SOC peers responses

Peer responses:

Responses need to be substantive; responses under 2 sentences will not be considered substantive. Responses should be thorough, explanatory, offer some sort of new insight or reasoning, or offer critical or analytical thought and should be in full sentences.

Additional notes:

You can use pictures, graphs, pie charts, etc. in your answers, but not for your answers.

Always support your opinions with scholastic sources.

When you use outside material, please use in-text citations and give references at the end of your post in APA format. Otherwise, it is termed as Plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a critical offense according to Galen policies. Your answers should not be simple 'copy and paste' from an outside source. In such instances, even though you give references, they will not be considered your answers. The first time I spot plagiarism, you will be given a zero with a warning. The 2nd time will be a write-up. Please be careful about plagiarism.

If you have questions about this participation requirement, post them to the Course Q&A Discussion.

Danielle Cossairt

View one of the following videos: Sick Around America, Sick Around the World, or Health Literacy and Patient Safety. Discuss how the material in the video that you selected could help you in your nursing practice and why. Be sure to cite specific examples from the video that you have watched. (CSLO 5, USLO 10.4)

For this week's assignment, I watched Sick Around America. This was a great documentary by PBS. It spoke about our nation's healthcare system and the health insurance industry. The documentary shined the light on how broken the health insurance industry is in my opinion. Patients can be dropped from their health plans for many reasons and then they are left to debate incurring debt or seeking medical treatment when they need it. One example was a patient with very expensive health coverage due to a previous cancer history who had decided to put off cataract surgery due to debt incurred from an appendectomy. Another patient in the documentary who had a deadly outcome was a young woman with lupus who was wrongly dropped from her health coverage only to be notified that this was the case after she passed away from complications of not being on the correct medication due to lack of health coverage. My nursing practice will not change personally from this video as I tell patients on a daily basis that their ability to pay has nothing to do with my care. I work in the ER and have learned not to judge my patients because someone else is struggling today and I may be struggling tomorrow. At the end of the day we as nurses get paid whether the patient pays their bills or not and I am happy to say that I do not deal with anything but caring for patients and not the costs of their care!

Sharel Fernandez

Chapter 19 - Health & Medicine

Which of the major theoretical perspectives best explains the sociology of health and why? (CSLO 2, USLO 10.5)

When I think about what sociological paradigm best describes the patterning of health in our society, I want to answer that it is Functionalism, but unfortunately, I cannot. To a functionalist proponent, society needs everyone to stay healthy to function at its fullest potential. When illness occurs, there is a role everyone must play to restore health and prevent the weakening of society. This is a very idealistic approach, and although the functionalist viewpoint may be noble in purpose, it does injustice to those with chronic illness and those without the resources to prevent or help with illness. This paradigm may work well with socialized or universal medicine models, where there is more equity with healthcare resources. However, how can it work well when so many working adults in the United States have inadequate health insurance? Also, where do those with chronic illnesses fit in? When your condition cannot be cured but only controlled, how does society avoid stigmatizing this population as weak links or malingerers?

When it comes to health, the world is divided between the haves and have-nots, and within the haves, there is a great deal of variability. For this reason, Conflict theory explains the sociology of health more accurately. There is no argument that race and socioeconomics play an enormous role in an individual's health based on their ability to receive medical care. Health disparities are created by race and class, age, gender, and sexism. Healthcare truly is a commodity in the world, where its profits now overshadow its purpose (Conerly, T.R. et al. 2021). If the physician judges who is sick in Functionalism, then the Insurance Company is the warden in Conflict Theory. So, to answer which of the theoretical perspectives best explains the sociology of health, one must ask, "What has the greatest control over health?" The answer is money, and power, otherwise known as Conflict Theory.