Sociological Health in Australia
Discuss about the Health Sociology in Australia.
Sociological health is a fundamental aspect of the Australian health system. It reveals that medicine and other practices related to it are a means of social control. This aspect has been proven in various sociological concepts and theories that there are a specific hierarchy and power that defines how health procedures are provided in the Australian healthcare systems. Also, power and knowledge are two correlated aspects that predict functionalism, contrasts, feminism and other factors in the Australian healthcare systems.
Like any other business society in the western countries, individuals working in healthcare facilities are organized according to their specific relative authority. It also appears that customization of power and hierarchy is essential in proper functionalism of health institutions in Australia. Furthermore, members of every department in the Australian healthcare systems are positioned in a socially interrelated dimension with each other. Ranking defines responsibility, knowledge, and experience in the nursing fields. Therefore, this paper will discuss power and hierarchy in the current Australian healthcare systems using sociological concepts and theories.
Various patterns are applied why establishing a hierarchy module that governs Australian healthcare systems. Standardization and licensing are the fundamental actions that legitimize and practices provided by practitioners. The validation procedures are carried out similarly as past attempts of claiming proprietorship over significant knowledge in medicine (Duckett, 2015). Hence, it leads to control and power where practitioners are ranked differently in healthcare systems.
One of the sociological theories in healthcare systems is feminism. In healthcare settings, feminist implies that organizations follow a certain hierarchical system where most doctors are men and hold the topmost positions while most women are nurses and their level of importance is low (Palmer, 2015). Therefore, feminists believe that healthcare systems group jobs by gender where males are given the doctoral positions while females are given nursing positions. In Australia, more than fifty percent of the total population of women in the nation take part in the workforce. Specifically, the healthcare staff is dominated by more than seventy-five percent of women. It implies that women deliver most of the services despite the fact that they are rarely granted the top level positions in healthcare systems.
Constraints have been revealed in the Australian healthcare system in the aspect of women positions in health. Matters relating to gender have significantly intersected with other factors such as race, socio-economic status, age, residential location, and ethnicity (Kapilashrami, 2015). Some feminists criticize that positions of health provided to women are still entrenched in western traditions. Cases have been reported of aboriginal women workers faring poorly in the healthcare system of Australia. Women make the majority of the healthcare providers in formal and home settings in Australia. However, cases of little recognition have been observed in women performing informal care to patients. This scenario of limited status is attributed to healthcare settings that are more formal.
Hierarchy and Power Dynamics within the Australian Healthcare System
Allied positions in Australian healthcare systems such as Aboriginal Health Workers as well as nursing are largely feminized. Very few women are presented in health positions and professions that are more elite. Although maternal education has improved the health condition of indigenous people, its retention rate remains astonishingly low (Luke, 2014). This factor leads to disproportionate rates of employment among women in the Australian healthcare systems. The ranking of women in health position can be explained by the minimal number of women that present the rest in the Australian politics. However, the number of equitable policies made by the female politicians in the history of Australia is still questionable. It can reflect why males predominate high position of power in the Australian healthcare systems. Reports imply that women have a poor presentation of decisions and managerial aspects. In turn, such inadequacies can affect the patients’ safety and healthcare services quality. Although women are disadvantaged in leadership skills, their services cannot be neglected (Bacchi, 2015). Their numbers in the healthcare system prove that there are many services that they can offer in the prestigious position given to men.
The functionalism sociological theory explains the dominance of hierarchy and power in healthcare settings (Shields, 2016). Different rankings by power are characterized by the specific task conducted by a healthcare provider. Some tasks are restricted to some participants, and that’s what defines them and their positions in the healthcare system. Functionalists theorists imply that the healthcare systems exist to solve and fulfill the social problem of health among people living the society. For individuals to fulfill their mandate in the community or society, they must be healthy. Certain responsibilities and roles allocated to individuals to relieve them from their normal duties.
The functionalists reveal that it is not the wish of any person to become sick. However, every person has a role in identifying sickness characteristics and seek medical interventions since the condition is undesirable. On the other hand, sick individuals should accept the assistance of others. In this case, a healthcare provider is the best person where medical advice and treatment can be obtained (Henslin, 2015). Therefore, health issues connected to hierarchy and power in healthcare systems through this procedure. The sick patient will have an appointment with the doctor who has a role of granting permission of consulting other practitioners in the healthcare facility.
