Life in the hospital: a review.
The ethnographic study of hospitalized patients' social worlds and individual experience, a once flourishing research tradition, has now largely vanished from the literature of social science. The disappearance of this tradition is accounted for by changes in the character of hospitals--decreasing lengths of stay, expansion of specialized units, and medicine's increased technical sophistication--that have weakened patients' social worlds and, perhaps, made patients' experience less consequential for health outcomes. If the ethnographic study of hospital patients is revitalized, it will take shape around a view of the patient as a newly empowered participant in decision-making processes.
Zussman
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Department of Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook 11794-4356.
D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003657:Decision Making; D015285:Hospital-Patient Relations; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010358:Patient Participation; D028701:Patient Rights; D011445:Prospective Payment System / Q000592:standards; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D012962:Sociology, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*