Sociology for Pharmacists
An Introduction
- 208 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
Sociology for Pharmacists: An Introduction is written specifically for professionals and students in pharmacy who are newcomers to the study of sociology. It introduces the key concepts of sociology and demonstrates their importance and application to pharmacy practice in the 21st century. It is unique in its role as the only text to introduce sociology specifically to pharmacists. Rather than an exhaustive treatment, the book provides a concise introduction to major perspectives in sociology-drawing on research evidence pertaining to health, illness, and professional practice-which will inform and enhance pharmacy practice. It offers an overview of sociology for rather than sociology of pharmacy, and will both inform practitioners and stimulate informed research into the social aspects of pharmacy practice.Key issues covered include:
- Key sociological concepts and perspectives
- Contemporary developments in pharmacy practice and pharmacy's professional status
- A review of research into the way people react to illness and look after their health
- How and why illness and disease are influenced by gender, ethnicity, and social class
- Health education and pharmacists' role in promoting health and ensuring appropriate medicine usage
- Social research methodsPharmacists are frequently encouraged to broaden their day-to-day practice. This timely book does just that by encouraging pharmacists to become more involved with advising clients, managing medicines, and supporting the promotion of health. In addition to providing an overview of these topics, the book also reviews the relevant research, and directs readers to further information.
Frequently asked questions
Information
1 Sociology: An Introduction
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
The sociological imagination
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES AND THEIR APPLICATION TO PHARMACY
Key theorists
Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917)
Karl Marx (1818 – 83)
Max Weber (1864 – 1920)
Modernity – the ‘old world order ’
Post – modernity
Scientific knowledge, medicines use and the dilemmas of choice
Pharmacy in contemporary society
SUMMARY
FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
Initially, the idea that pharmacists might usefully study sociology may appear a little odd. After all, pharmacists are surely concerned with drugs use, an activity which requires a sound understanding of the disciplines of physiology, pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmaceutics. Prescriptions need to be carefully checked and the therapeutic and adverse effects of medicines thoroughly understood. But of course, pharmacy is also ‘people work’; drugs are dispensed to patients directly, or indirectly via informal carers, or other health professionals in the health care team. Furthermore, the general public seeks advice from pharmacists about medicines, treatments, alternative therapies and other aspects of their illness management and health maintenance. Pharmacists therefore need to be good communicators who are equipped with the appropriate skills for ensuring that they offer effective pharmaceutical care, and to this end there is now a range of texts available on communication and related skills for pharmacists. A sociological understanding of the issues of health, illness and health care can contribute to a deeper understanding of this people work. Sociologists have contributed to a better understanding of the actions and experiences of patients, the public, and health professionals who work within the health care system. This has resulted in a better appreciation of the nature of the relationships between health professionals and patients.
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
Sociology is an academic discipline which makes use of a wide range of research methods to study society and social behaviour or social actions. Pharmacists, as a result of their school education and subsequent exposure to the pharmaceutical sciences as undergraduates tend to define themselves primarily as scientists. Science and ‘scientific method’ are part of their identity. On being introduced to sociology, students often approach it with preconceived ideas of it being ‘soft’, ‘vague’, ‘undisciplined’ and at times pretentious, peddling ideas that are little more than common sense. However, this presumption disregards the fact that sociology is a coherent discipline with a long tradition of applying a scientific perspective to social behaviour. Sociology is a science, generating and testing hypotheses, rigorously applying robust methods of empirical investigation to generate data whose analysis and interpretation leads to the formulation of theories. Sociology has amassed a body of knowledge from a variety of sources, employing a range of methodologies which may at first sight appear strange to pharmacists. These include social surveys, observations, analysis of language, and interviews (see Chapter 9). This knowledge has to be sufficiently robust to withstand exhaustive and widespread peer criticism, taking into account conflicting interpretations.
- Responsible speech. Sociological propositions are not founded on beliefs, but on corroborative evidence.
- Size of the field. We understand common sense only from our individual perspective, i.e. it is partial knowledge. Sociology pursues a wider perspective – recognising the link between individual accounts and social processes of which individuals may be unaware.
- Making sense. From a common-sense perspective, accounts of our actions are attributed back to someone – our actions are the intention of an individual. Sociologically, our actions are understood to be the result of our interdependency with our fellow members in society.
- Make the familiar strange. Common sense is self-affirming: ‘things are as they are’, and ‘people are as they are’. Sociology scrutinises the familiar in order to understand how common sense is as it is.
Agency: | Undetermined voluntary action by individuals |
Norm: | Shared and expected social behaviour |
Social role: | Expected actions associated with particular social positions |
Social structure: | Recurring patterns of interrelationship between individuals or groups |
Socialisation: | Acquiring and internalising the norms and values of a particular group |
Society: | Configuration of cohesive social relationships within a particular group |
Sociology: | Observation and analysis of societies |
The sociological imagination
In order to understand the processes that guarantee our ability to live cohesively together as members of a society, it is insufficient to take an individualistic point of view. That is, it is not sufficient to understand or explain people’s actions solely through the behaviour of the individual or individuals concerned. Rather, it is necessary to take a wider social perspective and to understand the social forces that impinge, influence, or interact with the individual. These social forces are usually beyond the control of the individual. In many ways this forms the essence of sociological inquiry, which involves asking the question: what is the relationship between individual behaviour (or ‘social action’) and the social context (or ‘social structure’)? To develop an appreciation of the interaction of the individual in society is to come close to what the sociologist, C.W. Mills (1959) calls the ‘sociological imagination’; that is, ‘the urge to know the social and historical meaning of the individual in society’.
Another example of an individual trouble that became a public issue is the controversy concerning the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccination in recent years. When a small group of individuals have personal worries over the triple vaccine, perhaps based on their beliefs about the potential harmful effects of vaccination per se, they may simply refuse it for their children. However, when a movement develops that questions the vaccine’s safety, what once was a personal trouble becomes a public issue that impacts on public health and the public’s relationship with health practitioners, medical ‘experts’ and the State.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES AND THEIR APPLICATION TO PHARMACY
The boundaries of the discipline of sociology are difficult to define. This is in part because of the diverse and diffuse nature of its subject matter (namely people and society), but also because within the discipline of sociology there are many different approaches or perspectives – indeed there are many different types of sociology. While all the perspectives seek to understand how social structures interact with individual behaviours, they vary in terms of their level of analysis. Some are orientated towards micro-level issues, such as the actions and beliefs of individuals, while others illuminate macro-level issues that pertain to the way in which the ‘structures’ of society are organised. These would focus on questions such as: How are education or health care systems structured? How do economic systems work? What are the main social divisions within our society? Turner (1995) has usefully summarised three levels of analysis (individual, social and societal), and he illustrates the topics which might usefully be studied at these levels (see Table 1.1).
Table of contents
- COVER PAGE
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT PAGE
- PREFACE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- WHY A SOCIOLOGY FOR PHARMACY?
- 1. SOCIOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION
- 2. CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE OF PHARMACY
- 3. HEALTH AND ILLNESS: UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLIC’S PERSPECTIVE
- 4. SEEKING HELP AND CONSULTING HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
- 5. SOCIAL FACTORS AND HEALTH
- 6. SOCIAL INEQUALITIES AND HEALTH
- 7. THE OCCUPATIONAL STATUS OF PHARMACY
- 8. MAINTAINING AND PROMOTING HEALTH
- 9. SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS