NVCC COLLEGE-WIDE COURSE CONTENT SUMMARY
SOC 207 - MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY (3 CR.)

COURSE INFORMATION

Surveys the social, economic, cultural, and individual in health and illness. Examines issues of wellness, care systems, physician-nurse-patient relationships, costs, ethics and policy. Lecture 3 hours per week.

GENERAL COURSE PURPOSE

To acquaint the student with organizational aspects of our modern system of medicine, its organizational settings, its practitioners, and the research findings concerning health and illness.

ENTRY LEVEL COMPETENCIES

None

COURSE OBJECTIVES/EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

A.  An overview of the modern organization of medicine, its practitioner, the organizational settings in which medicine is practiced, the differential distribution of diseases in various societies, the research on health and illness topics.

B.  A sociological perspective to community-related as well as personal problematic situations--the Health Care System in the United States.

C.  A clearer understanding of the doctor-patient relationship and the expectations that go with those roles.

 MAJOR TOPICS - TO BE COVERED A.  Sociological Origins of Medical Sociology

B.  Health Problems and Distribution of Diseases--Origins, Classification Measurement, and Trends

C.  Illness and Sickness- -Definitions, Measurement, Causes, Distribution and Trends

D.  Health, Illness, and Sickness as Social Identities

E.  The Sick Role

F.  Sick as a Sequence of Decision

G.  Sickness as a Coping Process

H.  Occupational Healers--Physicians, Nurses, Quasi-Physicians

I.  The Hospital as a Social Unit

J.  Medical Ethics

 Revised 1/02
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