SOCI 1050 - Sociology of Healthcare

4.5 Credits

This course is a systematic attempt to relate sociological concepts to the fields of physical and mental health and illness. It provides an overview of socio-cultural aspects of health and includes community and healthcare, medical education, and the hospital as social institutions.

Recommended: Reading assessment and college-level reading skills

Lecture Hours: 4.5
Lab Hours: 0.0
Internship Hours: 0.0
Clinical or Practicum Hours: 0.0

Course Objectives

Discuss the relationships of roles, rights and responsibilities among physicians, nurses, patients, and hospitals in the health care system.
Appraise the usefulness and limitations of viewing illness using Parsons’ “sick-role” model.
Examine the increasing control extended over physicians/hospitals by corporate and political interests.
Inventory new social trends in health care, i.e., HMOs, hospices, DRGs, and their sociocultural impact.
Categorize the individuals and organizations within the health care system as part of the social structure.
Interpret the impact of the fields of demography and social epidemiology on the future of the health care system.
Illustrate the role of prevention in the study of health and illness.
Identify multicultural issues related to health care use, types of treatment, practitioners, etc.
Compare and contrast methods for dealing with the national crisis cost of/payment for health care.

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