According to functionalists’ theorists, the doctor-patient interaction is complex and requires some concrete analysis to the patients’ illnesses (Collyer, 2015). Medical diagnosis results in various interpretations which assist in the healing mechanism selected by the doctor. Moreover, functionalist argue that various social factors propel the patients towards seeking medical interventions. The factors might lie under cultural meanings such as the condition interfering personal lives of individuals, diminishing the person’s ability to work, interpersonal crisis and others.
Standardization and Licensing Procedures in the Australian Healthcare System
According to the Foucaultian theory, hierarchy and power in healthcare systems can be traced from medical dominance and science. The theory also explains the dominance of men in higher positions of work than many females who make the majority of the workforce in the Australian healthcare systems as a result of power (McHoul, 2015). The dominance of improved healthcare services began in the 20th century. Before this period, individuals from the public would seek medical care and assistance from midwives, herbalists or chemists. Highly trained doctors operated under the private sector which offered services to the wealthy people who could fund the services provided with much ease. It explains why the Australian government has been funding the healthcare systems. The financial aid ensures that resources and manpower are adequately availed in public healthcare facilities to enhance effectiveness, equality, and to minimize cases of health disparities among the financially challenged individuals.
Therefore, health services such as delivery of an infant in past times were conducted by midwives until Peter Chamberlain invented the obstetrical forceps. It enabled the users to conduct safer deliveries than the previous ones thus reducing the high infant mortality rate recorded in past years (Willis, 2015). On the same note, males were introduced to child delivery, a task that was limited to informal midwives and nurses a few decades ago. The introduction of male doctors and forceps during delivery was characterized by professional strategies and scientific aspects that undermined midwives and their practices. Correspondingly, they set high delivery fees that gave them a status in the Australian societies. This phenomenon convinced women that midwives were incompetent in child delivery and safety. Moreover, doctors defined all births as pathological and required special medical attention. Thus, the doctors earned power and status due to their knowledge, innovation, and skills of providing quality healthcare services in healthcare facilities of Australia (Collyer, 2015). Moreover, they used their powerful medical associations to facilitate legal licensing that executed legal endorsements against midwives.
Australian doctors obtained power in medicine through two political strategies. At first, they mobilized the formation of medical associations which set their competitive aspect above other professionals in healthcare systems such as nurses (King, 2017). Secondly, they enticed the governments to restrict other professionals with inadequate skills from practicing sensitive or delicate medical procedures such as delivery of babies. Also, more rights were offered to doctors which include the signing of death certificates, use of medical titles, sue for non-payment and holding government appointments among others.
Feminism and Gender Hierarchy in Australian Healthcare
Since then, doctors have been able to maintain their dominance above any other health practitioners through science. Also, Foucault (1963) discovered the process of diseases infections and treatment. On the same note, diseases were conceptualized as entities that existed independently in its manifestation to the model that examined its nature (Waring, 2016). Hence, it was within the power of the doctors to identify the relationship of its cause and how to deal with it. This factor made the public and other practitioners view doctors as experts as legitimate in the legal and political system of Australia. Also, the increasing demand for health services and the rewarding pharmaceutical market propelled the profession into a leading position as patients became objectified.
Moreover, medical dominance has also been exerted in the form of subordination of other healthcare providers, limiting the autonomy of other professionals and exclusion of some potential healthcare providers (Attwell, 2017). The modern model of medicine limits the movement of practitioners to other working areas concerning their ability or skills. Thus, such phenomena rank healthcare professionals in a certain hierarchical order. Many health situations knit doctors intrinsically where patients must obtain permission from the doctor to access another specialist in a health facility.
According to Foucault theory, this situation gives doctors some significant powers as well as a constant base of income. However, such ability of self-regulation provided to doctors has some shortcomings in some ways. It might lead to negligence, medical fraud, outright negligence, and misconducts (Clifford, 2015). This threat is based on rationalized decision making and managerialism in healthcare settings. The assumption is that management is the primary aspect of proper governance in any institution. Professional managers such as doctors do not require content knowledge to apply factors like measurements, risk management, and adults to rationalize decisions and ideas in clinical governance (Henderson, 2015). Moreover, the current Australian healthcare system has been characterized with unequal distribution of healthcare professionals in various regions beyond the major cities.
