideal nuclear family. “Sex roles created by society was formed for structuralism functionalism, which is the theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions(2013). Even though functionalist supported this theory in the 1960s, it was flawed. Sex role theory only provided one way of how a family could function. Essentialist would describe Parson’s theory as the social phenomena of the nuclear family based on the biological factor of sex. R.W. Connell described the condition in which men are dominant and privileged and that it is invisible, which is Hegemonic masculinity. Even though hegemonic masculinity is what some theorist impose, it clarifies
The biopsychosocial model (BPS) is a framework used to systematically consider the interactions between biological, psychological and social influences on human functioning, in the context of a person’s disease or illness (Boundless Psychology, 2016). This integrated approach suggests that health and sickness overlap and can be best understood by looking at the multiple combinations of these influences and how they interact and affect a person’s health and wellbeing (Wade, 2009). This assignment will aim to discuss the BPS model, describe the different perspectives within the theory and demonstrate how they apply to patient care. In order to do this, a case study of a person with a chronic health condition will be introduced and the factors
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One of the goals of nursing is to respect the human rights, values and costumes of a patient and his or her family and with the community as a whole. The International Council of Nurses states that nursing practice can be defined generally as a dynamic, caring, helping relationship in which the nurse assists the client to achieve and maintain optimal health. As health care providers, we have some fundamental responsibilities such as to promote health, to prevent illnes...
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