The Sociology of Healthcare, Second Edition explores the impact of current social changes on health, illness and healthcare, and provides an overview of the fundamental concerns in these areas. This new edition features a brand new chapter entitled End of Life which will help health and social care workers to respond with confidence to one of the most difficult and challenging areas of care. The End of Life chapter includes information on changing attitudes to death, theories of death and dying, and palliative care. All chapters have been thoroughly updated to address diversity issues such as gender, ethnicity and disability. In addition, expanded and updated chapters include Childhood and Adolescence and Health Inequalities. The text is further enhanced through the use of case studies that relate theory to professional practice, and discussion questions to aid understanding. Links to websites direct the reader to further information on health, social wellbeing and government policies. This book is essential reading for all students of healthcare including nursing, medicine, midwifery and health studies and for those studying healthcare as part of sociology, social care and social policy degrees. In an age when health policy follows an individualist model of personal responsibility this book by Alan Clarke demonstrates with a vast array of evidence, just how much there is such a thing as society. An excellent overall book.Dr. Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University

Sociology and its applications are key components of the core foundation programme in nursing and healthcare. Sociology of health and health care is an essential textbook for all students of nursing and healthcare and is organised in four parts: the nature of sociology and sociological research; the social patterning of health and disease; the social aspects of illness and dying; and the organisation and delivery of health care. Sociology of health and health care explores the nature of sociology and sociological research and their application to health and health care. It explores the impact of current social contexts on health and healthcare and recent developments in healthcare policy and addresses their implications for nursing and inter-professional working. This fourth edition also examines new approaches to understanding social inequalities in health and experiences of chronic illness and dying.

Traditionally, medical sociology texts have been written from a medical perspective, focusing primarily on health issues as they have been defined by doctors, and often reading much like health education textbooks. Weitz, instead, adopts a critical perspective, sometimes challenging medical perspectives, sometimes raising broader issues beyond those of interest to the medical world. This perspective, which is more thoroughly sociological, is now more common among instructors than the older medical perspective.

-Rick Thomas brings his 30 years experience in the field to the text making it very applied and accessible. -Lots of boxed material. -"Recommended" purchase for all librarians as reviewed in the June 2004 issue of CHOICE.

The Sociology of the Health Service responds directly to the need to develop a sociological analysis of current health policy. Topics covered vary from privatisation and health service management to health education and the politics of professional power. Also included is an histroical review of sociology's contributions to health policy and proposals for an agenda for sociological health policy research in the 1990s.

`A Sociology of Health charts a way forward for a medical sociology that can make a positive contribution to medical practice and health policy′ - Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, East London GP and author of The Tyranny of Health `This is a very lively book that will stimulate good debate amongst students undertaking sociology of health courses in higher education′ - Mathew Jones, Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Policy, University of the West of England A Sociology of Health offers an authoritative and up-to-date introduction to the key issues, perspectives and debates within the field of medical sociology. The book will aid readers′ understanding of how sociological approaches are crucial to understanding the impact that health and illness have on the behaviour, attitudes, beliefs, and practices, of an increasingly health-aware population. The book is topical and unique in its approach, combining commentary and analysis of classic debates in medical sociology with contemporary issues in health care policy and practice. The content is wide-ranging, including chapters on: health scares, therapy culture, new dimensions of international health, changes in health care organisation and the feminization of health. Features such as case studies, questions for debate, and further reading sections are used throughout to promote critical reflection and further debate. A Sociology of Health offers readers a fresh approach to the subject, and will be essential reading for all undergraduate students on medical sociology and sociology of health and illness courses, as well as postgraduate students in related health and social care disciplines. David Wainwright is a Senior Lecturer in the School for Health, University of Bath.

This reader brings together recent writing on health, illness and health care in contemporary society. It emphasizes the empirical nature of medical sociology and its relationship with the development of sociological theory.

The Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness & Healing advances the understanding of medical sociology by identifying the most important contemporary challenges to the field and suggesting directions for future inquiry. The editors provide a blueprint for guiding research and teaching agendas for the first quarter of the 21st century. In a series of essays, this volume offers a systematic view of the critical questions that face our understanding of the role of social forces in health, illness and healing. It also provides an overall theoretical framework and asks medical sociologists to consider the implications of taking on new directions and approaches. Such issues may include the importance of multiple levels of influences, the utility of dynamic, life course approaches, the role of culture, the impact of social networks, the importance of fundamental causes approaches, and the influences of state structures and policy making.

A comprehensive presentation of the major topics in medical sociology. The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness, 8/e by Gregory L. Weiss and Lynne E. Lonnquist provides an in-depth overview of the field of medical sociology. The authors provide solid coverage of traditional topics while providing significant coverage of current issues related to health, healing, and illness. Readers will emerge with an understanding of the health care system in the United States as well as the changes that are taking place with the implementation of The Affordable Care Act.

This lively, introductory text provides nurses with the foundations of a sociological understanding of health issues, explaining the key theories and debates with humour and imagination in a way that will encourage an inquisitive and reflective approach.