HNC Care and Administrative Practice - Essay Example

Assessment Lecturer(s Carla Green Unit s Sociology Unit s Outcomes assessed: issued: submitted: 15th May due: Word-count: 2028 Student candidate number: 13012636 Location: Moray College Elgin Programme: HNC Care and Administrative Practice Submitting your assessment Declaration of originality and authorisation to hold this assessment electronically and verify that it is original:   UHI recognises that plagiarism, where deliberately engaged in, is unacceptable and is considered serious academic malpractice. Students are responsible for ensuring the work they submit is their own. If you have any queries you should contact your Tutor or Student Adviser before submitting your assessment. By submitting this assessment I declare that the attached piece of work is my own. I have acknowledged all the sources I have consulted and where I have used words which are not my own, I have clearly indicated this in the references. Student candidate number: 13012636 Date: Staff use only Date received: Attempt No.: Marked by: Result/Grade: Sampled for IV: Y / N Introduction Sociological aspects that influence the society are the circumstances in which people work, live and interact with other persons. The relationships among the factors have been recognized to soar up the incidences of health inequalities and other forms of health problems. These complex elements are collectively viewed to be the primary predictors of health that are central to the progression of types of illness and conditions. The social factor can influence directly and indirectly the health of persons and the delivery of health services. The impact increases as the effects accumulate across generations resulting in various patterns among the sociological aspects of the society and health. Therefore; social factors play a vital role in the process at which health is presented in various populations and the delivery of healthcare services to individuals in the society. However; the impacts of the social factors are also determined issues in the society such as government policies and programs. Social factors The social determinants of health are the non-physiological and non-medical aspects of health of communities, nation and individuals which affects the nature in which people live, the risk to illness and loss of life. The factors provide the health practitioners with clues of the complexities of health problems and systems that fall a certain population and why some groups are more vulnerable to unhealthy living conditions. To determine the degree of effects of the social factors that affect health, stakeholders have applied the principles of epidemiology and statistics to study the changing patterns of health in the affected population. It is to say that a holistic approach ought to be taken to decipher and fully analyse the notions relative to social and epidemiological considerations. Some of the social aspects of the society that affect health and healthcare provisions are; early life experience, education, exposure, household income, work, sheltering, ethnicity, race, social support networks, gender, health services, and skills (Larkin, 2011,). Health like all other aspects of life of a person cannot be seen as a separate and distinct entity of the society. It is linked with the general systems of the environment, families, and communities which in one way or another determine the chances of a person leading a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. The inequality in the occurrence of diseases and conditions has been attributed to the imbalances that exist in the society. The interventions and treatments that are used in the restoration of health to people tend to study the trend of social factors and establish the most suitable approach that can be most effective. Accordingly, a learned comparison could be made to the Black/Mamort report which sought to highlight the inefficiency of the health secotor occasioned by the economic equalities of the society. In principle, it highlights the notion articulated that health imbalances and issues have become prone in the society due to economic imbalances of the people. The physicians who take part in a medical examination take into account the fact that a person’s health is not only affected by her or his physical being but also other forces. The procedure that is used in the healing process will always vary in accordance with the culture, social forces, and the interaction within the communities. Early life experience has been reported to have a great influence on a person’s health both in present and future life. For instance, a theoretical assumption could be inferred that infants who are born with deformities are likely to face health challenges when they grow up. An example is a baby who is underweight or overweight at the time of birth is likely to face developmental problems as they grow up. In light of the attempts and endeavors made to improve the health of the society, it becomes imperative to educate and enlighten the society through educational programs. Intuitively, education as a concept provides individuals with knowledge and skills towards handling any health issues. Educated people are aware of the health and unhealthy lifestyle hence they can make wise choice that improve their health life. Thus, it would be safe to assert that educated people are likely to be informed on health matters since they are empowered accordingly. Nevertheless, less educated persons are susceptible to risks of diseases because of the absence of knowledge and skills. Low level of income which implies poverty is an indicator of unhealthy life-style where people cannot afford nutritional food or seek medical attention when suffering from health problems. Health experts have stated that wealthier families are also at risk of acquiring diseases such diabetes and obesity due to the modern lifestyle they lead. Poor housing in the society is a key reason for why some people in the communities are suffering healthwise. Poor structures of houses allow rain, cold, and heat that cause health complications to the life of the inhabitants. The type of work a person is involved in also determines his or her health. People working in unsuitable environments such as dumpsites and other unsafe grounds risk their life putting their health at risk, (Clarke, 2010, pp.35). The government policies on healthcare have been influenced by several forces such as the media and the demand of healthcare services by the consumers. Media plays crucial roles in healthcare industry exposing the troubles of people to the public that puts pressure on the state to develop contingency plan for restoring normality. The media continue to be significant to the health sector by disseminating health information to the people that enable them to have knowledge of different health issues not only in the communities but also to the global level. Cultural factors Culture has been conventionally regarded to have a greater influence in the matters of health and healthcare delivery in the society. It defines the language used in defining health issues as well as puts restriction on how some cases related to health should be handled. For example, some African cultures do not allow their members to seek medical assistance from the hospital, due to the restriction, people end up losing their life in respect to the culture. Some cultures are ignorant of the western methods of addressing health issues; they have confined their members to the traditional methods of healing. The traditional herbs that are used to heal do not provide any scientific evidence for proving that they can restore a medical condition to a normal