The empowered patient and the sociologist

The empowered patient is a near ubiquitous ideal in contemporary health care. In health professional literature as well as in public policy and debates involving patient organizations, the need to empower the patient and extend his or her control over health matters is agreed upon. The authors argue...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial theory & health Vol. 8; no. 3; pp. 280 - 287
Main Authors Andreassen, Hege K, Trondsen, Marianne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.08.2010
Palgrave Macmillan
Subjects
Colleges & universities
Concepts
Empowerment
Health
Health care
Health Care Services
Health Problems
Health Professions
Health services
Illness
Illnesses
Information literacy
Medical personnel
Medical research
Medical Sociology
Meetings
Patients
Political science
Public policy
Social Sciences
Social Theory
Sociologists
Sociology
Strikes
patient empowerment
medical sociology
realism
constructivism
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Summary:The empowered patient is a near ubiquitous ideal in contemporary health care. In health professional literature as well as in public policy and debates involving patient organizations, the need to empower the patient and extend his or her control over health matters is agreed upon. The authors argue this phenomenon deserve more attention from medical sociology. The increasing use of the term ‘empowerment’ – both as a political ideal and as a descriptive concept – strikes as an interesting entrance to explore the multifaceted expressions of health and illness in contemporary society. The paper suggests some critical comments and opening questions for such a project.
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ISSN:1477-8211
1477-822X
DOI:10.1057/sth.2010.9