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Unit 6 - M3
- Institution
- Pearson (PEARSON)
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Use three examples to examine links between theoryand practice.
This report will go into detail about three different theories across health and social care
theories, and examine how it is used in my placement setting – which is a hospital ward setting.
This report will also explain if and why the theory is useful when used in practice.
Biomedical & Socio-medical model of health
The biomedical and the socio-medical model of health is a sociological theory. The biomedical
model of health focuses simply on the physical and biological aspects of disease and illness;
this model is practised by healthcare professionals’ such as doctors’ and surgeons’. It focuses
on the diagnosis and treatment/cure of illnesses (www.uniassignment.com). The socio-medical
model of health on the other hand not only looks at the possible physical and biological aspects
of illness, but also looks at other possible factors such as environmental or social factors, that
could be leading to illness – such as homelessness, for example.
As I am doing my placement in a hospital ward, the bio-medical and socio-medical model of
health can be seen predominantly. Individuals’ who are staying on the ward are being treated
for various different ailments ranging from sepsis to respiratory issues. Often times, patients’
in the hospital are in and out of the ward in a matter of a few days; the doctor identifies the
illness or disease of the patient, and then provides them with medication to treat or cure the
disease or illness – this is the biomedical model of health being shown in practice. When it
comes to the socio-medical model of health, it is not shown in practice as much as the
biomedical model in my placement, although depending on the service user’s personal
circumstances and requirements, the hospital staff will use the socio-medical model of health
in order to help and support the patient further. For example, there was one elderly lady who
was staying in hospital, but was adamant that she was going to leave the hospital, self-
discharge herself and go back home. When the doctor was made aware of the service user’s
plans – as she was getting dressed and packing her belongings up – he explained to the
service user that it is not in her best interest for her to leave the hospital and return home at
that particular time, as her house was not safe for her and she had to wait until they had fitted
a stair lift in her home. I presume this elderly lady had had a serious fall that landed her in
hospital, which led to them identifying that even if the hospital staff treated her injuries, she is
still at a big risk of injuring herself again if they did not introduce some kind of equipment or
support that would reduce this risk – in this case, it was a stair lift. This shows the hospital
staff were using the socio-medical model of health, as they aimed to eliminate the root cause
of her injury, instead of simply treating her and sending her back home to have the same thing
happen again. I think that the main people who use the Biomedical and Sociomedical Model
of health are healthcare professionals, because they are the ones who have the power to
enforce approaches when people are sick. However, I also think some service users’ take up
this approach as many try to live a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent disease. For example,
many vegans are vegan because of the fact that humans are not designed to eat meat, and
that our intestines are far too long for meat to pass in and out quickly (ours are 20ft long, in
comparison to a lions 5ft intestines), which means there is plenty of time for them to start
diseases within. This means that they probably think by living a vegan lifestyle, they are
reducing the risk of disease, which is a practice of the sociomedical model of health. I think
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