According to sociologist Evan wills (1994), doctors’ dominance in medicine can be described through three elements. They include authority, sovereignty, and autonomy (Brailey, 2017). The theory describes doctors as autonomous, meaning they are self-regulatory and are not controlled by any other occupation. Also, they have the authority and power to direct other healthcare providers that operate under the same institution. He also explains the sovereignty aspect as the accepted certainty that doctors are legitimate professionals on matters related to health and that only through them, people have a probability of getting cured.
Constraints Experienced by Women in Australian Healthcare
Marxism sociological philosophy can be used to analyze power in healthcare systems using the intersections of social class and gender inequalities in a capitalist society (Rudge, 2016). In Australia, the history of health occupation has been characterized with males taking the majority of doctoral post and females taking the nursing positions. Also, aspects of the division of labor in healthcare facilities reveal that nurses are always subservient to doctors. On the same note, the Marxist theory argues that progress in power relationships is explained best through devaluing of nursing. They described it as `women’s work.’ It is the reason why increased entry of men into the nursing career was explained as a change of the nursing ideology of feminine work. However, studies imply that male nurses are more likely to hold positions of further advancements in specialized fields of nursing than females.
Currently, there has been an alteration in the career structures of nursing. Evidence revealing that nursing has attained a complete professional status is inadequate (Lopes, 2016). Social and legal impediments to autonomy in nursing are compounded by a barrier that restricts some nursing practices. Thus, it provides clear evidence of power dominance in healthcare facilities where nurses are ranked below doctors.
Moreover, the Marxist theory implies that there is a relationship between capital and power. As capital increase, the class or status of individuals’ increase leading to increasing power (Martin, 2015). Doctors and nurses explain a good example in the Australian healthcare system. Doctors, who constitute a larger number of males than females, earn more than nurses who are made up of more females than males. Also, doctors in the private sector offer costly health services to the wealthy thus having more power than nurses who mainly operate in public healthcare settings.
Additionally, an increase of scientific skills among doctors subject them to the advantage of providing effective and complicated health procedures that are beyond the nursing profession. Such labor provided by doctors overpowers other professionals hence making them autonomous, legitimate and sovereign (Coburn, 2015). Correspondingly, he argues that the healthcare systems aim at satisfying the interest and needs of the bourgeoisie other than sustaining the health situations of the public at large. Inequalities experienced in healthcare systems emerge from population categories that contribute insufficiently to the economic society.
As a health practitioner, the concept of power and hierarchy in healthcare systems have an impact on my career practices in one way or another. The positive impact is that power comes with responsibilities such as management and decision making. As far as matters pertaining gender are concerned, proper management is essential for the implementation of quality healthcare strategies and decisions. It builds the safety confidence to patients who will always opt seeking health practitioners’ advice in health matters. It also reduces the incidence and prevalence of diseases that might dominate the population in the society.
Functionalism in the Australian Healthcare System
The concept also reveals the task entitled to every profession. Doctors and nurses have specific roles that improve the health situation of patients that seek assistance in healthcare facilities. The discussion also reveals the importance of males and females in the healthcare systems. Despite the fact that females make the majority of the healthcare workforce, both genders have a significant role to play in public health. The negative impact revealed by the discussion is that females are discriminated against top-level positions of healthcare systems. Although their representation of ideas and managerial skills are low, their numbers in the workforce prove that some of them can provide good ideas towards solving healthcare problems. Also, the legitimacy enjoyed by doctors may have some negativity in the provision of healthcare services.
In conclusion, power and hierarchy intrinsic to the Australian healthcare system have been discussed using sociological theories and concepts. They include the feminist, functionalist, Foucaultian, Evan and Marxist theories. They have revealed that the healthcare system is organized in a hierarchy where males dominate the top level positions as doctors while females dominate the low-level positions as nurses. Moreover, factors characterizing this situation include scientific knowledge, social status, gender, the role of individuals, capitalism, and others. Also, power has an impact in the manner through which services are provided. Therefore, health practitioners have a significant role to play in providing high-quality services to patients.
References
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