The Social Organisation Of Healthcare Work

This book presents an international snapshot of the social organisation of healthcare.

Papers describe major trends in healthcare in Australia, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, South America, UK and the USA

Subjects addressed include new models of organisational governance, new medical technologies, and the promotion of private health insurance.

Highlights convergence and divergence across national and international contexts

Fosters links between organisational studies and medical sociology.

Points to new research directions and developments.

Davina Allen is a Professor and Research Director at the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, Cardiff University. Her research interests are concerned with the organization and delivery of health and social services and its relationship to clinical effectiveness, service quality and professional education and socialisation. She has published with David Hughes on Nursing and the Division of Labour in Healthcare (2002) and her recent work has focused on the co-ordination of complex care trajectories.

Alison Pilnick is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham. Her primary research interests are in the field of professional/client interaction, particularly the way in which changing professional roles are negotiated interactionally, and the impact of new technologies on work organization and practice. She is author of Genetics and Society (2002) and a co-editor of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness.

1. Making connections: healthcare as a case study in the social organisation of work: Davina Allen and Alison Pilnick.

2. The promotion of private health insurance and its implications for the social organisation of healthcare: a case study of private sector obstetric practice in Chile: Susan F. Murray and Mary Ann Elston.

3. Understanding the social organisation of maternity care systems: midwifery as a touchstone: Cecilia Benoit, Sirpa Wrede, Ivy Bourgeault, Jane Sandall, Raymond de Vries and Edwin R. van Teijlingen.

4. Managerialism in the Australian public health sector: towards the hyper-rationalisation of professional bureaucracies: John Germov.

5. What's in a care pathway? Towards a cultural cartography of the new NHS: Ruth Pinder, Roland Petchey, Sara Shaw and Yvonne Carter.

6. Arguing about the evidence: readers, writers and inscription devices in coronary heart disease risk assessment: Catherine M. Will.

7. Telephone triage, expert systems and clinical expertise: D Greatbatch, G Hanlon, J Goode, A O'Caithain, T Strangleman and D Luff.

8. Finding dignity in dirty work: the constraints and rewards of low-wage home care labour: Clare L Stacey.

9. Access, boundaries and their effects: legitimate participation in anaesthesia: Dawn Goodwin, Catherine Pope, Magge Mort and Andrew Smith.

Notes on Contributors.

Index.