Dehumanization of health care
Name(s):
Degrading medical treatment
Abusive treatment of women in labour
Undignified medical treatment
Nature
Patients are being perceived and treated as things or nonpersons or lesser persons without any warmth in human interaction. The same social forces that contribute to dehumanization in economic and political milieus lead to dehumanization in health care: aggregation of services, bureaucratization of services, secularization of values, professionalization of skills, and proliferation of technologies.
Claim
1. The highly technical nature of hospitals and specialist practices is bewildering. Many patients do not understand what is going on and want someone to listen to them, to make them feel less like an object.
2. The architectural design of modern British hospitals is soulless; aesthetically pleasing dimensions that would provide an atmosphere of healing are absent from modern hospital buildings.
Counter-claim
British architects claim that modern hospitals are built to meet patients' needs and improve their well-being.
Broader
Narrower
Aggravates
Aggravated by
Value(s)
Type
(D) Detailed problems