circumstance. Another concerning issue about the traditional method is that there is no technological advancement in the techniques used to provide services to patients. The healer depends entirely on faith and spiritual gods that do not guarantee healing. In most cases, those patients who receive the traditional treatment have reported to die or their sickness shifting from mild to severe. The cases of disabilities have also been confirmed to result from the delays and complicated procedures that are used in the attempt of treating a sickness, Nettleton, 2006,). There is a culture where people believe that some illness does not occur naturally; the blame is placed on some evil spirits that are sent to cause discomfort and sufferings to the life of their beloved ones. When a person falls sick, the first diagnostic attempt is to attribute the cause of the illness to someone in the community who might be having bad intentions. Consequently; they begin conducting research by visiting the witchdoctors to identify the offender while, on the other hand, the patient’s condition is worsening. Such patients end up losing their life because of the myths that exist in the society. Culture has failed to provide support to the health systems and has continued to frustrate the delivery of healthcare. The traditional ways of assessing medical conditions, framing of health issues, and provision of treatment therapies presents limited efforts in saving lives, (Scambler, 2005, p.26). Tentatively, there stems the biomedical and social medical approach to the notion of health. Bipmedical approach on its part squarely contextualizes health difficulties, impediment and difficulties on cells. However, the social medical perspective corroborates other societal or external factors as primary causes in the health issues of human beings as articulated above herein. Relevance to symbolic interactionism theory The theory is relevant to the healthcare provision and communication. The theorists are concerned with the emotional and the cognitive elements and the behavior changes that affect the manner in which health is perceived and handled by different people. The theory also opens new routes for health research by highlighting major aspects and issues that affect the people in terms of health. The theoretical ideas that are provided by the theorists provide new platforms of understanding health and health issues properly. The theory is concerned with the ways people acquire some behaviors and how those behavioral patterns affect their health life. A person’s health can be changed or affected by the new behaviors that are adapted to the environment. A valid example is a case where a person starts taking alcohol and smoking cigarettes after copying from his or her colleagues. Due to the drastic change in the body system, he or she is likely to be affected health with either lung cancer or tuberculosis. The health of a person is dependent on the different interactions that are experienced within a habitat. Interaction can occur between a person and other groups within the population or with other individuals from the outside. A person’s behavior can be influenced by interacting with other aspects of the environment that can be harmful health. Environmental conditions such as poor waste disposal can risk the health life of those who interact within the area. Poor methods of disposing wastes in the damp sites puts the life of people at risks of contracting sicknesses such as cholera and dysentery, and where treatment interventions are not applied in time can cause death or severe life complications, (Sharma, & Romas, 2012, p.177). I principle, it implies that the life, behavior and health choices of a person is directly related to the life choice of the people around him or her such as friends. The social environment refers to the friends, members of the family, and colleagues from schools, workplaces and recreational places. A person’s behavior must be altered in one way or other when he or she mingles with different persons from the different levels of the environment. In every environment, there are specific lifestyles that have been adopted that have both the negative and positive effects on health. A person who is brought up into a poor family will be subjected to low standards of living that are characterized by poor diets that can result in issues of malnutrition. Poor families lack the financial capability to take their members to proper healthcare facilities that demands higher fees. The social environment also includes the physical aspects of the house; that is the size of the room, the temperatures and the availability of food to feed the entire family.The environment defines and provides the models for behavior through the methods of observation and learning. People learn new behaviors through observation with the aim of being a better member of the society without considering the effects. This line of thought and argument is relevant to ways in which people acquire and maintain the behaviors. The impacts of the acquired behaviors can also be beneficial to the health life of a person. Behavior changes on proper eating habits, proper personal hygiene and disposing of wastes in the right way can be advantageous to the process of improving their health life. The social Structural theory Explains the fundamental reasons as to why the society is desgined the way it is in the current state such as the theory discusses the norms, myths that are attached to the social life. The theorists also argued that the society is built and shaped by the socio-economic forces both within and outside the environment. The health state of the society has been affected by the norms and the structured myth that people have practiced for decades and have become reluctant to let them go. They tend to influence people’s perception of lifestyle, diseases, disabilities and ways methods of curing illnesses. The social structural approach that is applied by various healthcare stakeholders to obtain the quantitative data is derived from the epidemiologist studies in determining the health impacts for different social groups, (Edberg, Falivene, & Moden, 2015, P.119). The social functionalists have argued that poverty and unequal distribution of resources are the major cause of the unhealthy living conditions in the societies. Some groups of people are challenged with the health issues due to lack of knowledge and skills to deal with any mushrooming conditions of sickness. People who are challenged economically lack the capability to deal with the diversified issues of health, therefore; such persons tend to experience diseases more than others. The well-off persons are always at all times equipped with the information and finances to deal with health problems. Unlike the poor groups who lack the basic needs such health information, accessibility, and finances to seek for better healthcare services. References. Clarke, A. (2010). The sociology of healthcare. Harlow, England, Longman/Pearson, pp. 35.>[15TH May 2015]. Edberg, m. C., Falivene, C., & Moden, S. (2015). Essentials of health behavior: social and behavioral theory in public health.[Online].Available at [15th May 2015]. Larkin, M. (2011). Social aspects of health, illness and healthcare. [Online].Available at [15th May 2105]. Nettleton, S. (2006). The sociology of health and illness. [Online].Available at [15th May 2015]. Scambler, G. (2005). Medical sociology: major themes in health and social welfare. London, Routledge, pp.26.>[15th May 2015]. Sharma, M., & Romas, J. A. (2012). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Sudbury, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning, pp.177.>[15th May 2015]. Read More